During my stint at a dotcom we got some exciting perks! First off was free lunch. Now when the company was less than 20 employees the catered lunch was pretty damn good. Then the company grew and the lunch budget stayed the same, so it became cold cut sandwiches every day. And if you decided to venture out in the pursuit of something else to eat - you got dirty looks from management. Then there was the 3 month sabbatical program. Any employee who made their 5 year anniversary got to take a 3 month paid sabbatical. This was much hyped about in the local press - but then the company was only 2 years old at the time. I think one employee actually did get to take this - but the company exploded shortly after the five year mark. Or the basketball games on company time - much hyped again by the press as showing how the company cared about physical health of it's employees and didn't want them just sitting for 80 hours a week (how altruistic!). Well, those ended when someone mentioned that injuries while playing basketball on company time were a liability. On second thought, some Google stock doesn't sound too bad.
For people looking for as solution on Windows, Nvidia's nView video card software supports multiple desktops in addtion to multiple physical displays:
"nView also provides increased efficiency on a single monitor by enabling multiple Windows desktops, quicker access to hidden windows with transparency and window rollups, and hotkeys for access to all nView functions. nView provides a quick and easy way for you to manage multiple Windows desktops, thereby increasing your efficiency and enabling you to see what you've been missing."
Yes and to play an FPS online on a PC such as oh say BattleField 1942/Vietnam, Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament etc. costs exactly $0 a month after the initial purchase. And there are many great mods for these games too.
"128K in the original Mac - Even in a world where an operating system, a couple of applications, and all of your documents could fit on a 400K floppy, 128KB of RAM was still not enough. Fortunately, the Mac shipped with 512KB less than a year after its introduction."
The original Amiga 1000 had a similar problem with RAM. It was released with 256k which was barely enough to boot the OS. The upgrade module to 512k became a permanent fixture shortly after launch. RAM was really expensive at the time.
The keep it inexpensive attitude that drove initial Mac development and lead to the initial units having only 128k RAM is also part of the reason why MacOS did not have things like preemptive multitasking - even though it was included in the Lisa OS.
I always thought it was pretty bizarre that Apple funded both the Mac and Lisa at around the same time, while selling the ][ series and also releasing the ][GS (which it should be noted was somewhat castrated to prevent it from stepping on the Mac's shoes).
Yeah I had big problems mastering my bus on the VIA P3 era chipsets. Caused me no end of trouble with DMA CD burners. Nothing like having a drive randomly kick back to a slow PIO mode on boot to cause coasters.
Just thought I should chime in - I'm a gamer with a Pentium 4. The reason? Stability. I've had problems with VIA in the past as well. I had bad luck with the AGP support on their P3 boards. I had bad luck with their software drivers. The same board also fried on me (the only mobo I've owned that has). And it was an Abit board, so not a super low end mobo. Now I can't comment on the current generation stuff because I haven't used it. I just didn't feel like dealing with the possibility of unstable hardware. Sometimes people go with what they know to be reliable. On the otherhand I stayed away from the high end P4 Prescotts because of the heat problems. Whenever someone asks me for advice on gaming systems I mention that the Athlon's are top of the line in performance and very affordable. When I hear what they ended up buying it's usually a P4.
Sony PS3: Nvidia Xbox 2: ATI Nintendo Revolution: ATI
The current Gamecube uses an ATI chip, the Xbox uses Nvidia and the Sony PS2 uses an in house developed chip. Nvidia has stated that they are leveraging their next generation chipset (the one to come out after the 6x00 series) to power the PS3. So both ATI and Nvidia are leveraging their development across both PC and consoles. I think the high end PC card market is a way to showcase and gain exposure. So while the people buying an X800 or 6800 might not be that many, a lot may buy the lower end (say the 6600 or X600 series) based on buzz and reviews off of the high end.
In the business world it's very close to 100%. Since Intel started shipping mobos with integrated graphics we haven't purchased any machines with seperate video cards except for graphic designers. Considering that most employees run 1024x768 32bit color on 17" monitors, the onboard is more than sufficient.
