If PCs are getting faster it means programmers can write easily readable, super-maintainable but slower apps instead of convoluted crap that inevitably fall out of existance because "oh, the guys who knew how that work left"
Ever heard of commenting your code? When worse comes to worst and even comments don't help, I still aim for maintainability: when I heavily optimize a piece of code, such as when I write it in assembly language, I keep an equivalent C reference version and compare the two in regression testing. This way, I can keep up frame rate for my 3D engine that runs on a handheld device while maintaining maintainability.
Nowadays it would be pure madness to even attempt to optimize a program the same way as 'back then'. Programs simply have become too large (size and features) and too complex to begin optimizing them in the same manner.
Most of a modern GUI program is I/O handling. Such programs still have inner-loops that can be optimized to waste few CPU cycles. Use a profiler to see where to concentrate your attention.
Not to mention the fact that the average system in use today
Is not a PC. It's the embedded computer in a toaster.
Honestly, is bloat really that big of a problem for a typical computer, anyway?
A "typical computer" is not a PC. A typical computer is an embedded system in a microwave oven with a 0.5 MHz processor, 1 KB of ROM, and 256 bytes of RAM, if that.
Next step up from an embedded system is a handheld device such as the Palm or the Game Boy Advance. You get a processor in double-digit MHz, only about 384 KB of work RAM, and storage measured in single or double digit MB.
Then you have the typical six-year-old Pentium computers in public schools. 100 MHz, 24 MB of RAM, unaccelerated video, 800 MB hard drive, 4x CD-ROM (if that).
Then you get to DVD-based game consoles, which have 32 to 64 MB of RAM. Bloat begins to disappear, but the less bloat you have, the more triangles you can push, and the faster your game will load. That was one of Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto's biggest complaints about the Sega CD and the old Nintendo Playstation project[1], that disc technology wasn't fast enough to provide a seamless experience. Only recently have engineers developed the hardware to load data faster and the software tricks to cover up loading time.
Only after all those do you get to a relatively modern PC.
[1] The Nintendo Playstation was originally a project between Sony and Nintendo to develop a 32-bit CD-ROM system that connected to the Super NES. When Nintendo dropped the project in favor of the Nintendo 64 console, Sony finished it up and released it as a stand-alone game console.
The OEM contract prohibits dual boot arrangements too.
The OEM contract prohibits dual-boot systems from being pre-installed. I don't think even Microsoft could prohibit OEMs from including a FreeBSD CD with every computer.
Free sig: "Anti competition's gone too far, here's your Antitrust Superstar."
So, when I said two out of three ain't bad, I meant there is no way in hell an anniversary PC would give you a choice of OSes. Microsoft just wouldn't permit it.
Even if the top-secret OEM contract with Microsoft rules out selling PCs without an operating system or with anything other than Windows pre-installed, what stops a PC vendor from including FreeDOS with the machine, along with a voucher for a CD of FreeBSD or Red Hat Linux?
No. All electromagnetic radiation, not just visible light, moves at the "speed of light" in a vacuum. Electric charges move through a processor at about half the speed of light. Therefore, once chips start getting too big, it takes a while for charges to get from one side of a chip to the other.
The speed of light limits latency, but it doesn't necessarily limit throughput or clock speed.
And latency combined with branch misprediction will kill performance.
Once we begin to approach the light speed limit, the best way to achieve more performance on a chip will probably be chip multiprocessing (compare IBM's Power4) rather than cranking up the clock frequency.
so far every platform that has tried to emulate x86 processors in software has dismally failed to make inroads into the PC market
What about Athlon processors and late Pentium processors? They devote half their silicon to what amounts to an emulator that translates x86 bytecode into instructions for a RISC backend.
LAME [mp3dev.org], the MP3 encoder that CDex includes
LAME is good, but it still ain't an MP3 encoder. It's the source code to an MP3 encoder. It won't be an MP3 encoder until Fraunhofer's U.S., German, and Japanese patents expire in the early to mid 2010s. Yes, binaries are available, but downloading those may be just as infringing as downloading proprietary console game ROMs.
