A quick scan of comments didn't see this, so I'll put it out there. Everyone, BUY POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS. I've had problems like the one described, but never with my PostScript LaserJet printer. Yeah, it cost more, but it's worth it.
With a PS printer, there is no complex setup involving filters and GhostScript and other stuff. You just send the PS documents straight to the printer. They print as fast as the computer can send the data, because the printer does all the rendering. It doesn't matter if you have a 386 or a P4 3.6, printing is at top speed.
Better yet, upgrade the printer with a print server and things get even easier. It looks just like a little computer on the LAN, it accepts jobs from others perfectly because it's running LPD (or something else). All your computers print!
I have fussed and fussed with printers over the years. It wasn't untill my brother got a Mac and we had to get a PostScript cartridge for my printer that I realized the wonders of PS. All my computers were printing faster because they weren't doing the rendering any more. And you should see how fast PDF files print in Windows because they are just passed on to the printer (since they are basically PS).
People complain about WinModems, where the CPU is forced to do all the labor. Why don't people complain about those $50 printers? They have no brains, it's up to your computer to do all the thinking, either with GhostScript or the driver in Windows. Get a REAL printer. Get a SMART printer. Get a PS printer and save yourself all the headaches.
Sorry if this sounds like an ad, I'm just a college student. But setting up my PS printer under Linux was a walk in the park. I've never gotten another printer set up well (with the exception of an old dot matrix, which didn't do graphics or anythign) because they are a pain. A printer with a brain (PS) is what we need.
PS: If there was another standard that worked like PS, I'd be fine with that. PCL is nice, but Linux prints using PS so with a PCL printer you still have to run GhostScript.
The big projects tend to move quite well. But they often have corporate funding or full-time coders.
But what I think the article means is that if you get away from large projects, many really do move rather slowly. Take a look at the 2 billion things on SourceForge. They often move incredibly slow or are abandoned. Also small projects often reach their goals and really don't NEED updates very often.
Now the N64 didn't need much ram because all the textures were stored on the cart and could be accessed VERY fast. Now since MS is using some fancy expensive fast EVDRAM (or something), putting a gig in (which I think would be ideal, and probably not that expensive a year or two from now when this thing comes out), they could make due with only 256. They should just make a ramdrive out of standard DDR ram or something like that! It's dirt cheap, and it could lose it's contents when power is removed. But it would be a fantastic place to store textures and such. You'd use it as a cache (not actual memory). That way you could preload all your textures for the level into this cache. When they move from one part of the level to another, instead of having to load the textures off a CD or HD (which you have to have big advanced warning for due to latency and such), you copy them out of this RAM cache which would be very VERY fast (relative to HD/DVD).
The X-Box did something like this using a partition on the hard drive, why not do it in cheap memory. You could precache sound and textures and models and stuff and have them all at near instant access times without having to buy a gig of ultra-fast-proprietary-no-one-else-uses-it-so-it's -really-expensive RAM.
That depends on what you're willing to give up. Now I'll admit that if a site got a big donation where people each paid $1 to get access to the list you could probably cut a decent chunk of the spam from your e-mail account.
The problem is what you're willing to give up. Some servers are probably used for nothing but spam, but what about the other servers. What about the servers that belong to small ISPs, hosting companies (which might be used for MANY businesses), etc? Are you willing to assume all that is spam too? You might lose a decent number of ham messages that way.
But you could definatly use it as another input to a spamassassin type filter.
Well, I think that OS X is inherently safer than Windows for various reasons including the Unix core and not being made by Microsoft. That said, if you take the standard precautions, you'll be fine.
Don't open attachments that you weren't expecting. Get a firewall. A REAL firewall, a HARDWARE firewall. It doesn't have to be expensive, just a little Linksys box or something else designed to act as a router between your PCs and your cable/xDSL modem. Keep your systems patched. Do these things and you'll be just fine.
But, it's the lowest hanging fruit that get eaten first. As long Windows is popular and there are people running the systems unpatched and doing stupid stuff like executing the newest screensaver they got in an e-mail, Windows will be THE target for viruses. OS X and Linux won't become popular targets for viruses untill they are more common, Microsoft does a better job, and the people who use them are less technical (this applies to Linux more than OS X). This paragraph is my speculation, of course.
I agree. Get yourself a good, external, SERIAL modem. They all run the same AT commandset so there are no drivers. It should work fine. I wouldn't fuss with internal modems and PCI modems and winmodems and USB modems and all that stuff when you could get a fine modem from eBay or a local used computer shop for cheap and end all your headaches.
