While the new LCD flat-panel displays are dropping in price, you still have to deal with three issues: 1) screen blurring on very fast motion (though this has gotten way better in the last year or so), 2) LCD's are optimized for one display resolution and 3) they're still fairly expensive (especially now with 19" CRT monitors now under US$200 in price).
Given the CRT monitors maintain their sharpness from 640x680 all the way up to 1600x1200 and beyond (depending on the dot pitch of the monitor) and can run at 85 Hz vertical refresh rate for true flicker-free viewing, I think they're still preferred for serious imaging processing work. The new very-low profile CRT's using this new technology will allow 17" to 21" monitors have less physical depth than even the old 14" monitors from way back, which means more room saved on your desk.
I think this company may license the technology to Samsung or LG Electronics, both of which now make excellent monitors at reasonable prices. Samsung could have a huge winner right here with high-resolution CRT monitors that have half the depth of their predecessors.
I'm really amazed someone would start a line for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones so early. (rolling eyes heavenward)
This kind of boggles me considering that I thought there would have been a waiting line started months earlier for the first Lord of the Rings movie (which kind of surprised me that it didn't really happen).
William Shatner's famous remark GET A LIFE! really applies here, that's to be sure.
I think people are forgetting that there are easier (and reasonably cheap) ways to speed up your computer.
First, get as much RAM as you can afford. Get at least 128 MB RAM; however, with the price of SDRAM DIMM's being so dirt-cheap nowadays you might as well get 256 MB or even 512 MB. With that much RAM, you can open way more programs concurrently and also because you use the hard drive way less for virtual memory, programs in general can run as much as 60% or more faster.
Second, get the fastest hard drive you can afford. If you system supports ATA-33/66/100/133 IDE interface connections, make sure the drive runs at 7200 rpm and make sure the drive has a generous buffer memory size (2 MB minimum).
I don't find overclocking such a great idea, especially now with the price of CPU's dropping like stone in water even for the faster CPU's.
The cave trolls motion was captured from a human actor.... Not generated by computer.
While the basic movements of the Cave Troll were done by motion capture, note that in the final movie the movements of the character had a herky-jerky feel like what you saw from the stop-motion work of Harryhausen. I think the CGI was deliberately done that way, hence my comment it was an homage to Harryhausen's special effects work.
WETA Digital could have rendered the Cave Troll so it moved smoothly, apeing the go-motion model designs from ILM. But then, it wouldn't be a homage to Harryhausen, would it?:-)
I'm glad you mentioned the fact that Japanese animation companies are heavily using computers nowadays.
The reason is simple: FujiFilm a few years ago said they would phase out the production of the thick transparent film used in animation cel production. Because of that, the Japanese animation companies had to quickly adopt what Disney has been doing since the early 1990's with their Computer Aided Production System (CAPS)--the final cel is completely painted by computer and then directly transferred to film.
On the positive side, look at your examples of Shrek and Toy Story. Both movies had top name actors providing the voices for key characters.
Indeed. Much of the success of the two Toy Story movies was due the fact they very effectively used voice talent--they got famous actors whose voice really made the movie go.
A Japanese seiyuu can become extremely famous if they do a large number of very good anime series. A good example is Hayashibara Megumi: she voiced Lina Inverse in three Slayers TV series, Ayanami Rei in Shin Seiki Evangelion, and Lime in two Saber Marionette TV series (among many other voice acting credits). She also has two radio shows in Japan and is a frequent guest on many Japanese entertainment shows. Even though most of use don't understand Japanese, you can understand why she's so famous in Japan--her voice acting skills range from very subdued to over-the-top hyperkenetic, and she pulls it off extremely effectively.
However, you forgot one thing that director Peter Jackson said about the Cave Troll: it was designed specifically as an homage to Ray Harryhausen, perhaps the greatest stop-motion special effects artist ever. That's why the motion of the Cave Troll is not completely smooth--it copied Harryhausen's style.
If Jackson had wanted more smooth action from the Cave Troll his CGI team at WETA Digital would have copied the movement style of the go motion figures that was first heavily used by Industrial Light and Magic for the movie Dragonslayer.
I know one thing though: American tourists in Europe are going to love the Euro, since you only need to exchange it once from the US dollar to use it in the majority of Europe.
