I own an earlier ATI All-in-wonder, and the drivers are indeed lacking in that they're flaky as hell. And hey, wasn't there a big flap about ATI optimizing their drivers specifically for Quake 3 not too long ago in order to appear more competative while running everyone's favorite 3D office app?
Also, comparing ATI drivers to Creative is just downright cruel and unusual. I'm still waiting for an official (read: functional) Windows 2000 driver for my Creatve DVD card. I think I'll be opening a skishop in hell before THAT ever gets released.
In addition, you could have the fastest video card in the universe, but considering that a monitor refreshing at 80hz will only display 80 frames/sec, its a moot point.
Besides, standard NTSC television runs at 30 fps, and PAL (Europe) runs at 25. From what I've read, the minimum acceptable fps for most games lies right around 25 for flight sims, 35 for shooters.
I had 2 ECS K7S5A's ordered from the same vendor crap out on me when trying to build new systems for the family. Since the opinions on this board are so starkly polarized, I assume they had a bad lot somewhere that got distributed by mistake.
As for the article, they rated these vendors almost exactly how I would have were I to be asked about reliable motherboards. ECS and Tyan mobos have given me no end of troubles. Asus boards have been the rock of stability. Not that I'm an expert; however, I build PCs for non-tech friends and family regularly that *must* be reliable. It seems that the article also makes this paramount. Then again, why shouldn't they? If a mobo is fast as hell but crashes every other boot, who cares?
A friend of mine got the developer version of this PDA and was showing it around. My impressions based on this brief preview were as follows:
The good:
Excellent screen. Sharp and great response.
Good suite of apps. I didn't get to test the MPEG and MP3 players, but I liked what I saw otherwise.
Good 'heft'. ..the unit felt solid in my hand, and appeared well made.
Its ZIPPY! The OS has been well tuned for this device, and there's more than enough power under the hood.
The bad:
I really, REALLY don't like the slide-out keyboard!! I can understand why it's included, but the buttons are tiny and it seems useless for anything except painstaking data entry where accuracy is absolutely essential. If I was going to type on a pda, I'd get a portable fold-out keyboard like they have for the palms.
As was mentioned previously, the stylus IS a bit small for those with larger hands. Reminds me of using a pencil thats been sharpened too much.
Overall, the appeal of this device for me is the OS, not the hardware. Its a nice unit and should really help the 'linux is ready for mainstream use' cause, but the ability to ssh into a server from my pda sounds great. I don't know if I will buy one, but were I shopping for a PDA I would consider this unit carefully.
I think you've got a great point with this. When Lucas did American Graffiti and Star Wars, he was a relative unknown experimenting with new film technology. This gave him freedom from people's expectations, which is why Star Wars was such a hit. Now, look at where he's at today--people who love the vision of his original movie aren't impressed with his recent offerings because they really bring nothing new to the table, both in terms of story and in terms of film tech.
Lucas has ALWAYS been one for new moviemaking toys. On one hand this is a good thing: he alone is responsible for getting ILM and the realm of realistic model-based special effects off the ground back in the Dark Ages of SFX. The same is true more recently for digital film. Hell, Kubrick used to shoot all of his films in mono because he was disgusted at the variance in theater quality. Thanks to Lucas, this may not be a problem in the very near future with digital projection.
On the other hand, this dependance on glitzy looks has the adverse effect, at least on his films, of relieving focus on story. Yeah they look great. Yeah they'll sell lots of toys. Back in the 70's, they sold Star Wars to the masses. Now, in our CG-inundated world, audiences need more than this. As an example, someone posted earlier just to this effect, about wanting more impressive weapons instead of what was in the trailer. I agree. ..Since Lucas can't seem to have a great story AND great special effects anymore, I wholeheartedly agree--lets blow our socks off with special effects.:o)
My argument based on personal experience, since obviously I wasn't at these tournements. However, if you require more than my previous post, go to google and look for yourself. Also take into account that there have been many balance tweaks via patches, addons, etc to StarCraft since I last played--although the necessity of these fixes might be seen as evidence for what I discussed above.
Bear in mind I'm NOT NOT NOT saying its a bad game! I loved StarCraft. ..Just that I didn't think it provided a balanced multiplayer experience, since the Zerg rush back when it came out stopped me from playing online. Since then maybe its changed, but I don't play anymore so I wouldn't know.
