Does this mean my liability insurance for driving on the information superhighway is going to go up? AGAIN?! It's not fair that just because I have a lot of bandwidth, my case is modded, and I'm a programmer that I have to pay more. I compute responsibly and my record is spotless, yet I'm still high-risk!
"As previously discussed ( Divx - The Real Xbox Killer App), the ability to play reasonably high-quality films, speedily burned onto inexpensive CDR media, is going to make (modded) Xbox ownership a far more attractive proposition. This will take Divx beyond the desktops of those with broadband connections and into the living rooms of those who don't own computers. Expect to see a resurgence of Xbox sales and much confusion in MS as to whether or not this is a good thing."
Am I missing something? How do these people get Divx movies burned onto a CD without a computer? Can you get them at Best Buy?
If you meant your supposed to score burned Divx movies from friends. Well, have fun with that..
It's great that the XBox will be able to do this, but it's hardly a break-through for those without computers.
Actually, I can see this being a problem with any type of bandwidth counter.
Let's say I don't like you or whatever, and at the beginning of every month/billing period I send 3 GB of UDP packets to your IP address. It will only take me a few hours to transmit this amount of data to you.
Your computer will ignore the packets, but the ISP's counter will log them and, blammo, have fun in 28k land.
I can only imagine the tech support hell I'd have to go through to get satisfaction - if ever.
I work at a small company, we design and manufacture "equipment". We also build up racks for customers with 3rd party equipment and our equipment.
Anyway, we shipped several racks (full-sized enclosed telco racks) to a location in Mexico City. Some of our people were on hand to make sure everything went smoothly.
When the racks arrived, the buyer realized that they could not get the racks up to their floor because of the rack's size (I can't remember where the bottleneck was). So.. They rigged up a system where they lowered a rope from the floor above them and pulled the racks up the side of the building. (the electronic goodies were removed before they did this btw) When they got the rack up to the top, they had to swing it to get it close enough to the building so that guys hanging out the window below could grab the bottom and pull it through their window (90 degrees on it's side).
Well, they got them all up there, minus some paint and plus some dings. The funny part is, this is just where the racks are being configured and tested. The racks are going to be moved to a different location in the near future.
I could argue the same for 1992, what's your point? I guess it would only set them back 10 years?
If the top 3 PC OEMs have a version of Windows that is specifically unfriendly to AMD
Yes, please be specific, I would love that.
They're not going leave out all driver support for AMD chipsets, or include a version of DirectX not optimized for 3DNow. They won't be able to, it will be against the software license, which is what keeps them from doing it as we speak. What they will be allowed to do is remove the applications that aren't required for the basic operation of the OS and add their counterparts per the customer's request. This isn't a hardware thing, it's a software thing. We want 3rd party apps to be on a level playing field with Microsofts apps, that's all. If a software developer chooses to make their app incompatible with an AMD processor, that's their choice. They would almost certainly have to make a conscious decision to do so however - that and they could do this already if they wanted.
I own both AMD and Intel systems and have been coding for almost 2 decades. The article is FUD, end of story.
And using compatibility arguments between an 8088 and a 6502 and comparing that situation to the AMD and Intel x86s doesn't even make sense. The only reason AMD is around is because they were Intel compatible. If they want to change that now, they do so at their own risk -- they did it with 3DNow! and they'll try to do so with Hammer. So far so good. Now if they go and invent a completely new architecture, yeah, it might not get Windows support -- you don't see SPARC owners whining about it.
The proposal, he argued, could lead to the fragmentation of Windows and "would set the computer industry back almost 20 years."
Where did that number come from? Windows hasn't even been around for 20 years, how is pulling out the browser going to be worse than starting from scratch?
He faulted the remedy provision of the litigating states, which would compel Microsoft to release a second version of Windows without so-called middleware, such as browsing and media playback technologies.
Oh no, what would we do, use Netscape or WinAmp? Or, or, we could still use IE and WindowsMediaPlayer, only it would be by choice, that's all we're asking..
Unless one of the parts is an unpopulated motherboard PCB. You probably won't be breadboarding together the high speed busses/signals, the electrical tolerances are just too strict. Plus most of the parts are surface mount, BGAs and the like. You'd have to buy sockets for everything (which cost big bucks). Now, I don't want to say it's impossible, but..
