do the claims that [video games] desensitize one to violence, making it more likely that they will commit violent acts, hold water?
I'm not convinced that media desensitizes one to violence, nor am I convinced that desensitization increases the likelihood of violent behavior.
That's not to say that media has no effect.
Athletes, whether they like it or not, are role models: unnecessary roughness, head hunting, and fighting make violence seem acceptable.
Don Johnson smoking next to a Ferrari makes cigarettes seem cool.
I may be misremembering high school English, but this reminds me of the doctrine of active virtue.
If your values are shaken by a little Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne, of what value are they?
We don't live in a G-rated world.
Do you ever get that vertiginous pit in your stomach when your character falls from a great height?
It surprises me that I can have such a visceral reaction to what's happening on a computer monitor.
I wonder how these machines would perform if the tasks were performed simultaneously.
One of the few multitasking benchmarks I've seen recently is at ExtremeTech.
The Pentium 4 did much better than the Athlons, presumably due to HyperThreading.
Show me where I can buy an AMD64-based home computer at the mall
Best Buy used to sell Alienware systems, but I don't see any evidence of it now.
On the other hand, there aren't many malls that carry Apples, either.
I know of one mall in my area that has the so-bright-it-makes-your-eyes-hurt Apple Store.
I was surprised that a single CPU Opteron could be in the same performance ballpark as a dual CPU G5.
I didn't see a detailed description of the Opteron system, but I suspect that it had two processors, as it beat the Athlon 64 FX-51 in most tests, despite having slower memory and a lower clock speed.
The Opteron 140 and 240 series are workstation-class chips.
Put an Opteron or two in a box with a bunch of hard drives--it's a server; put it in a box with a $1,000 graphics card--it's a workstation.
This would be a good drive for a small form factor music server that only has room for one hard drive.
Rip all your CDs and store them uncompressed or with lossless FLAC compression.
If you lose the drive, you lose a weekend of ripping.
giving away things for free... builds market base, but it also guarantees a market decay
Computer games already run a pretty predictable schedule from $50 to $30 to $20, with many games falling to $10, or even $5, before they disappear off the shelves.
I buy more $10 and $20 games than $50 games.
I don't think the studios and publishers mind.
I was always intrigued by Hidden and Dangerous, but not enough to pay even $10 for it.
Maybe the free version will change my mind and convince me to buy the sequel.
I like Python and unit testing as much as the next guy, but unit tests do not make up for what you lose going from static to dynamic typing.
Even if you proofread, it's nice to have a spell checker.
Except that there is no 2.2 GHz Opteron.
For most users, the Opteron and Athlon 64 FX are both over priced.
For those with money to burn, the Athlon 64 FX is arguably the fastest desktop processor available.
Of course, if you've really got money to burn, why not get two 2.0 GHz Opterons?
SLES 8 for AMD64 is already available, but $750 is a bit steep for an Athlon 64 PC.
Considering the two-year errata policy for SuSE Linux Pro, it seems fair to compare it to RHEL WS.
I actually prefer Red Hat, but it no longer has anything in my price range.
The Fedora project just doesn't seem compelling.
So given that Oracle cost us over $20k a processor, we saved over 40 grand!
I didn't know anyone actually bought processor licenses.
I'm surprised that a dual Opteron beats a quad Xeon.
All things being equal (i.e., 3 GHz Xeon compared to 2 GHz Opteron) I would have thought that hyper threading would give the advantage to the Xeon.
I haven't made all the rounds, but it seems like everyone is using the same two motherboards: Asus SK8N and MSI 8KT. I really like the looks of Monarch's Hornet 64, with a uATX Gigabyte GA-K8VT800M.
I'd like to see some reviews first, especially regarding chipset support under Linux.
I'd also like to hear more about video drivers.
I've heard that NVIDIA's drivers need some work.
(Does ATI even have any?)
We've got a couple of Opterons at work, one for 32-bit compatibility testing, and another for the AMD64 port.
It's pretty cool to see this in Python on SuSE Linux 8.2 beta:
>>> type( 9223372036854775807 )
<type 'int'>
SuSE Linux 9.0 for AMD64 is supposed to ship next month.
Hopefully, it will be a little cheaper than RHEL 3.0 for AMD64, which will be more than twice the price of RHEL 2.1 for x86!
It is interesting to look at how the ideas in the post agree and disagree with the state of GNU today.
