Slashdot Mirror


User: DABANSHEE

DABANSHEE's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
1,061
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 1,061

  1. Remember Be Inc on Japanese FTC Warns Microsoft · · Score: 1

    Maybe such license conditions helped tempt Sony to test the waters with the Bezilla

  2. But Win3.11/Netware networks still exist on Novell as Open Source Hero? · · Score: 1

    It's amazing how many Netware/Win3.11 networks are still arround, I come across em all the time & in the strangest of places too.

  3. PC monitors should have tuners built in on Toshiba Unveils Laptop With Instant-On TV & DVR · · Score: 1

    With economies of scale it'd work out much cheaper than buying both a telly & a monitor.

  4. a built in dongle's no hassle on Toshiba Unveils Laptop With Instant-On TV & DVR · · Score: 1

    I've got a little dongle that transparently coverts a TV input to a monitor output & vice-a-verse (it converts either way in both directions), & does it while giving the choice of 'stretching to fill' or 'maximum fill with correct aspect' so the image fills the screen as much as possible without buggerising the aspect ratio, no matter what resolution the monitor is, bit like watching a wide screen movie in letterbox mode (DVD) rather than pan 'n scan (Telly).

    Now is there any reason to think that this laptop couldn't have such a dongle built in? BTW the TV out on my generic Radion card can be plugged into a Commadore PAL monitor & can convert the 1024x768 desktop to fit on the standard PAL screen, either through scrolling or by converting the 1024x768 desktop appear the same at the PAL resolution. Mind you I think those old Commadore PAL monitors were designed for up to 800x600, as it's pixals are definitly smaller than those on my old 34cm telly.

  5. & Linuxers complain about poor desktop usage on Building a Better Mozilla With Plugins · · Score: 1

    Fact is Linux will never take off on the desktop till people can easily install binaries while the keyboard is hidden under a saturday morning broadsheet, simply by moving the curser over a link or a icon & clicking the button on the mouse.

  6. There was a lawsuit already on FourHead: One PC, Four Users · · Score: 1

    Anyone remember Citrix metaframe.

    After that MS changed their user license, & later bought Citrix or something. Meaning one can only do the multiple network terminal thing on one Windows license if one uses a version of NT3.51 or NT4 that was purchased before the law suit.

  7. Learn some Eglish on Setting Up The Greenpeace Ship w/WiFi · · Score: 1

    Terrorism is the use of violence or the threatened use of violence for political reasons.

    Niether vandalism against inorganic objects or stealing qualifies as violence in itself. Although some forms of vandalism can be construed as threatening violence against someone, mostly it doesn't.

    None of the vandalism committed by Greenpeace could be construed to have occured in a way to be seen as threatening violence if they don't get their way.

    BTW (FWIR) all Greenpeace did was stick their vessel between the whaler & their target, meaning the whalers caused the collision by chosing to take the cause they did.

  8. Humbug on Setting Up The Greenpeace Ship w/WiFi · · Score: 1

    Either you, some stupid journo, or silly animal rights people are confusing animal rights with enviromentalism. Sure they can overlap, but they definitly don't in regards domestic species.

    Greenpeace actually supports the culling of feralised domestic animals

  9. Don't be a fuckwit on Setting Up The Greenpeace Ship w/WiFi · · Score: 1

    & stop confusing animal rightists with enviromentalists.

    Greenpeace is for the all out culling of feralised domestic animals,

  10. Actually we need outrageous patents to succeed.... on EFF Runs Patent-Busting Challenge · · Score: 1

    ....against the big end of town.

    Only via mega victims/abuse will there be patent law reform.

    It was a real pity BT didn't succeed with it's hyperlink patent suit - the mega-economies would've reformed their patent laws quick smart if BT had succeeded.

    Really the more outrageous the suit & the bigger the defendents, the better off we all are in the long run.

    Fact is law reform virtually only occures if the big end of town are victims of bad laws.

  11. Running diesels on old fish 'n chip oil is nothing on Brew Your Own Auto Fuel For 41 Cents A Gallon · · Score: 1

    People have been doing it for donkeys years, just as people have been running deisels on unexcised heating oil for years too.

