Its more likely this is actually modelling the passage of a new batch of guns through the criminal underworld.
I always find it hailarious that you in the states cite the ability to own firarms as something that keeps you safe when your obscenely high murder rate points to the opposite in my opinion.
Except that the criminals committing murders ALREADY aren't allowed to own firearms here. So banning guns would help how? Well, it would make life safer for criminals I guess.
Yeah right, you're trying to tell me that former Green Bay Packer Michael Anthony Hunt signed up for this? Mike Hunt received a total of two interceptions while playing only twenty two games. Mike Hunt knows how to play the field. It's ridiculous to think that we would waste Mike Hunt, a national treasure that has been enjoyed by millions of burly men, by putting Mike Hunt on a Mars suicide mission!
And people want them even MORE involved with our health care. At least we won't have to worry about pregnancies from forcible rapes, or autism from vaccines now. Ugh.
Not exactly. People want them to provide healthcare for those not wealthy and therefore able to afford it themselves. You were close, though... well, not really.
are people going to spend close to $1000 upgrading their computers just to be wowed by some extra graphical detail?
My two year old machine is still better than the higher recommended specs. I just bought a $600 system for my kids that has better specs than the recommended specs. If I can get a whole system for $600, than it shouldn't cost that much.
Let's check Newegg:
Intel Core i5-750 - apparently there is no such thing, but the most expensive I5 is $250.
or
AMD Phenom II X4 805 - apparently there is no such thing, but the most expensive AMD Phenom II X4 is $85.
NVIDIA GTX 560 - The most expensive of these is about $250, but they can be had for less than $200.
AMD Radeon HD5870 - No longer available, but faster cards are available for less than $100.
4GB Memory? $50, assuming your computer doesn't already have that much RAM. It is not easy to find a computer these days with less than 4 GB.
As a political social engineer*, I can tell you that we consider "half truths" and the like to be the best kind of lies.
Because you can tell people that they are not lies, and people will accept that, because they think only positive lies (where you say something wrong) would be lies, and not negative lies (where you don't say something right).
That makes some things incredibly easy. You can openly lie your ass off, and they got nothing, even though they know it's all blatant lies.
(* Don't worry, I'm not working for either "side". I never was in the US in my life, and never will be.)
The bad part is the "recommended" graphics card is now the upper level of the mid-range, the Nvidia 560 or 660, and the ATI 5870.
This is becoming a real big issue for Graphics cards, far more than video RAM or any other part of the system.
The problem is that the upper-mid-range cards now require *very* significant power. The 560/660 and 5870 above really require TWO 6-pin supplemental power connectors, since they're now pulling 200W under load. The problem there is that this means a 500W+ power supply, and ONLY high-end workstations or custom gaming rigs have those, so you're inherently cutting out the section of the population which games, has a pretty beefy rig, but got a pre-made system from HP/Dell/whomever, none of which have more than a 400W (and usually a 300W) power supply.
I'm a excellent example: I happen to have a HP Z210 workstation - that's a Xeon E3-1200-class CPU (which kicks the crap out of everything consumer-class, including the i7 series), 16GB of RAM, and an SSD. Yet, it was only designed with a 400W power supply, as it was targeted for mid-level pro graphics. I've been looking, and the absolutely fastest GPU I can use is the Nvidia 650 Ti; everything else draws too much power. Consumer PCs are in an even worse situation, since they might have a high-end i5 Ivy bridge CPU, but they've only got 350W power supplies, which probably can't even drive my 650 Ti, let alone a 660. So, you're looking at having to buy a system for $1500 (sans graphics card) rather than $500 to play these games.
Realistically, game makers need to target the lower-mid-range cards - at least, they have to be able to play very well at around 1680x1050 or 1440x900 on one of those lower-power-draw cards (e.g. Nvidia 650 or AMD 7850).
