..which is why i said "at a decent resolution". with a card like the 6800 GS for 249, I could turn up the settings to the point where I can appreciate the best of what a game has to offer in terms of graphics. Sure, I might only be able to use 4x AA instead of 8x, but that kind of setting does not make a big difference to the image on the screen.
I guess it's also about playing the game the way the game developers envisioned it - with enough of the effects on to give me a darn good indication of the best the game has to offer. For example, on an RTS game, I couldnt be bothered how detailed the shadows of each indivdual unit were, but the detail that went into their models would make a difference and so would the effects when say a building was destroyed or being constructed.
I can understand framerates from an FPS point of view, but as for the other types of games, as long as it plays smooth, i'm happy.
$250 to enable my machine for gaming doesn't sound like much. If I can spend $250 and get cutting edge graphics at a decent resolution and thereby avoid the need for a PS3 or an Xbox which would cost at least twice as much, then I'll do it.
Go download Firefox 1.5 RC1 and help test it. The only way its going to be adopted more is if it works better and has few enough shortcomings to make the move to it worth it.
Sure it's a tax write-off. Sure he'll claim it as a tax write off. Still, he's donated it to fight a disease - not to some obscure cause. There is humanity in that. Recognize it.
This is a very good thing he did. Do not let opinions of his company cloud your thinking. See it for what it is. A charitable gesture. Pray for the guy instead.
So they patched the drivers. Strong case for Linux if you ask me. The thing is, in Windows world, people tend to just make themselves administrators of their own systems and they end up using the computer on an admin account - heck, Windows Xp Home does that by defult.
Contrast this with the Linux way of doing things - nobody in their right mind uses a root account as their usual login. Forget about the fact that Linux still has such a small user base compared to Windows that developing a patch for drivers itself might not seem feasible to a company like Sony.
Move to Linux. Use only GPL stuff. Then see how difficult that makes it for a company like Sony to harm your system.
Isn't this somewhat like how directx started out? Now if this thing can automatically off-load any processing on the built-in GPU and still keep up its performance, then this could be the beginning of cross platform 3D gaming which would mean the beginning of a widespread move to Linux.
I think we should christen this the Decade of Linux. Things have come very far from where they were in 2000 - Linux is now being shipped on OEM machines. I think its safe to say that by 2010, Linux gaming will be a reality and will be on par with Windows, if not better.
Add that to things like distros standardizing and striving for compatibility, usability studies being conducted that help in improving the end user's Linux experience and the availability of great development platforms like Eclipse, and you have the components in place.
So I think these 10 years will mark Linux's rise and will stabilize Linux as a widely accepted operating system and an alternative to Windows. I couldn't be bothered whether it marks Microsoft's fall or not, but I'm sure we will see more widespread Linux adoption.
As always, never forget the people who started this in the first place. They are the giants on whose shoulders Linux now stands.
...and don't whine if you buy some god forsaken piece of hardware for your PC and find it's a bitch to get it working on Linux.
Seriously though, give the OSS developers some credit. How in hell can you expect them to support every damn piece of hardware that is available for your PC? Sure, there are good drivers for what is commonly used and there will continue to be.
For Linux drivers, you will need to stop worrying once Linux becomes a more widely recognized OS. Because it is the manufacturers who will need to provide the drivers for their devices and that's the only way you're going to be sure that something will work. Even then, how many devices do you know come with perfect drivers for Windows? Even after it's so widely used, if you buy cheap hardware, chances are you'll get dodgy drivers.
So if you dont want to Google, buy stuff that's in common use or grin and bear it and if you can, help write the drivers for that exotic piece of hardware. Either that, or buy from a retailer who's known to sell devices that ship with linux drivers. Don't know about the USA, but if you're in Australia or New Zealand, you can shop at Dick Smith Electronics and they'll even tell you which VERSION of the Linux kernel the drivers have been tested with.
So just be patient. Linux is getting there. Device driver support for Linux is on its way. It just takes time. So either be patient for now and do your research to make sure the hardware will work with linux, or try and help Linux to get there.
Anyone see the icons used for this story? "Space" and "Technology":)
Maybe we need an "Engineering Achievement" icon or something? Maybe a construction hat with a set of spanners orthe like...IANAA (I am not an artist), but I'm sure others will be able to come out with a suitable icon for these types of stories.
They definitely are of interest to the average geek, so they deserve to be on Slashdot. I think that engineering feats like these deserve their own icon too.
Fair and balanced? Technically, yes. They don't outright *lie*. They don't even particularly advertise one cause over another, except as-is necessary to generate viewer interest, positive OR negative.
Why do you think all these issues are popping up all of a sudden? It's because the US has been sticking its nose where it does not belong for quite some time now - even going to the extent of occupying other countries. What's to prevent them from doing a similar thing electronically? Do you seriously think that if the US held its position as the no. 1 superpower in the world responsibly, that anyone would have a problem with them controlling the internet? Would you let someone with a history of frequent abuse baby sit your kids? Would you let a bully of a company control the supply of power to your house? Think people! THINK! Don't go get all patriotic about it. When you get angry about it, you stop thinking straight. Yeh, it hurts your national pride, but there is a reason behind it and a damn good one at that.