This saves one of the biggest hassles of European tourism, namely having to exchange national currencies multiple times.
Re:Picture of bills with US bill
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 2
I think at the rate the North American economy is going (especially with the introduction of NAFTA), we may get a currency that has something akin to the Euro within 10-14 years.
Imagine something called the North American Dollar, which replaces the US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Mexican Peso, and every local national currency in Central America and the Caribbean. The $100, $50, $20, $10, $5 and $1 bills will be truly multi-colored with architectural and landscape scenes from North America, Central America and the Caribbean, and $1, 50 cents, 25 cents, 10 cents, 5 cents and 1 cent coins will have representations of famous people from North American, Central American and Caribbean history. The paper bills regardless of denomination will be sized the same as the current US dollar.
The Euro is actually a pretty interesting concept in theory, though there are still question marks about how it will affect the various national economies of Europe over the next 15 years.
As has been said elsewhere, Linus did something evolutionary, but they give him far more credit that is fair (he didn't create the OSS...he DID popularize it).
While Mr. Torvalds didn't invent the idea of free software, he mostly created the operating system that is the paradigm for the whole concept: Linux. That's a pretty big achievement considering how far we've come from the original Linux kernels one decade ago.
This is why I think there should be a centralized authority on how everything in Linux works.
If the Linux crowd can get the Linux Standard Base to have some teeth in standards conformity, that would eventually make Linux far easier to install, use and upgrade.
I think the biggest thing that is hurting Linux is the fact that ease of hardware support and upgrades are still major issues.
What Linux desperately needs is Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) automatic configuration support, something that a group of Linux programmers are working on right now. Imagine automatic and/or menu-driven system configuration for GNOME or KDE like you see in Windows 2000/XP, but working as part of the Linux kernel (2.6.x kernel?). This will at once lift Linux out of hacker toy status and into something that most computer users can comfortably use.
The reason why 14 companies control that much of the Internet access today is the fact these are the companies that have survived and have the resources to support large numbers of users connecting to the Internet.
What's very interesting is many of these companies own the means to connect to the Internet (DSL/cable connections) or own the backbone of communications lines used for Internet traffic.
I think the 33 MB/sec. limitation is based on the fact that most consumer hard drives run at 7200 rpm, unlike the fastest SCSI drives, which spin at around 16,000 rpm (and sound like jet engines).
Expect that when Serial ATA becomes widely available the spindle speed of most Serial ATA drives--thanks to better noise isolation design for the drive casing--will be more like 16,000 to 20,000 rpm. With pixie dust storage medium coatings on the platters for much high storage density plus spindle speed at least double that of today's ATA-100/133 drives, I expect Serial ATA drives to transfer data more like 125-135 MB/sec. sustained, with short bursts 2-3 times that. Imagine loading Linux (including the graphical UI) in 1/3 or less the time it takes now.:-)
I'm not interested in speeding up the interface. I want faster platters. The interface is already faster than the disk.
The problem with current Ultra-SCSI 16,000 rpm drives is that they sound like a jet engine ready to takeoff--no thanks!:-(
I think with better noise isolation design you will see within 12-24 months 16,000 to 20,000 rpm Serial ATA drives that generate the same noise level as today's 72000 rpm ATA-100/133 drives. At 20,000 rpm, the physical data transfer rate will work well with Serial ATA's speed of 6x ATA-133 speed.:-)
1. Hard drives are already pretty fast, especially now with ATA-100/133 IDE connections. Serial ATA will raise the data transfer rate by a factor of six. I do expect quiet 10,000-20,000 rpm Serial ATA hard drives in the next few years, though. For higher-end applications, expect the cost of Fibre Channel connections to come down, which will essentially put an end to SCSI.
2. Why do you want monitors with built-in USB hubs? I don't find them that useful, especially nowadays most pre-built systems now have USB connectors in front of the system case.
3. Unfortunately, not that many applications take full advantage of multi-processor boxes (or require their use). It's only with very specialized apps such as CAD/CAM and very high-end image processing that you really need multi-processor computers.
4. If you're looking for a less patronizing Windows UI, Windows XP's Luna interface is already a step in the right direction. You'll probably see other changes in the next few years.
