The flip side is also true. If you know the exact tests that a benchmark is making you can tailor your driver, or even your hardware, to give a higher benchmark score.
Well, big deal, but bear in mind that all design is some sort of compromise. If you gain performance in one area you necessarily give up a little in another. To use the car analogy, you can have milage or power, but not both.
When you fudge a product to give good benchmark scores you often have to do this by degrading the real world performance that will be experienced by your customers. They believe they are buying a better card but actually getting a worse one.
All scientific testing should really be done double blind, but such isn't usually possible in running engineering performance tests. (Imagine trying to time a drag run without knowing what you were doing, but in a proper test the timer wouldn't know what a good time was or why you wanted it). An OSS benchmark wouldn't even be blind. It's being given a test AND the answer sheet.
All benchmarks should have their code opened after a period of time, but then replaced by new ones. The problem is that benchmarks are used for *selling*, not scientific purposes, and by the time a benchmark could be opened it would be wholely irrelevant because the product cycle has moved on.
And never mind the fact that performance of video cards is largely a subjective measure, not an objective one, and so benchmarks themselves are of extremely limited use.
Except by the marketing department of course.
If *you* want to know which card is better, try them and see which one you like.
that they're a bit disappointed with the quality and quantity of your porn. The guys in the mail room were counting on your having some good shit. Please try harder next time. We're all in this together kid.
Oh, yeah, and the DA would like to have a word with you about a couple of the images you did have. I'm not sure why. Maybe he's just a rotweiller fancier.
What does the "AI" *deduce* from the pattern it recognizes?
( By the way, tracking an object is a very low level mathmatical procedure that simply applies statistical analysis of one image frame to the one that came before it. It's what your optical mouse does. It took awhile to learn the trick well, but it's just a mechanical trick. I design scoring equipment for sporting events and work with this stuff from time to time. It's no more an advance of AI than making a fuel pump work better is)
You are not yet grey and know how much your world appears to have changed.
I am already, shall we say, "distinquished", and know how much that is illusion, even though I remember when they said a 24 hr/day cable news network would never fly. Now I'm old enough not to watch the news much at all because it doesn't effect your life much. Buy a 20 year old NYT. Same shit, different decade. Read it once every year and you'll stay pretty current. You are mistaking a certain "coolness" factor for real change.
There is no question these are magnificent times, I wouldn't miss them for anything, but the delta of magnificence between 1970 and now is minor compared to the magnificent changes that occured between 1890 and 1960.
Try this test, take everything out of your house that wouldn't have been there in 1970. Should take you several minutes.
Now go to a log cabin in Michigan and start shitting in the woods, cutting wood to stay warm and hauling water from the crick as you would have in 1897.
We stand on the shoulders of giants making crowing sounds every time we grow an inch.
It may well have been possible for you to have had a computer all of your life. Even the internet, nascent as it may have been, may well predate you.
When he was born he had no *electricity* and no one in his family had ever seen an automobile. Geronimo had only been captured three years previously and was not only still alive, but a comparitively young man.
The world he was born in to was one someone born 500 years before would have recongnized. The world you were born into is one that that hypothetical person couldn't possibly even have conceived of.
You are talking differences in quantity. I am talking differences in quality.
There is no essential difference in type or quality of life today than there was 40 years ago when I first entered school. We live the same way now, with mostly the same things, as we did then. Electricity, phones, central heating, planes, automobiles, movies, TV, hydrogen bombs, etc.
The cars have become a bit more refined, the planes a bit faster, the phones cordless, the movies, well, they havn't changed much at all really. These are just the things we already had becoming better.
I'm not saying we don't live in interesting times, or that I'm not glad to be here, but the two cases are *damned* different.
By the way, the commercial sail record from Sandy Point N.J. at the entrance of NY harbor to Lands End England was only 11 days. It stood for 100 years.
And I'm *damned* glad the internet hasn't come up with one single reason for me not to go to London. That would suck.
No, I'm not forgetting. I stated the fact that getting close to a star was hazardous. I also pointed out that it was heading away from one.
Inverse square law.
In any case, what I was talking about was its phyisical integrity. It's electronics are now missing and presumed dead. That's what the story is about.