Frankly, I think this is going to be a *big* drag on the PC Gaming industry, since unless they can convince Nvidia/AMD to cut down on the power-draw requirements, or somehow get PC makers to beef up their PS more, new games won't be able to run reasonably on ANYTHING not a custom gaming rig. And that's a *tiny* portion of the market.
-Erik
Seriously, pre-made systems from HP/Dell/Whoever have not been gaming systems EVER. 500w has been a bare minimum for any gaming system for several years now. It's also worth noting that 500w power supplies sell in the $30 price range. Other than the fact that it'll cost you a lot for electricity and contribute to pollution on some level the power requirements for current gen cards are not a big deal. High end cards these days only draw 195 watts (source: http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-3688-KR ); just because HP gave you the shaft on your system's power supply does not mean the cards' power draw is unreasonable.
This says it only has 512 mb:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2939
"Coupled with the GT218 GPU on the G210 is 512MB of DDR2 RAM, using the customary 64bit memory bus. Interestingly, unlike most other entry-level products, the G210 only comes in 1 memory configuration: 512MB."
You're looking at an MSI 512MB model, he linked an eVGA 1GB model. Also, the GT210 was low end when it came out - not something you should be expecting a good gaming experience from. Either way, it's an extremely old card. I just bought an evga 620 a few weeks ago to add a few more monitors to my pc for under $50 and it had 1GB. Current high end cards have 2-4GB onboard. Even my (also outdated) gtx 480 from a few years ago had 1.5GB.
These really aren't much in the way of system requirements. Which just shows how this extended console generation has had an affect on PC graphics development. Though I'm not complaining it saves me money in the long run, and forces programmers to learn how to do more with less hardware which isn't a bad thing for the most part.
Honestly, I'm disappointed. GPU advances seem to have been driven at least in part by game development. With new big name titles like this coming out with such low end requirements the game certainly won't be driving too many upgrades. This means the only reason AMD or nVidia have to innovate is simply to stay a little ahead of each other.
Plastic lowers are really nothing new, you can get them dirt cheap. The only thing new here is that it's being made with a 3d printer rather than manufactured and sold. The only reason that's even interesting is that the lower is the part of the gun that's regulated so potentially anyone could create their own lower and order all the other parts.
I agree their test method was foolish; but if not for guys like this we wouldn't get to enjoy the darwin awards each year as you pointed out!
The company is called "SemiAccurate?" WTF? lol. Sounds like maybe not the best source for news perhaps.
It's kind of like the national enquirer. It's a tabloid for computer stuff. Charlie used to work for a company called "The Enquirer" (no idea if it's related to the tabloid magazine really) until they gave him the boot a few years ago. It's a sensationalist drama rag more than it is anything to do with actual news.
Agreed, it will further erode the small PC market (if one even exists anymore) since now a shop would have to stock may different motherboard and cpu combinations rather than just a few motherboards and a few cpu's to mix and match. It will be interesting for companies like asus and gigabyte which will have to get into the business of reselling CPU's.
LGA sockets largely solved this issue. Intel's CPU's haven't had pins for a while, they are in the socket and are much more difficult to damage. (bending/breaking pins in a socket on a large board takes a little more effort vice pins on a small processor.)
I'll disagree with that, the only thing that's changed is you have to be careful with the motherboard instead of the chip. It moves the risk to the motherboard manufacturer instead of the CPU manufacturer but in the end the risk for users is about the same. I bent some pins on a xeon 5520 board while packing it up to send off for replacement due to some other problem a few years ago.
You cover the chip with a heatsink type device. The first time I did a reflow job I used a $30 heat gun from a hardware store and a piece of aluminum foil from my kitchen to protect the chip from the heat. It worked perfectly.
I don't think that this is the kind of soldering job that an enthusiast could do, unless you happen to be up for
reflow soldering.
While I agree it's not a job for most enthusiasts, as you're crossing over into actual electronic work and most enthusiasts just plug stuff in I should point out that reflow devices are relatively inexpensive these days. I've got an IR reflow station that was under $300, and you can get smaller hot air based stations for under $100. I've even performed reflow jobs using a $30 heat gun from a local hardware store. Reflow work really isn't all that difficult.