. . . or if it is, its very subtly so and outside the range of your average player. The article makes a great statement as to the importance of balance, and this is exactly what turned me off StarCraft.
Every time I played on Battle.net, anyone with half a brain simply played the Zerg and rushed the hell out of everyone else. Usually, the Zerg won. In a war of 'resource command' it would seem that those who can expand the fastest would win.
Just to convince people I'm not blowing hot air, look at the StarCraft Season III Ladder Tournement results and count the occurances of Zerg versus occurances of other races. By my count, of the top players, there was 1 instance of Humans, 2 of Protoss, and 21 people playing the Zerg.
I know many people who consider Neal Stephonson a visionary, but as far as authorship goes I wasn't too impressed with his work.
'Daimond Age' was required reading in a politcal science class here at the U, and I borrowed it from a friend who said it was good but confusing. I quickly arrived at the same conclusion. I loved the nanotech and the detail lavished on describing this technology. He had some great ideas on how it would work in our society--I especially liked the 'reactives' and the 'toner wars'. Oh, and I can't forget the ten terabyte nano hardrive. Can you imagine? 'Oops, I just dusted the entire library of congress off my left shoulder.'
Meanwhile, while much of the book was brilliantly creative, I have to say that I hated the splintered plot that only made sense in the last few pages. There were many aspects of the story that I'm still unsure about. For instance, 'Cryptnet' sounded like a great plot idea that simply died off unexploited. Likewise for the 'drummers'.
At any rate, if you haven't read any Neal Stephenson, please do! Especially if you like visionary works of dark futures, or are especially fascinated by nanomachine technology. I hope is later books will be a bit more cohesive, but I'm sure they'll still be good reads.
The C3H18 sells for $3,995. ..Its little brother, the C3H15, goes for $2,265. For comparison, the Apple 22" Studio display everyone's been drooling over for over a year now retails for $2,499.00 (and I believe started out retailing for $500 more). Is it just me, or am I noticing a discrepancy here? 3x15" or 18", or 1x22"?
Anyone actually used one of these LCD systems? Are they of good quality?
. ..and I would assume likewise for most universities that provide comupting resources to students.
Every quarter students here are charged a 'Student Technology Fee' on their tuition bill. This money is then dispensed by a committee of students, staff, and faculty towards educational technology projects.
Most of the money has gone towards building some excellent general-access computing labs for students. Our school has a glut of computers for student use--compared to others I've visited, there are no time limits, printing is cheap, and despite a growth in student body size most days you can come into the library and sit down at a computer.
In addition, there have been some 'questionable' purchases, in that exhorbitant amounts of cash have been funnelled into machines I wouldn't think are worth it. Examples are buying many of the mac g4 cubes instead of regular macs, along with those huge LCD displays. Don't get me wrong--I love the displays, but at the same time each one is the equivalent of 4 computers.
So in sum, if you want to spend student money on educational techology, BUILD MORE LABS! Spend the money the most efficient way possible in order to server the most students effectively. If your school has any need or projected need at all for more computing seats, give those your first priority. Going from a school where the labs were too small to the one I'm currently at demonstrated just how important--and NICE--it is to have close to enough seats to serve the student body.
. ..what a great way to slashdot one's site. If I ever come up with ANYTHING 'news for nerds/stuff that matters'-related that I need to sell to ANYONE, I'm submitting it here first.
Must be new, as google hasn't crawled it yet. Mirrors?
Disclaimer: I used to be--and mostly remain--very much not an anime fan, due mostly to the art style of most animes. However, I've been 'turned on' through friends to a few abolutely stunning stories that happen to be conveyed using anime as a medium.
Vision of Escaflowne comes in two flavors: series and movie. I'll talk mostly about the series, since I don't want to give out any spoilers.:o) The story is huge, complicated, and very deep, but for those who have no idea what the anime is about, perhaps reading this post will help.
Escaflowne tells the story of a 15 year old named Hitomi, a athletic Japanese highschool student who also happens to have a strange talent for 'hunches.' This comes out in her skill at foretelling the future using ordinary tarot cards. One day, when trying to break her speed record in the 100 yard dash, she has a strange vision that ends up dragging her into a strange alternate world called Gaea. Gaea is a land somewhere 'in space' out beyond the earth and the moon that has something to do with the sunken kingdom of Atlantis (to say more would ruin it). It is populated mostly by humans, along with many types of half-human-half-beast people. Although Gaea is by and large peaceful, when Hitomi arrives the entire land is plunged into brutal war, country by country, by a Gaean realm called the Zaibach Empire. The results of this war will determine the fate of Gaea.