At work I'm still running my over four year old Matrox G400 dual head. It works great, has excellent image quality and sucks ass at playing any games beyond Quake 3. I have installed this card in every computer upgrade I have had. Since we by computers with onboard video now, I just use it to enable using two monitors. For business I can't see any point in switching to something newer. The only thing I wouldn't mind would be a triple head Parhelia.
Nothing really. Just playing Doom 3 and Half Life 2 at 1600x1200 with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering. That's about it until someone actually releases a game that pushes the high end cards.
"I was thinking. Since Microsoft is moving the XBox to the PowerPC is there a chance that we will see a special version of the CELL? Maybe even a CELL that is modified to emulate the x86 at very high speed to act as a bridge away from x86?"
Anything like this is way to far out there in timescale. IBM and Sony are building the Cell. You won't see a Cell processor in an Xbox that's for sure. At least not anytime soon.
Played it. Won it. Can say I really care all that much if I ever play it again. Maybe to boot it up and mess with it for nostalgia but there isn't much replayability there.
I purchased via Steam to avoid having to do a CD check as well as the Steam sign on (as with the retail version). I paid $60 for the silver version which includes the Valve back catalogue. The main HL2 game certainly was a lot of fun, although the load times could be annoying and the overall game was kind of short. In particular the last levels where a large amount of time is spent on the cool but non-interactive ride, followed by an ending that is more "huh?" than "woah!". The long term value is arguably good. I myself can't get into Counter Strike and the added on HL2 deathmatch becomes dull quickly. I am looking forward to the mod community's releases to extend the value of the game.
The UNIX hating comment was injected purely for irony.
The reality of it is that many Mac users have no clue that OSX is based on UNIX. Do these post often on Slashdot. To be fair, no they don't. In fact most of these users don't even know that UNIX exists.
Aloha from a user of Windows, Linux, BSD UNIX, Mac OS 9 and X.
Gee it's out of stock - so I guess that must be because it sucks so hard.
I will at least give you a polite nod for the "crappier video" comment. Crappier implies that you feel the Mac Mini's video is crappy. Which is better than the usual "it runs World of Warcrack so it's all the video you will need" comments.
I wasn't suggesting it was better, just that it is a better comparison seeing as it is much faster. BTW, there is a Mocha model that is not out of stock and can be purchased.
I compared pricing for a 2.4GHz P4 with 1GB RAM, DVD recorder and 80 gig drive to the Mac Mini. And yes the Mac was cheaper. If you wanted to buy a barebones Mocha and purchase the extra components yourself I believe it would be cheaper. Apple's upgrade component prices are not exactly cheap.
As for the looks issue. I keep getting this in response. Who cares? Do you look and drool at how beautiful your computer is while you use? Shouldn't you be looking at the monitor? As if the Mac Mini looks like much anyway, it's a little white box with a gray apple on top and a slit in the front. So what? Aesthetically minimalist sure, beautiful - um no.
I'm not a Mac Mini hater. I think they are pretty cool little Macs. It just seems to me that the majority of people think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Maybe for the Mac world, because it's the first "affordable Mac" but keep in mind that it sure isn't going to roast your toast like a G5 will. In fact, if you factor in monitor cost, for many people the eMac is a better deal.
Agreed if you are looking a the Espresso. But how about the Mocha? With dimensions of 6.18" x 5.75" x 2.2" and featuring a full blown Pentium 4 it is a much better comparison.
Most likely. The real question is how useful will the mod be? With the current Xbox, it's PC like origins make ports of existing software such as emulators fairly easy. We'll have to see if that's still true with a PowerPC based Xbox. Also upgrading the hard drive in the Xbox is simple. Rumour has it that MS is likely to move to a proprietary flash memory system with the Xbox Next. This may not be easily upgradeable.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmm, when I click on the "System Requirements" link I get a "page not found" error. :)
This does not bode well!
During my stint at a dotcom we got some exciting perks! First off was free lunch. Now when the company was less than 20 employees the catered lunch was pretty damn good. Then the company grew and the lunch budget stayed the same, so it became cold cut sandwiches every day. And if you decided to venture out in the pursuit of something else to eat - you got dirty looks from management.