Its mission is not yet complete though. As I also pointed out the probe bears a plaque on it in the hopes that someday, somewhere out there, some. ..thing, will find it and read it.
I was wondering how long it would take to make that observation.:)
It appears there may be someone 7 days older though.
I'm no spring chicken, but obvioulsy if I was born under Sputnik I'm not exactly ready for the home either, yet I'm old enough to remember the passing of the last known surviving Civil War vet.
I wonder how many WWI vets are left and if I live a fair life by the time I die there won't be anyone left who remembers WWII.
On the other hand it's been awile since there was anyone who remembers Agincourt and the world has continuted to spin on.
All we are is dust in the wind. Dust. Wind. Party on dude.
I have to admit you have a point. The first thing I did when I saw this headline was go to my bookshelf and take out my copy of The Cosmic Connection, by Dr. Carl Sagan, and start crying.
On the cover of the book is a photo of two humans against a field of stars, mimicing the plaque that Dr. Sagan designed to be affixed to Pioneer 10.
This book was a personal gift from Carl to me. We "lost contact" with Dr. Sagan some years ago.
So, Carl, ya done good, and I miss the bloody hell out of you. Goodnight and God bless.
Actually, other than the low temperature the enviroment of space isn't very harsh.
It's when you start getting near things, like planets and stars, that things get dicey.
Pioneer is heading the other way, and there isn't any reason that it shouldn't drift on for millions of years, God willing and the crick don't rise none.
That's why they affixed the infamous plaque to it.
Why keep them "safe" at all? Why not just release them into the public domain?
The US existed for a number of years without any intellectual property law. Many came here to escape it. Thomas Jefferson was vehemently opposed to it, considering it unconstitutional ( and I think he may well have been right). Writing and administering our nation's first such laws changed his mind.
The problem isn't intellectual property per se. It's what that term has come to mean and how it is applied. That is very different now, and sucks worse than none at all. I'll agree with that.
You're experience is limited. You would perhaps have a different point of view if your experience was with companies who deal in trade secrets rather than patents and copyrights.
Such was the world *before* the invention of intellectual property. And it sucked.
You should see my vacuum, made by Eureka(tm), and it's a Dusie(tm). I felt like taking a break so I Osterized(tm) up a shake and went out for some Frisbeeing(tm). Had a little spill and I had to Band-Aid(tm) it, but it were nothin' really. If I hadn't been playing on the macadam(tm) I wouldn't have gotten hurt at all.
So all and all I was feeling pretty good when the mail came. A letter from the firm I applied to was in there. Man, they Borked(tm) me. I hate when that happens.
Well, guess it's time to pull the Brougham(tm) out of the garage and start pounding the pavement again. Maybe I should be a bit more Machiavellian(tm) this time.
Slashdot Mirror
Even worse. What happens if part of that trustworthyness is achieved by handing trust to someone else's computer?
Now if your computer decides not to trust you you're hosed, and if *their* computer decides not to trust you you're hosed.
And who says you can trust *them?*
And that's just it. Trustworthy computing isn't *about* you trusting your computer, it's about your computer trusting *you.*
I already trust my computer. My computer has no business "wondering" whether it trusts me or not.
If I have the car keys I expect the car to run. It's up to me to protect my keys.
KFG
Direct X is not written to be the standard 3D engine, except in the sense that it is intended to be the *only* engine.
Let me ask you a question. How many OS's does Direct X run under?
No peeking.
That's right. One. Direct X is written to monopolize the gaming industry onto one OS, and, for the most part, it's working.
And *whose* OS is it written to work under?
Again, no peeking.
If MS wanted Direct X to be a standard gaming engine all they'd have to do is open the API, but that would destroy its very purpose.
You'd think they were *trying* to be a monopoly or something.
KFG
The flip side is also true. If you know the exact tests that a benchmark is making you can tailor your driver, or even your hardware, to give a higher benchmark score.
Well, big deal, but bear in mind that all design is some sort of compromise. If you gain performance in one area you necessarily give up a little in another. To use the car analogy, you can have milage or power, but not both.
