"It features all the full GPU support of the GeForce 2 MX (it's less powerful than the GTS, but come on, it's a laptop)"
One cautionary note -- Apparently, it will be used in several different configurations. The high-end configurations of their mobile chip will supposedly support a 128-bit DDR bus. However, most of the laptops you'll actually see for sale will probably be equipped with a 64-bit or even 32-bit bus, and I'm not sure manufacturers will be entirely honest about which version it is you'll be getting (Just like how some companies leave the "m64" off of their TNT2-m64's).
I suspect that the story may have been sensationalized somewhat ("Killer Virus Created! Extra Extra, Read All About It!"). But somehow I'm not surprised that Australians would be involved.
I guess it's their history of using biological agents to control pests (like rabbits), such as myxoma virus in the 50's. Or Rabbit Calicivirus Disease, which was released onto the mainland after escaping from a test facility on Wardang island, ripped through the rabbit population, and was later was smuggled into New Zealand by some farmers who thought it would be a good idea to let it loose and see what happened. I think it's a pretty safe bet that there are some folks over there who are seriously considering using it in the wild.
The submitted link (pointing to Yahoo Asia) is actually a just a story reporting a story that appears on New Scientist magazine (Although their site seems to be down at this moment).
Anyway, just wanted to mention two things. One is that mouse IL-4 is inactive in humans, and vice versa.
The second is that many pathogens and parasites are thought to already manipulate cytokines to alter immune responses to their advantage, in a way perhaps similar to what the Mousepox w/ IL-4 is doing.
"Unless you're stupid enough to eat it, in which case you deserve what you get."
In that case, it is unfortunate that there's a lot of people out there stupid enough to eat it.
The problem is, as an element, lead is neither created or destroyed, and so must be left over after the gasoline is burned. In leaded gasoline, this means about 0.15 to 0.8 g/L (0.02 to 0.11 oz/gallon). Let's say I drive about 12,000 miles a year, and get an average of 30 mpg (I drive a compact). That works out to 0.5 to 2.7 pounds of lead a year, just for me. Multiply that by the tens of millions of cars on the road in the US, and you get a lot of lead that has to go somewhere.
In the short term, a little of this is retained in the engine (Leaded gasoline actually contains additives to prevent lead build-up), and some is retained in the motor oil. But most of this lead is exhausted into the atmosphere. From there, it can be directly inhaled, or settle into water supplies, agricultural land, etc, where part of it will be bound up by soil and plants, and part of it will gradually work it's way to the sea. In rural areas, this is not so much of a problem, where there's more space and fewer cars ("The Solution to Pollution is Dilution"). In urban areas, the lead is much more concentrated.
It's not so harmful to adults, who can adsorb quite a bit of lead without any serious effects, but dangerous to children, where it stunts mental development. And stupidity is the one thing in the world that we definitely do not need more of.
Just FYI, leaded gas is still widely used in many countries. Here's a short list of some of the major markets who have no plans to phase out leaded gasoline, which I got from Earth Summit Watch:
Confederation of Independent States (A confederation of former members of Soviet Union)
Nigeria
Saudi Arabia
Venezuela
South Africa
Indonesia
Iraq
Libya
Algeria
Iran
Kuwait
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Syria
Israel
Malaysia
In addition to these, that same page also lists numerous others who still use leaded gasoline, but have plans to phase it out.
Well, here are some comments from an ABC (American Born Chinese) who saw the English subtitled film with his parents.
The film was well received by Chinese everywhere. However, according to my father, one unintentionally funny feature was the mishmash of accents in the film. Only the actress who played the young girl, Jen, was able to properly speak the classical Mandarin required for the time period. The remaining actors, being from places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, had accents from their respective origins. Imagine if you were watching a Western in which the cowboys had a mix of New York, California, and Southern accents. Still, he said most viewers were forgiving about it.
Another feature was that the subtitles were not an exact translation of the dialogue. My Chinese isn't all that great, but I could tell that in some places, the dialogue was simplified, or rendered into (IMHO) overly-colloquial English. Not a big deal, and anyone who watches Anime will probably be familiar with the transliteration vs. translation arguement.