From here, Hitomi is thrown into a series of adventures that change her outlook on life and most importantly teaches her much about herself. The entire time, she misses her home and wants to go back (Earth is known in Gaea as the 'Mystic Moon') but begins to care about the people she meets. In addition, her fortunetelling skills are mysteriously enhanced and become a major part of her life.
Unfortunately, to say much more about the story would ruin it for the newcomer. The plotline is very deep, and digs into several 'human' concepts such as destiny, fate, and luck. Family and chivalry are also very important and the source of some major themes. In addition, the mystery of lost Atlantis is somehow involved.
Battles in Gaea are fought by huge robots (think Mechwarrior with swords) called 'Guymelefs,' even though the tech level of Gaea is supposedly stea-engine level. These 'guymelefs' are for the most part huge robot samuri, and are very interesting. Although there isn't really 'magic' in Gaea (at least not in the D&D magic-missle-everything style), there is a lot of unexplained natural phenomenon that are harnessed by the locals, such as rocks that levitate--'wandering earth.'
Escaflowne tells an amazing story and is a good introduction to good anime. I won't say much more about the plot (don't want to give too much away), but it will hook you and drag you along for a fantastic ride. The series is 26 episodes long, and basically continues one story.
Other animes you might want to watch if you liked Escaflowne, or don't know if you want to rent/download it and watch it are Cowboy Bebop and Lain. Bebop is the best anime I've ever seen and one of the best stories I've been told in a long time. Lain is disturbing, but brilliant. Still, I would say that Escaflowne is a great place to start in on anime and definitely worth your time. Although it starts slow (at the begining, I wanted to throttle most of the characters), the character development is fantastic, and the story is truly haunting.
I loved the Indiana Jones movies and gew up watching them. Consider this: a great blend of imagination, storytelling, and fantasy, and George Lucas the Movie Destroyer won't be writing or directing it! I just hope we get the original trilogy on DVD sooner rather than later. (ahem, $PIELBERG!)
Harrison Ford is old, sure, but we saw in 6 days and 7 nights that he can still throw a punch or two.;o) Sides, he's just the right age for his character to have fathered a bastard or two and now meet them in a climatic plot moment.
That would depend on the type of the problem given by the aforementioned American universities. If it was something that could be cracked by solid quantitative reasoning alone, I would very much agree--especially if this is an intro course you're talking about. Make sure that you're testing ability and potential, not knowledge at this point!
Not every kid who wants to try CS needs to be a math whiz. I was a Music major when I took my first CS class on a whim, and now I'm getting my Comp E degree. When I started, I didn't know anything about algorithm formation or discrete math.
A few years back I worked for a program that was designed to teach principals and superintendants of public schools how to use technology. The idea was that by teaching the top of the education food chain, we could convince them of the value of educational technology. Interesting project, and one I really enjoyed working with. I won't mention what operating system we taught or who sponsered the event in order to protect the innocent.;o)
To answer the posted question, we actually roamed all around the state setting up mobile, networked labs at all the major universities, holding multiple sessions of four days for a few weeks at each location, and then tearing it all down to head to the next site. All of the sites were VERY different--we had to get creative when wiring networks and power setups.
As for how we traveled, we used a large Chevy van for all of our equipment. We had a couple of printers, a scanner, digital cameras, 80 toshiba laptops per site, a ton of hubs, power cords, a large spool of cat5 for wiring the rooms, and assorted other details. It took about 2 days to set up at each location, depending on how the layout of the rooms whatever university we were at had [grudgingly] bestowed upon us. We also patched into local drops at each site. This got real interesting when working with the campus sysadmins in each area.
At any rate, we had a good time and from the responses we got the program was a complete sucess. I wish you luck in your own venture!
Whats interesting to me is how the 'hump' containing the guts of the machine was simply moved from the back to a new airport-esque base. The article says that Jobs hated the design of a bulge on the back of an LCD screen. What's really gained from moving it to a stand? The footprint shrinks by the width of the screen, but I would bet that the new design will tip backwards rather easily based on the photo. In addition, it looks like an LCD growing out of some sort of egg.
