For those of you who live in or near Austin Texas, a local comedy group, Mr. Sinus Theater 3000, does live MSTk 3000 type of shows at the legendary Alamo Drafthouse. I reccomend the shows highly. They did Footloose, renacting the horrible Chicken-Tractor scene at halftime, using tricycles instead. I nearly passed out, but that could have been the beer.
To Quote the theme song: "We show movies live, not on TV, we show films with nudity..."
Intrestingly enough WinInfo predicted this sort of response. Look under the title "InfoWorld Disses Windows XP: Who Do You Trust?" to see how the other half lives.
I wish these "OS reviews" were as in-depth as the gaming site's card and driver reviews. Both the C|Net and Infoworld reviews leave me with more questions they answer.
The new versions of 64-bit XP are getting useeful again. The first rev's of 64bit XP, were really alpha quality stuff. However, in typical MS Fashion, each revision just gets better and better. Still, I think the need for this product is overstated. Why is that?
Itanium is aimed squarely at the hideously overpriced Sun e450 and up lines of hardware. If you are Intel, you're not going to get hardcore Solaris shops moving to Windows Adv Server, and Windows DataCenter. This brings us to....
Linux. For the record, I found TurboLinux was the company to produce a usable OS for Itanium, followed by Suse, and then Redhat, this has resulted in:
Resources. At this point. Redhat's Distro seems to be the best on Itanium, giving them a leg up on the Real Prize, McKinley. However, porting apps to the Itanium hasn't been as easy as just treating it as yet another 64bit CPU.
"Unfortunately, SunSpire Studios, for whom Jasmin now works, has decided to make a commercial version based on the Tux Racer 0.6.1 version of Tux Racer. This is perfectly legal and acceptable according to the terms of the GPL, since Jasmin is the original licenser and has the authority to relicense his program."
Can someone more familar with the GPL than myself explain how this works? The source released under the GPL is still GPL'd, but his private fork can be closed source (because he is the original licenser)?
Yes the GDI was moved with NT4. But thats not the whole ball of wax, either.
>Your suspicion is wrong. Context switch is not the only things that tux optimizes. There is now an user-mode web server that seems to be at least on par with tux.
It really just goes to prove the point about optimization. Algorithmic optimizations are better then system level ones, something I would categorize the movement into kernel space to be. The question on kernel space is does TUX gain from movement into kernel space?
I think it's pretty silly to assert that moving into kernel space doesn't bring you a speed increase to certain applications. Whether or not it's necessary is the question. I think the X15 project shows quite clearly the move isn't necessary, and a well coded, designed application is better.
2.4 is such a smooth kernel though, it really begins to make the whole debate moot. This is something not true of the windows world, where one still has to be a lot more careful about thrashing context switches.
Context switches between kernel mode and user mode take time. Indeed these context switches tend to be the single greatest overhead in I/O bound, multithreaded apps. If memory serves, the p3 700 mhz xeon requires around 3ms to do a context switch. These little buggers add up in a real hurray. For fun, turn on the "View Kernel Times" on your Windows Task manager and see how much time certain apps spend in kernel mode. Or for real fun, head into perfmon and turn context switches. Those take time.
Moving things into the kernel isn't always a bad thing to do. When Microsoft moved the graphics engine into the kernel, it allowed Win2k to use DirectX for real, not a bad thing, and it really hasn't affected stability of the OS. I think its safe to say win2k is most stable windows operating system yet.
Network drivers, USB Drivers, indeed IDE RAID drivers all reside at the kernel level, you just have to be careful that you've built a stable base.
I think the real advantadge here would be defining what you want in the kernel and what you don't. Hell, I suspect Apache in the kernel would push pages nearly as fast as Tux, and I could say the same thing about IIS.
John "EvilJohn" Carney
Windows Team Lead - TowerJ
http://www.towerj.com/
"For an even more egregious example, examine the shoddy, non-anamorphic, "old" Kubrick DVD set as compared to the marginally flashier (but DD 5.1 and anamorphic) one which came out this week. "Uh, wouldn't you mind spending $200 for the DVDs we should have sold you in the first place?" Movie execs that authorize non-anamorphic DVDs, knowing full well how worthless they'll be come 2006, should be castrated and strung up by DVI cable. (I didn't buy the "old" Kubrick set, but I know people who did.) "
Actually, Kubrick shot on 35 milimeter in a 4:3 aspect ratio. His films where actually cropped for showing in theaters. This is one of those rare cases where you actually see more _more_ in a 4:3 format then you do in a 16:9. There was a good write about this on www.thedigitalbits.com a few years ago.