"Does it pander overly to a western audience and the strong potrayal of women - Is it activism gone crazy or was it true of ancient China?"
There have been strong women in Chinese literature from time to time -- for instance, Mulan (A quasi-historical figure who may or may not have actually existed). Anyway, in this case the film was based on a series of books written sometime in the 1930's or 1940's (?), although I can't say whether or not it was influenced by the mores of that time. One interesting note--the martial arts genre of novels and films was banned in mainland China during the 60's, and its authors persecuted.
BTW, there is more to the novel both before and after the events in the film, and director Ang Lee has suggested he will be making a prequel and sequel to the film.
Sorry, nconway, didn't mean to flame. I was just really pissed off at the time I posted.
So, I mentioned nVidia screwing over 3dfx investors. I suppose what I really meant was something more like "this deal with nVidia screws over 3dfx investors".
"...I just think sometimes people need reminding we do live in a capitalism."
With modifications. In hypothetical, pure capitalist system, there is a completely flat playing field, with no barriers for entry. In such a system, not only do inefficient companies go out of business, but new companies continually enter the business. Thus, the system never enters a static state (One surviving company).
In real life, there are barriers to entry. Some are simple and practical matters, such as putting together the elements of money, talent, and materials necessary to start a business. Another type of barrier might be the thicket of interwoven patent cross-licenses that established companies use to defend their IP, or the sheer complexity of modern circuit designs. One consequence of a hypothetically pure capitalist system is that nobody earns any profit! Profit represents an inefficiency in the system that occurs only when all your competitors are less efficient than you are. (BTW, one of Warren Buffet's main investing strategies is to identify strong companies in areas that have high barriers to entry).
The reason we should feel pity that a company has failed is that, while it may reduce inefficiency, it also reduces the competition that spurred innovation and kept down inefficiency in the first place (if a new company does not replace the failed one). In our case, the graphics industry has become increasingly consolidated, while the number of new entrants has dwindled. While this is good for the profitability of the strongest company in the field (nVidia), it is bad for us (the consumer) because the market has just become a little more inefficient. At least until someone else joins the fray (Good luck, Bitboys!).
"Really, what do you think? That nVidia should be concerned about the financial well-being of 3dfx investors?"
Don't be an idiot. Try reading my post again. TDFX should be concerned about the financial well-being of TDFX investors. There are a lot of really fishy things going on in the details of this agreement, and quite a few of us suspect that, in this end game, the 3dfx management may be trying to benefit themselves at the expense of their own shareholder who are the true owners of the company, and that we believe there are ways to dispose of 3dfx's assets that would return more of it's value to us.
Now, I'm a young fellow who's only been investing (As a long term buy-and-holder) for a few years, and has been frantically saving for the next stage of my life. If I lose money due to my own bad decisions it's my own damn fault (And I've lost quite a bit of it in this market lately), but in the months prior to today's announcement, 3dfx had been making some statements that some shareholders might call misleading, and this latest chicanery is really the last straw.
In the past few years we've seen a lot of graphics companies go under. I've tried to put together a list, although I'm sure there may be a few names missing.
Dead: Tseng Labs - gone.
Western Digital - out of the business.
Number 9 - gone (?)
Orchid - gone (?)
Hercules - gone in all but name.
Cirrus - Out of the graphics business.
Neomagic - Moving out of the graphics business.
Alliance - Out of the graphics business.
MIA: C&T - Purchased by Intel.
3D Labs - Purchased by Intel.
Rendition - Purchased by Micron.
S3 - Purchased by VIA, now focusing on "integrated chipsets".
Trident - Still making low end cards, mostly living off proceeds from well-timed investment in UMC.
Still kicking: Matrox - Appears to be focusing on corporate and 2D markets. Private company, so little info on internal status.
Videologic - in Sega's Dreamcast, still attempting to break into PC market, active R&D. Partners with STMicro.
ATI - Looks like will be in Nintendo's Dolphin, financially still strong (for now). Large (but shrinking) OEM and retail share, dominant in mobile graphics and Macintosh market. Active R&D.