However, for marketing purposes, the fact that it departs so radically from the OLD iMac probably will count in its favor. I'm betting that the machine, combined with (I'm sure) it's ease of setup and phenomenal software (I'm particularly a fan of iMovie for capture/printing) will be a success anyways. Just be careful when adjusting the screen.:-)
The advantage of any sort of Engineering degree is that it is assumed you have learned general problem solving and will be able to do just about any job, no matter what the field.
I agree. A close family member of mine is a senior manager in a company called Cypress. (Mayhap people here have heard of this company. They make clock chips for Sony Playstations, among others) He does heavy college recruiting, and is always telling me that although he looks for EE majors, he will certainly look at other types of engineers as long as they can answer basic questions. Its the engineering part of the degree that counts. Based on my (short) experience in the hiring arena, I've found that his company isn't the only one that works like this!
That said, as for which degree to choose, I also agree with those above who advised avoiding microspecializing!! I am a senior in college; when it came time to choose my major I had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up choosing Comp Eng. over Info. Science and Comp. Science because it allowed me the greatest freedom to change my direction later on--i.e. I could go more software, like CS, or more hardware, like EE, etc. I guess in short I put off my decision of deciding what I wanted to do with my life, but in the meantime I would like to think that I'm getting some great basic knowledge.
Hmm, hope someone updates, that sounded interesting.
The reason why pthreads 'look pretty good' speed-wise is because the pthread library provides user level threads as opposed to a kernel level threads. User level threads have their own scheduler and are much quicker to swap out--less data to save than during a kernel thread context switch. Meanwhile, pthread semaphores (and condition variables) should also be faster depending on the user-to-kernel thread mapping scheme (windows 2k maps each user thread to a kernel thread, for example; I think linux uses a many-to-many mapping). This'll reflect in how fast threads go through their critical sections because they may have to wait shorter/longer to get access to them.
Here in Seattle, I've worked with a similar program. This one is kind of a 'last chance' for highschoolers who are one step away from dropping out completely. These kids are chronic troublemakers/truants who've been booted from both regular highschool AND secondary school. Most of them are gangmembers, and several are teen mothers.
What make this interesting is that the program pays these kids to come to school and learn technology. Every day, most of them show up to learn the basics of computers, web design, etc in the hopes that it'll help them get on the right track with a good job.
For my part, I volunteered with a friend to give workshops on how to use Macromedia Flash. I was kinda nervous and didn't know what to expect--I just had this stereotype of rough gangbanger teenagers. However, they were very polite and for the most part completely intent on learning. In addition, nearly ALL of them were very bright and picked up flash far quicker than I ever did!
Programs like the one in the posted article and the one I worked for here in Seattle are amazing opportunities to help people who just havent had the breaks in life, but have a ton to contribute. I would love to see them expanded.
I've been using a KVM for years, starting with a small cheap box that just switched the monitor signal to finally graduating to the linksys ProConnect 2-port switch.
I don't profess to be an expert on KVM switches, but the Linksys has worked decently for me. It has this feature where it listens in on your keystrokes and switches computers at a double tap of the cntrl key. Annoyed the hell out of me in quake until I figured out what was going on (like most computer students I chucked the manual the instant it came. ..oops).
However, despite this, its VERY small, cheap (check it out here, comes with cables), and I'd buy another one in a minute.
I had a IBM 20gig fail on me just two weeks ago--right after my brother lost two Maxtors. IBM was very good about filling the warranty--much better than Maxtor! The 20gig had been running smoothly for about a year.
In reality, all hard drives are made pretty much the same way. (For some GREAT information on everything harddrive related, check out this site.) For some reason IBM appears to be in a bit of a slump, but I remember a few years ago everyone was saying "don't buy a maxtor--they're cheap trash." Whatever you buy, just remember that your precious data resides on ferroceramic disks spinning at 5200-10000 rpm with the means of destruction--the read head--floating mere microns above. Back up often!
Slashdot Mirror
I own an earlier ATI All-in-wonder, and the drivers are indeed lacking in that they're flaky as hell. And hey, wasn't there a big flap about ATI optimizing their drivers specifically for Quake 3 not too long ago in order to appear more competative while running everyone's favorite 3D office app?