I know what you mean. I'd like my cellphone to have games, personally, but not like the N-Gage. I want cheezy little versions of Tetris, Bejewelled, Snake, other other little things. They are supposed to be little diversions. But I DEFINATLY don't get making the phone a full console and expecting people to buy games for it, that just seems nuts. Even if they could make a GBA-Cellphone combo that worked out great, I don't think I'd buy one because that's not what I'm looking for in a cell phone.
Convergence is OK, but the things have to make sense. I'm about as likely to that as I am a combination hairbrush/digital camera.
I've always thought it would be a ton of fun to play "press secretary" for a day for someone important and see how bad you could mess things up.
As for your joke, it looks like you're reading from a speach written by Bob Dole. Because Bob Dole likes to refer to Bob Dole as "Bob Dole". Bob Dole doesn't remember when Bob Dole started calling Bob Dole "Bob Dole", but it's a sure thing that Bob Dole knows about Bob Dole.
That's a very good question. But many of the people that I deal with have basically given up on tech support for such things because it's such a paint to call. Long hold times, people who can't speak English or have a very heavy accent, terrible suggestions (want to change your wallpaper? Reinstall Windows), etc. They avoid tech support many times, just like I do. They only call for MAJOR things (computer won't turn on, can't get sound, etc). For things like "X crashes" or such.
It probably is more profitable to take those few calls and sell new systems. I guess they can't account for the hidden factor that shipping ad-aware (or other such software) would not only lower tech support calls, it would probably encourge good will and customer satisfaction which means more sales and more referals to the company. But factors like that are hard to track, so they go for the instant sales.
This is all speculation. If someone has 1st hand knowledge, I'd LOVE to hear it.
I fix computers for people in my neighborhood. I'm the guy they call when they don't know how to do something, or they got a new DVD drive, or something isn't working. I've seen that happen a few times.
Just a week ago I was called to help a nice lady setup her new Dell and copy the files off her old Gateway. She bought the computer because she was tired of the Gateway always crashing and being slow and such. Every few minutes a "Explorer has crashed" dialog would come up. I can understand why she hated it.
So she bought a new Dell. Well, when copying files over I noticed what the problem was on the old Gateway. Tons and tons of spyware. Things loading in the tray, in startup, in IE, chaning preferences, causing popups, everything. She thought the computer was just "old" and was having problems, when it was all the spyware. I told her I could fix it, but she wasn't interested.
Now the fact is she had other reasons for getting the new PC. She wanted a flatscreen to get more desk space. She had a camcorder and wanted to be able to make DVDs of family movies and other such things. Her old computer would have been fine for her other tasks (like surfing and e-mail and word processing), but she really would have needed a new one to make DVDs and CDs and such.
But the point is, I can EASILY see tons of people buying new computers due to spyware. If it wasn't for that, why wouldn't Dell and other ship somehting like Ad-Aware on the computers they sell?
Also, and possibly more importantly, as the VP he lead his team of Vice Presidential Action Rangers to protect the space time continum (it's in the constitution).
I don't use Gmail, or Hotmail, or anything like that. I use an e-mail account on my webserver and use Outlook XP for my client software. For all intents and purposes I have unlimited e-mail storage. If I want more, I'd buy a bigger HD.
That said, I LOVE the "lables" features of Gmail. I REALLY hope other places and pieces of software pick that up. I do a form of that now using folders, but of course it's not perfect. I would especially love to see that with my MP3 collection. Again I've found a way to "fake it", but the real thing would work much better.
But the point of this post is I agree with you. If I were to get a webmail account, I would go to Gmail in a heart beat. I trust Google more, the interface is clean, it's got great features (like the "lables" I mentioned), the automatic threading of messages, and of course the 1GB of storage space would be fantastic.
It will take more than a few extra megs of storage to beat Google.
If that includes software, support, instalation, and training, is it really so bad?
Re:Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Problem
on
Linux Unwired
·
· Score: 1
You do, it's enabled by default. Now I know you say you've never expirianced the problem, but I was like you too. Mine worked fine for months. Then one day, the problem started and persisted for months. Then one day it stopped again. When it started again, I turned WZC off and the problem stopped. My other computers have had the problem too.
There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason why the problem occurs. No configuraiton changes, no changes in wireless networks (mine or anyone else), etc. It just starts and stops.