Actually, what's interesting is that Microsoft could offer very lucrative licensing terms for streaming.ASX Windows Media audio/video, something that could substantially undercut Real Network's licensing costs.
Anyway, given that the Windows Media Player that can stream.ASX formats has been preinstalled on new machines with HD's formatted with Windows since Windows ME arrived in September 2000, the audience to listen to BBC broadcasts in Windows Media format is a huge one anyway.
I think given the historical nature of this now-repaired coffeemaker, I think Krups ought to seriously look at running some sort of international advertising campaign using this coffeemaker. It could be a pretty effective idea, too.:-)
Sorry, in terms of good storytelling, Annie Hall had it in spades. No wonder it won the Best Picture Oscar. I think it's one of Woody Allen's two best movies (the other one being Manhattan).
I think besides the fact that Lord of the Rings fans tend to be fairly computer-literate (which will skew any online poll;-) ), I think you have to remember that 2001 has not been a good year for movies in general.
Movies like Moulin Rouge, Memento, Mulholland Drive, and a few others have a lot of quirks in them that makes them not completely acceptable by the broad general public. High-budget movies such as Pearl Harbor did not live up to their expectations. And Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone made most of its money in the first few weeks just to satisfy the pent-up demand from all those young readers of the Harry Potter books (it's a good, but not a great movie).
I think in the end, 2001 will be the year that only two movies will have good box-office take over a long period of time: Shrek and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
Subscribe to MS Security notification!
on
WinXP Security Flaw
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Folks,
I think at least Microsoft has done something to immediately close this security hole.
If you want to get notification of any security patches for any Microsoft product, their security web page (www.microsoft.com/security) allows you to sign for for an email notification service that gives email warnings about possible security problems and available patches to correct said problem.
It's also a good practice to regularly visit the Windows Update web page (windowsupdate.microsoft.com). That page has Critical Updates that includes security patches.
Besides the fact that PlayStation 2 now has a huge library of great games (for example, Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec and the just-released Final Fantasy X), Sony's marketing savvy gives it a big lead over its competition.
Besides, next spring we'll see the combo hard-drive/broadband adapter, which will allow the PS2 to become a legitimate online gaming platform; this is what will be needed to play Final Fantasy XI Online.
I think within 3-4 years we may see many famous artists rise up and do a major class-action lawsuit against the RIAA and its member record companies that could run into the many billions of dollars.
There are three reasons for this: 1) the artists feel that the record companies are taking WAY much percentage of record sales, 2) record company demands are stifling artist creativity, and 3) retail pricing is discouraging legitimate sales of audio CD's.
The third point is a particularly serious one; the very fact that CD's go for between US$14 to US$18 per disc at both online and mortar and brick record stores is essentially cartel pricing, if anyone who's studied economics understands. This provides the very economic incentive for sites like Napster and other music sharing sites in order to circumvent this cartel. Now, if the record companies had been quite a bit smarter and sell CD's at a cost of between US$8 to US$9 per disc, there would be much less incentive to pirate music, since customers are far more likely to buy a CD a the lower price.
The scenery is STUNNING. Allow me to repeat: STUNNING. STUNNING. STUNNING. STUNNING. STUNNING. STUNNING.
The sets are fantastic.
The visuals in a lot of respects are what were in my mind's eye.
Does the phrase "this movie will clean house at the Academy Awards for the technical awards" ring true? (pun not intended ^_^ )
WOW, what a movie!!! Sure, Jackson had to compress and change things around, but gawd, this is the type of movie I want to see several times.
I think Peter Jackson needs to bone up on his acceptance speech for Best Director at the Academy Awards come late March 2002.;-)
If you remember, someone leaked a photo of a KH-11 digital photoscan of a Soviet shipyard on the Black Sea back in 1977 with an amazing resolution of 30 cm or so. You can tell it's about that resolution because on that picture of the then-uncompleted Soviet aircraft carrier you could very clearly make out details of construction cranes next to the ship; the Ikonos and Global Imaging satellites would not resolve the construction cranes so clearly.
I'm sure with the latest sensor technology the latest recon satellites from the USA are capable of resolving down to 10 cm or less in real time.