Also, comparing ATI drivers to Creative is just downright cruel and unusual. I'm still waiting for an official (read: functional) Windows 2000 driver for my Creatve DVD card. I think I'll be opening a skishop in hell before THAT ever gets released.
If you want some more information, here's some good reviews/articles I saw today during my daily browsing:
Compare these numbers against Nvidia's previous attempt at the budget arena, the MX 440 here. A much needed improvement!
In addition, you could have the fastest video card in the universe, but considering that a monitor refreshing at 80hz will only display 80 frames/sec, its a moot point.
Besides, standard NTSC television runs at 30 fps, and PAL (Europe) runs at 25. From what I've read, the minimum acceptable fps for most games lies right around 25 for flight sims, 35 for shooters.
I had 2 ECS K7S5A's ordered from the same vendor crap out on me when trying to build new systems for the family. Since the opinions on this board are so starkly polarized, I assume they had a bad lot somewhere that got distributed by mistake.
As for the article, they rated these vendors almost exactly how I would have were I to be asked about reliable motherboards. ECS and Tyan mobos have given me no end of troubles. Asus boards have been the rock of stability. Not that I'm an expert; however, I build PCs for non-tech friends and family regularly that *must* be reliable. It seems that the article also makes this paramount. Then again, why shouldn't they? If a mobo is fast as hell but crashes every other boot, who cares?
The good:
- Excellent screen. Sharp and great response.
- Good suite of apps. I didn't get to test the MPEG and MP3 players, but I liked what I saw otherwise.
- Good 'heft'. .
.the unit felt solid in my hand, and appeared well made.
- Its ZIPPY! The OS has been well tuned for this device, and there's more than enough power under the hood.
The bad:- I really, REALLY don't like the slide-out keyboard!! I can understand why it's included, but the buttons are tiny and it seems useless for anything except painstaking data entry where accuracy is absolutely essential. If I was going to type on a pda, I'd get a portable fold-out keyboard like they have for the palms.
- As was mentioned previously, the stylus IS a bit small for those with larger hands. Reminds me of using a pencil thats been sharpened too much.
Overall, the appeal of this device for me is the OS, not the hardware. Its a nice unit and should really help the 'linux is ready for mainstream use' cause, but the ability to ssh into a server from my pda sounds great. I don't know if I will buy one, but were I shopping for a PDA I would consider this unit carefully.I think you've got a great point with this. When Lucas did American Graffiti and Star Wars, he was a relative unknown experimenting with new film technology. This gave him freedom from people's expectations, which is why Star Wars was such a hit. Now, look at where he's at today--people who love the vision of his original movie aren't impressed with his recent offerings because they really bring nothing new to the table, both in terms of story and in terms of film tech.
.Since Lucas can't seem to have a great story AND great special effects anymore, I wholeheartedly agree--lets blow our socks off with special effects. :o)
Lucas has ALWAYS been one for new moviemaking toys. On one hand this is a good thing: he alone is responsible for getting ILM and the realm of realistic model-based special effects off the ground back in the Dark Ages of SFX. The same is true more recently for digital film. Hell, Kubrick used to shoot all of his films in mono because he was disgusted at the variance in theater quality. Thanks to Lucas, this may not be a problem in the very near future with digital projection.
On the other hand, this dependance on glitzy looks has the adverse effect, at least on his films, of relieving focus on story. Yeah they look great. Yeah they'll sell lots of toys. Back in the 70's, they sold Star Wars to the masses. Now, in our CG-inundated world, audiences need more than this. As an example, someone posted earlier just to this effect, about wanting more impressive weapons instead of what was in the trailer. I agree. .
My argument based on personal experience, since obviously I wasn't at these tournements. However, if you require more than my previous post, go to google and look for yourself. Also take into account that there have been many balance tweaks via patches, addons, etc to StarCraft since I last played--although the necessity of these fixes might be seen as evidence for what I discussed above.
.Just that I didn't think it provided a balanced multiplayer experience, since the Zerg rush back when it came out stopped me from playing online. Since then maybe its changed, but I don't play anymore so I wouldn't know.
Bear in mind I'm NOT NOT NOT saying its a bad game! I loved StarCraft. .
. . . or if it is, its very subtly so and outside the range of your average player. The article makes a great statement as to the importance of balance, and this is exactly what turned me off StarCraft.