When you fudge a product to give good benchmark scores you often have to do this by degrading the real world performance that will be experienced by your customers. They believe they are buying a better card but actually getting a worse one.
All scientific testing should really be done double blind, but such isn't usually possible in running engineering performance tests. (Imagine trying to time a drag run without knowing what you were doing, but in a proper test the timer wouldn't know what a good time was or why you wanted it). An OSS benchmark wouldn't even be blind. It's being given a test AND the answer sheet.
All benchmarks should have their code opened after a period of time, but then replaced by new ones. The problem is that benchmarks are used for *selling*, not scientific purposes, and by the time a benchmark could be opened it would be wholely irrelevant because the product cycle has moved on.
And never mind the fact that performance of video cards is largely a subjective measure, not an objective one, and so benchmarks themselves are of extremely limited use.
Except by the marketing department of course.
If *you* want to know which card is better, try them and see which one you like.
KFG
As is usual in these cases, it only "works" for sufficiently low values of "works."
Is someone going to start claiming that MS Office "works" on Linux, "right out of the box"?
It'll be news to a lot of people.
KFG
that they're a bit disappointed with the quality and quantity of your porn. The guys in the mail room were counting on your having some good shit. Please try harder next time. We're all in this together kid.
Oh, yeah, and the DA would like to have a word with you about a couple of the images you did have. I'm not sure why. Maybe he's just a rotweiller fancier.
KFG
What does the "AI" *deduce* from the pattern it recognizes?
( By the way, tracking an object is a very low level mathmatical procedure that simply applies statistical analysis of one image frame to the one that came before it. It's what your optical mouse does. It took awhile to learn the trick well, but it's just a mechanical trick. I design scoring equipment for sporting events and work with this stuff from time to time. It's no more an advance of AI than making a fuel pump work better is)
KFG
I know. It was a bit of a private joke I'm afraid. :)
KFG
Yeah, it's always a good idea to dress with a little flare.
KFG
Oh great, just what we need. Blinken Briefs.
KFG
As someone who bicyles long distances at all hours, sometimes around the clock, something like this could be a literal lifesaver.
:)
And if it smells minty fresh when I'm done I suppose it could save the lives of others as well.
KFG
http://www.fumento.com/halifax.html
Coming soon to a city near you.
KFG
That's what I was trying to do. :)
By the way, your synopsis of the social change would have applied equally well to the world of H.G. Wells.
Society doesn't change. It only appears to change when viewed from a certain limited context.
Look at your own sig. The man who wrote those words would have said, "Oh yeah, I remember those times."
KFG
You are not yet grey and know how much your world appears to have changed.
I am already, shall we say, "distinquished", and know how much that is illusion, even though I remember when they said a 24 hr/day cable news network would never fly. Now I'm old enough not to watch the news much at all because it doesn't effect your life much. Buy a 20 year old NYT. Same shit, different decade. Read it once every year and you'll stay pretty current. You are mistaking a certain "coolness" factor for real change.
There is no question these are magnificent times, I wouldn't miss them for anything, but the delta of magnificence between 1970 and now is minor compared to the magnificent changes that occured between 1890 and 1960.
Try this test, take everything out of your house that wouldn't have been there in 1970. Should take you several minutes.
Now go to a log cabin in Michigan and start shitting in the woods, cutting wood to stay warm and hauling water from the crick as you would have in 1897.
We stand on the shoulders of giants making crowing sounds every time we grow an inch.
KFG
It may well have been possible for you to have had a computer all of your life. Even the internet, nascent as it may have been, may well predate you.
When he was born he had no *electricity* and no one in his family had ever seen an automobile. Geronimo had only been captured three years previously and was not only still alive, but a comparitively young man.
The world he was born in to was one someone born 500 years before would have recongnized. The world you were born into is one that that hypothetical person couldn't possibly even have conceived of.
You are talking differences in quantity. I am talking differences in quality.
There is no essential difference in type or quality of life today than there was 40 years ago when I first entered school. We live the same way now, with mostly the same things, as we did then. Electricity, phones, central heating, planes, automobiles, movies, TV, hydrogen bombs, etc.
The cars have become a bit more refined, the planes a bit faster, the phones cordless, the movies, well, they havn't changed much at all really. These are just the things we already had becoming better.