Then there was the 3 month sabbatical program. Any employee who made their 5 year anniversary got to take a 3 month paid sabbatical. This was much hyped about in the local press - but then the company was only 2 years old at the time. I think one employee actually did get to take this - but the company exploded shortly after the five year mark.
Or the basketball games on company time - much hyped again by the press as showing how the company cared about physical health of it's employees and didn't want them just sitting for 80 hours a week (how altruistic!). Well, those ended when someone mentioned that injuries while playing basketball on company time were a liability.
On second thought, some Google stock doesn't sound too bad.
"nView also provides increased efficiency on a single monitor by enabling multiple Windows desktops, quicker access to hidden windows with transparency and window rollups, and hotkeys for access to all nView functions. nView provides a quick and easy way for you to manage multiple Windows desktops, thereby increasing your efficiency and enabling you to see what you've been missing."
nView Multi Display Technology
I came across this while playing with my video card settings the other day. Some pretty neat options buried in there.
Yeah flip out an kill people. All the time. Because that's what Ninjas do.
Yes and to play an FPS online on a PC such as oh say BattleField 1942/Vietnam, Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament etc. costs exactly $0 a month after the initial purchase. And there are many great mods for these games too.
Try pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and selecting "Task Manager". Or going to the RUN option on the start menu and typing taskmgr as the program name to run.
The original Amiga 1000 had a similar problem with RAM. It was released with 256k which was barely enough to boot the OS. The upgrade module to 512k became a permanent fixture shortly after launch. RAM was really expensive at the time.
The keep it inexpensive attitude that drove initial Mac development and lead to the initial units having only 128k RAM is also part of the reason why MacOS did not have things like preemptive multitasking - even though it was included in the Lisa OS.
I always thought it was pretty bizarre that Apple funded both the Mac and Lisa at around the same time, while selling the ][ series and also releasing the ][GS (which it should be noted was somewhat castrated to prevent it from stepping on the Mac's shoes).
That's nothing! The Commodore 64 is STILL being made!
hehe
Yeah I had big problems mastering my bus on the VIA P3 era chipsets.
Caused me no end of trouble with DMA CD burners. Nothing like having a drive randomly kick back to a slow PIO mode on boot to cause coasters.
Just thought I should chime in - I'm a gamer with a Pentium 4. The reason? Stability. I've had problems with VIA in the past as well. I had bad luck with the AGP support on their P3 boards. I had bad luck with their software drivers. The same board also fried on me (the only mobo I've owned that has). And it was an Abit board, so not a super low end mobo.
Now I can't comment on the current generation stuff because I haven't used it. I just didn't feel like dealing with the possibility of unstable hardware.
Sometimes people go with what they know to be reliable. On the otherhand I stayed away from the high end P4 Prescotts because of the heat problems.
Whenever someone asks me for advice on gaming systems I mention that the Athlon's are top of the line in performance and very affordable. When I hear what they ended up buying it's usually a P4.
I hadn't heard that. I'm glad they took it out - it was retarded to penalize people for buyihng the retail.
The next generation console break down is:
Sony PS3: Nvidia
Xbox 2: ATI
Nintendo Revolution: ATI
The current Gamecube uses an ATI chip, the Xbox uses Nvidia and the Sony PS2 uses an in house developed chip.
Nvidia has stated that they are leveraging their next generation chipset (the one to come out after the 6x00 series) to power the PS3.
So both ATI and Nvidia are leveraging their development across both PC and consoles. I think the high end PC card market is a way to showcase and gain exposure. So while the people buying an X800 or 6800 might not be that many, a lot may buy the lower end (say the 6600 or X600 series) based on buzz and reviews off of the high end.
In the business world it's very close to 100%. Since Intel started shipping mobos with integrated graphics we haven't purchased any machines with seperate video cards except for graphic designers.
Considering that most employees run 1024x768 32bit color on 17" monitors, the onboard is more than sufficient.
At work I'm still running my over four year old Matrox G400 dual head. It works great, has excellent image quality and sucks ass at playing any games beyond Quake 3.
I have installed this card in every computer upgrade I have had. Since we by computers with onboard video now, I just use it to enable using two monitors.