Every time I played on Battle.net, anyone with half a brain simply played the Zerg and rushed the hell out of everyone else. Usually, the Zerg won. In a war of 'resource command' it would seem that those who can expand the fastest would win.
Just to convince people I'm not blowing hot air, look at the StarCraft Season III Ladder Tournement results and count the occurances of Zerg versus occurances of other races. By my count, of the top players, there was 1 instance of Humans, 2 of Protoss, and 21 people playing the Zerg.
"Men redundant? Now we don't need women either"
I'm sorry, but while I can stand being considered 'redundant', I consider women to be absolutely necessary.
I know many people who consider Neal Stephonson a visionary, but as far as authorship goes I wasn't too impressed with his work.
'Daimond Age' was required reading in a politcal science class here at the U, and I borrowed it from a friend who said it was good but confusing. I quickly arrived at the same conclusion. I loved the nanotech and the detail lavished on describing this technology. He had some great ideas on how it would work in our society--I especially liked the 'reactives' and the 'toner wars'. Oh, and I can't forget the ten terabyte nano hardrive. Can you imagine? 'Oops, I just dusted the entire library of congress off my left shoulder.'
Meanwhile, while much of the book was brilliantly creative, I have to say that I hated the splintered plot that only made sense in the last few pages. There were many aspects of the story that I'm still unsure about. For instance, 'Cryptnet' sounded like a great plot idea that simply died off unexploited. Likewise for the 'drummers'.
At any rate, if you haven't read any Neal Stephenson, please do! Especially if you like visionary works of dark futures, or are especially fascinated by nanomachine technology. I hope is later books will be a bit more cohesive, but I'm sure they'll still be good reads.
The C3H18 sells for $3,995. . .Its little brother, the C3H15, goes for $2,265. For comparison, the Apple 22" Studio display everyone's been drooling over for over a year now retails for $2,499.00 (and I believe started out retailing for $500 more). Is it just me, or am I noticing a discrepancy here? 3x15" or 18", or 1x22"?
Anyone actually used one of these LCD systems? Are they of good quality?
. . .and I would assume likewise for most universities that provide comupting resources to students.
.02. . .
Every quarter students here are charged a 'Student Technology Fee' on their tuition bill. This money is then dispensed by a committee of students, staff, and faculty towards educational technology projects.
Most of the money has gone towards building some excellent general-access computing labs for students. Our school has a glut of computers for student use--compared to others I've visited, there are no time limits, printing is cheap, and despite a growth in student body size most days you can come into the library and sit down at a computer.
In addition, there have been some 'questionable' purchases, in that exhorbitant amounts of cash have been funnelled into machines I wouldn't think are worth it. Examples are buying many of the mac g4 cubes instead of regular macs, along with those huge LCD displays. Don't get me wrong--I love the displays, but at the same time each one is the equivalent of 4 computers.
So in sum, if you want to spend student money on educational techology, BUILD MORE LABS! Spend the money the most efficient way possible in order to server the most students effectively. If your school has any need or projected need at all for more computing seats, give those your first priority. Going from a school where the labs were too small to the one I'm currently at demonstrated just how important--and NICE--it is to have close to enough seats to serve the student body.
Just my
. . .what a great way to slashdot one's site. If I ever come up with ANYTHING 'news for nerds/stuff that matters'-related that I need to sell to ANYONE, I'm submitting it here first.
Must be new, as google hasn't crawled it yet. Mirrors?
Disclaimer: I used to be--and mostly remain--very much not an anime fan, due mostly to the art style of most animes. However, I've been 'turned on' through friends to a few abolutely stunning stories that happen to be conveyed using anime as a medium.
:o) The story is huge, complicated, and very deep, but for those who have no idea what the anime is about, perhaps reading this post will help.
Vision of Escaflowne comes in two flavors: series and movie. I'll talk mostly about the series, since I don't want to give out any spoilers.
Escaflowne tells the story of a 15 year old named Hitomi, a athletic Japanese highschool student who also happens to have a strange talent for 'hunches.' This comes out in her skill at foretelling the future using ordinary tarot cards. One day, when trying to break her speed record in the 100 yard dash, she has a strange vision that ends up dragging her into a strange alternate world called Gaea. Gaea is a land somewhere 'in space' out beyond the earth and the moon that has something to do with the sunken kingdom of Atlantis (to say more would ruin it). It is populated mostly by humans, along with many types of half-human-half-beast people. Although Gaea is by and large peaceful, when Hitomi arrives the entire land is plunged into brutal war, country by country, by a Gaean realm called the Zaibach Empire. The results of this war will determine the fate of Gaea.