Forgot to mention something--nVidia has agreed to pay $70 million plus 1 million in nVidia stock. Now, assuming all of that stock goes to TDFX shareholders (The amount of debt TDFX has is still unclear to me at this moment, so I'm unsure how many shares will have to be liquidated to pay creditors), there are 39.4 million shares of TDFX outstanding. So let's assume 1 share nVidia for every 40 you own of TDFX. That's still a hell of a lot of suckage for TDFX investors, as it currently puts my 3dfx stock at less than $1 in value.
"When they dissolve the company, the remaining assets (after liabilities) will be divided among the shareholders. You'll probably wind up with some NVidia stock."
How much? Suppose it's 1/100th of a share of nVidia per share of TDFX?
Again, details are spare and there is much room for interpretation of what little info we have. However, it appears that the shares of nVidia do not go to TDFX shareholders. If my interpretation is correct, they instead first go to 3dfx, which still exists as an "independent" company (Although stripped of everything of value), which apparently will use them to pay their creditors first. Then, whatever is left (Could end up being very little) will go to shareholders, possibly directly, or maybe as cash after liquidation. Probably the latter, as it appears the management will attempt to bail in their golden parachutes first.
As a long-time investor in 3D graphics stocks (Unfortunately for me, 3dfx mostly), I'd have to say this is not quite right. At the start of the 3D graphics industry, the order would have been something like this:
ATI, S3 == Incumbents
3dfx, nVidia == Underdogs
Yes, us geeks derided the Virges and Rage boards as crap, but they sold to the people that mattered (OEMs, corporate sales), and as a result both ATI and S3 grew absolutely huge. Either of them alone dwarfed nVidia and 3dfx combined in almost every measure -- market cap, revenue, profit, units sold, overall market share, etc... The only important exception was probably in the (tiny) retail market, where 3dfx was #1 for a while. 3dfx was only the leader in performance (for a time) and mindshare--important to geeks but not to suits.
As the market evolved, S3 faltered in their transition from the Virge to Savage chipsets. nVidia began to take away big chunks of ATI's core business (OEM sales). 3dfx manages to hold onto a slim lead in retail and brand name recognition, but the retail market is too small to support the company, and they begin to struggle financially. The field changes into something like this:
Incumbent == ATI, nVidia
Underdogs == 3dfx
Has been == S3
Then, nVidia went for ATI's jungular. The GeForce was originally a high-end, low volume part, but the MX version is making big inroads into both the retail and OEM market. Now, nVidia is about to release both mobile laptop chipsets (Where ATI currently is dominant, having wrested control away from Neomagic) and two versions of a motherboard chipset with integrated graphics. nVidia has continued to take business away from ATI, and is now on top of the pile by most important gauges. So, the modern order looks something like this:
Incumbent == nVidia
Underdog == ATI
Has Been == S3, 3dfx
Now, I've sort of neglected some players here. Matrox, Videologic, etc., but most of those have been niche players.
"Well.. it seems like the shareholders aren't digging the news too much. NVidia shares fell 10% today."
Well, us 3dfx shareholders are digging it even less. The stock looks like it's going to be worthless, and shareholders may end up getting a pittance. There are calls for blood out on just about every active TDFX message board out there.
First, let me describe how I came to be a 3dfx shareholder. I first started investing while I was still in college, using a little money I had saved up (in part earned by serving as a guinea pig in clinical trials). I began buying 3dfx back before they merged with STB. As shares gradually dropped from my initial purchase price of ~$15, I doubled down, and doubled down again. Eventually, I ended up with about 1,000 shares, at an average purchase price of $10. I really wanted to believe in the company, in the engineers that were always so earnest and hopeful when you spoke to them. And in the products that always seemed to get slammed around by web reviewers, but really kicked butt if you actually took the time to try one out yourself.
OK, details on this are pretty sparse, but at first look it looks really, really bad for us shareholders. The Motley Fool board has the most active and knowledgable group of 3dfx investors out there, and on that board, some of the mostly highly recommended (ie., plus moderated) messages there right now happen to be pure profanity. Some folks there have suggested we may be getting as little as 0.30 a share, if anything.