That's a problem for some, but not for me. I work in mostly web graphics and video game graphics, which are often dithered down to 16 or 256 colors anyway.
If there is color management or matching in this
No. The good algorithms for doing that are patented in the United States, and the Free Software Foundation is headquartered in the United States.
or any other program available on Linux I'd like to know about it.
If you buy Codeweavers products, perhaps they could improve Wine to the point where it can run most of Adobe Photoshop.
I'm not sure if the gamma and curve control is adequate, although given the first two limitations, it doesn't really matter.
Gamma (Image > Colors > Levels...) and curves (Image > Colors > Curves...) work for me.
BTW, is anybody working on a deep color rewrite of the gimp?
A rewrite of GIMP based on GEGL (a more generic graphics library) is in the works. I don't know whether or not GEGL supports deep color.
Surely, that implies that you only record your own songs
What if, by coincidence, your so-called "own songs" happen to be "substantially similar" to a previously published musical composition? Substantial similarity is the standard for copying under United States copyright law, and this article shows just how easy it is for substantial similarity to kick in.
at least you remembered the question marks. Some people get a +5 funny for LEAVING OUT THE JOKE.
In jokes patterned on the "underpants gnomes" model first introduced on Comedy Central's South Park, the question marks signify that the link between the first steps of a business model and the last steps is tenuous at best. On the other hand, leaving out the question marks means that under certain conditions, which are generally given in the same comment, the steps described would already be a valid business model.
Just like Mov is a quicktime container that can be any number of different codecs, as well as avi, asf and wmv.
True. However, containers typically have their own associated most common codecs. For instance, a.avi file is generally either some sort of uncompressed video or MPEG-4 video, along with either PCM audio, MP3 audio, WMA audio, or Vorbis audio. Likewise,.mov typically implies Sorenson video with QDesign audio.
Calling a Theora file.ogg is perfectly valid
Not for file systems that determine a file's media type (e.g. audio/ogg vs. video/ogg) and disposition (e.g. open in background in an audio-player style interface vs. open in foreground in a video-player style interface) from its extension. The common uses of the common Windows and UNIX file systems have this limitation. In this case, a fellow could use.ogg for audio but.ogm for a multiplexed audio/video/caption stream; this appears to be the convention that has arisen among users.
The only thing you need is to have some start capital for - Band equipment - web site.
And what about paying your songwriters? An unauthorized recording of a copyrighted musical composition infringes the copyright on the musical composition.
As a consumer, I DON'T want to pay for mp3s. Maybe I'm being a luddite, but I have a problem paying money for something I can't hold in my hand
MP3 and Ogg files are something you can hold in your hand. Unlike DRM'd formats, you can burn them to a CD and listen to them in any compatible pocket player. (There aren't many Ogg players yet, but you can still bug your manufacturer to add Tremor support.)
I like flipping through the booklet while I listen to the music.
What's it going to be like when internet2 is pervasive?
Internet2 will not be pervasive. It will serve only academic sites. If Internet2 were to go commercial, then it would become part of Internet1. High bandwidth to the home is not Internet2; it's simply called extreme broadband.
Slashdot Mirror
If PCs are getting faster it means programmers can write easily readable, super-maintainable but slower apps instead of convoluted crap that inevitably fall out of existance because "oh, the guys who knew how that work left"
Ever heard of commenting your code? When worse comes to worst and even comments don't help, I still aim for maintainability: when I heavily optimize a piece of code, such as when I write it in assembly language, I keep an equivalent C reference version and compare the two in regression testing. This way, I can keep up frame rate for my 3D engine that runs on a handheld device while maintaining maintainability.
Nowadays it would be pure madness to even attempt to optimize a program the same way as 'back then'. Programs simply have become too large (size and features) and too complex to begin optimizing them in the same manner.
Most of a modern GUI program is I/O handling. Such programs still have inner-loops that can be optimized to waste few CPU cycles. Use a profiler to see where to concentrate your attention.
Not to mention the fact that the average system in use today
Is not a PC. It's the embedded computer in a toaster.
Honestly, is bloat really that big of a problem for a typical computer, anyway?