When was the last time you upgraded a CPU and didn't get a new motherboard? Never?
If a soldered on chip allows the bus to run faster, I for one am enthusiastic.
The last time I bought AMD. Keep sucking down that new Intel kool-aid each release of a new chip requiring a new motherboard.
The last two AMD chips I had were an amd Athlon and subsequently an Athlon X2. The upgrade required a new motherboard. Maybe AMD was drinking that Intel kool-aid you mention? Seriously, CPU socket is not the only reason to upgrade a motherboard anyway. With the constantly changing memory, bus, integrated peripherals (USB/SATA controller for example) I wouldn't want to spend the money on a new cpu and have an outdated motherboard.
If you're only using AMD, and this is an Intel change then I have to ask why you care at all?
I'd have to agree. I've upgraded a CPU on an existing motherboard only one time, and that's going back to the 80486 DX-66 which was my first "enthusiast" self built PC. Typically the only compelling reason to upgrade a CPU is a new generation, and that means usually new socket or new RAM type, or new IO bus (PCIe) or other new things on the board (USB2, 2.1, 3, 12 etc). I balked at first, but after thinking it through I guess it is not a concern for me. I also polled several of my friends and none of them have upgraded CPU's on the same board either. I have no doubt that there are some people who do upgrade cpu's on an inplace board, but I suspect that is the exception rather than the norm.
So the fact that the spending of the Federal government and most of the states vastly exceeds their ability is not a problem, but people undertaking voluntary exchanges of money they earned from working for things made by corporations are a problem? Well, Uncle Joe, you sure showed us. Time to go full Communist and shut down these wreckers and looters!
States have to get revenue from somewhere. Right now, people are evading sales tax by buying on the internet. I do the same thing. I buy on the internet because I hate shopping more than I hate going to the dentist, the tax evasion is just a nice cherry on top. The net effect is that the state gets significantly less revenue. The states will end up replacing that revenue somewhere. I'd rather it be replaced with sales tax that way the burden isn't only shouldered by homeowners but is instead shouldered by everyone in the state.
This isn't a case of the states trying to raise taxes, it's a case of the states trying to replace tax revenue that was lost.
I guess the other alternative is an income tax - in my state we do not have one. We make a lot of our tax revenue in FL from sales taxes rather than income taxes. I'd like to see that continue rather than the alternative.
I finally got to the article. It is indeed incorrect about this assumption. Furthermore, it's assertion that MS is forcing customers into SA is incorrect. We have the option to buy products with or without SA. They are doing everything they can to try and push SA, but the option still exists to license without it. Not a very well researched piece of news.
As massive licence buyers are heavily negotiating the official prices, we won't get a Linux landslide... do not expect those prices to be applied to governments or big companies.
Those same customers also negotiated based on the previous base prices. They too will be seeing an increase, I'm guessing around the same percentage as the list prices increased. Although it is true they won't be paying the list price. Maybe not a Linux landslide, but I can say for certain that alternatives are being considered in areas where they would not have previously been considered.
Slashdot Mirror
And their rights.
The MPAA is working on fixing that.
You should be a little more respectful. The security of the local sheep herding and bungee jumping trades is of the utmost importance.
Don't be so snide, the sheepherding industry was nearly destroyed by the money lost from Dotcom's sharing of Pocahontas 2!
They're all just skinned versions of safari. Apple's TOS forbid improving iOS.
Of MSNBC's race card.
Its more likely this is actually modelling the passage of a new batch of guns through the criminal underworld.
I always find it hailarious that you in the states cite the ability to own firarms as something that keeps you safe when your obscenely high murder rate points to the opposite in my opinion.
Except that the criminals committing murders ALREADY aren't allowed to own firearms here. So banning guns would help how? Well, it would make life safer for criminals I guess.