It looks like nVidia may not actually be "buying" 3dfx. Rather, it looks like they will be cherry picking the few assets worth anything, like the designs for 3dfx's next products including Rampage (And it's associated T&L chip, Sage) and Mosaic, and leaving 3dfx as a hollow shell containing nothing but a near-worthless boardmaking plant and lots of debt--in other words, completely screwing over the shareholders in the worst way possible. This hollow shell would also probably be responsible for for providing support, warranties, and driver updates for anybody out there owning a 3dfx card.
Basically, it looks like I may as well write off my entire investment as a loss, and consider it tuition in the school of hard knocks.
The gene has been affectionately nicknamed "I'm Not Dead Yet."
Geneticists, especially Drosophila ones, have a long history of giving genes interesting names.
Several years ago, the Annals of Improbable Research had a story writing contest where the objective was to write a short story using only the names of genes, for instance, like the one below:
In the LOT behind CLUB ETHER-A-GOGO, AMY PRUNE's BREATHLESS TORSO was SPLAYED in the GRAVEL. Her CROOKED-NECK was BENT over the STONEWALL in an ABRUPT TWIST. Her REFRINGENT THRONG was DISHEVELED and her WHITE-MOTTLED MINI UPTURNED . But no COPPER would ARREST the DERANGED KILLER-OF-PRUNE. No CELL would HOLD-UP that HEARTLESS SNAKE. For a SHOTGUN had REDUCED OSKAR's BIG-BRAIN into STARDUST and FAINT-LITTLE-BALLS.
Every single one of the capitalized words happens to be a real name of a Drosophila gene.
"Forklifts have universal appeal. Everyone, from old grandmothers to middle-aged businessman to your little brother can understand what to do with a forklift: race it through the streets of 1980s Yokohama!"
"The answer may lead some insight into the question of what is the minimum requirement for life."
The Minimal Genome Project tried to answer this question by disrupting genes in M. genitalium until they had an organism with a minimum number of genes that was still viable.
"...In the paper, published in the December 10 issue of Science, the minimum number of protein-coding genes required for cellular life in the laboratory is between 265 and 350. Surprisingly, this minimal gene set includes about 100 genes of unknown function. This finding draws into question a prevailing assumption that the basic molecular mechanisms underlying cellular life are understood, at least in broad outline..."
V5-6000 problem may have been with retail market.
on
Voodoo5 6000 Preview
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· Score: 4
"It proves what most people suspected, the card was being sold to the public because even after nearly 6+ months of work they can't make it work."
Although I don't have confirmation of this, I believe the V5-6000 ran into a problem with certain motherboard BIOSes.
In the V5-5500, the two VSA-100 chips on board are both directly on the AGP bus. However, with 4 VSA-100s, the V5-6000 had to have a bridge chip in between the bus and the graphic chips. Bridge chips are actually pretty common with PCI devices.
However, certain motherboard BIOSes refused to recognize the bridge chip as an AGP device. The problem could have been fixed with a new BIOS flash, but unfortunately there were enough motherboards with the problem that they couldn't release a retail product that way.
"But yeah, they sure are a fucked up company now. Their latest line of cards is the worst yet. Same price as competing cards with not even close to the same performance..."
3dfx has recently dropped the price on V5-5500s quite a bit, although the change hasn't shown up at a lot of retail places. But, you can get one at Buy.com or Onvia for ~$175.00, and you can do even better if you happen to catch them during one of their free shipping specials, or with a coupon.
Fog Condensation as a moisture source is actually quite common in nature. Probably the most famous are the Onymacris unguicularis beetles of Namib Desert, who gather dew on their backs to survive. Other organisms who perform the same trick include coastal redwoods some desert plants and snakes.
Re:Image clarity and color accuracy ..
on
Nvidia's NV20
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· Score: 3
"The problem lies between the keyboard and the chair."
No, the problem lies between the chip and the mini-D connector. NVidia only sells chips to boardmakers, who make the actual card. While almost all of them make similar variations of the reference design, it is the boardmakers who choose where they get the rest of their PCBs, filtering components, etc.