I really really like Star Team. As a base source control application it does a fine job on deltas. The database options for back end storage aren't too bad. I like way it ties defect handling to parts of the application to users. If you're using the native GUI it will notify you when you've been assigned a bug to fix, or if you're the tester, when the bug has been fix and its time to verify.
Don't overlook this tool. Its a comphrensive source control, defect and feature request management system.
One thing it is missing though, is a native linux client.
.... QuakeCon is held in Mesquite, TX as that is the home of id Software. The biggest advantadge of being close to id is easy access to id employees. They come to QuakeCon to see how much you guys enjoy playing their games, and to play a little themselves.
And make no mistake, Carmack can frag with the best of them.
The facilities we use for QuakeCon are tremendous. The Hampton Inn is the hotel connected to the Convention Center we've used the past two years ('99, '00). There are several other hotels within a 5 minute drive that offer other options at different rates.
Mesquite is on the East side of the Dallas Metro area. Depending on where you're coming from you have two options for flights. DFW is a HUGE airport, but is on the far West side of Dallas. American Airlines hubs out of DFW, finding an affordable direct flight should be fairly easy. There are shuttle services that can take you to and from your hotel, but you'll want to call your hotel to arrange one. Cab rides are very expensive from DFW.
Love Field is a smaller airport, but its a lot closer to the event. However Southwest controls nearly 90% of the gates at that airport. So your range of airline options are somewhat limited. If you're flying Southwest though, its the only way to go. Also, a cab ride from here is probably going to be 1/3 of what it is from DFW.
John "EvilJohn" Carney - eviljohn@quakecon.org
Executive Director
QuakeCon 2001
As Director of QuakeCon 2001, I'd like to chime in here and add my agreement to those of you questioning if this is a good thing or even a fun thing.
EA is providing the machines, what do you think the chances are of their being installed games they don't publish? Do you want to play Tribes2 at the next big lan event you goto? I know I do.
Providing machines for the tournament activities is a good thing, we do that at QuakeCon to prevent cheating, and to provide a level playing field. Input configs are allowed to be transfered to the machines, but most display setting changes are not. This tends to rub the players the wrong way, but after seeing what most pros set their config to, I think its understandable. Its a Quake3 Tournament, not a washed out water-color painting Quake1 tournament.
The money EA is spending, I think $2 million US, seems like a lot, but I can easily understand how it such a bill could occur. These events aren't cheap, but they are a hell of a lot of fun.
Without our volunteers we wouldn't be able to have QuakeCon, and I'm grateful, and proud to see how each of them do both during and after the event. Some of the key volunteers use QuakeCon as a resume item. They are very proud of the work they do. As they should. Last year we built a network for 1300 people on Wednesday. Hungover. By wednesday night, we were all gaming. Of course by Thursday we were all hungover again, but at least we didn't have build another LAN.
Building a large LAN party takes a great deal of resources, but if a publisher like EA controlled the event I don't think QuakeCon would be the same. QuakeCon is the Woodstock of Gaming, yes we get corporate support, but it has been, and will always be for the people. If they want to trade files in the BYOC, thats their business. Tired of fragging? Fire up your copy of Age of Empires. You can even play EA games if you want.
Two million US. Sigh, that would have been enough for EA to finish UO2.
Peace.
John "EvilJohn" Carney
Executive Director of QuakeCon 2001
eviljohn@quakecon.org
With Banner Ad rates running _so low_ two things have to happen.
1) Websites are going to have to negoiate directly with the advertisers. The days of going to a third person for advertising to provide ads are pretty much over.
2) What else needs to happen is a group of websites of dissimilar content need to get together and offer a similar service. Call it $50 a year for a package deal.
...with targeted ads. One of the most desired features from current advertisers is the ability to target ads based on the users location. Doing this by IP is very spotty, the POPID would solve that problem fairly safely.