Mike Hunt
Yeah right, you're trying to tell me that former Green Bay Packer Michael Anthony Hunt signed up for this? Mike Hunt received a total of two interceptions while playing only twenty two games. Mike Hunt knows how to play the field. It's ridiculous to think that we would waste Mike Hunt, a national treasure that has been enjoyed by millions of burly men, by putting Mike Hunt on a Mars suicide mission!
Maybe you missed the news. It's over for Mike Hunt, anyway - so he has nothing to lose. http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/12/05/0130229/brain-disease-found-in-nfl-players?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed
And people want them even MORE involved with our health care. At least we won't have to worry about pregnancies from forcible rapes, or autism from vaccines now. Ugh.
Not exactly. People want them to provide healthcare for those not wealthy and therefore able to afford it themselves. You were close, though... well, not really.
are people going to spend close to $1000 upgrading their computers just to be wowed by some extra graphical detail? My two year old machine is still better than the higher recommended specs. I just bought a $600 system for my kids that has better specs than the recommended specs. If I can get a whole system for $600, than it shouldn't cost that much. Let's check Newegg: Intel Core i5-750 - apparently there is no such thing, but the most expensive I5 is $250. or AMD Phenom II X4 805 - apparently there is no such thing, but the most expensive AMD Phenom II X4 is $85. NVIDIA GTX 560 - The most expensive of these is about $250, but they can be had for less than $200. AMD Radeon HD5870 - No longer available, but faster cards are available for less than $100. 4GB Memory? $50, assuming your computer doesn't already have that much RAM. It is not easy to find a computer these days with less than 4 GB.
Acutally 4GB should run you less than $20. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611%20600006050%20600006066&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611%20600006050%20600006067&IsNodeId=1&name=4GB
Also, the gt500 series nvidia cards are deprecated, too. The 600's are current generation.
If the i5-750 doesn't exist, you had better notify Intel pronto: http://ark.intel.com/products/42915/Intel-Core-i5-750-Processor-8M-Cache-2_66-GHz
IMHO, I think the real issue is gold. It may not seem like much for one CPU, but they'd save a ton of money by not having to gold plate the pins.
Not to mention, it's a limited resource and there are far better ways to use it: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=gold+grills&hl=en&tbo=d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ekG-UPXLBY7A9gSwroAI&sqi=2&ved=0CAQQ_AUoAA&biw=2560&bih=1382
As a political social engineer*, I can tell you that we consider "half truths" and the like to be the best kind of lies. Because you can tell people that they are not lies, and people will accept that, because they think only positive lies (where you say something wrong) would be lies, and not negative lies (where you don't say something right).
That makes some things incredibly easy. You can openly lie your ass off, and they got nothing, even though they know it's all blatant lies.
(* Don't worry, I'm not working for either "side". I never was in the US in my life, and never will be.)
But what aren't you saying here?
The bad part is the "recommended" graphics card is now the upper level of the mid-range, the Nvidia 560 or 660, and the ATI 5870.
This is becoming a real big issue for Graphics cards, far more than video RAM or any other part of the system.
The problem is that the upper-mid-range cards now require *very* significant power. The 560/660 and 5870 above really require TWO 6-pin supplemental power connectors, since they're now pulling 200W under load. The problem there is that this means a 500W+ power supply, and ONLY high-end workstations or custom gaming rigs have those, so you're inherently cutting out the section of the population which games, has a pretty beefy rig, but got a pre-made system from HP/Dell/whomever, none of which have more than a 400W (and usually a 300W) power supply.
I'm a excellent example: I happen to have a HP Z210 workstation - that's a Xeon E3-1200-class CPU (which kicks the crap out of everything consumer-class, including the i7 series), 16GB of RAM, and an SSD. Yet, it was only designed with a 400W power supply, as it was targeted for mid-level pro graphics. I've been looking, and the absolutely fastest GPU I can use is the Nvidia 650 Ti; everything else draws too much power. Consumer PCs are in an even worse situation, since they might have a high-end i5 Ivy bridge CPU, but they've only got 350W power supplies, which probably can't even drive my 650 Ti, let alone a 660. So, you're looking at having to buy a system for $1500 (sans graphics card) rather than $500 to play these games.