For business I can't see any point in switching to something newer.
The only thing I wouldn't mind would be a triple head Parhelia.
Nothing really. Just playing Doom 3 and Half Life 2 at 1600x1200 with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.
That's about it until someone actually releases a game that pushes the high end cards.
"I was thinking. Since Microsoft is moving the XBox to the PowerPC is there a chance that we will see a special version of the CELL? Maybe even a CELL that is modified to emulate the x86 at very high speed to act as a bridge away from x86?"
Anything like this is way to far out there in timescale. IBM and Sony are building the Cell. You won't see a Cell processor in an Xbox that's for sure. At least not anytime soon.
Played it. Won it. Can say I really care all that much if I ever play it again. Maybe to boot it up and mess with it for nostalgia but there isn't much replayability there.
Um... 1.7 million units @ $50 a pop = $85 million.
I purchased via Steam to avoid having to do a CD check as well as the Steam sign on (as with the retail version).
I paid $60 for the silver version which includes the Valve back catalogue.
The main HL2 game certainly was a lot of fun, although the load times could be annoying and the overall game was kind of short. In particular the last levels where a large amount of time is spent on the cool but non-interactive ride, followed by an ending that is more "huh?" than "woah!".
The long term value is arguably good. I myself can't get into Counter Strike and the added on HL2 deathmatch becomes dull quickly. I am looking forward to the mod community's releases to extend the value of the game.
As the original poster I guess I must expand:
The post was sarcastic.
The UNIX hating comment was injected purely for irony.
The reality of it is that many Mac users have no clue that OSX is based on UNIX. Do these post often on Slashdot. To be fair, no they don't. In fact most of these users don't even know that UNIX exists.
Aloha from a user of Windows, Linux, BSD UNIX, Mac OS 9 and X.
Gee it's out of stock - so I guess that must be because it sucks so hard.
I will at least give you a polite nod for the "crappier video" comment. Crappier implies that you feel the Mac Mini's video is crappy. Which is better than the usual "it runs World of Warcrack so it's all the video you will need" comments.
I wasn't suggesting it was better, just that it is a better comparison seeing as it is much faster. BTW, there is a Mocha model that is not out of stock and can be purchased.
I compared pricing for a 2.4GHz P4 with 1GB RAM, DVD recorder and 80 gig drive to the Mac Mini. And yes the Mac was cheaper. If you wanted to buy a barebones Mocha and purchase the extra components yourself I believe it would be cheaper. Apple's upgrade component prices are not exactly cheap.
As for the looks issue. I keep getting this in response. Who cares? Do you look and drool at how beautiful your computer is while you use? Shouldn't you be looking at the monitor? As if the Mac Mini looks like much anyway, it's a little white box with a gray apple on top and a slit in the front. So what? Aesthetically minimalist sure, beautiful - um no.
I'm not a Mac Mini hater. I think they are pretty cool little Macs. It just seems to me that the majority of people think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Maybe for the Mac world, because it's the first "affordable Mac" but keep in mind that it sure isn't going to roast your toast like a G5 will. In fact, if you factor in monitor cost, for many people the eMac is a better deal.
Agreed if you are looking a the Espresso. But how about the Mocha? With dimensions of 6.18" x 5.75" x 2.2" and featuring a full blown Pentium 4 it is a much better comparison.
Most likely. The real question is how useful will the mod be?
With the current Xbox, it's PC like origins make ports of existing software such as emulators fairly easy. We'll have to see if that's still true with a PowerPC based Xbox.
Also upgrading the hard drive in the Xbox is simple. Rumour has it that MS is likely to move to a proprietary flash memory system with the Xbox Next. This may not be easily upgradeable.
Don't you mean:
If buttholes were peepshows, then the 'Nigs are the window to the soul of this fuckin ridiculous world.
Let's just get the obligatory Apple troll out of the way...
Expensive? Let's see you find a PC that is priced the same as a Mac Mini and has such awesome speed power and software!
Oh yeah and it doesn't run spyware! So there!
And the OS only needs a one button mouse, because it was designed to only use one button unlike stupid multi mouse interfaces like Windows and UNIX.