A "typical computer" is not a PC. A typical computer is an embedded system in a microwave oven with a 0.5 MHz processor, 1 KB of ROM, and 256 bytes of RAM, if that.
Next step up from an embedded system is a handheld device such as the Palm or the Game Boy Advance. You get a processor in double-digit MHz, only about 384 KB of work RAM, and storage measured in single or double digit MB.
Then you have the typical six-year-old Pentium computers in public schools. 100 MHz, 24 MB of RAM, unaccelerated video, 800 MB hard drive, 4x CD-ROM (if that).
Then you get to DVD-based game consoles, which have 32 to 64 MB of RAM. Bloat begins to disappear, but the less bloat you have, the more triangles you can push, and the faster your game will load. That was one of Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto's biggest complaints about the Sega CD and the old Nintendo Playstation project[1], that disc technology wasn't fast enough to provide a seamless experience. Only recently have engineers developed the hardware to load data faster and the software tricks to cover up loading time.
Only after all those do you get to a relatively modern PC.
[1] The Nintendo Playstation was originally a project between Sony and Nintendo to develop a 32-bit CD-ROM system that connected to the Super NES. When Nintendo dropped the project in favor of the Nintendo 64 console, Sony finished it up and released it as a stand-alone game console.
I have tried lots of demo video editors, all were crap.
Even GPL'd VirtualDub? No wait, that's not a demo, that's a full version as Free software.
Trying to balance the "value for money" or "bang for the buck" equation doesn't work because of divide-by-zero problems.
There is no division by zero, as it costs at least fifty dollars per month for the bandwidth necessary to download a popular Linux distribution.
The OEM contract prohibits dual boot arrangements too.
The OEM contract prohibits dual-boot systems from being pre-installed. I don't think even Microsoft could prohibit OEMs from including a FreeBSD CD with every computer.
Free sig: "Anti competition's gone too far, here's your Antitrust Superstar."
[Windoids are] possible with any window manager that supports either MWM hints, or properly supports the _NET spec.
I thought only Microsoft Windows supported the .NET spec. What am I thinking of?
So, when I said two out of three ain't bad, I meant there is no way in hell an anniversary PC would give you a choice of OSes. Microsoft just wouldn't permit it.
Even if the top-secret OEM contract with Microsoft rules out selling PCs without an operating system or with anything other than Windows pre-installed, what stops a PC vendor from including FreeDOS with the machine, along with a voucher for a CD of FreeBSD or Red Hat Linux?
Intel went optical with the P4?
No. All electromagnetic radiation, not just visible light, moves at the "speed of light" in a vacuum. Electric charges move through a processor at about half the speed of light. Therefore, once chips start getting too big, it takes a while for charges to get from one side of a chip to the other.
(Now, please don't tell me you're one of those freaks who have replaced all their bulbs with white LEDs...)
Nope. I've replaced my incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs. I get the same amount of light with 1/3 the power consumption.
The speed of light limits latency, but it doesn't necessarily limit throughput or clock speed.
And latency combined with branch misprediction will kill performance.
Once we begin to approach the light speed limit, the best way to achieve more performance on a chip will probably be chip multiprocessing (compare IBM's Power4) rather than cranking up the clock frequency.
so far every platform that has tried to emulate x86 processors in software has dismally failed to make inroads into the PC market
What about Athlon processors and late Pentium processors? They devote half their silicon to what amounts to an emulator that translates x86 bytecode into instructions for a RISC backend.
Why keep x86 bytecode? Two words: Code density.
or explain the sound in space we hear in movies.
That's easy: Radio interference.
LAME [mp3dev.org], the MP3 encoder that CDex includes
LAME is good, but it still ain't an MP3 encoder. It's the source code to an MP3 encoder. It won't be an MP3 encoder until Fraunhofer's U.S., German, and Japanese patents expire in the early to mid 2010s. Yes, binaries are available, but downloading those may be just as infringing as downloading proprietary console game ROMs.
You are limited to only 24 bits
That's a problem for some, but not for me. I work in mostly web graphics and video game graphics, which are often dithered down to 16 or 256 colors anyway.