Slashdot Mirror
Folks,
While the new LCD flat-panel displays are dropping in price, you still have to deal with three issues: 1) screen blurring on very fast motion (though this has gotten way better in the last year or so), 2) LCD's are optimized for one display resolution and 3) they're still fairly expensive (especially now with 19" CRT monitors now under US$200 in price).
Given the CRT monitors maintain their sharpness from 640x680 all the way up to 1600x1200 and beyond (depending on the dot pitch of the monitor) and can run at 85 Hz vertical refresh rate for true flicker-free viewing, I think they're still preferred for serious imaging processing work. The new very-low profile CRT's using this new technology will allow 17" to 21" monitors have less physical depth than even the old 14" monitors from way back, which means more room saved on your desk.
I think this company may license the technology to Samsung or LG Electronics, both of which now make excellent monitors at reasonable prices. Samsung could have a huge winner right here with high-resolution CRT monitors that have half the depth of their predecessors.
I'm really amazed someone would start a line for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones so early. (rolling eyes heavenward)
This kind of boggles me considering that I thought there would have been a waiting line started months earlier for the first Lord of the Rings movie (which kind of surprised me that it didn't really happen).
William Shatner's famous remark GET A LIFE! really applies here, that's to be sure.
I think people are forgetting that there are easier (and reasonably cheap) ways to speed up your computer.
First, get as much RAM as you can afford. Get at least 128 MB RAM; however, with the price of SDRAM DIMM's being so dirt-cheap nowadays you might as well get 256 MB or even 512 MB. With that much RAM, you can open way more programs concurrently and also because you use the hard drive way less for virtual memory, programs in general can run as much as 60% or more faster.
Second, get the fastest hard drive you can afford. If you system supports ATA-33/66/100/133 IDE interface connections, make sure the drive runs at 7200 rpm and make sure the drive has a generous buffer memory size (2 MB minimum).
I don't find overclocking such a great idea, especially now with the price of CPU's dropping like stone in water even for the faster CPU's.
The cave trolls motion was captured from a human actor.... Not generated by computer.
:-)
While the basic movements of the Cave Troll were done by motion capture, note that in the final movie the movements of the character had a herky-jerky feel like what you saw from the stop-motion work of Harryhausen. I think the CGI was deliberately done that way, hence my comment it was an homage to Harryhausen's special effects work.
WETA Digital could have rendered the Cave Troll so it moved smoothly, apeing the go-motion model designs from ILM. But then, it wouldn't be a homage to Harryhausen, would it?
I'm glad you mentioned the fact that Japanese animation companies are heavily using computers nowadays.
The reason is simple: FujiFilm a few years ago said they would phase out the production of the thick transparent film used in animation cel production. Because of that, the Japanese animation companies had to quickly adopt what Disney has been doing since the early 1990's with their Computer Aided Production System (CAPS)--the final cel is completely painted by computer and then directly transferred to film.
On the positive side, look at your examples of Shrek and Toy Story. Both movies had top name actors providing the voices for key characters.
Indeed. Much of the success of the two Toy Story movies was due the fact they very effectively used voice talent--they got famous actors whose voice really made the movie go.
A Japanese seiyuu can become extremely famous if they do a large number of very good anime series. A good example is Hayashibara Megumi: she voiced Lina Inverse in three Slayers TV series, Ayanami Rei in Shin Seiki Evangelion, and Lime in two Saber Marionette TV series (among many other voice acting credits). She also has two radio shows in Japan and is a frequent guest on many Japanese entertainment shows. Even though most of use don't understand Japanese, you can understand why she's so famous in Japan--her voice acting skills range from very subdued to over-the-top hyperkenetic, and she pulls it off extremely effectively.
However, you forgot one thing that director Peter Jackson said about the Cave Troll: it was designed specifically as an homage to Ray Harryhausen, perhaps the greatest stop-motion special effects artist ever. That's why the motion of the Cave Troll is not completely smooth--it copied Harryhausen's style.
If Jackson had wanted more smooth action from the Cave Troll his CGI team at WETA Digital would have copied the movement style of the go motion figures that was first heavily used by Industrial Light and Magic for the movie Dragonslayer.
