"Natural" is a really tricky concept, in my opinion. Where should we draw the line between what happens "naturally" and what happens as a result of human activity, if at all? How are the decisions of humans, being subject to the laws of nature, any less natural than the actions of animals, plants, and weather?
14% of users going over the proposed limit is a lot. This means one out of seven. In contrast, Comcast has a cap of 250 GB, and cites figures of around 1%. As web-based video services continue to grow in popularity, I can only imagine the amount of people having issues with their cap. Maybe this will be just the thing to spark some competition!
"correlation is not causation"
Its very unfortunate that everyone in the world doesn't know the difference. It would solve so many problems in the world, if everyone was forced to learn the difference throughout school and in everyday adult life. Everyone would find life so much better as so many arguments would be avoided and things would get fixed quicker. The people behind funding education in science need to focus a vast amount of time, money and effort into promoting understanding in this simple yet vital bit of education. (I would go as far as to say we need a day per year to remind everyone, like a "world correlation is not causation day!"... and i'm not joking, we really need to get everyone in the world finally past this stumbling block.
Are you implying that the correlation between the understanding of correlation vs. causation and the world's problems implies causation between them?
The main issue in the past was the fact that each new generation of games had significant improvements in 3D graphics over the last generation; thus the last generation's models were somewhat "obsolete". As hardware gets better and better, this will become less of an issue as improvements in graphics become less noticeable. You already see various objects such as barrels in Source games getting reused across various titles - I think they had some of the same models in Counter Strike: Source and the Half Life 2 series.
Still, if it has a tenth of the complexity of the human brain, it's already pretty close, given how processing power grows exponentially.
Also, your simulation analogy is fallacious. The essence of the brain is not the fact that it exists as a physical object, but the fact that it can manipulate information. If we simulate a brain such that the simulation does not physically pump chemicals around, it will still be fine as long as it processes information in the same way.
If you consider complexity of the universe to be a good thing and a dull, uniform universe to be a bad thing, then humanity has done its share to make the universe better.
Of course, "good" is subjective, but you probably already knew that before asking.
That's just a matter of less people working on the open source driver than the closed source one. If we had all of those people who are working on the proprietary driver work on the open source driver instead, I'm sure that the open source driver would be better than the proprietary one currently is. Likely, the main reason they aren't doing this is to avoid letting NVidia in on all their implementation secrets. Even if they GPL it, NVidia could still grab some ideas without actually stealing the source.
The responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the FOSS community to convince ATI that GPLing proprietary driver source code is a smart decision in the long run (and actually releasing that source code, unlike S3). In addition to their current software engineers, they'll receive free help from FOSS enthusiasts in the community - finding and fixing driver bugs should become a lot faster. Plus, they'll have a lot of people switch to their graphics cards out of support. This should outweigh any intelligence NVidia could gain on them from the source.
So the main reason the open source drivers suck is that they have barely any people working on them, compared to the proprietary drivers. ATI's making a slightly larger step than NVidia, but they're not exactly making a lot of effort if seen in absolute terms.
By analogy, if S3 releases their source like it promised by saying their drivers are GPL, it should also do better.
It depends on what you use your internet for. If you open 10 internet videos at a time so that you can watch 1 while the other 9 load (if they load slower than you watch them), then adblock isn't going to help much. Not every video sharing site offers downloads, unfortunately. It's a matter of convenience, I guess.
But that's besides the point. Firefox with adblock has some advantages over Chrome, such as less RAM and CPU usage. My main point is not whether Chrome is better than Firefox: my main point is that different browsers deal with Flash differently, and it would have been nice to cover those specifics in the article.
Either way, thanks for the comment. Maybe if we can get more people commenting about their experiences with Flash in different browsers, we can fill up this hole that the article has.:)
With Adobe Flash being so ubiquitous on the Web, it is important that your browser handles its flaws in a non-annoying manner.
When Flash misbehaves and locks up and/or crashes, Firefox freezes up completely. Meanwhile, in Chrome you can kill it via the Chrome task manager and continue browsing without having to restart the browser. This is why I use Chrome, and not Firefox.
I would have loved to see this article review how Firefox, Chrome, and other browsers handle Flash.
A lot of the expensive games require expensive systems (think Crysis when it was released). If your game requires an expensive system, the target audience is likely willing to pay more for your game as well.
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I'm pretty sure he's not the only honest guy who doesn't get elected because he's too honest. Just look at Ron Paul.
I voted for Bob Barr, since Ron Paul wasn't on the ballot.
The heat and exhaust generated from the lawnmower engine would make it difficult to fit into similar dimensions.
Plus, you really won't have to worry about withdrawal when you're stuck on an island with no WiFi, no coffee, but plenty of hot native girls.
Like that will ever happen....
I don't think it was April 1st anywhere in the world at the time this story was posted :P
"Natural" is a really tricky concept, in my opinion. Where should we draw the line between what happens "naturally" and what happens as a result of human activity, if at all? How are the decisions of humans, being subject to the laws of nature, any less natural than the actions of animals, plants, and weather?