If there is color management or matching in this
No. The good algorithms for doing that are patented in the United States, and the Free Software Foundation is headquartered in the United States.
or any other program available on Linux I'd like to know about it.
If you buy Codeweavers products, perhaps they could improve Wine to the point where it can run most of Adobe Photoshop.
I'm not sure if the gamma and curve control is adequate, although given the first two limitations, it doesn't really matter.
Gamma (Image > Colors > Levels...) and curves (Image > Colors > Curves...) work for me.
BTW, is anybody working on a deep color rewrite of the gimp?
A rewrite of GIMP based on GEGL (a more generic graphics library) is in the works. I don't know whether or not GEGL supports deep color.
basically it spent more time crashing than working. Maybe it has improved dramatically in that department
What version did you try? On Windows 98se, Windows ME, and Windows 2000, GIMP 1.2.3 mostly WORKSFORME. I haven't tried the new version 1.2.4 however.
Surely, that implies that you only record your own songs
What if, by coincidence, your so-called "own songs" happen to be "substantially similar" to a previously published musical composition? Substantial similarity is the standard for copying under United States copyright law, and this article shows just how easy it is for substantial similarity to kick in.
If the public will "buy" MP3 and DiVX
The public sure didn't buy DIVX back when Circuit City tried to sell it. This may or may not have been because of the name.
at least you remembered the question marks. Some people get a +5 funny for LEAVING OUT THE JOKE.
In jokes patterned on the "underpants gnomes" model first introduced on Comedy Central's South Park, the question marks signify that the link between the first steps of a business model and the last steps is tenuous at best. On the other hand, leaving out the question marks means that under certain conditions, which are generally given in the same comment, the steps described would already be a valid business model.
Just like Mov is a quicktime container that can be any number of different codecs, as well as avi, asf and wmv.
True. However, containers typically have their own associated most common codecs. For instance, a .avi file is generally either some sort of uncompressed video or MPEG-4 video, along with either PCM audio, MP3 audio, WMA audio, or Vorbis audio. Likewise, .mov typically implies Sorenson video with QDesign audio.
Calling a Theora file .ogg is perfectly valid
Not for file systems that determine a file's media type (e.g. audio/ogg vs. video/ogg) and disposition (e.g. open in background in an audio-player style interface vs. open in foreground in a video-player style interface) from its extension. The common uses of the common Windows and UNIX file systems have this limitation. In this case, a fellow could use .ogg for audio but .ogm for a multiplexed audio/video/caption stream; this appears to be the convention that has arisen among users.
The only thing you need is to have some start capital for - Band equipment - web site.
And what about paying your songwriters? An unauthorized recording of a copyrighted musical composition infringes the copyright on the musical composition.
So some artists distribute their work legally on P2P networks.
Legally? Are you sure? How much did they pay for the underlying musical compositions? And don't tell me they wrote them themselves.
Wouldn't it be much simpler and more convenient just to publish a URL and serve files with http?
No. For one thing, hosting of big files costs money. Look at the bandwidth alone: 80 MB for an album, times however many listeners.
People sometimes suggest that mirroring files saves bandwidth, but that can be done with http as well
You can't have your fans mirror your files if most residential Internet access providers block incoming requests on port 80.
What you want is multicast, and you're not going to get multicast unless and until the ISPs figure out how to charge for that.
So... you've never paid a cover charge to hear a band? ... You can't listen to it wherever you want.
Metallica and several other bands have a policy to let fans record and redistribute the band's shows.
As a consumer, I DON'T want to pay for mp3s. Maybe I'm being a luddite, but I have a problem paying money for something I can't hold in my hand
MP3 and Ogg files are something you can hold in your hand. Unlike DRM'd formats, you can burn them to a CD and listen to them in any compatible pocket player. (There aren't many Ogg players yet, but you can still bug your manufacturer to add Tremor support.)
I like flipping through the booklet while I listen to the music.
So download the JPGs and print them.
What's it going to be like when internet2 is pervasive?
Internet2 will not be pervasive. It will serve only academic sites. If Internet2 were to go commercial, then it would become part of Internet1. High bandwidth to the home is not Internet2; it's simply called extreme broadband.