All I can say is this: if you use Wireless with XP, have XP control your wireless configuration (IE don't use a utility Linksys gave you to configure the card), and your network doesn't broadcast it's SSID, you will face this. It's just a matter of time.
I used to be like you, then it happened to me. *sobs*
;)
Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Problem
on
Linux Unwired
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I (and probably everyone else with XP) have expirianced that problem of getting your connection dropped. I learned how to fix it a while ago (and then Ars Technica wrote on it).
The problem is if Windows can find a network that broadcasts it's SSID when yours doesn't, it will try to switch. There are three (or four) soltuions.
Find the other network and get the owner to turn off broadcasting
Turn broadcasting on for your network
Once you are connected to your network, disable the WZC service (set it to manual and disable it). Windows will KEEP the current settings (the ones that work) and won't change them every, so you'll stay on your network. You will have to re-enable WZC if you want to switch networks though
The fourth option is to use a 3rd party application to manage your wireless configuration (your WiFi vendor probably gave you one). But if your vendor doesn't have one for XP, this isn't an option.
I REALLY hope that they fix this in SP2, because it's my number one complaint.
I'm suprised that no one has mentioned doing some simple BEAM stuff. It's not programable but it's dirt cheap and can be made with junk you probably have around the house. There is a fantastic book you can probably find near you called "JunkBots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels. It can be funny, shows lots of simple robots, and other great stuff. Check it out, I think you'll be impressed.
Other than that, build it yourself. Take two servos (you can get 'em pretty cheap at hobby stores) or just two little motors (make an H-Bridge out of some transistors), add a microcontroller (PIC, AVR, or Basic Stamps are self contained), some simple switches or photocells and some random stuff (maybe some wood to make a simple frame or something) and you'll have a cheap robot that you can program and mess around with.
I was thinking there was one to the memory, but since the memory controller was on core I dismissed it. I forgot that HT links can be internal to the chip. Why wouldn't they be able to.
Now how did I miss that. Good point. Either way, I think we can all agree that having more than 1000 pins in just HIDEOUS. I think we'll only see pin counts decrease from here for most people. We've seen many things go to serial with things like HT (an example would be the chipset connection). And if something is done about memory (say switching to that FBRAM or whatever it was called awhile go that was normal ram with an "interface" chip on it so you could switch out RAM techonologies and not have to change the chipset/processor/mobo) we'll probably decline or at least hold steady.
The only reason that I can see to add more pins would be for power. Like I said, you'd probably need 7 or 8 layer mobos for such high pin counts as 1300, so your board would cost $$$.
Can you provide a link to this article? Because the name "Rai Ayanami" (I know the order is reversed) set off bells in my head marking this comment as a possible troll.
Note: Rei Ayanami is the name of a character in the Anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
I don't know. But I can tell you I've played SimCity 4 and while it's nice, it certainly COULD use SMP support, because it is a CPU hog like nothing I've ever seen. The trend between SC2k, SC3k, and SC4 seems eponential. At this rate, SC5 will require a bunch of Crays;).
They are identicle in features (dual channel) except the 939 lacks one pin. That pin just happens (wink) to be a HyperTransport link that was removed. This means there are not enough links to support multi-processor setups because you can't have the links to the other processors because you don't have enough. This is basically a marketing move to segment the workstation market from the desktop market. There is no (techincial) reason they couldn't have used socket 940 for dual channel desktop processors.
Also, from what I've heard, the pins are layed out differently so you can't put a 939 chip in a 940 board or chip and pin off a 940 chip and do the opposite.
Side note: Can someone clear this up for me? Opterons have three HT links. One for the chipset, and two for connecting to other processors (this allows for configurations of 4+ processors). The single processor desktop parts have one HT link to connect to the chipset. So if you chop a HT link off the Opteron, you get two. That should be enough to connect to the chipset and one other processor, right? Shouldn't a 939 be technically capable of dual processor configurations (although AMD has certainly disabled it)? Just wondering.
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With a PS printer, there is no complex setup involving filters and GhostScript and other stuff. You just send the PS documents straight to the printer. They print as fast as the computer can send the data, because the printer does all the rendering. It doesn't matter if you have a 386 or a P4 3.6, printing is at top speed.
Better yet, upgrade the printer with a print server and things get even easier. It looks just like a little computer on the LAN, it accepts jobs from others perfectly because it's running LPD (or something else). All your computers print!