Actually, without getting the density achieved by using a custom PCB, it might be physically impossible to route all the connections and adhere to all the tolerances using off the shelf solutions.
FYI, I'm a software guy, but the company I work for builds/manufactures motherboards. Even with the reference design straight from Intel, it's still hard work and can take 2 EEs up to a year*. That's also with access to nice (expensive) test equipment and a lab.
* Actually, I don't know how long it would take to do a "normal" motherboard. Ours are small compared to a typical motherboard (they're actually PICMG SBCs) and they have integrated components (SCSI, video, Ethernet, etc) and a custom BIOS. So that makes our design more time consuming.
Either that or they need to be told they have a representative that's more interested in going to bat for a corporation from a different state than his own constituents. In the grand scheme of things that might not be very accurate, but it'd still make a good commercial.:P
Like many of these laws, once the prosecution sees that they might lose, they settle, or drop the charges. They don't want to risk the law getting overturned. That way the law stays around and can still act as a deterrent -- especially against smaller organizations and cut-and-dried violations with popular support -- something Scientology most definitely does NOT have, which is why I follow J.R. Bob Dobbs.
Yeah, when I was in college in the early 90's I worked at a local clone manufacturer. (still kinda do I guess)
Back then I'd say, in my mind, from best to worst were...
1. Micropolis 2. Quantum 3. Seagate 4. Fujitsu 5. Conner 6. Western Digital 7. Maxtor
Of course, the above 2 really only made SCSI drives at the time. Seagate was hit and miss, and the last 4 were crap more often than not.
Micropolis was *THE* drive. Though, at the end of the lifespan a few years ago, the drives we'd get from distributors had about a 75% failure rate. That was insane.
Personally, I've always used Quantums. I've got some Quantums that are over 10 years old and they still run. I've got a Fireball that is 5 years old. Been running pretty much non-stop. This drive did hiccup a year ago though -- it came back up, but I paniced and ran to best buy and bought a western digital (all they stocked) and made it the primary.
I'm putting together my first *new* computer in 5 years as I type, and I'm using 2 Maxtors now..
I've never personally had a bad hard disk in my 18+ years with computers. So, I'm pretty lucky. But I've seen hundereds, maybe thousands.
Basically you just have to look at the here and now. You can't blindly stay loyal to one manufacturer.
In other words, there are two heat/cool cycles per power cycle. Connect a solar cell to a speaker, and you will hear a 120Hz hum.
Um, I'm not an EE, but I'm pretty sure the output from a solar cell is DC, i.e. no sine wave so no 120Hz hum. Besides, even if it were AC, there's no natural reason why it should have a 120Hz cycle anyway. But, even if that were true, I think you're thinking that each 180 degree phase of a 60Hz single combined would make a 120Hz signal, but I think you can see where the flaw is there, no?
I think we have real mode and protected mode confused:) I'm just talking about real mode (in which case my previous post is correct:), there is no virtual memory/virtual addressing in real mode.
But yeah, in protected mode the segment register was actually just an index (a selector) into a descriptor table. Then the offset was the added to the base address given by the descriptor. You would get an exception if you went past the end of the memory segment as defined in the descriptor. It's been a long time though, I know the descriptors were different from the 286 to the 386+ processors, but I'd have to consult my old Intel manuals to see what would happen under all addressing scenarios..:)
So, you can see that there would be many ways to write the same address. What happens here though?
FFFF:FFFF ?
0FFFF + FFFF ------ 10FFEF - Bit 20 is ignored, since it didn't exist..
Basically, it wrapped over and you were really using address 0000:FFEF.. And some people coded using this as a "feature" Then, on 286's you could be allowed to use the extra FFEF bytes above FFFFF, but that caused problems for code expecting the roll-over, so that's where that Gate A20 option in your BIOS comes (came) from, it toggled that "functionality".
Getting in over your head that is.. Because you'll eventually have a conversation like this:
Me: You needed to see me?
PHB: Yes, sit down. We need something to compete with Microsoft Windows. Sales has decided that they need this to break into markets that have thus far been out of our reach.
