My question is, does playing any of these games actually make you better at the real thing?
Of course it does! Just like playing counterstrike has allowed me to become a top-notch rifle shot! Also, I played about 500 hours of Madden 2003 and look at me now! Love, Kurt Warner
I'm not sure a decrease from 90 to 83 minutes per session means that people don't find the internet as compelling. First off, I wonder how that relates to the average TV watching session?
Second, people using the internet are more aware of how to find what they're looking for. Think just a few years back, comparing researching using AltaVista & Yahoo to using Google these days. Finding things faster lets you spend less time online.
Finally, isn't it also possible that more people have faster connections now? In March 2000, probably 40% of the population was still on 33.6 modems, and only 5-10% had broadband. Just about everyone has 56K at least now, and a lot more have broadband than ever before. Faster connections mean you need less time to get the same amount done.
it's high time to finally divorce myself from any particular computer by using data and software accessible from any internet connected computer as much as possible.
The problem is, even if you're doing everything remotely, you're pretty much stuck using one computer as a central repository for everything--programs and data. Unless you are planning on keeping sensitive data all over the place, it all has to physically reside somewhere.
And if you do replicate everything, what about keeping consistency?? This problem you have will always be around. Okay, so you use Hotmail as your email client so you can access it from everywhere...what about a Hotmail outage, or MS goes out of business?:)
Re:How fast do we really need to go?
on
7 Years of 3D Graphics
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Renderman (used for Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and plenty others) isn't a ray tracer, but a sub-pixel renderer (if I remember my computer graphics M.Sc. correctly).
You're referring to PhotoRealistic Renderman (PRMan), the actual product developed by Pixar. It uses the REYES algorithm.
RenderMan is a specification for defining 3D scenes, much as PostScript is a specification for defining 2D documents/images. There are many renderers that are RenderMan compatible, including raytracers such as BMRT.
The problem is that right now, we're rendering triangles. We can do an incredible number of them - most cards list their triangle output rate - but it just isn't going to be good enough. The holy grail of 3D graphics, in my opinion, is real-time ray tracing.
But even in raytracing, the overwhelming majority of objects are made up of triangles. Besides quadrics, most of the things are just converted to triangles anyway.
With a ray-traced image, shadows, reflection, and refraction are accurate and free (no extra CPU time needed), but the rendering itself takes a while.
While these effects do somewhat come "for free", reflection and refraction do take extra CPU time. For each reflection/refraction point, you have to shoot another ray. It's free in the respect that it's the same algorithm, there isn't any fancy special-case nonsense to get these effects. But, for example, if the original ray hits an object that is both reflective and translucent, two more rays are shot, and each of those rays need to interact with other objects, possibly shooting more rays. Try rendering a scene with a tracing depth of 1, then try it with a depth of 10. Big difference.
It's a ways off, but I'd guess that twenty years might see such technology within the reach of wealthier consumers.
Man, I hope it's not that far off...really, if you think about how far things have progressed even in the past 3 years, it's not hard to imagine Toy Story-like graphics in games in just a few years.
STEVE MANN, an engineering professor at the University of Toronto, has lived as a cyborg for more than 20 years, wearing a web of wires, computers and electronic sensors that are designed to augment his memory, enhance his vision and keep tabs on his vital signs.
December 2000. The interview was apparently done at a conference in Fall 2000.
What is up with this guy (ESR)? How can someone make such sweeping yet totally incorrect predictions all the time? I've decided not to listen to anyone who goes by their 3 initials...they usually turn out to be friggin idiots.
Somebody who things the 'Net makes any kind of control impossible has never read Lawrence Lessig's "Code".
I agree. I love when JonKatz makes these sweeping predictions about how the world is becoming a better place/global community/free society all because of the net.
JonKatz thinks that the net makes censorship virtually impossible...obviously he's never surfed the net from China or Saudi Arabia, or most other countries for that matter. He only sees things as it is in the US, because we have the 1st Amendment. Unfortunately, *only* we have that.
I can't speak much to DirectX, but you can also query out what extensions the hardware (or at the very least ICD) supports in OpenGL. But even if you don't, an unsupported op is treated like a non-op anyway, so even if you call an NV_ extension on an ATI board, it shouldn't do any harm (or am I incorrect?).
Regardless, the extensibility of OGL is a double edged sword. Really, it does make features board-specific, which is not the point of OGL. On the other hand, allowing these extensions does drive the future of the standard. It lets everyone throw what they got out in the public and see what sticks.