I know one thing though: American tourists in Europe are going to love the Euro, since you only need to exchange it once from the US dollar to use it in the majority of Europe.
This saves one of the biggest hassles of European tourism, namely having to exchange national currencies multiple times.
I think at the rate the North American economy is going (especially with the introduction of NAFTA), we may get a currency that has something akin to the Euro within 10-14 years.
Imagine something called the North American Dollar, which replaces the US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Mexican Peso, and every local national currency in Central America and the Caribbean. The $100, $50, $20, $10, $5 and $1 bills will be truly multi-colored with architectural and landscape scenes from North America, Central America and the Caribbean, and $1, 50 cents, 25 cents, 10 cents, 5 cents and 1 cent coins will have representations of famous people from North American, Central American and Caribbean history. The paper bills regardless of denomination will be sized the same as the current US dollar.
The Euro is actually a pretty interesting concept in theory, though there are still question marks about how it will affect the various national economies of Europe over the next 15 years.
As has been said elsewhere, Linus did something evolutionary, but they give him far more credit that is fair (he didn't create the OSS...he DID popularize it).
While Mr. Torvalds didn't invent the idea of free software, he mostly created the operating system that is the paradigm for the whole concept: Linux. That's a pretty big achievement considering how far we've come from the original Linux kernels one decade ago.
This is why I think there should be a centralized authority on how everything in Linux works.
If the Linux crowd can get the Linux Standard Base to have some teeth in standards conformity, that would eventually make Linux far easier to install, use and upgrade.
I think the biggest thing that is hurting Linux is the fact that ease of hardware support and upgrades are still major issues.
What Linux desperately needs is Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) automatic configuration support, something that a group of Linux programmers are working on right now. Imagine automatic and/or menu-driven system configuration for GNOME or KDE like you see in Windows 2000/XP, but working as part of the Linux kernel (2.6.x kernel?). This will at once lift Linux out of hacker toy status and into something that most computer users can comfortably use.
The reason why 14 companies control that much of the Internet access today is the fact these are the companies that have survived and have the resources to support large numbers of users connecting to the Internet.
What's very interesting is many of these companies own the means to connect to the Internet (DSL/cable connections) or own the backbone of communications lines used for Internet traffic.
denzo,
:-)
I think the 33 MB/sec. limitation is based on the fact that most consumer hard drives run at 7200 rpm, unlike the fastest SCSI drives, which spin at around 16,000 rpm (and sound like jet engines).
Expect that when Serial ATA becomes widely available the spindle speed of most Serial ATA drives--thanks to better noise isolation design for the drive casing--will be more like 16,000 to 20,000 rpm. With pixie dust storage medium coatings on the platters for much high storage density plus spindle speed at least double that of today's ATA-100/133 drives, I expect Serial ATA drives to transfer data more like 125-135 MB/sec. sustained, with short bursts 2-3 times that. Imagine loading Linux (including the graphical UI) in 1/3 or less the time it takes now.
I'm not interested in speeding up the interface. I want faster platters. The interface is already faster than the disk.
:-(
:-)
The problem with current Ultra-SCSI 16,000 rpm drives is that they sound like a jet engine ready to takeoff--no thanks!
I think with better noise isolation design you will see within 12-24 months 16,000 to 20,000 rpm Serial ATA drives that generate the same noise level as today's 72000 rpm ATA-100/133 drives. At 20,000 rpm, the physical data transfer rate will work well with Serial ATA's speed of 6x ATA-133 speed.
Some comments on your wish list:
1. Hard drives are already pretty fast, especially now with ATA-100/133 IDE connections. Serial ATA will raise the data transfer rate by a factor of six. I do expect quiet 10,000-20,000 rpm Serial ATA hard drives in the next few years, though. For higher-end applications, expect the cost of Fibre Channel connections to come down, which will essentially put an end to SCSI.
2. Why do you want monitors with built-in USB hubs? I don't find them that useful, especially nowadays most pre-built systems now have USB connectors in front of the system case.
3. Unfortunately, not that many applications take full advantage of multi-processor boxes (or require their use). It's only with very specialized apps such as CAD/CAM and very high-end image processing that you really need multi-processor computers.
4. If you're looking for a less patronizing Windows UI, Windows XP's Luna interface is already a step in the right direction. You'll probably see other changes in the next few years.