I have fussed and fussed with printers over the years. It wasn't untill my brother got a Mac and we had to get a PostScript cartridge for my printer that I realized the wonders of PS. All my computers were printing faster because they weren't doing the rendering any more. And you should see how fast PDF files print in Windows because they are just passed on to the printer (since they are basically PS).
People complain about WinModems, where the CPU is forced to do all the labor. Why don't people complain about those $50 printers? They have no brains, it's up to your computer to do all the thinking, either with GhostScript or the driver in Windows. Get a REAL printer. Get a SMART printer. Get a PS printer and save yourself all the headaches.
Sorry if this sounds like an ad, I'm just a college student. But setting up my PS printer under Linux was a walk in the park. I've never gotten another printer set up well (with the exception of an old dot matrix, which didn't do graphics or anythign) because they are a pain. A printer with a brain (PS) is what we need.
PS: If there was another standard that worked like PS, I'd be fine with that. PCL is nice, but Linux prints using PS so with a PCL printer you still have to run GhostScript.
But what I think the article means is that if you get away from large projects, many really do move rather slowly. Take a look at the 2 billion things on SourceForge. They often move incredibly slow or are abandoned. Also small projects often reach their goals and really don't NEED updates very often.
"The Black Moomba - As dangerous to grass as it is to small pets".
He he he.
Now the N64 didn't need much ram because all the textures were stored on the cart and could be accessed VERY fast. Now since MS is using some fancy expensive fast EVDRAM (or something), putting a gig in (which I think would be ideal, and probably not that expensive a year or two from now when this thing comes out), they could make due with only 256. They should just make a ramdrive out of standard DDR ram or something like that! It's dirt cheap, and it could lose it's contents when power is removed. But it would be a fantastic place to store textures and such. You'd use it as a cache (not actual memory). That way you could preload all your textures for the level into this cache. When they move from one part of the level to another, instead of having to load the textures off a CD or HD (which you have to have big advanced warning for due to latency and such), you copy them out of this RAM cache which would be very VERY fast (relative to HD/DVD).
The X-Box did something like this using a partition on the hard drive, why not do it in cheap memory. You could precache sound and textures and models and stuff and have them all at near instant access times without having to buy a gig of ultra-fast-proprietary-no-one-else-uses-it-so-it's -really-expensive RAM.
The problem is what you're willing to give up. Some servers are probably used for nothing but spam, but what about the other servers. What about the servers that belong to small ISPs, hosting companies (which might be used for MANY businesses), etc? Are you willing to assume all that is spam too? You might lose a decent number of ham messages that way.
But you could definatly use it as another input to a spamassassin type filter.
Don't open attachments that you weren't expecting. Get a firewall. A REAL firewall, a HARDWARE firewall. It doesn't have to be expensive, just a little Linksys box or something else designed to act as a router between your PCs and your cable/xDSL modem. Keep your systems patched. Do these things and you'll be just fine.
But, it's the lowest hanging fruit that get eaten first. As long Windows is popular and there are people running the systems unpatched and doing stupid stuff like executing the newest screensaver they got in an e-mail, Windows will be THE target for viruses. OS X and Linux won't become popular targets for viruses untill they are more common, Microsoft does a better job, and the people who use them are less technical (this applies to Linux more than OS X). This paragraph is my speculation, of course.
That's true. It's been a while since I had to deal with a true PCI modem. Still, I've always prefered the external ones, but that's just me.
I agree. Get yourself a good, external, SERIAL modem. They all run the same AT commandset so there are no drivers. It should work fine. I wouldn't fuss with internal modems and PCI modems and winmodems and USB modems and all that stuff when you could get a fine modem from eBay or a local used computer shop for cheap and end all your headaches.
Convergence is OK, but the things have to make sense. I'm about as likely to that as I am a combination hairbrush/digital camera.
As for your joke, it looks like you're reading from a speach written by Bob Dole. Because Bob Dole likes to refer to Bob Dole as "Bob Dole". Bob Dole doesn't remember when Bob Dole started calling Bob Dole "Bob Dole", but it's a sure thing that Bob Dole knows about Bob Dole.
Bob Dole.
It probably is more profitable to take those few calls and sell new systems. I guess they can't account for the hidden factor that shipping ad-aware (or other such software) would not only lower tech support calls, it would probably encourge good will and customer satisfaction which means more sales and more referals to the company. But factors like that are hard to track, so they go for the instant sales.