From here, Hitomi is thrown into a series of adventures that change her outlook on life and most importantly teaches her much about herself. The entire time, she misses her home and wants to go back (Earth is known in Gaea as the 'Mystic Moon') but begins to care about the people she meets. In addition, her fortunetelling skills are mysteriously enhanced and become a major part of her life.
Unfortunately, to say much more about the story would ruin it for the newcomer. The plotline is very deep, and digs into several 'human' concepts such as destiny, fate, and luck. Family and chivalry are also very important and the source of some major themes. In addition, the mystery of lost Atlantis is somehow involved.
Battles in Gaea are fought by huge robots (think Mechwarrior with swords) called 'Guymelefs,' even though the tech level of Gaea is supposedly stea-engine level. These 'guymelefs' are for the most part huge robot samuri, and are very interesting. Although there isn't really 'magic' in Gaea (at least not in the D&D magic-missle-everything style), there is a lot of unexplained natural phenomenon that are harnessed by the locals, such as rocks that levitate--'wandering earth.'
Escaflowne tells an amazing story and is a good introduction to good anime. I won't say much more about the plot (don't want to give too much away), but it will hook you and drag you along for a fantastic ride. The series is 26 episodes long, and basically continues one story.
Other animes you might want to watch if you liked Escaflowne, or don't know if you want to rent/download it and watch it are Cowboy Bebop and Lain. Bebop is the best anime I've ever seen and one of the best stories I've been told in a long time. Lain is disturbing, but brilliant. Still, I would say that Escaflowne is a great place to start in on anime and definitely worth your time. Although it starts slow (at the begining, I wanted to throttle most of the characters), the character development is fantastic, and the story is truly haunting.
I loved the Indiana Jones movies and gew up watching them. Consider this: a great blend of imagination, storytelling, and fantasy, and George Lucas the Movie Destroyer won't be writing or directing it! I just hope we get the original trilogy on DVD sooner rather than later. (ahem, $PIELBERG!)
;o) Sides, he's just the right age for his character to have fathered a bastard or two and now meet them in a climatic plot moment.
Harrison Ford is old, sure, but we saw in 6 days and 7 nights that he can still throw a punch or two.
That would depend on the type of the problem given by the aforementioned American universities. If it was something that could be cracked by solid quantitative reasoning alone, I would very much agree--especially if this is an intro course you're talking about. Make sure that you're testing ability and potential, not knowledge at this point!
Not every kid who wants to try CS needs to be a math whiz. I was a Music major when I took my first CS class on a whim, and now I'm getting my Comp E degree. When I started, I didn't know anything about algorithm formation or discrete math.
Even better: 79 bucks!!!!!
:o)
An mp3 player of this quality for $79?? Sign me up--and send me your old CF cards.
A few years back I worked for a program that was designed to teach principals and superintendants of public schools how to use technology. The idea was that by teaching the top of the education food chain, we could convince them of the value of educational technology. Interesting project, and one I really enjoyed working with. I won't mention what operating system we taught or who sponsered the event in order to protect the innocent. ;o)
To answer the posted question, we actually roamed all around the state setting up mobile, networked labs at all the major universities, holding multiple sessions of four days for a few weeks at each location, and then tearing it all down to head to the next site. All of the sites were VERY different--we had to get creative when wiring networks and power setups.
As for how we traveled, we used a large Chevy van for all of our equipment. We had a couple of printers, a scanner, digital cameras, 80 toshiba laptops per site, a ton of hubs, power cords, a large spool of cat5 for wiring the rooms, and assorted other details. It took about 2 days to set up at each location, depending on how the layout of the rooms whatever university we were at had [grudgingly] bestowed upon us. We also patched into local drops at each site. This got real interesting when working with the campus sysadmins in each area.
At any rate, we had a good time and from the responses we got the program was a complete sucess. I wish you luck in your own venture!
-s
Whats interesting to me is how the 'hump' containing the guts of the machine was simply moved from the back to a new airport-esque base. The article says that Jobs hated the design of a bulge on the back of an LCD screen. What's really gained from moving it to a stand? The footprint shrinks by the width of the screen, but I would bet that the new design will tip backwards rather easily based on the photo. In addition, it looks like an LCD growing out of some sort of egg.