The same thing happened with nVidia's TNT and TNT2 (And with 3dfx's chips before they stopped selling to other companies). The end result is that some are quite good, and others cut corners (And a brand name is little guarantee of quality these days).
"Do you have any idea how many carrots you would have to eat to ingest a high enough dose of beta carotene to stain your skin orange?:)"
Sorry, I can't give you a number. I do know that the amount varies greatly depending on a person's ability to excrete or break down the excess beta carotene, and I've heard of it happening in people who consumed a single glass (8 oz.) of carrot juice a day.
Slashdot Mirror
"It features all the full GPU support of the GeForce 2 MX (it's less powerful than the GTS, but come on, it's a laptop)"
One cautionary note -- Apparently, it will be used in several different configurations. The high-end configurations of their mobile chip will supposedly support a 128-bit DDR bus. However, most of the laptops you'll actually see for sale will probably be equipped with a 64-bit or even 32-bit bus, and I'm not sure manufacturers will be entirely honest about which version it is you'll be getting (Just like how some companies leave the "m64" off of their TNT2-m64's).
BTW, Slashdot reported the GeForce mobile back in November.
I suspect that the story may have been sensationalized somewhat ("Killer Virus Created! Extra Extra, Read All About It!"). But somehow I'm not surprised that Australians would be involved.
I guess it's their history of using biological agents to control pests (like rabbits), such as myxoma virus in the 50's. Or Rabbit Calicivirus Disease, which was released onto the mainland after escaping from a test facility on Wardang island, ripped through the rabbit population, and was later was smuggled into New Zealand by some farmers who thought it would be a good idea to let it loose and see what happened. I think it's a pretty safe bet that there are some folks over there who are seriously considering using it in the wild.
The submitted link (pointing to Yahoo Asia) is actually a just a story reporting a story that appears on New Scientist magazine (Although their site seems to be down at this moment).
Anyway, just wanted to mention two things. One is that mouse IL-4 is inactive in humans, and vice versa.
The second is that many pathogens and parasites are thought to already manipulate cytokines to alter immune responses to their advantage, in a way perhaps similar to what the Mousepox w/ IL-4 is doing.
"Unless you're stupid enough to eat it, in which case you deserve what you get."
In that case, it is unfortunate that there's a lot of people out there stupid enough to eat it.
The problem is, as an element, lead is neither created or destroyed, and so must be left over after the gasoline is burned. In leaded gasoline, this means about 0.15 to 0.8 g/L (0.02 to 0.11 oz/gallon). Let's say I drive about 12,000 miles a year, and get an average of 30 mpg (I drive a compact). That works out to 0.5 to 2.7 pounds of lead a year, just for me. Multiply that by the tens of millions of cars on the road in the US, and you get a lot of lead that has to go somewhere.
In the short term, a little of this is retained in the engine (Leaded gasoline actually contains additives to prevent lead build-up), and some is retained in the motor oil. But most of this lead is exhausted into the atmosphere. From there, it can be directly inhaled, or settle into water supplies, agricultural land, etc, where part of it will be bound up by soil and plants, and part of it will gradually work it's way to the sea. In rural areas, this is not so much of a problem, where there's more space and fewer cars ("The Solution to Pollution is Dilution"). In urban areas, the lead is much more concentrated.
It's not so harmful to adults, who can adsorb quite a bit of lead without any serious effects, but dangerous to children, where it stunts mental development. And stupidity is the one thing in the world that we definitely do not need more of.
In addition to these, that same page also lists numerous others who still use leaded gasoline, but have plans to phase it out.
Well, here are some comments from an ABC (American Born Chinese) who saw the English subtitled film with his parents.
The film was well received by Chinese everywhere. However, according to my father, one unintentionally funny feature was the mishmash of accents in the film. Only the actress who played the young girl, Jen, was able to properly speak the classical Mandarin required for the time period. The remaining actors, being from places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, had accents from their respective origins. Imagine if you were watching a Western in which the cowboys had a mix of New York, California, and Southern accents. Still, he said most viewers were forgiving about it.