14% of users going over the proposed limit is a lot. This means one out of seven. In contrast, Comcast has a cap of 250 GB, and cites figures of around 1%. As web-based video services continue to grow in popularity, I can only imagine the amount of people having issues with their cap. Maybe this will be just the thing to spark some competition!
"correlation is not causation" Its very unfortunate that everyone in the world doesn't know the difference. It would solve so many problems in the world, if everyone was forced to learn the difference throughout school and in everyday adult life. Everyone would find life so much better as so many arguments would be avoided and things would get fixed quicker. The people behind funding education in science need to focus a vast amount of time, money and effort into promoting understanding in this simple yet vital bit of education. (I would go as far as to say we need a day per year to remind everyone, like a "world correlation is not causation day!" ... and i'm not joking, we really need to get everyone in the world finally past this stumbling block.
Are you implying that the correlation between the understanding of correlation vs. causation and the world's problems implies causation between them?
Hmm; I'd say Microsoft has actually reached new heights of innovation with this one. I'd expect them to get a mountain of cash from it.
It's only hard for people like us, who are addicted to this site.... For some people it might be pretty easy :)
The main issue in the past was the fact that each new generation of games had significant improvements in 3D graphics over the last generation; thus the last generation's models were somewhat "obsolete". As hardware gets better and better, this will become less of an issue as improvements in graphics become less noticeable. You already see various objects such as barrels in Source games getting reused across various titles - I think they had some of the same models in Counter Strike: Source and the Half Life 2 series.
Even better, why not just make games text-based? That would cut development costs even further!
*Daily living costs for 4 people: 2400
They must be living a fairly lavish lifestyle then.
Remind me to use tinyurl next time....
Still, if it has a tenth of the complexity of the human brain, it's already pretty close, given how processing power grows exponentially.
Also, your simulation analogy is fallacious. The essence of the brain is not the fact that it exists as a physical object, but the fact that it can manipulate information. If we simulate a brain such that the simulation does not physically pump chemicals around, it will still be fine as long as it processes information in the same way.
If you consider complexity of the universe to be a good thing and a dull, uniform universe to be a bad thing, then humanity has done its share to make the universe better. Of course, "good" is subjective, but you probably already knew that before asking.
I find that ironic given the subject matter. Or maybe it's just my font - lowercase L's and capital i's look the same in it.
This is the best invention for lazy people who don't like to shower twice a day since deodorant. I definitely want a pair.
That's just a matter of less people working on the open source driver than the closed source one. If we had all of those people who are working on the proprietary driver work on the open source driver instead, I'm sure that the open source driver would be better than the proprietary one currently is. Likely, the main reason they aren't doing this is to avoid letting NVidia in on all their implementation secrets. Even if they GPL it, NVidia could still grab some ideas without actually stealing the source.
The responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the FOSS community to convince ATI that GPLing proprietary driver source code is a smart decision in the long run (and actually releasing that source code, unlike S3). In addition to their current software engineers, they'll receive free help from FOSS enthusiasts in the community - finding and fixing driver bugs should become a lot faster. Plus, they'll have a lot of people switch to their graphics cards out of support. This should outweigh any intelligence NVidia could gain on them from the source.
So the main reason the open source drivers suck is that they have barely any people working on them, compared to the proprietary drivers. ATI's making a slightly larger step than NVidia, but they're not exactly making a lot of effort if seen in absolute terms.
By analogy, if S3 releases their source like it promised by saying their drivers are GPL, it should also do better.
And in this case we are entitled to it.
Apparently, the drivers are supposed to be GPL, but no actual source was released.
>If you're not good enough at arithmetic to understand that this isn't an issue, should you really be developing software?
Arithmetic? How about some real world evidence?
It depends on what you use your internet for. If you open 10 internet videos at a time so that you can watch 1 while the other 9 load (if they load slower than you watch them), then adblock isn't going to help much. Not every video sharing site offers downloads, unfortunately. It's a matter of convenience, I guess.
But that's besides the point. Firefox with adblock has some advantages over Chrome, such as less RAM and CPU usage. My main point is not whether Chrome is better than Firefox: my main point is that different browsers deal with Flash differently, and it would have been nice to cover those specifics in the article.
Either way, thanks for the comment. Maybe if we can get more people commenting about their experiences with Flash in different browsers, we can fill up this hole that the article has. :)
Oops, I meant Missing category. Sorry!!
With Adobe Flash being so ubiquitous on the Web, it is important that your browser handles its flaws in a non-annoying manner.
When Flash misbehaves and locks up and/or crashes, Firefox freezes up completely. Meanwhile, in Chrome you can kill it via the Chrome task manager and continue browsing without having to restart the browser. This is why I use Chrome, and not Firefox.
I would have loved to see this article review how Firefox, Chrome, and other browsers handle Flash.
A lot of the expensive games require expensive systems (think Crysis when it was released). If your game requires an expensive system, the target audience is likely willing to pay more for your game as well.