But what is more apperent now is that SMP is truly a dead end when it comes to multi processor systems.
I disagree. Clustering does NOT solve the issues solved by SMP. Many applications simply do not function that well clustered (i.e. databases). Intel simply removed SMP from the P4 chip due to cost, not due to the lack effectiveness of SMP.
If Intel had given up on it, why is a major focus of the Itanium multiprocessor operations? The flaws of P3 in reference to the poor scalability beyond four (or even two) CPUs are due primarily to the bus design of the processors, not due to SMP.
The EVE6 bus, much like the Itanium bus, should really begin to approach the Linear scalibility we're all looking for out of properly written applications.
I've been working with Itanium boxes for awhile, and let me tell you they are not slow, and I'm pretty happy with what Intel has shown us. Its my opinion that this chipset with a linux 2.4 kernel will be capable of runing hand in hand with Sun E450s, at a much lower price point.
If anyone is interested in seeing Itaniums first hand, Intel will be running Linux on Itanium at LinuxWorld. Dell also will have Redhat running on Itanium in their booth at LinuxWorld working with our 64bit version of the TowerJ compiler ( http://www.towerj.com ).
Books are wonderful, and I love to read. Kids should read, but to be honest, books are pretty easy. They don't require you much beyond comphrension. You don't make decisions while reading a book, your actions are not relevant.
Learning the cause and effect of actions is a good thing, and one of the strongs points of gameplay, be it electronic or a traditional board games.
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For those of you who live in or near Austin Texas, a local comedy group, Mr. Sinus Theater 3000, does live MSTk 3000 type of shows at the legendary Alamo Drafthouse. I reccomend the shows highly. They did Footloose, renacting the horrible Chicken-Tractor scene at halftime, using tricycles instead. I nearly passed out, but that could have been the beer.
To Quote the theme song: "We show movies live, not on TV, we show films with nudity..."
C|Net disagrees.
Intrestingly enough WinInfo predicted this sort of response. Look under the title "InfoWorld Disses Windows XP: Who Do You Trust?" to see how the other half lives.
I wish these "OS reviews" were as in-depth as the gaming site's card and driver reviews. Both the C|Net and Infoworld reviews leave me with more questions they answer.
(Score yourself two bonus points if you remember this show.)
...and how we wound up with England as an ally.
Like most designs, it is not the idea itself that matters so much, but how you implement it.
You might want to keep an eye on www.javagaming.org . A few of the Sun Guys Frequent that site, and will sometimes post little bits of information.
The new versions of 64-bit XP are getting useeful again. The first rev's of 64bit XP, were really alpha quality stuff. However, in typical MS Fashion, each revision just gets better and better. Still, I think the need for this product is overstated. Why is that?
Itanium is aimed squarely at the hideously overpriced Sun e450 and up lines of hardware. If you are Intel, you're not going to get hardcore Solaris shops moving to Windows Adv Server, and Windows DataCenter. This brings us to....
Linux. For the record, I found TurboLinux was the company to produce a usable OS for Itanium, followed by Suse, and then Redhat, this has resulted in:
Resources. At this point. Redhat's Distro seems to be the best on Itanium, giving them a leg up on the Real Prize, McKinley. However, porting apps to the Itanium hasn't been as easy as just treating it as yet another 64bit CPU.
Or you could move 751 feet towards the DSL CO....
From the Open Racer site:
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
"Unfortunately, SunSpire Studios, for whom Jasmin now works, has decided to make a commercial version based on the Tux Racer 0.6.1 version of Tux Racer. This is perfectly legal and acceptable according to the terms of the GPL, since Jasmin is the original licenser and has the authority to relicense his program."
Can someone more familar with the GPL than myself explain how this works? The source released under the GPL is still GPL'd, but his private fork can be closed source (because he is the original licenser)?
If it's not your box, don't run the client.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
The more you tighten your grip Lord Vader, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
The answer is yes, with SSE-2, it will beat the athlon into the ground. Check http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/cpus/intel/p417 out for more details.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
The real question is the Short lifespan on this P4. With Intel going to DDR (thank god) but changing socket types, how viable is a P4 at this point?
Even gamers think about TCO.