Another feature was that the subtitles were not an exact translation of the dialogue. My Chinese isn't all that great, but I could tell that in some places, the dialogue was simplified, or rendered into (IMHO) overly-colloquial English. Not a big deal, and anyone who watches Anime will probably be familiar with the transliteration vs. translation arguement.
"Does it pander overly to a western audience and the strong potrayal of women - Is it activism gone crazy or was it true of ancient China?"
There have been strong women in Chinese literature from time to time -- for instance, Mulan (A quasi-historical figure who may or may not have actually existed). Anyway, in this case the film was based on a series of books written sometime in the 1930's or 1940's (?), although I can't say whether or not it was influenced by the mores of that time. One interesting note--the martial arts genre of novels and films was banned in mainland China during the 60's, and its authors persecuted.
BTW, there is more to the novel both before and after the events in the film, and director Ang Lee has suggested he will be making a prequel and sequel to the film.
"...never call a "toll-free" number you don't trust. You can get an 800 number in the Caribbean Isles, that works like 900 numbers in the States. "
Hmmm... you could try calling them from a pay phone, that might provide some protection for that sort of scam.
"Guy in sailormoon suit: You misunderstand. I don't speak Japanese."
:)
Of course he doesn't. He's cosplaying the dub version of Sailor Moon.
Sorry, nconway, didn't mean to flame. I was just really pissed off at the time I posted.
So, I mentioned nVidia screwing over 3dfx investors. I suppose what I really meant was something more like "this deal with nVidia screws over 3dfx investors".
"...I just think sometimes people need reminding we do live in a capitalism."
With modifications. In hypothetical, pure capitalist system, there is a completely flat playing field, with no barriers for entry. In such a system, not only do inefficient companies go out of business, but new companies continually enter the business. Thus, the system never enters a static state (One surviving company).
In real life, there are barriers to entry. Some are simple and practical matters, such as putting together the elements of money, talent, and materials necessary to start a business. Another type of barrier might be the thicket of interwoven patent cross-licenses that established companies use to defend their IP, or the sheer complexity of modern circuit designs. One consequence of a hypothetically pure capitalist system is that nobody earns any profit! Profit represents an inefficiency in the system that occurs only when all your competitors are less efficient than you are. (BTW, one of Warren Buffet's main investing strategies is to identify strong companies in areas that have high barriers to entry).
The reason we should feel pity that a company has failed is that, while it may reduce inefficiency, it also reduces the competition that spurred innovation and kept down inefficiency in the first place (if a new company does not replace the failed one). In our case, the graphics industry has become increasingly consolidated, while the number of new entrants has dwindled. While this is good for the profitability of the strongest company in the field (nVidia), it is bad for us (the consumer) because the market has just become a little more inefficient. At least until someone else joins the fray (Good luck, Bitboys!).
"Really, what do you think? That nVidia should be concerned about the financial well-being of 3dfx investors?"
Don't be an idiot. Try reading my post again. TDFX should be concerned about the financial well-being of TDFX investors. There are a lot of really fishy things going on in the details of this agreement, and quite a few of us suspect that, in this end game, the 3dfx management may be trying to benefit themselves at the expense of their own shareholder who are the true owners of the company, and that we believe there are ways to dispose of 3dfx's assets that would return more of it's value to us.
Now, I'm a young fellow who's only been investing (As a long term buy-and-holder) for a few years, and has been frantically saving for the next stage of my life. If I lose money due to my own bad decisions it's my own damn fault (And I've lost quite a bit of it in this market lately), but in the months prior to today's announcement, 3dfx had been making some statements that some shareholders might call misleading, and this latest chicanery is really the last straw.
In the past few years we've seen a lot of graphics companies go under. I've tried to put together a list, although I'm sure there may be a few names missing.
Dead:
Tseng Labs - gone.
Western Digital - out of the business.
Number 9 - gone (?)
Orchid - gone (?)
Hercules - gone in all but name.
Cirrus - Out of the graphics business.
Neomagic - Moving out of the graphics business.
Alliance - Out of the graphics business.
MIA:
C&T - Purchased by Intel.
3D Labs - Purchased by Intel.