    BTW in many places one can be charged for dodging road tax by running deisel cars on old fish 'n chip oil (like the UK), just as one can get done for dodging road tax for running diesels on unexcised heating oil.

    I use to work at a warehouse & distribution centre that converted their heating over from oil to natural gas but kept the huge oil tanks along the side & had some car filler nozzles fitted that were purchased at auction when a mine went bankrupt (which were hidden behind panelling when the oil delivery bloke was due). They bought some ex-govt deisel Landcruisers & for years afterwards ran them on a mix of fuel oil & diesel, on average anything up to 80% fuel oil in winter & up to 10% in summer - the powers that be might get a bit sus if they have to refuel their heating oil in the middle of summer all the time.

    Deisels will run fine on virtually any oil - in the pacific coconut oil fueled diesels arn't uncommon. People will rattle on how it's only designed for this or that but anyone will see that their diesel Toyota will still run fine no matter virtually what oil's thrown in it.

  12. Actually Moz can support Active X on Microsoft Behind $12M Opera Settlement · · Score: 1

    Moz supports Netscape plugins & some people bought out a Active X interoperability Netscape plugin that make it possible for browsers that support Netscape plugins to use Active X applets.

    BTW the same people also bought out a Netscape plugin interoperability Active X applet, so one could still use Netscape plugins on newer versions of IE that arn't Netscape plugin compatible. For example it took quite a while for the chemistry 3D Chime plugin people to create a Active X applet when MS all of a sudden killed Netscape plugin compatability. Meaning until the Chime people bought out their Active X applet, people could hypothetically use that Netscape plugin interoperability Active X applet to make Chime compatible with the newer version of IE. Mind you I think these interoperability applets & plugins onle came out after most developers (including the Chime people) had burned the midnight oil creating their new Active X applets anyway.

    Mind you it's good to know the options are available. I've got a link somewhere but these days it's easier to google than navigate through my bookmarks.

  13. it's called underclocking on AMD Stirs Athlon Into Geode Embedded Soup · · Score: 1

    In reality Moore's law works for low powered cool chips too.

    Using Moore's law one can make chips faster 'n faster, relative to the voltage they're running at.

    Meaning one can get these faster chips & underclock them, which lets them run at lower voltages & thus at less consumption.

    From what I understand these low power/low heat chips are basically just their best chips underclocked

    So really AMD's copping out on what the Geode's really about, which was traditionally a X86 chip with a embedded I0/logic chipset & multimedia chipset, all on the one core (X86 CPU, memory controller, PCI & ISA bus controller, Floppy/IDE controllers, Serial/parrallel/PS2, video out & audio out).

  14. Yeh AMD's wanking off on AMD Stirs Athlon Into Geode Embedded Soup · · Score: 1

    'Geode' is what National Semiconductor kept of Cyrix after they bought it & then sold it to VIA. Geode' being National Semi's name for Cyrix's MediaGX line. The MediaGX being basically a Cyrix 686 with a IO/logic chipset (memory controller, PCI & ISA bus, Floppy/IDE controllers, Serial/parrallel/PS2, etc, etc), video chipset & Audio all embedded on the core.

    The concept was to make it possible for venders to build really super cheap Pentium clone systems, as not much more would be needed on the motherboard but a propietry CPU socket, a RAM slot, the drive connectors, the backplane connectors & the BIOS flashchip, plus no video card or audio card would be needed either.

    You see Cyrix saw this as the only way to get the economies of scale to beat Intel. As many venders were happy to pay more for Intel, they saw the only way to beat them was to provide a platform that undercut Intel so much that venders wouldn't be able to resist 'taking the Pepsi challenge'.

    Now even though the Cyrix 686 had the fastest X86 integer core ever (per clock), it's floating point performance was weak & it just didn't ramp up clock wise. Of course this was more a problem of perception & marketing than reality. The vast majority of office productivity apps (circa 97) worked quite competitively on it, but clock speed was the marketing king & gamers 'n benchtests were heavily floating point biased & gamers 'n benchtests had heavy undue influence on what systems people bought.