I'm not saying we don't live in interesting times, or that I'm not glad to be here, but the two cases are *damned* different.
By the way, the commercial sail record from Sandy Point N.J. at the entrance of NY harbor to Lands End England was only 11 days. It stood for 100 years.
And I'm *damned* glad the internet hasn't come up with one single reason for me not to go to London. That would suck.
KFG
No, I'm not forgetting. I stated the fact that getting close to a star was hazardous. I also pointed out that it was heading away from one.
.thing, will find it and read it.
Inverse square law.
In any case, what I was talking about was its phyisical integrity. It's electronics are now missing and presumed dead. That's what the story is about.
Its mission is not yet complete though. As I also pointed out the probe bears a plaque on it in the hopes that someday, somewhere out there, some. .
It gives them directions to find us.
KFG
I was wondering how long it would take to make that observation. :)
It appears there may be someone 7 days older though.
I'm no spring chicken, but obvioulsy if I was born under Sputnik I'm not exactly ready for the home either, yet I'm old enough to remember the passing of the last known surviving Civil War vet.
I wonder how many WWI vets are left and if I live a fair life by the time I die there won't be anyone left who remembers WWII.
On the other hand it's been awile since there was anyone who remembers Agincourt and the world has continuted to spin on.
All we are is dust in the wind. Dust. Wind. Party on dude.
KFG
I have to admit you have a point. The first thing I did when I saw this headline was go to my bookshelf and take out my copy of The Cosmic Connection, by Dr. Carl Sagan, and start crying.
On the cover of the book is a photo of two humans against a field of stars, mimicing the plaque that Dr. Sagan designed to be affixed to Pioneer 10.
This book was a personal gift from Carl to me. We "lost contact" with Dr. Sagan some years ago.
So, Carl, ya done good, and I miss the bloody hell out of you. Goodnight and God bless.
KFG
Yeah, it should be its pics.
There, no nasty apostrophes implying possession here.
KFG
Actually, other than the low temperature the enviroment of space isn't very harsh.
It's when you start getting near things, like planets and stars, that things get dicey.
Pioneer is heading the other way, and there isn't any reason that it shouldn't drift on for millions of years, God willing and the crick don't rise none.
That's why they affixed the infamous plaque to it.
KFG
They're only coming to serve man.
KFG
When people ask me, "What sign?" I say, "Sputnik."
:)
If you think you feel old now, wait until you start getting old, my son.
America's oldest man died on Monday. He was actually born in a log cabin and of high school age when the Wright Bros. first flew at Kitty Hawk.
Think about that one the next time you feel "old." Your world has hardly moved at all compared to his.
KFG
You misunderstand. They mean easier for Intuit to enforce their license.
You didn't honestly believe they meant easier for a *customer,* did you?
Step back into the reality zone dude.
KFG
Why keep them "safe" at all? Why not just release them into the public domain?
The US existed for a number of years without any intellectual property law. Many came here to escape it. Thomas Jefferson was vehemently opposed to it, considering it unconstitutional ( and I think he may well have been right). Writing and administering our nation's first such laws changed his mind.
The problem isn't intellectual property per se. It's what that term has come to mean and how it is applied. That is very different now, and sucks worse than none at all. I'll agree with that.
KFG
You're experience is limited. You would perhaps have a different point of view if your experience was with companies who deal in trade secrets rather than patents and copyrights.
Such was the world *before* the invention of intellectual property. And it sucked.
KFG
You should see my vacuum, made by Eureka(tm), and it's a Dusie(tm). I felt like taking a break so I Osterized(tm) up a shake and went out for some Frisbeeing(tm). Had a little spill and I had to Band-Aid(tm) it, but it were nothin' really. If I hadn't been playing on the macadam(tm) I wouldn't have gotten hurt at all.
So all and all I was feeling pretty good when the mail came. A letter from the firm I applied to was in there. Man, they Borked(tm) me. I hate when that happens.
Well, guess it's time to pull the Brougham(tm) out of the garage and start pounding the pavement again. Maybe I should be a bit more Machiavellian(tm) this time.
KFG