Me: *blank stare*
PHB: We need a demo in time for the Lala Expo and we need to be able to ship 2 weeks later. The Expo is in August so that gives us almost 6 months. One customer is really interested in getting this in late July though, so if we can meet that deadline, there will be a $5,000 bonus.
Me: *blank stare*
PHB: Great! I'll schedule daily progress meetings with myself, you, sales, and marketing.
DISCLAIMER: If my boss reads this I'm just kidding..
Seriously though, I'm starting the framework for what could be a MMORPG, but I've been taking on things like that for almost 18 years now -- never completing a vast, vast majority of them! But you know, I had fun, learned a ton, and I'm very employable now, regardless of never really having a finished product (of course, I don't work in the game industry). Basically, if you will learn something and it's enjoyable to you, go for it, because hands-on experience (good or bad) is the only thing that really makes you a better programmer.
Just checking out PC HDTV decoders the other day..
on
I STILL Want My HDTV
·
· Score: 4, Informative
..and came across a few links that show all the HDTV broadcasters in the U.S. Kind of interesting, there's one in a town 100 miles north of myself.. woohoo..:P
Like music CDs, it's probably cheaper to buy the (American) import than it is to buy from a local retailer in Japan. To help the Japanese retailers, most producers of media in Japan try to encourage buying locally. In the case of music CDs, they usually add extra tracks to the Japanese release to entice buyers, here they are forcing you to buy locally -- using a technique similar to that of regional encoding on DVDs.
I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it's not as evil as people think..
Slashdot Mirror
Does this mean my liability insurance for driving on the information superhighway is going to go up? AGAIN?! It's not fair that just because I have a lot of bandwidth, my case is modded, and I'm a programmer that I have to pay more. I compute responsibly and my record is spotless, yet I'm still high-risk!
Bah!
Want it without the ads? Well, shell out 50 bucks for our DVD.
Gee, I wonder if that will happen.
Doh, I guess that was stated in the second link.
Sorry for being redundant.
I found out about the concert this weekend checking out Terry Riley's web site. I'm not a huge fan, but was just surfing through.
Apparently he is going to be interpreting some of this stuff and performing at the concert. Just a heads up for any Terry Riley fans.
Since I live in Iowa City, I might have to drag myself down there.
You just don't get it do you? Microsoft needs to be allowed to innovate!
</sarcasm>
"As previously discussed ( Divx - The Real Xbox Killer App), the ability to play reasonably high-quality films, speedily burned onto inexpensive CDR media, is going to make (modded) Xbox ownership a far more attractive proposition. This will take Divx beyond the desktops of those with broadband connections and into the living rooms of those who don't own computers. Expect to see a resurgence of Xbox sales and much confusion in MS as to whether or not this is a good thing."
Am I missing something? How do these people get Divx movies burned onto a CD without a computer? Can you get them at Best Buy?
If you meant your supposed to score burned Divx movies from friends. Well, have fun with that..
It's great that the XBox will be able to do this, but it's hardly a break-through for those without computers.
Interesting..
I think doom prevented me from getting out of a decent college.
Actually, I can see this being a problem with any type of bandwidth counter.
Let's say I don't like you or whatever, and at the beginning of every month/billing period I send 3 GB of UDP packets to your IP address. It will only take me a few hours to transmit this amount of data to you.
Your computer will ignore the packets, but the ISP's counter will log them and, blammo, have fun in 28k land.
I can only imagine the tech support hell I'd have to go through to get satisfaction - if ever.
That would suck, for lack of a better word.
I work at a small company, we design and manufacture "equipment". We also build up racks for customers with 3rd party equipment and our equipment.
Anyway, we shipped several racks (full-sized enclosed telco racks) to a location in Mexico City. Some of our people were on hand to make sure everything went smoothly.
When the racks arrived, the buyer realized that they could not get the racks up to their floor because of the rack's size (I can't remember where the bottleneck was). So.. They rigged up a system where they lowered a rope from the floor above them and pulled the racks up the side of the building. (the electronic goodies were removed before they did this btw) When they got the rack up to the top, they had to swing it to get it close enough to the building so that guys hanging out the window below could grab the bottom and pull it through their window (90 degrees on it's side).
Well, they got them all up there, minus some paint and plus some dings. The funny part is, this is just where the racks are being configured and tested. The racks are going to be moved to a different location in the near future.