RMS mentioned Yacc.
I'm translating scripts from a proprietary C++-like language to Python using Bison.
I used to think of Bison as a crusty old replacement for crusty old Yacc, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover its new Tomita-style GLR parser.
This project would be much more difficult if the grammar had to be LALR(1).
I tried DParser and SPARK, but I ended up coming back to Bison.
Flex, too, is not bad.
Its stackable start states let me handle some recursive constructs in the lexer that previously would have been pushed to the parser.
This is all part of a project to migrate from a proprietary (and very expensive) Windows-based tool to Python (not quite entirely an unLisp-like language) on Linux.
Besides the savings, I'm expecting the Python-based system to let us tackle bigger tasks than before.
I'd say it agrees pretty well with the spirit of RMS's post.
Re:Another interesting read from Tom's Hardware
on
Athlon 64 Debuts
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· Score: 1
The "interest-free loan from enthusiasts" argument is weak, all the more so because the Athlon 64 handles 32-bit apps. faster than any Athlon XP.
Remember, the 386 came out long before Windows 95.
Not to mention that the retail copy of Quake3 for Linux didn't come out to stores for 3 months after win32
Not to mention that you could download the Linux binaries.
Quake 3 for Linux was doomed from the start.
Its sales figures tell you nothing about the Linux gaming market.
I've noticed that NewEgg sells the mobile Athlon XP at quite reasonable prices.
Has anyone used one of these in a desktop motherboard?
Most boards support the required voltage, but they may not set the correct multiplier if the BIOS doesn't recognize the chip.
I want performance, but I don't want the monster HSF that a 60 - 70 W processor requires.
I use gtk apps... because most of them dont require gnome.
Because GTK+ and GNOME are developed by a lot of the same people, there's a tendency to move things down a layer, where appropriate.
For example, a lot of stock icons moved from GNOME to GTK+ between GNOME 1 and 2.
The relationship between Qt and KDE, as I see it, is less of a two-way street.
Re:What makes you think WP for Linux is coming?
on
Corel Goes Private
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· Score: 1
how many of us have actually BOUGHT commercial Linux software?
Speak for yourself.
I've bought WordPerfect, Opera, Win4Lin, a three-month subscription to WineX, and about a dozen games.
I usually download Red Hat ISOs, but I recently bought SuSE Linux 8.2.
It's true that many Linux users are price sensitive, and it's true that the barrier to entry is rising, as you have to compete with Mozilla, Evolution, OpenOffice, and others.
However, the market is growing, so you'll only see more paying users.
Corell lost that value because Word Perfect lost it's market share, market share it could easily have maintained with it's Linux distribution.
WordPerfect had so little market share to lose, and you can't blame the bastard Linux version on Microsoft.
Corel Linux had some things going for it, but its loss can hardly be said to have set back Linux-based operating systems for five years.
I'd love to see more Corel products ported to Linux.
Hopefully, it will see how Linux, KDE, and GNOME have improved since their last effort.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not convinced that media desensitizes one to violence, nor am I convinced that desensitization increases the likelihood of violent behavior. That's not to say that media has no effect. Athletes, whether they like it or not, are role models: unnecessary roughness, head hunting, and fighting make violence seem acceptable. Don Johnson smoking next to a Ferrari makes cigarettes seem cool.
I may be misremembering high school English, but this reminds me of the doctrine of active virtue. If your values are shaken by a little Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne, of what value are they? We don't live in a G-rated world.
Do you ever get that vertiginous pit in your stomach when your character falls from a great height? It surprises me that I can have such a visceral reaction to what's happening on a computer monitor.
Several sources report that IBM will base entry-level Linux servers on the PowerPC 970.
One of the few multitasking benchmarks I've seen recently is at ExtremeTech. The Pentium 4 did much better than the Athlons, presumably due to HyperThreading.
Best Buy used to sell Alienware systems, but I don't see any evidence of it now. On the other hand, there aren't many malls that carry Apples, either. I know of one mall in my area that has the so-bright-it-makes-your-eyes-hurt Apple Store.
I didn't see a detailed description of the Opteron system, but I suspect that it had two processors, as it beat the Athlon 64 FX-51 in most tests, despite having slower memory and a lower clock speed.
The Opteron 140 and 240 series are workstation-class chips. Put an Opteron or two in a box with a bunch of hard drives--it's a server; put it in a box with a $1,000 graphics card--it's a workstation.