:-)
However, for marketing purposes, the fact that it departs so radically from the OLD iMac probably will count in its favor. I'm betting that the machine, combined with (I'm sure) it's ease of setup and phenomenal software (I'm particularly a fan of iMovie for capture/printing) will be a success anyways. Just be careful when adjusting the screen.
The advantage of any sort of Engineering degree is that it is assumed you have learned general problem solving and will be able to do just about any job, no matter what the field.
I agree. A close family member of mine is a senior manager in a company called Cypress. (Mayhap people here have heard of this company. They make clock chips for Sony Playstations, among others) He does heavy college recruiting, and is always telling me that although he looks for EE majors, he will certainly look at other types of engineers as long as they can answer basic questions. Its the engineering part of the degree that counts. Based on my (short) experience in the hiring arena, I've found that his company isn't the only one that works like this!
That said, as for which degree to choose, I also agree with those above who advised avoiding microspecializing!! I am a senior in college; when it came time to choose my major I had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up choosing Comp Eng. over Info. Science and Comp. Science because it allowed me the greatest freedom to change my direction later on--i.e. I could go more software, like CS, or more hardware, like EE, etc. I guess in short I put off my decision of deciding what I wanted to do with my life, but in the meantime I would like to think that I'm getting some great basic knowledge.
-S
Saw this over on yahoo news the other day also. The article is here.
Looks like a great idea! Ever since I read the Diamond Age (by Neal Stephenson) I've wanted to carry all my books in one sheet of paper.
Hmm, hope someone updates, that sounded interesting.
The reason why pthreads 'look pretty good' speed-wise is because the pthread library provides user level threads as opposed to a kernel level threads. User level threads have their own scheduler and are much quicker to swap out--less data to save than during a kernel thread context switch. Meanwhile, pthread semaphores (and condition variables) should also be faster depending on the user-to-kernel thread mapping scheme (windows 2k maps each user thread to a kernel thread, for example; I think linux uses a many-to-many mapping). This'll reflect in how fast threads go through their critical sections because they may have to wait shorter/longer to get access to them.
Here in Seattle, I've worked with a similar program. This one is kind of a 'last chance' for highschoolers who are one step away from dropping out completely. These kids are chronic troublemakers/truants who've been booted from both regular highschool AND secondary school. Most of them are gangmembers, and several are teen mothers.
What make this interesting is that the program pays these kids to come to school and learn technology. Every day, most of them show up to learn the basics of computers, web design, etc in the hopes that it'll help them get on the right track with a good job.
For my part, I volunteered with a friend to give workshops on how to use Macromedia Flash. I was kinda nervous and didn't know what to expect--I just had this stereotype of rough gangbanger teenagers. However, they were very polite and for the most part completely intent on learning. In addition, nearly ALL of them were very bright and picked up flash far quicker than I ever did!
Programs like the one in the posted article and the one I worked for here in Seattle are amazing opportunities to help people who just havent had the breaks in life, but have a ton to contribute. I would love to see them expanded.
-s
I've been using a KVM for years, starting with a small cheap box that just switched the monitor signal to finally graduating to the linksys ProConnect 2-port switch.
.oops).
I don't profess to be an expert on KVM switches, but the Linksys has worked decently for me. It has this feature where it listens in on your keystrokes and switches computers at a double tap of the cntrl key. Annoyed the hell out of me in quake until I figured out what was going on (like most computer students I chucked the manual the instant it came. .
However, despite this, its VERY small, cheap (check it out here, comes with cables), and I'd buy another one in a minute.
-S
I had a IBM 20gig fail on me just two weeks ago--right after my brother lost two Maxtors. IBM was very good about filling the warranty--much better than Maxtor! The 20gig had been running smoothly for about a year.
In reality, all hard drives are made pretty much the same way. (For some GREAT information on everything harddrive related, check out this site.) For some reason IBM appears to be in a bit of a slump, but I remember a few years ago everyone was saying "don't buy a maxtor--they're cheap trash." Whatever you buy, just remember that your precious data resides on ferroceramic disks spinning at 5200-10000 rpm with the means of destruction--the read head--floating mere microns above. Back up often!
-s