Rendition - Purchased by Micron.
S3 - Purchased by VIA, now focusing on "integrated chipsets".
Trident - Still making low end cards, mostly living off proceeds from well-timed investment in UMC.
Still kicking:
Matrox - Appears to be focusing on corporate and 2D markets. Private company, so little info on internal status.
Videologic - in Sega's Dreamcast, still attempting to break into PC market, active R&D. Partners with STMicro.
ATI - Looks like will be in Nintendo's Dolphin, financially still strong (for now). Large (but shrinking) OEM and retail share, dominant in mobile graphics and Macintosh market. Active R&D.
SiS - Low end cards, apparently active R&D.
Forgot to mention something--nVidia has agreed to pay $70 million plus 1 million in nVidia stock. Now, assuming all of that stock goes to TDFX shareholders (The amount of debt TDFX has is still unclear to me at this moment, so I'm unsure how many shares will have to be liquidated to pay creditors), there are 39.4 million shares of TDFX outstanding. So let's assume 1 share nVidia for every 40 you own of TDFX. That's still a hell of a lot of suckage for TDFX investors, as it currently puts my 3dfx stock at less than $1 in value.
"When they dissolve the company, the remaining assets (after liabilities) will be divided among the shareholders. You'll probably wind up with some NVidia stock."
How much? Suppose it's 1/100th of a share of nVidia per share of TDFX?
Again, details are spare and there is much room for interpretation of what little info we have. However, it appears that the shares of nVidia do not go to TDFX shareholders. If my interpretation is correct, they instead first go to 3dfx, which still exists as an "independent" company (Although stripped of everything of value), which apparently will use them to pay their creditors first. Then, whatever is left (Could end up being very little) will go to shareholders, possibly directly, or maybe as cash after liquidation. Probably the latter, as it appears the management will attempt to bail in their golden parachutes first.
As a long-time investor in 3D graphics stocks (Unfortunately for me, 3dfx mostly), I'd have to say this is not quite right. At the start of the 3D graphics industry, the order would have been something like this:
ATI, S3 == Incumbents
3dfx, nVidia == Underdogs
Yes, us geeks derided the Virges and Rage boards as crap, but they sold to the people that mattered (OEMs, corporate sales), and as a result both ATI and S3 grew absolutely huge. Either of them alone dwarfed nVidia and 3dfx combined in almost every measure -- market cap, revenue, profit, units sold, overall market share, etc... The only important exception was probably in the (tiny) retail market, where 3dfx was #1 for a while. 3dfx was only the leader in performance (for a time) and mindshare--important to geeks but not to suits.
As the market evolved, S3 faltered in their transition from the Virge to Savage chipsets. nVidia began to take away big chunks of ATI's core business (OEM sales). 3dfx manages to hold onto a slim lead in retail and brand name recognition, but the retail market is too small to support the company, and they begin to struggle financially. The field changes into something like this:
Incumbent == ATI, nVidia
Underdogs == 3dfx
Has been == S3
Then, nVidia went for ATI's jungular. The GeForce was originally a high-end, low volume part, but the MX version is making big inroads into both the retail and OEM market. Now, nVidia is about to release both mobile laptop chipsets (Where ATI currently is dominant, having wrested control away from Neomagic) and two versions of a motherboard chipset with integrated graphics. nVidia has continued to take business away from ATI, and is now on top of the pile by most important gauges. So, the modern order looks something like this:
Incumbent == nVidia
Underdog == ATI
Has Been == S3, 3dfx
Now, I've sort of neglected some players here. Matrox, Videologic, etc., but most of those have been niche players.
"Well.. it seems like the shareholders aren't digging the news too much. NVidia shares fell 10% today."
Well, us 3dfx shareholders are digging it even less. The stock looks like it's going to be worthless, and shareholders may end up getting a pittance. There are calls for blood out on just about every active TDFX message board out there.