Uh..in 1982 you'd be damn...
I could argue the same for 1992, what's your point? I guess it would only set them back 10 years?
If the top 3 PC OEMs have a version of Windows that is specifically unfriendly to AMD
Yes, please be specific, I would love that.
They're not going leave out all driver support for AMD chipsets, or include a version of DirectX not optimized for 3DNow. They won't be able to, it will be against the software license, which is what keeps them from doing it as we speak. What they will be allowed to do is remove the applications that aren't required for the basic operation of the OS and add their counterparts per the customer's request. This isn't a hardware thing, it's a software thing. We want 3rd party apps to be on a level playing field with Microsofts apps, that's all. If a software developer chooses to make their app incompatible with an AMD processor, that's their choice. They would almost certainly have to make a conscious decision to do so however - that and they could do this already if they wanted.
I own both AMD and Intel systems and have been coding for almost 2 decades. The article is FUD, end of story.
And using compatibility arguments between an 8088 and a 6502 and comparing that situation to the AMD and Intel x86s doesn't even make sense. The only reason AMD is around is because they were Intel compatible. If they want to change that now, they do so at their own risk -- they did it with 3DNow! and they'll try to do so with Hammer. So far so good. Now if they go and invent a completely new architecture, yeah, it might not get Windows support -- you don't see SPARC owners whining about it.
The proposal, he argued, could lead to the fragmentation of Windows and "would set the computer industry back almost 20 years."
Where did that number come from? Windows hasn't even been around for 20 years, how is pulling out the browser going to be worse than starting from scratch?
He faulted the remedy provision of the litigating states, which would compel Microsoft to release a second version of Windows without so-called middleware, such as browsing and media playback technologies.
Oh no, what would we do, use Netscape or WinAmp? Or, or, we could still use IE and WindowsMediaPlayer, only it would be by choice, that's all we're asking..
What a bunch of FUD.
I'd have to say, no.
Unless one of the parts is an unpopulated motherboard PCB. You probably won't be breadboarding together the high speed busses/signals, the electrical tolerances are just too strict. Plus most of the parts are surface mount, BGAs and the like. You'd have to buy sockets for everything (which cost big bucks). Now, I don't want to say it's impossible, but..
Actually, without getting the density achieved by using a custom PCB, it might be physically impossible to route all the connections and adhere to all the tolerances using off the shelf solutions.
FYI, I'm a software guy, but the company I work for builds/manufactures motherboards. Even with the reference design straight from Intel, it's still hard work and can take 2 EEs up to a year*. That's also with access to nice (expensive) test equipment and a lab.
* Actually, I don't know how long it would take to do a "normal" motherboard. Ours are small compared to a typical motherboard (they're actually PICMG SBCs) and they have integrated components (SCSI, video, Ethernet, etc) and a custom BIOS. So that makes our design more time consuming.
Either that or they need to be told they have a representative that's more interested in going to bat for a corporation from a different state than his own constituents. In the grand scheme of things that might not be very accurate, but it'd still make a good commercial.
Like many of these laws, once the prosecution sees that they might lose, they settle, or drop the charges. They don't want to risk the law getting overturned. That way the law stays around and can still act as a deterrent -- especially against smaller organizations and cut-and-dried violations with popular support -- something Scientology most definitely does NOT have, which is why I follow J.R. Bob Dobbs.
There's 2 pages, it was on the second page.
Yeah, when I was in college in the early 90's I worked at a local clone manufacturer. (still kinda do I guess)
Back then I'd say, in my mind, from best to worst were...
1. Micropolis
2. Quantum
3. Seagate
4. Fujitsu
5. Conner
6. Western Digital
7. Maxtor
Of course, the above 2 really only made SCSI drives at the time. Seagate was hit and miss, and the last 4 were crap more often than not.
Micropolis was *THE* drive. Though, at the end of the lifespan a few years ago, the drives we'd get from distributors had about a 75% failure rate. That was insane.
Personally, I've always used Quantums. I've got some Quantums that are over 10 years old and they still run. I've got a Fireball that is 5 years old. Been running pretty much non-stop. This drive did hiccup a year ago though -- it came back up, but I paniced and ran to best buy and bought a western digital (all they stocked) and made it the primary.