    Which gets us to Cyrix's G7X86 Joshua/Cayenne core. The pre-production samples had the 686 Integer core (still quite sufficient as it was still the fastest & most efficient X86 integer core per clock ever), 2 floating point cores (& each one singularly outperformed the old 686 one), 2 3DNow units, 64KB of L1 cache & 256KB of L2 cache, all running on a 133mhz bus.

    Only problem was it still had the 686 issue of poor rampability. This meant that VIA (which as previously mentioned, had purchased most of Cyrix from National Semi) released the pre-production samples with too overly ambitious/misleading PR-ratings, meaning they benchmarked against their competition piss-poorly, even though if they were benchmarked on the bassis of their real clock speeds they out did anything released by Intel & AMD at the same clock speed. Of course that means nothing if the opposition's ramping at much higher speeds. Which is why VIA went with the IDT Winchip as the VIA C3.

    It was this problem that killed Cyrix's super cheap Pentium clone platform based on a propietry 886 with embedded everything chip, the Cyrix MediaGX. However National Semi saw the potential of such a chip in the embedded market, which wasn't so influenced by Moores law. Yes in the embedded market a X86 chip with embedded everything can be quite useful, even if it's not ramping up at the same speed as the PC market does. So National Semi kept the MediaGX & renamed it the Geode. Going by this thread though, AMD bought Geode off National Semi some 6 months ago, & AMD's now basing the Geode off Athlon cores.

    But instead of making a genuine update on the MediaGX/Geode line by creating a Athlon with an embedded logic/IO chipset (memory controller, PCI & ISA bus, Floppy/IDE controllers, Serial/parrallel/PS2, etc, etc) & embedded multimedia chipset (video & audio out), they've just given the name to a range of underclocked Athlons.

    What a bloody wank.

  15. So they've copped out? on AMD Stirs Athlon Into Geode Embedded Soup · · Score: 0

    Instead of making a genuine update on the MediaGX/Geode line by creating a Athlon with an embedded logic/IO chipset & embedded multimedia chipset, they've just given the name to a range of underclocked Athlons.

    What a bloody wank.

  16. Geode's NS's Cyrix MediaGX on AMD Stirs Athlon Into Geode Embedded Soup · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From what I recall 'Geode' is what National Semiconductor kept of Cyrix after they bought it & then sold it to VIA.

    'Geode' being National Semi's name for Cyrix's MediaGX line. The MediaGX being basically a Cyrix 686 with a IO/logic chipset (memory controller, PCI & ISA bus, Floppy/IDE controllers, Serial/parrallel/PS2, etc, etc), video chipset & Audio all embedded on the core.

    The concept was to make it possible for venders to build really super cheap Pentium clone systems, as not much more would be needed on the motherboard but a propietry CPU socket, a RAM slot, the drive connectors, the backplane connectors & the BIOS flashchip, plus no video card or audio card would be needed either.

    You see Cyrix saw this as the only way to get the economies of scale to beat Intel. As many venders were happy to pay more for Intel, they saw the only way to beat them was to provide a platform that undercut Intel so much that venders wouldn't be able to resist 'taking the Pepsi challenge'.

    Now even though the Cyrix 686 had the fastest X86 integer core ever (per clock), it's floating point performance was weak & it just didn't ramp up clock wise. Of course this was more a problem of perception & marketing than reality. The vast majority of office productivity apps (circa 97) worked quite competitively on it, but clock speed was the marketing king & gamers 'n benchtests were heavily floating point biased & gamers 'n benchtests had heavy undue influence on what systems people bought.

    Which gets us to Cyrix's 7G Joshua/Cayenne core. The pre-production samples had the 686 Integer core (still quite sufficient as it was still the fastest & most efficient X86 integer core per clock ever), 2 floating point cores (& each one singularly outperformed the old 686 one), 2 3DNow units, 64KB of L1 cache & 256KB of L2 cache, all running on a 133mhz bus.