Personally, I'm glad that OGL has huge gaps in standards updates, unlike DX. After all, it *is* a standard, and should be relatively static. Each new version of the standard should be absolutely positively a good standard. Anything missing can be used as an extension in the meantime and added to the next version 4-6 years down the road. This is the strongest point of OpenGL vs DirectX, there is a controlling body of many companies, rather than one main controller (MS). Bringing together the experience of co's like MS, SGI, NVIDIA, ATI, etc not only makes the standard better but adds a level of comfort to the users of the standard.
Basically, my point is that OGL standards *should* take a long time to finalize. Everyone seems to forget that standards should be able to last a long time. OGL is now on v1.2/1.3 after an evolution of around 10 years, while DX is nearing DX9 since, what, 1995 or so?
Not so. WMP8 (and WMP7) were always shitty players.
Damn straight. My biggest peeve with WMP--you can't launch multiple copies at once! I do graphics development, so I can't listen to a CD in WMP and then watch an MPEG at the same time. Yeah, I could use Winamp, but my install has "mysteriously" stopped working in XP. Guess it's time to figure it out...
Is JonKatz transforming life as we know it? Or is JonKatz yet another overhyped, self-serving fantasy by deluded scientists and technocrats talking mostly to one another, foisting their ill-conceived, poorly-engineered creations on an unsuspecting public?
I think it is important to note that 99% of "linux vulnerabilities" are not linux vulnerabilities, but actually non-essential, third party programs. These programs have nothing to do with linux, but do run on the OS. DNS, sendmail, rsync etc are not a part of the OS but have vulnerabilites. We should say that any os that these utilities/services run on has the vulnerability.
However, if a program is included in a distribution, it *should* be included in those numbers. Comparing a "third party" program like DNS to AIM or ICQ is highly irresponsible, as neither of those come on your friendly WinOS CD.
Some guy in Redmond is booking hundreds of flights a week going all over the world... including to the middle east"
Um, corporate credit cards are all different for each employee. There isn't ONE for the whole company. They do it that way so they can track each employees expenses.
You made it up. Thats all. It doesnt exisit. No where does the Constitution even mention the idea of "except if it violate the safety of others".
That is what the supreme court has decided. You know, SCOTUS, as in Article III, also in the constitution? There is more to it than the first amendment, in case you hadn't noticed.
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
You know, cant tell people they cant perform whatever religious rituals they want.
So, it should be legal for me to practice a religion that requires the sacrifice of a virgin? I don't think so. If all of these posts of yours are an attempt at sarcasm, you've failed.
Oracle Corp. is about to replace three Unix servers that run the bulk of its business applications with a cluster of Intel Corp. servers running Linux, Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison said yesterday.
I think we can chalk this up as a win.
Oh yeah, big win! Linux replaced THREE SERVERS! 783,472,991 to go!
No speech or press by a person can ever be censored for any reason, ever. Period.
You're an idiot. Ever hear of the "yelling fire in a crowded theater" argument? You CAN'T do it. Speech is protected as long as you don't conflict with the rights or safety of others.
Although they do have an unlimited offer in effect:
Express Network service is available for just $30 per month on most digital voice calling plans.* Express Network data usage is taken from your airtime allowance just like your voice calls, so there's no need to keep track of a separate airtime allowance.
From now until March 15, 2002, when you sign up for Express Network, you get unlimited Express Network data session minutes! All you pay is the additional monthly $30 Express Network access fee - your Express Network usage will not be deducted from your airtime allowance.
There is the link from verizon. It seems that right now service is limited only to those that have wireless service with verizon already. Although unlimited at $30/month is not bad.
IMHO netscape was better then IE till about version 3, then it went downhill from there.
Right, I think Netscape 3 was a great browser, IE still sucked big time there. Then communicator was close to IE4. Of course, when they stopped releasing new netscapes for about 3 years, it kind of hurt them:)
I appears that MS is trying to pull a "IE" here destroy an established dominant product.
True, but I always thought IE was a much better product than Netscape. And I think my iPaq is a much more powerful handheld than any of the Palm's I've used.
Of course, MS does use their dominance to destroy other systems, but I'm glad that in the cases that I care about it's with a better product IMHO.
Slashdot Mirror
My question is, does playing any of these games actually make you better at the real thing?
Of course it does! Just like playing counterstrike has allowed me to become a top-notch rifle shot! Also, I played about 500 hours of Madden 2003 and look at me now!
Love,
Kurt Warner
So:
Huge corporate donation after state gives same corporation business is a crime.
Huge corporate donation before state gives same corporation business is okay.
Makes sense to me.
I guess considering the crappy performance of their servers in the marketplace, they now have to bad mouth the competition.