First, let me describe how I came to be a 3dfx shareholder. I first started investing while I was still in college, using a little money I had saved up (in part earned by serving as a guinea pig in clinical trials). I began buying 3dfx back before they merged with STB. As shares gradually dropped from my initial purchase price of ~$15, I doubled down, and doubled down again. Eventually, I ended up with about 1,000 shares, at an average purchase price of $10. I really wanted to believe in the company, in the engineers that were always so earnest and hopeful when you spoke to them. And in the products that always seemed to get slammed around by web reviewers, but really kicked butt if you actually took the time to try one out yourself.
OK, details on this are pretty sparse, but at first look it looks really, really bad for us shareholders. The Motley Fool board has the most active and knowledgable group of 3dfx investors out there, and on that board, some of the mostly highly recommended (ie., plus moderated) messages there right now happen to be pure profanity. Some folks there have suggested we may be getting as little as 0.30 a share, if anything.
It looks like nVidia may not actually be "buying" 3dfx. Rather, it looks like they will be cherry picking the few assets worth anything, like the designs for 3dfx's next products including Rampage (And it's associated T&L chip, Sage) and Mosaic, and leaving 3dfx as a hollow shell containing nothing but a near-worthless boardmaking plant and lots of debt--in other words, completely screwing over the shareholders in the worst way possible. This hollow shell would also probably be responsible for for providing support, warranties, and driver updates for anybody out there owning a 3dfx card.
Basically, it looks like I may as well write off my entire investment as a loss, and consider it tuition in the school of hard knocks.
Geneticists, especially Drosophila ones, have a long history of giving genes interesting names.
Several years ago, the Annals of Improbable Research had a story writing contest where the objective was to write a short story using only the names of genes, for instance, like the one below:
Every single one of the capitalized words happens to be a real name of a Drosophila gene.
"Forklifts have universal appeal. Everyone, from old grandmothers to middle-aged businessman to your little brother can understand what to do with a forklift: race it through the streets of 1980s Yokohama!"
I disagree. Forklifts are best used as Tactical Thermonuclear Devices, as Ambrosia Software understands so well.
The Minimal Genome Project tried to answer this question by disrupting genes in M. genitalium until they had an organism with a minimum number of genes that was still viable.
"It proves what most people suspected, the card was being sold to the public because even after nearly 6+ months of work they can't make it work."
Although I don't have confirmation of this, I believe the V5-6000 ran into a problem with certain motherboard BIOSes.
In the V5-5500, the two VSA-100 chips on board are both directly on the AGP bus. However, with 4 VSA-100s, the V5-6000 had to have a bridge chip in between the bus and the graphic chips. Bridge chips are actually pretty common with PCI devices.
However, certain motherboard BIOSes refused to recognize the bridge chip as an AGP device. The problem could have been fixed with a new BIOS flash, but unfortunately there were enough motherboards with the problem that they couldn't release a retail product that way.
"But yeah, they sure are a fucked up company now. Their latest line of cards is the worst yet. Same price as competing cards with not even close to the same performance..."
3dfx has recently dropped the price on V5-5500s quite a bit, although the change hasn't shown up at a lot of retail places. But, you can get one at Buy.com or Onvia for ~$175.00, and you can do even better if you happen to catch them during one of their free shipping specials, or with a coupon.
Fog Condensation as a moisture source is actually quite common in nature. Probably the most famous are the Onymacris unguicularis beetles of Namib Desert, who gather dew on their backs to survive. Other organisms who perform the same trick include coastal redwoods some desert plants and snakes.
"The problem lies between the keyboard and the chair."
No, the problem lies between the chip and the mini-D connector. NVidia only sells chips to boardmakers, who make the actual card. While almost all of them make similar variations of the reference design, it is the boardmakers who choose where they get the rest of their PCBs, filtering components, etc.
The same thing happened with nVidia's TNT and TNT2 (And with 3dfx's chips before they stopped selling to other companies). The end result is that some are quite good, and others cut corners (And a brand name is little guarantee of quality these days).
"Do you have any idea how many carrots you would have to eat to ingest a high enough dose of beta carotene to stain your skin orange? :)"
Sorry, I can't give you a number. I do know that the amount varies greatly depending on a person's ability to excrete or break down the excess beta carotene, and I've heard of it happening in people who consumed a single glass (8 oz.) of carrot juice a day.