I'm putting together my first *new* computer in 5 years as I type, and I'm using 2 Maxtors now..
I've never personally had a bad hard disk in my 18+ years with computers. So, I'm pretty lucky. But I've seen hundereds, maybe thousands.
Basically you just have to look at the here and now. You can't blindly stay loyal to one manufacturer.
Well, they weren't H-bombs, but yes..
Study: 1950s nuclear fallout worse than thought
In other words, there are two heat/cool cycles per power cycle. Connect a solar cell to a speaker, and you will hear a 120Hz hum.
Um, I'm not an EE, but I'm pretty sure the output from a solar cell is DC, i.e. no sine wave so no 120Hz hum. Besides, even if it were AC, there's no natural reason why it should have a 120Hz cycle anyway. But, even if that were true, I think you're thinking that each 180 degree phase of a 60Hz single combined would make a 120Hz signal, but I think you can see where the flaw is there, no?
I think we have real mode and protected mode confused :) I'm just talking about real mode (in which case my previous post is correct :), there is no virtual memory/virtual addressing in real mode.
:)
But yeah, in protected mode the segment register was actually just an index (a selector) into a descriptor table. Then the offset was the added to the base address given by the descriptor. You would get an exception if you went past the end of the memory segment as defined in the descriptor. It's been a long time though, I know the descriptors were different from the 286 to the 386+ processors, but I'd have to consult my old Intel manuals to see what would happen under all addressing scenarios..
Doh, I meant to reply to the parent of this post.. :P
Yeah, you had 16 64kB segments.. I'm doing this from memory, so cut me some slack.. :P
:P)..
:P
The way it was represented was as follows:
segment:offset or
A000:0000 - The beginning of a page of VGA mapped memory for instance (usually
The math was as follows:
A000 - segment
+0000 - offset
------
A0000 - physical 20-bit address
So, you can see that there would be many ways to write the same address. What happens here though?
FFFF:FFFF ?
0FFFF
+ FFFF
------
10FFEF - Bit 20 is ignored, since it didn't exist..
Basically, it wrapped over and you were really using address 0000:FFEF.. And some people coded using this as a "feature" Then, on 286's you could be allowed to use the extra FFEF bytes above FFFFF, but that caused problems for code expecting the roll-over, so that's where that Gate A20 option in your BIOS comes (came) from, it toggled that "functionality".
DOS programming was a blast..
Getting in over your head that is.. Because you'll eventually have a conversation like this:
Me: You needed to see me?
PHB: Yes, sit down. We need something to compete with Microsoft Windows. Sales has decided that they need this to break into markets that have thus far been out of our reach.
Me: *blank stare*
PHB: We need a demo in time for the Lala Expo and we need to be able to ship 2 weeks later. The Expo is in August so that gives us almost 6 months. One customer is really interested in getting this in late July though, so if we can meet that deadline, there will be a $5,000 bonus.
Me: *blank stare*
PHB: Great! I'll schedule daily progress meetings with myself, you, sales, and marketing.
DISCLAIMER: If my boss reads this I'm just kidding..
Seriously though, I'm starting the framework for what could be a MMORPG, but I've been taking on things like that for almost 18 years now -- never completing a vast, vast majority of them! But you know, I had fun, learned a ton, and I'm very employable now, regardless of never really having a finished product (of course, I don't work in the game industry). Basically, if you will learn something and it's enjoyable to you, go for it, because hands-on experience (good or bad) is the only thing that really makes you a better programmer.
..and came across a few links that show all the HDTV broadcasters in the U.S. Kind of interesting, there's one in a town 100 miles north of myself.. woohoo.. :P
www.nab.org
www.hdpictures.com
..is probably to help protect Japanese retailers.
Like music CDs, it's probably cheaper to buy the (American) import than it is to buy from a local retailer in Japan. To help the Japanese retailers, most producers of media in Japan try to encourage buying locally. In the case of music CDs, they usually add extra tracks to the Japanese release to entice buyers, here they are forcing you to buy locally -- using a technique similar to that of regional encoding on DVDs.
I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it's not as evil as people think..
CmdrTaco's think that they are the only persons on this planet!