This would be a good drive for a small form factor music server that only has room for one hard drive. Rip all your CDs and store them uncompressed or with lossless FLAC compression. If you lose the drive, you lose a weekend of ripping.
Computer games already run a pretty predictable schedule from $50 to $30 to $20, with many games falling to $10, or even $5, before they disappear off the shelves. I buy more $10 and $20 games than $50 games. I don't think the studios and publishers mind.
I was always intrigued by Hidden and Dangerous, but not enough to pay even $10 for it. Maybe the free version will change my mind and convince me to buy the sequel.
Boot times are relevant to availability, which is one reason for the popularity of journaling file systems.
Nonsense. Hard drives are rated for tens of thousands of start/stop cycles--more than enough to turn off your computer at night.
I like Python and unit testing as much as the next guy, but unit tests do not make up for what you lose going from static to dynamic typing. Even if you proofread, it's nice to have a spell checker.
On a 32-bit system, you'll see something like this:
No big deal; it's just one of the first things I tried.Except that there is no 2.2 GHz Opteron. For most users, the Opteron and Athlon 64 FX are both over priced. For those with money to burn, the Athlon 64 FX is arguably the fastest desktop processor available. Of course, if you've really got money to burn, why not get two 2.0 GHz Opterons?
SLES 8 for AMD64 is already available, but $750 is a bit steep for an Athlon 64 PC. Considering the two-year errata policy for SuSE Linux Pro, it seems fair to compare it to RHEL WS.
I actually prefer Red Hat, but it no longer has anything in my price range. The Fedora project just doesn't seem compelling.
I didn't know anyone actually bought processor licenses. I'm surprised that a dual Opteron beats a quad Xeon. All things being equal (i.e., 3 GHz Xeon compared to 2 GHz Opteron) I would have thought that hyper threading would give the advantage to the Xeon.
We've got a couple of Opterons at work, one for 32-bit compatibility testing, and another for the AMD64 port. It's pretty cool to see this in Python on SuSE Linux 8.2 beta:
SuSE Linux 9.0 for AMD64 is supposed to ship next month. Hopefully, it will be a little cheaper than RHEL 3.0 for AMD64, which will be more than twice the price of RHEL 2.1 for x86!RMS mentioned Yacc. I'm translating scripts from a proprietary C++-like language to Python using Bison. I used to think of Bison as a crusty old replacement for crusty old Yacc, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover its new Tomita-style GLR parser. This project would be much more difficult if the grammar had to be LALR(1). I tried DParser and SPARK, but I ended up coming back to Bison.
Flex, too, is not bad. Its stackable start states let me handle some recursive constructs in the lexer that previously would have been pushed to the parser.
This is all part of a project to migrate from a proprietary (and very expensive) Windows-based tool to Python (not quite entirely an unLisp-like language) on Linux. Besides the savings, I'm expecting the Python-based system to let us tackle bigger tasks than before. I'd say it agrees pretty well with the spirit of RMS's post.
The "interest-free loan from enthusiasts" argument is weak, all the more so because the Athlon 64 handles 32-bit apps. faster than any Athlon XP. Remember, the 386 came out long before Windows 95.
Not to mention that you could download the Linux binaries. Quake 3 for Linux was doomed from the start. Its sales figures tell you nothing about the Linux gaming market.
I want performance, but I don't want the monster HSF that a 60 - 70 W processor requires.
Because GTK+ and GNOME are developed by a lot of the same people, there's a tendency to move things down a layer, where appropriate. For example, a lot of stock icons moved from GNOME to GTK+ between GNOME 1 and 2.
The relationship between Qt and KDE, as I see it, is less of a two-way street.
Speak for yourself. I've bought WordPerfect, Opera, Win4Lin, a three-month subscription to WineX, and about a dozen games. I usually download Red Hat ISOs, but I recently bought SuSE Linux 8.2.
It's true that many Linux users are price sensitive, and it's true that the barrier to entry is rising, as you have to compete with Mozilla, Evolution, OpenOffice, and others. However, the market is growing, so you'll only see more paying users.
WordPerfect had so little market share to lose, and you can't blame the bastard Linux version on Microsoft. Corel Linux had some things going for it, but its loss can hardly be said to have set back Linux-based operating systems for five years.
I'd love to see more Corel products ported to Linux. Hopefully, it will see how Linux, KDE, and GNOME have improved since their last effort.