>They moved the GDI in the kernel at NT4, not 2K
. ht ml#1
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
Yes the GDI was moved with NT4. But thats not the whole ball of wax, either.
>Your suspicion is wrong. Context switch is not the only things that tux optimizes. There is now an user-mode web server that seems to be at least on par with tux.
I assume you mean this:
http://kt.zork.net/kerneltraffic/kt20010521_119
It really just goes to prove the point about optimization. Algorithmic optimizations are better then system level ones, something I would categorize the movement into kernel space to be. The question on kernel space is does TUX gain from movement into kernel space?
I think it's pretty silly to assert that moving into kernel space doesn't bring you a speed increase to certain applications. Whether or not it's necessary is the question. I think the X15 project shows quite clearly the move isn't necessary, and a well coded, designed application is better.
2.4 is such a smooth kernel though, it really begins to make the whole debate moot. This is something not true of the windows world, where one still has to be a lot more careful about thrashing context switches.
Why moves this into the kernel?
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
Context switches between kernel mode and user mode take time. Indeed these context switches tend to be the single greatest overhead in I/O bound, multithreaded apps. If memory serves, the p3 700 mhz xeon requires around 3ms to do a context switch. These little buggers add up in a real hurray. For fun, turn on the "View Kernel Times" on your Windows Task manager and see how much time certain apps spend in kernel mode. Or for real fun, head into perfmon and turn context switches. Those take time.
Moving things into the kernel isn't always a bad thing to do. When Microsoft moved the graphics engine into the kernel, it allowed Win2k to use DirectX for real, not a bad thing, and it really hasn't affected stability of the OS. I think its safe to say win2k is most stable windows operating system yet.
Network drivers, USB Drivers, indeed IDE RAID drivers all reside at the kernel level, you just have to be careful that you've built a stable base.
I think the real advantadge here would be defining what you want in the kernel and what you don't. Hell, I suspect Apache in the kernel would push pages nearly as fast as Tux, and I could say the same thing about IIS.
John "EvilJohn" Carney
Windows Team Lead - TowerJ
http://www.towerj.com/
"For an even more egregious example, examine the shoddy, non-anamorphic, "old" Kubrick DVD set as compared to the marginally flashier (but DD 5.1 and anamorphic) one which came out this week. "Uh, wouldn't you mind spending $200 for the DVDs we should have sold you in the first place?" Movie execs that authorize non-anamorphic DVDs, knowing full well how worthless they'll be come 2006, should be castrated and strung up by DVI cable. (I didn't buy the "old" Kubrick set, but I know people who did.) "
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
Actually, Kubrick shot on 35 milimeter in a 4:3 aspect ratio. His films where actually cropped for showing in theaters. This is one of those rare cases where you actually see more _more_ in a 4:3 format then you do in a 16:9. There was a good write about this on www.thedigitalbits.com a few years ago.
... I'm finding it very hard to feel _bad_ for these people.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
I really really like Star Team. As a base source control application it does a fine job on deltas. The database options for back end storage aren't too bad. I like way it ties defect handling to parts of the application to users. If you're using the native GUI it will notify you when you've been assigned a bug to fix, or if you're the tester, when the bug has been fix and its time to verify.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
Don't overlook this tool. Its a comphrensive source control, defect and feature request management system.
One thing it is missing though, is a native linux client.
.... QuakeCon is held in Mesquite, TX as that is the home of id Software. The biggest advantadge of being close to id is easy access to id employees. They come to QuakeCon to see how much you guys enjoy playing their games, and to play a little themselves.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
And make no mistake, Carmack can frag with the best of them.
The facilities we use for QuakeCon are tremendous. The Hampton Inn is the hotel connected to the Convention Center we've used the past two years ('99, '00). There are several other hotels within a 5 minute drive that offer other options at different rates.
Mesquite is on the East side of the Dallas Metro area. Depending on where you're coming from you have two options for flights. DFW is a HUGE airport, but is on the far West side of Dallas. American Airlines hubs out of DFW, finding an affordable direct flight should be fairly easy. There are shuttle services that can take you to and from your hotel, but you'll want to call your hotel to arrange one. Cab rides are very expensive from DFW.