Thank god that all of us here at Slashdot don't ever badmouth or try to undermine Microsoft. Those bastards.
I'm not sure a decrease from 90 to 83 minutes per session means that people don't find the internet as compelling. First off, I wonder how that relates to the average TV watching session?
Second, people using the internet are more aware of how to find what they're looking for. Think just a few years back, comparing researching using AltaVista & Yahoo to using Google these days. Finding things faster lets you spend less time online.
Finally, isn't it also possible that more people have faster connections now? In March 2000, probably 40% of the population was still on 33.6 modems, and only 5-10% had broadband. Just about everyone has 56K at least now, and a lot more have broadband than ever before. Faster connections mean you need less time to get the same amount done.
it's high time to finally divorce myself from any particular computer by using data and software accessible from any internet connected computer as much as possible.
:)
The problem is, even if you're doing everything remotely, you're pretty much stuck using one computer as a central repository for everything--programs and data. Unless you are planning on keeping sensitive data all over the place, it all has to physically reside somewhere.
And if you do replicate everything, what about keeping consistency?? This problem you have will always be around. Okay, so you use Hotmail as your email client so you can access it from everywhere...what about a Hotmail outage, or MS goes out of business?
Renderman (used for Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and plenty others) isn't a ray tracer, but a sub-pixel renderer (if I remember my computer graphics M.Sc. correctly).
You're referring to PhotoRealistic Renderman (PRMan), the actual product developed by Pixar. It uses the REYES algorithm.
RenderMan is a specification for defining 3D scenes, much as PostScript is a specification for defining 2D documents/images. There are many renderers that are RenderMan compatible, including raytracers such as BMRT.
The problem is that right now, we're rendering triangles. We can do an incredible number of them - most cards list their triangle output rate - but it just isn't going to be good enough. The holy grail of 3D graphics, in my opinion, is real-time ray tracing.
But even in raytracing, the overwhelming majority of objects are made up of triangles. Besides quadrics, most of the things are just converted to triangles anyway.
With a ray-traced image, shadows, reflection, and refraction are accurate and free (no extra CPU time needed), but the rendering itself takes a while.
While these effects do somewhat come "for free", reflection and refraction do take extra CPU time. For each reflection/refraction point, you have to shoot another ray. It's free in the respect that it's the same algorithm, there isn't any fancy special-case nonsense to get these effects. But, for example, if the original ray hits an object that is both reflective and translucent, two more rays are shot, and each of those rays need to interact with other objects, possibly shooting more rays. Try rendering a scene with a tracing depth of 1, then try it with a depth of 10. Big difference.
It's a ways off, but I'd guess that twenty years might see such technology within the reach of wealthier consumers.
Man, I hope it's not that far off...really, if you think about how far things have progressed even in the past 3 years, it's not hard to imagine Toy Story-like graphics in games in just a few years.
STEVE MANN, an engineering professor at the University of Toronto, has lived as a cyborg for more than 20 years, wearing a web of wires, computers and electronic sensors that are designed to augment his memory, enhance his vision and keep tabs on his vital signs.
:)
Jeez, I wonder what his wife thinks of all this?
Oh, wait...
What year was that posted ?
December 2000. The interview was apparently done at a conference in Fall 2000.
What is up with this guy (ESR)? How can someone make such sweeping yet totally incorrect predictions all the time? I've decided not to listen to anyone who goes by their 3 initials...they usually turn out to be friggin idiots.
Somebody who things the 'Net makes any kind of control impossible has never read Lawrence Lessig's "Code".
I agree. I love when JonKatz makes these sweeping predictions about how the world is becoming a better place/global community/free society all because of the net.
JonKatz thinks that the net makes censorship virtually impossible...obviously he's never surfed the net from China or Saudi Arabia, or most other countries for that matter. He only sees things as it is in the US, because we have the 1st Amendment. Unfortunately, *only* we have that.
I can't speak much to DirectX, but you can also query out what extensions the hardware (or at the very least ICD) supports in OpenGL. But even if you don't, an unsupported op is treated like a non-op anyway, so even if you call an NV_ extension on an ATI board, it shouldn't do any harm (or am I incorrect?).
Regardless, the extensibility of OGL is a double edged sword. Really, it does make features board-specific, which is not the point of OGL. On the other hand, allowing these extensions does drive the future of the standard. It lets everyone throw what they got out in the public and see what sticks.