This is all speculation. If someone has 1st hand knowledge, I'd LOVE to hear it.
I fix computers for people in my neighborhood. I'm the guy they call when they don't know how to do something, or they got a new DVD drive, or something isn't working. I've seen that happen a few times.
Just a week ago I was called to help a nice lady setup her new Dell and copy the files off her old Gateway. She bought the computer because she was tired of the Gateway always crashing and being slow and such. Every few minutes a "Explorer has crashed" dialog would come up. I can understand why she hated it.
So she bought a new Dell. Well, when copying files over I noticed what the problem was on the old Gateway. Tons and tons of spyware. Things loading in the tray, in startup, in IE, chaning preferences, causing popups, everything. She thought the computer was just "old" and was having problems, when it was all the spyware. I told her I could fix it, but she wasn't interested.
Now the fact is she had other reasons for getting the new PC. She wanted a flatscreen to get more desk space. She had a camcorder and wanted to be able to make DVDs of family movies and other such things. Her old computer would have been fine for her other tasks (like surfing and e-mail and word processing), but she really would have needed a new one to make DVDs and CDs and such.
But the point is, I can EASILY see tons of people buying new computers due to spyware. If it wasn't for that, why wouldn't Dell and other ship somehting like Ad-Aware on the computers they sell?
Also, and possibly more importantly, as the VP he lead his team of Vice Presidential Action Rangers to protect the space time continum (it's in the constitution).
All hail AlGoreBot
That said, I LOVE the "lables" features of Gmail. I REALLY hope other places and pieces of software pick that up. I do a form of that now using folders, but of course it's not perfect. I would especially love to see that with my MP3 collection. Again I've found a way to "fake it", but the real thing would work much better.
But the point of this post is I agree with you. If I were to get a webmail account, I would go to Gmail in a heart beat. I trust Google more, the interface is clean, it's got great features (like the "lables" I mentioned), the automatic threading of messages, and of course the 1GB of storage space would be fantastic.
It will take more than a few extra megs of storage to beat Google.
If that includes software, support, instalation, and training, is it really so bad?
There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason why the problem occurs. No configuraiton changes, no changes in wireless networks (mine or anyone else), etc. It just starts and stops.
All I can say is this: if you use Wireless with XP, have XP control your wireless configuration (IE don't use a utility Linksys gave you to configure the card), and your network doesn't broadcast it's SSID, you will face this. It's just a matter of time.
I used to be like you, then it happened to me.
*sobs*
;)
The problem is if Windows can find a network that broadcasts it's SSID when yours doesn't, it will try to switch. There are three (or four) soltuions.
I REALLY hope that they fix this in SP2, because it's my number one complaint.
Other than that, build it yourself. Take two servos (you can get 'em pretty cheap at hobby stores) or just two little motors (make an H-Bridge out of some transistors), add a microcontroller (PIC, AVR, or Basic Stamps are self contained), some simple switches or photocells and some random stuff (maybe some wood to make a simple frame or something) and you'll have a cheap robot that you can program and mess around with.
No, I'm aware. I was just saying that multitasking seems much much smoother when you have two processors than when you have one.
Thanks for the answer.
The only reason that I can see to add more pins would be for power. Like I said, you'd probably need 7 or 8 layer mobos for such high pin counts as 1300, so your board would cost $$$.
As I posted elsewhere in this thread (link), that speculation seems to be wrong, which is good. Source for that info is here.
Note: Rei Ayanami is the name of a character in the Anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
Will it at least inlcude a cupon to buy a Cray?
He he he.
They are identicle in features (dual channel) except the 939 lacks one pin. That pin just happens (wink) to be a HyperTransport link that was removed. This means there are not enough links to support multi-processor setups because you can't have the links to the other processors because you don't have enough. This is basically a marketing move to segment the workstation market from the desktop market. There is no (techincial) reason they couldn't have used socket 940 for dual channel desktop processors.
Also, from what I've heard, the pins are layed out differently so you can't put a 939 chip in a 940 board or chip and pin off a 940 chip and do the opposite.
Side note: Can someone clear this up for me? Opterons have three HT links. One for the chipset, and two for connecting to other processors (this allows for configurations of 4+ processors). The single processor desktop parts have one HT link to connect to the chipset. So if you chop a HT link off the Opteron, you get two. That should be enough to connect to the chipset and one other processor, right? Shouldn't a 939 be technically capable of dual processor configurations (although AMD has certainly disabled it)? Just wondering.