Love Field is a smaller airport, but its a lot closer to the event. However Southwest controls nearly 90% of the gates at that airport. So your range of airline options are somewhat limited. If you're flying Southwest though, its the only way to go. Also, a cab ride from here is probably going to be 1/3 of what it is from DFW.
John "EvilJohn" Carney - eviljohn@quakecon.org
Executive Director
QuakeCon 2001
As Director of QuakeCon 2001, I'd like to chime in here and add my agreement to those of you questioning if this is a good thing or even a fun thing.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
EA is providing the machines, what do you think the chances are of their being installed games they don't publish? Do you want to play Tribes2 at the next big lan event you goto? I know I do.
Providing machines for the tournament activities is a good thing, we do that at QuakeCon to prevent cheating, and to provide a level playing field. Input configs are allowed to be transfered to the machines, but most display setting changes are not. This tends to rub the players the wrong way, but after seeing what most pros set their config to, I think its understandable. Its a Quake3 Tournament, not a washed out water-color painting Quake1 tournament.
The money EA is spending, I think $2 million US, seems like a lot, but I can easily understand how it such a bill could occur. These events aren't cheap, but they are a hell of a lot of fun.
Without our volunteers we wouldn't be able to have QuakeCon, and I'm grateful, and proud to see how each of them do both during and after the event. Some of the key volunteers use QuakeCon as a resume item. They are very proud of the work they do. As they should. Last year we built a network for 1300 people on Wednesday. Hungover. By wednesday night, we were all gaming. Of course by Thursday we were all hungover again, but at least we didn't have build another LAN.
Building a large LAN party takes a great deal of resources, but if a publisher like EA controlled the event I don't think QuakeCon would be the same. QuakeCon is the Woodstock of Gaming, yes we get corporate support, but it has been, and will always be for the people. If they want to trade files in the BYOC, thats their business. Tired of fragging? Fire up your copy of Age of Empires. You can even play EA games if you want.
Two million US. Sigh, that would have been enough for EA to finish UO2.
Peace.
John "EvilJohn" Carney
Executive Director of QuakeCon 2001
eviljohn@quakecon.org
... if I said I wasn't considering this.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
With Banner Ad rates running _so low_ two things have to happen.
1) Websites are going to have to negoiate directly with the advertisers. The days of going to a third person for advertising to provide ads are pretty much over.
2) What else needs to happen is a group of websites of dissimilar content need to get together and offer a similar service. Call it $50 a year for a package deal.
...with targeted ads. One of the most desired features from current advertisers is the ability to target ads based on the users location. Doing this by IP is very spotty, the POPID would solve that problem fairly safely.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
But what is more apperent now is that SMP is truly a dead end when it comes to multi processor systems.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
I disagree. Clustering does NOT solve the issues solved by SMP. Many applications simply do not function that well clustered (i.e. databases). Intel simply removed SMP from the P4 chip due to cost, not due to the lack effectiveness of SMP.
If Intel had given up on it, why is a major focus of the Itanium multiprocessor operations? The flaws of P3 in reference to the poor scalability beyond four (or even two) CPUs are due primarily to the bus design of the processors, not due to SMP.
The EVE6 bus, much like the Itanium bus, should really begin to approach the Linear scalibility we're all looking for out of properly written applications.
I've been working with Itanium boxes for awhile, and let me tell you they are not slow, and I'm pretty happy with what Intel has shown us. Its my opinion that this chipset with a linux 2.4 kernel will be capable of runing hand in hand with Sun E450s, at a much lower price point.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
If anyone is interested in seeing Itaniums first hand, Intel will be running Linux on Itanium at LinuxWorld. Dell also will have Redhat running on Itanium in their booth at LinuxWorld working with our 64bit version of the TowerJ compiler ( http://www.towerj.com ).
See you at LinuxWorld!
Full disclosure: I work for Tower Technology.
... you realize you are so ready for IBM.
// EvilJohn
// Java Geek
And to think I spent all day searching Ebay for an Amiga 3000.....
You miss the point.
Books are wonderful, and I love to read. Kids should read, but to be honest, books are pretty easy. They don't require you much beyond comphrension. You don't make decisions while reading a book, your actions are not relevant.
Learning the cause and effect of actions is a good thing, and one of the strongs points of gameplay, be it electronic or a traditional board games.
// EJ