Personally, I'm glad that OGL has huge gaps in standards updates, unlike DX. After all, it *is* a standard, and should be relatively static. Each new version of the standard should be absolutely positively a good standard. Anything missing can be used as an extension in the meantime and added to the next version 4-6 years down the road. This is the strongest point of OpenGL vs DirectX, there is a controlling body of many companies, rather than one main controller (MS). Bringing together the experience of co's like MS, SGI, NVIDIA, ATI, etc not only makes the standard better but adds a level of comfort to the users of the standard.
Basically, my point is that OGL standards *should* take a long time to finalize. Everyone seems to forget that standards should be able to last a long time. OGL is now on v1.2/1.3 after an evolution of around 10 years, while DX is nearing DX9 since, what, 1995 or so?
Not so. WMP8 (and WMP7) were always shitty players.
Damn straight. My biggest peeve with WMP--you can't launch multiple copies at once! I do graphics development, so I can't listen to a CD in WMP and then watch an MPEG at the same time. Yeah, I could use Winamp, but my install has "mysteriously" stopped working in XP. Guess it's time to figure it out...
I think the best part of that comparison is the Palm market share statistic:
Market share: 72% worldwide share(6)
Then down at the bottom:
(6) U.S. Market Share. Source: IDC, Full Year 2000
72% worldwide share, cited by a US market share survey in 2000--before PocketPC came out. It would be interesting to see what it says now...
Is JonKatz transforming life as we know it? Or is JonKatz yet another overhyped, self-serving fantasy by deluded scientists and technocrats talking mostly to one another, foisting their ill-conceived, poorly-engineered creations on an unsuspecting public?
I think we all know the answer to this.
I think it is important to note that 99% of "linux vulnerabilities" are not linux vulnerabilities, but actually non-essential, third party programs. These programs have nothing to do with linux, but do run on the OS. DNS, sendmail, rsync etc are not a part of the OS but have vulnerabilites. We should say that any os that these utilities/services run on has the vulnerability.
However, if a program is included in a distribution, it *should* be included in those numbers. Comparing a "third party" program like DNS to AIM or ICQ is highly irresponsible, as neither of those come on your friendly WinOS CD.
Some guy in Redmond is booking hundreds of flights a week going all over the world... including to the middle east"
Um, corporate credit cards are all different for each employee. There isn't ONE for the whole company. They do it that way so they can track each employees expenses.
blah!
You made it up. Thats all. It doesnt exisit. No where does the Constitution even mention the idea of "except if it violate the safety of others".
That is what the supreme court has decided. You know, SCOTUS, as in Article III, also in the constitution? There is more to it than the first amendment, in case you hadn't noticed.
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
You know, cant tell people they cant perform whatever religious rituals they want.
So, it should be legal for me to practice a religion that requires the sacrifice of a virgin? I don't think so. If all of these posts of yours are an attempt at sarcasm, you've failed.
Oracle Corp. is about to replace three Unix servers that run the bulk of its business applications with a cluster of Intel Corp. servers running Linux, Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison said yesterday.
I think we can chalk this up as a win.
Oh yeah, big win! Linux replaced THREE SERVERS! 783,472,991 to go!
The grey area is in the definition of safety.
/ update01.html
True, but that's what we have courts for. The point was that not all speech is protected by the 1st amendment, as the posted was asserting.
More free speech stuff here: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech
No speech or press by a person can ever be censored for any reason, ever. Period.
You're an idiot. Ever hear of the "yelling fire in a crowded theater" argument? You CAN'T do it. Speech is protected as long as you don't conflict with the rights or safety of others.
Although they do have an unlimited offer in effect:
Express Network service is available for just $30 per month on most digital voice calling plans.* Express Network data usage is taken from your airtime allowance just like your voice calls, so there's no need to keep track of a separate airtime allowance.
From now until March 15, 2002, when you sign up for Express Network, you get unlimited Express Network data session minutes! All you pay is the additional monthly $30 Express Network access fee - your Express Network usage will not be deducted from your airtime allowance.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/express_network/ind ex.html
There is the link from verizon. It seems that right now service is limited only to those that have wireless service with verizon already. Although unlimited at $30/month is not bad.
IMHO netscape was better then IE till about version 3, then it went downhill from there.
:)
Right, I think Netscape 3 was a great browser, IE still sucked big time there. Then communicator was close to IE4. Of course, when they stopped releasing new netscapes for about 3 years, it kind of hurt them
I appears that MS is trying to pull a "IE" here destroy an established dominant product.
True, but I always thought IE was a much better product than Netscape. And I think my iPaq is a much more powerful handheld than any of the Palm's I've used.
Of course, MS does use their dominance to destroy other systems, but I'm glad that in the cases that I care about it's with a better product IMHO.