Actually, what's interesting is that Microsoft could offer very lucrative licensing terms for streaming .ASX Windows Media audio/video, something that could substantially undercut Real Network's licensing costs.
.ASX formats has been preinstalled on new machines with HD's formatted with Windows since Windows ME arrived in September 2000, the audience to listen to BBC broadcasts in Windows Media format is a huge one anyway.
Anyway, given that the Windows Media Player that can stream
I think given the historical nature of this now-repaired coffeemaker, I think Krups ought to seriously look at running some sort of international advertising campaign using this coffeemaker. It could be a pretty effective idea, too. :-)
Sorry, in terms of good storytelling, Annie Hall had it in spades. No wonder it won the Best Picture Oscar. I think it's one of Woody Allen's two best movies (the other one being Manhattan).
I think besides the fact that Lord of the Rings fans tend to be fairly computer-literate (which will skew any online poll ;-) ), I think you have to remember that 2001 has not been a good year for movies in general.
Movies like Moulin Rouge, Memento, Mulholland Drive, and a few others have a lot of quirks in them that makes them not completely acceptable by the broad general public. High-budget movies such as Pearl Harbor did not live up to their expectations. And Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone made most of its money in the first few weeks just to satisfy the pent-up demand from all those young readers of the Harry Potter books (it's a good, but not a great movie).
I think in the end, 2001 will be the year that only two movies will have good box-office take over a long period of time: Shrek and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
Folks,
I think at least Microsoft has done something to immediately close this security hole.
If you want to get notification of any security patches for any Microsoft product, their security web page (www.microsoft.com/security) allows you to sign for for an email notification service that gives email warnings about possible security problems and available patches to correct said problem.
It's also a good practice to regularly visit the Windows Update web page (windowsupdate.microsoft.com). That page has Critical Updates that includes security patches.
I agree with your assessments. :-)
Besides the fact that PlayStation 2 now has a huge library of great games (for example, Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec and the just-released Final Fantasy X), Sony's marketing savvy gives it a big lead over its competition.
Besides, next spring we'll see the combo hard-drive/broadband adapter, which will allow the PS2 to become a legitimate online gaming platform; this is what will be needed to play Final Fantasy XI Online.
I think within 3-4 years we may see many famous artists rise up and do a major class-action lawsuit against the RIAA and its member record companies that could run into the many billions of dollars.
There are three reasons for this: 1) the artists feel that the record companies are taking WAY much percentage of record sales, 2) record company demands are stifling artist creativity, and 3) retail pricing is discouraging legitimate sales of audio CD's.
The third point is a particularly serious one; the very fact that CD's go for between US$14 to US$18 per disc at both online and mortar and brick record stores is essentially cartel pricing, if anyone who's studied economics understands. This provides the very economic incentive for sites like Napster and other music sharing sites in order to circumvent this cartel. Now, if the record companies had been quite a bit smarter and sell CD's at a cost of between US$8 to US$9 per disc, there would be much less incentive to pirate music, since customers are far more likely to buy a CD a the lower price.
The scenery is STUNNING. Allow me to repeat: STUNNING. STUNNING. STUNNING. STUNNING. STUNNING. STUNNING.
;-)
The sets are fantastic.
The visuals in a lot of respects are what were in my mind's eye.
Does the phrase "this movie will clean house at the Academy Awards for the technical awards" ring true? (pun not intended ^_^ )
WOW, what a movie!!! Sure, Jackson had to compress and change things around, but gawd, this is the type of movie I want to see several times.
I think Peter Jackson needs to bone up on his acceptance speech for Best Director at the Academy Awards come late March 2002.
thumbtack,
If you remember, someone leaked a photo of a KH-11 digital photoscan of a Soviet shipyard on the Black Sea back in 1977 with an amazing resolution of 30 cm or so. You can tell it's about that resolution because on that picture of the then-uncompleted Soviet aircraft carrier you could very clearly make out details of construction cranes next to the ship; the Ikonos and Global Imaging satellites would not resolve the construction cranes so clearly.
I'm sure with the latest sensor technology the latest recon satellites from the USA are capable of resolving down to 10 cm or less in real time.