Realistically, game makers need to target the lower-mid-range cards - at least, they have to be able to play very well at around 1680x1050 or 1440x900 on one of those lower-power-draw cards (e.g. Nvidia 650 or AMD 7850).
Frankly, I think this is going to be a *big* drag on the PC Gaming industry, since unless they can convince Nvidia/AMD to cut down on the power-draw requirements, or somehow get PC makers to beef up their PS more, new games won't be able to run reasonably on ANYTHING not a custom gaming rig. And that's a *tiny* portion of the market.
-Erik
Seriously, pre-made systems from HP/Dell/Whoever have not been gaming systems EVER. 500w has been a bare minimum for any gaming system for several years now. It's also worth noting that 500w power supplies sell in the $30 price range. Other than the fact that it'll cost you a lot for electricity and contribute to pollution on some level the power requirements for current gen cards are not a big deal. High end cards these days only draw 195 watts (source: http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-3688-KR ); just because HP gave you the shaft on your system's power supply does not mean the cards' power draw is unreasonable.
This says it only has 512 mb: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2939 "Coupled with the GT218 GPU on the G210 is 512MB of DDR2 RAM, using the customary 64bit memory bus. Interestingly, unlike most other entry-level products, the G210 only comes in 1 memory configuration: 512MB."
You're looking at an MSI 512MB model, he linked an eVGA 1GB model. Also, the GT210 was low end when it came out - not something you should be expecting a good gaming experience from. Either way, it's an extremely old card. I just bought an evga 620 a few weeks ago to add a few more monitors to my pc for under $50 and it had 1GB. Current high end cards have 2-4GB onboard. Even my (also outdated) gtx 480 from a few years ago had 1.5GB.
These really aren't much in the way of system requirements. Which just shows how this extended console generation has had an affect on PC graphics development. Though I'm not complaining it saves me money in the long run, and forces programmers to learn how to do more with less hardware which isn't a bad thing for the most part.
Honestly, I'm disappointed. GPU advances seem to have been driven at least in part by game development. With new big name titles like this coming out with such low end requirements the game certainly won't be driving too many upgrades. This means the only reason AMD or nVidia have to innovate is simply to stay a little ahead of each other.
Plastic lowers are really nothing new, you can get them dirt cheap. The only thing new here is that it's being made with a 3d printer rather than manufactured and sold. The only reason that's even interesting is that the lower is the part of the gun that's regulated so potentially anyone could create their own lower and order all the other parts.
I agree their test method was foolish; but if not for guys like this we wouldn't get to enjoy the darwin awards each year as you pointed out!
IBM is currently the 19th biggest corporation in the world. I dream someday to "fail" like that! Source: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/full_list/
The company is called "SemiAccurate?" WTF? lol. Sounds like maybe not the best source for news perhaps.
It's kind of like the national enquirer. It's a tabloid for computer stuff. Charlie used to work for a company called "The Enquirer" (no idea if it's related to the tabloid magazine really) until they gave him the boot a few years ago. It's a sensationalist drama rag more than it is anything to do with actual news.
Agreed, it will further erode the small PC market (if one even exists anymore) since now a shop would have to stock may different motherboard and cpu combinations rather than just a few motherboards and a few cpu's to mix and match. It will be interesting for companies like asus and gigabyte which will have to get into the business of reselling CPU's.
LGA sockets largely solved this issue. Intel's CPU's haven't had pins for a while, they are in the socket and are much more difficult to damage. (bending/breaking pins in a socket on a large board takes a little more effort vice pins on a small processor.)
I'll disagree with that, the only thing that's changed is you have to be careful with the motherboard instead of the chip. It moves the risk to the motherboard manufacturer instead of the CPU manufacturer but in the end the risk for users is about the same. I bent some pins on a xeon 5520 board while packing it up to send off for replacement due to some other problem a few years ago.