    Only problem was it still had the 686 issue of poor rampability. This meant that VIA (whic,h as previously mentioned, had purchased most of Cyrix from National Semi) released the pre-production samples with too overly ambitious/misleading PR-ratings, meaning they benchmarked against their competition piss-poorly, even though if they were benchmarked on the bassis of their real clock speeds they out did anything released by Intel & AMD at the same clock speed. Of course that means nothing if the oppositions ramping at much higher speeds. Which is why VIA went with the IDT Winchip II 'n III & the VIA C3.

    It was this problem that killed Cyrix's super cheap Pentium clone platform based on a propietry 886 with embedded everything chip, the Cyrix MediaGX. However National Semi saw the potential of such a chip in the embedded market, which wasn't so influenced by Moores law. Yes in the embedded market a X86 chip with embedded everything can be quite useful, even if it's not ramping up at the same speed as the PC market does. So National Semi kept the MediaGX & renamed it the Geode.

    What this has to do with AMD I don't know? I assume, going by this thread though, that AMD must've bought the Geode off AMD, & AMD's now basing the Geode off Athlon cores.

    My question is do these new Athlon Geodes have a IO/logic chipset (memory controller, PCI & ISA bus, Floppy/IDE controllers, Serial/parrallel/PS2, etc, etc), video chipset & Audio all embedded on the core, like the Cyrix MediaGX did? Which would I assume mean a propietry form factor?

  17. Americans voted for him on Cannes' Palme d'Or goes to Michael Moore · · Score: 1

    4 of the nine jurors were American: Mr. Tarantino, Kathleen Turner, the director Jerry Schatzberg, and the Haitian-born novelist Edwidge Danticat. one juror, the actress Emanuelle Béart, is a French citizen, British actress Tilda Swinton, Benoit Poelvoode, a Belgian actor; Peter von Bagh, a Finnish critic; and the Hong Kong director Tsui Hark made up the rest of the jury.

  18. The NYP is a Murdoch rag on Cannes' Palme d'Or goes to Michael Moore · · Score: 1

    So of course their reviewer is going to say that.

    Murdoch does not accept any of his hacks going against his pet ideologies, one of which is Shrub's war in Iraq.

  19. This suit is fantastic news on Intel Sued for Patent Infringement · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Only via mega victims/abuse will there be patent law reform.

    It was a real pity BT didn't succeed with it's hyperlink patent suit - the mega-economies would've reformed their patent laws quick smart if BT had succeeded.

    Really the more outrageous the suit & the bigger the defendents, the better off we all are in the long run.

    Fact is law reform virtually only occures if the big end of town are victims of bad laws.

  20. Ever heard of the Commonwealth? on The Logic Behind Metric Paper Sizes · · Score: 1

    Oz, New Zealand, India, South Africa & hundreds of Islands (plus maybe even Canada?), they were all quite used to Imperial but had no problems going over to metrics.

    Admittedly I'm 39 & still think in feet 'n inches in regards height, even though Oz changed over in 1975, but Australians 10 years younger think 100% in metric measures. Even so in most measures I'm metric-centric, while in regards weights I'm as comfortable using kilos or stones.

  21. Eh!?! A4's wider but shorter on The Logic Behind Metric Paper Sizes · · Score: 1

    I distinctly remember when Australia replaced foolscap with A4, & the A4 sheets were squatter. Foolscap being about 200x330mm, while A4's about 210x300mm.

    Foolscap being the standard Imperial letter size, or don't tell me, a US 'letter' is different from a Imperial 'letter'???

  22. Ah that's the A3 on The Logic Behind Metric Paper Sizes · · Score: 1

    The A4's an expensive Passat

  23. That's my trick on Websites For The Frugal? · · Score: 1

    I even patented it at the US patent office, so I ownz you now

  24. But only in the plural on Dirac: BBC Open Source Video Codec · · Score: 1

    As in "you bloody wankers"

    Even in Oz I don't recall ever hearing the singular "bloody wanker"

  25. legalise heroin on Technology Makes New Cars Too Expensive to Fix · · Score: 1

    They can spend their days nodding off & talking shit

    Pharmacuetical diamorph doesn't cost much more to make than aspirin