You cover the chip with a heatsink type device. The first time I did a reflow job I used a $30 heat gun from a hardware store and a piece of aluminum foil from my kitchen to protect the chip from the heat. It worked perfectly.
I don't think that this is the kind of soldering job that an enthusiast could do, unless you happen to be up for reflow soldering.
While I agree it's not a job for most enthusiasts, as you're crossing over into actual electronic work and most enthusiasts just plug stuff in I should point out that reflow devices are relatively inexpensive these days. I've got an IR reflow station that was under $300, and you can get smaller hot air based stations for under $100. I've even performed reflow jobs using a $30 heat gun from a local hardware store. Reflow work really isn't all that difficult.
WTF does sockets have to do with PC enthusiasm?
When was the last time you upgraded a CPU and didn't get a new motherboard? Never?
If a soldered on chip allows the bus to run faster, I for one am enthusiastic.
The last time I bought AMD. Keep sucking down that new Intel kool-aid each release of a new chip requiring a new motherboard.
The last two AMD chips I had were an amd Athlon and subsequently an Athlon X2. The upgrade required a new motherboard. Maybe AMD was drinking that Intel kool-aid you mention? Seriously, CPU socket is not the only reason to upgrade a motherboard anyway. With the constantly changing memory, bus, integrated peripherals (USB/SATA controller for example) I wouldn't want to spend the money on a new cpu and have an outdated motherboard.
If you're only using AMD, and this is an Intel change then I have to ask why you care at all?
I'd have to agree. I've upgraded a CPU on an existing motherboard only one time, and that's going back to the 80486 DX-66 which was my first "enthusiast" self built PC. Typically the only compelling reason to upgrade a CPU is a new generation, and that means usually new socket or new RAM type, or new IO bus (PCIe) or other new things on the board (USB2, 2.1, 3, 12 etc). I balked at first, but after thinking it through I guess it is not a concern for me. I also polled several of my friends and none of them have upgraded CPU's on the same board either. I have no doubt that there are some people who do upgrade cpu's on an inplace board, but I suspect that is the exception rather than the norm.
Tire manufacturers could potentially examine the roadkill photographs and extrapolate tread wear data from it! Also, this: http://www.route66seligmanarizona.com/The_Roadkill_Cafe.php
So the fact that the spending of the Federal government and most of the states vastly exceeds their ability is not a problem, but people undertaking voluntary exchanges of money they earned from working for things made by corporations are a problem? Well, Uncle Joe, you sure showed us. Time to go full Communist and shut down these wreckers and looters!
States have to get revenue from somewhere. Right now, people are evading sales tax by buying on the internet. I do the same thing. I buy on the internet because I hate shopping more than I hate going to the dentist, the tax evasion is just a nice cherry on top. The net effect is that the state gets significantly less revenue. The states will end up replacing that revenue somewhere. I'd rather it be replaced with sales tax that way the burden isn't only shouldered by homeowners but is instead shouldered by everyone in the state.
This isn't a case of the states trying to raise taxes, it's a case of the states trying to replace tax revenue that was lost.
I guess the other alternative is an income tax - in my state we do not have one. We make a lot of our tax revenue in FL from sales taxes rather than income taxes. I'd like to see that continue rather than the alternative.
I finally got to the article. It is indeed incorrect about this assumption. Furthermore, it's assertion that MS is forcing customers into SA is incorrect. We have the option to buy products with or without SA. They are doing everything they can to try and push SA, but the option still exists to license without it. Not a very well researched piece of news.
As massive licence buyers are heavily negotiating the official prices, we won't get a Linux landslide... do not expect those prices to be applied to governments or big companies.
Those same customers also negotiated based on the previous base prices. They too will be seeing an increase, I'm guessing around the same percentage as the list prices increased. Although it is true they won't be paying the list price. Maybe not a Linux landslide, but I can say for certain that alternatives are being considered in areas where they would not have previously been considered.