line 2 column 1 - Warning: missing declaration line 8 column 356 - Warning: ' is not approved by W3C line 10 column 2403 - Warning: missing before
line 10 column 2435 - Warning: inserting implicit line 10 column 2547 - Warning: discarding unexpected line 12 column 46 - Error: is not recognized! line 12 column 46 - Warning: discarding unexpected line 14 column 980 - Warning: discarding unexpected line 24 column 6844 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 6997 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 7004 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 7166 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 7173 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 7423 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 7574 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 7581 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 7729 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 7736 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 24 column 8210 - Warning: is not approved by W3C line 6 column 115 - Warning: inserting "type" attribute line 8 column 381 - Warning: inserting "type" attribute line 8 column 449 - Warning: inserting "type" attribute line 10 column 58 - Warning: proprietary attribute "topmargin" line 10 column 58 - Warning: proprietary attribute "leftmargin" line 10 column 58 - Warning: proprietary attribute "marginwidth" line 10 column 58 - Warning: proprietary attribute "marginheight" line 10 column 289 - Warning: proprietary attribute "height" line 10 column 938 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 938 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 1230 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 1230 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 1423 - Warning: proprietary attribute "height" line 10 column 1570 - Warning: attribute "bgcolor" had invalid value "FFFFFF" and has been replaced line 10 column 1612 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 1612 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 2554 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 2554 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 3339 - Warning: proprietary attribute "height" line 10 column 3460 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 3460 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 3761 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 3761 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 4066 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 4066 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 4363 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 4363 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 4672 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "url" line 10 column 4818 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu" line 10 column 5121 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 5121 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 5258 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu" line 10 column 5561 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 5561 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 5706 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu" line 10 column 6009 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 6009 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 6144 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu" line 10 column 6447 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 column 6447 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid" line 10 column 6578 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu" line 10 column 6881 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea" line 10 c
Game play versus presentation?
on
Ask Sid Meier
·
· Score: 1
A lot of the classic games did not place high demands on hardware, yet were very enjoyable and fun to play even on a modern system. In contrast, a lot of today's games are very visually appealing and heavy on the system, but do not leave a lasting impression. Why would you say this is happening? In your opinion, can anything be done to bring the "joy of the game" back to computer gaming?
Grant everyone a free and open license to use the patents. Then when there are enough patents, just destroy the whole bunch in one quick action. Can it be done?
or, destroy the patents, release their contents to the public domain and establish existing software as prior art to any idiot who thinks he can re-apply for the patents and then sue the open source community won't be able to.
Actually, what we need in addition to the patent database is a prior art database that deters people from applying for patents for stuff that already exist.
the APwC - accumulated performance-per-watt cost. (performance/watt) / cost
I think that's more relevant.
The best processor would be one that offers the highest performance-per-watt at the lowest price. I have a feeling that the AMD-64s currently hold that crown.
Since dual cores are the quite common these days, we need a measure that can scale even based on the number of processors used to achieve the performance numbers.
So whether it takes 50 transmeta processors or 2 AMD 64s or x Intel processors, at the end of the day, what matters is how much was spent to achieve the same performance. Therefore, we need to take this into account as well.
Use any platform to teach the concepts of computing - like what drag and drop is for, what the clipboard is used for, the concept of a file system structure, u know...stuff like that. Once they have the concepts down, give them an operating system as an excercise to show them the different computing environments available. Then ask them their opinions. I think that could be a very constructive session - both for the kids and the school.
If I remember right...the P4 was supposed to scale to 10GHz. It almost reached 4Ghz... so maybe we might see around 4 cores or so before intel throws up its hands this time around? And I wonder what AMD will have by then...
Sory Intel. Just looks like you're playing catch up to me.
How about setting up a site where everyone who has Firefox visits and it creates a unique cookie for every browser that visits it? Each browser is counted only once. Keep it open for a week and we should see some interesting results.
or how about an extension that calculates a unique ID based on your hardware and sends it in? Yeah yeah, i know, privacy and all that...but here it is being used just to count Firefox users. Wouldn't you voluntarily install that extension to show you're a Firefox user out of sheer pride in the browser you're using? And once you're counted, you could un-install it.
Slashdot Mirror
..which is why i said "at a decent resolution". with a card like the 6800 GS for 249, I could turn up the settings to the point where I can appreciate the best of what a game has to offer in terms of graphics. Sure, I might only be able to use 4x AA instead of 8x, but that kind of setting does not make a big difference to the image on the screen.
I guess it's also about playing the game the way the game developers envisioned it - with enough of the effects on to give me a darn good indication of the best the game has to offer. For example, on an RTS game, I couldnt be bothered how detailed the shadows of each indivdual unit were, but the detail that went into their models would make a difference and so would the effects when say a building was destroyed or being constructed.
I can understand framerates from an FPS point of view, but as for the other types of games, as long as it plays smooth, i'm happy.
$250 to enable my machine for gaming doesn't sound like much. If I can spend $250 and get cutting edge graphics at a decent resolution and thereby avoid the need for a PS3 or an Xbox which would cost at least twice as much, then I'll do it.
Go download Firefox 1.5 RC1 and help test it. The only way its going to be adopted more is if it works better and has few enough shortcomings to make the move to it worth it.
yeah and the service packs will start with the name Andromeda :)
Sure it's a tax write-off. Sure he'll claim it as a tax write off. Still, he's donated it to fight a disease - not to some obscure cause. There is humanity in that. Recognize it.
This is a very good thing he did. Do not let opinions of his company cloud your thinking. See it for what it is. A charitable gesture. Pray for the guy instead.
So they patched the drivers. Strong case for Linux if you ask me. The thing is, in Windows world, people tend to just make themselves administrators of their own systems and they end up using the computer on an admin account - heck, Windows Xp Home does that by defult.
Contrast this with the Linux way of doing things - nobody in their right mind uses a root account as their usual login. Forget about the fact that Linux still has such a small user base compared to Windows that developing a patch for drivers itself might not seem feasible to a company like Sony.
Move to Linux. Use only GPL stuff. Then see how difficult that makes it for a company like Sony to harm your system.
Thats because people who write websites for IE get so confused they literally need to go back to school to figure things out.
Isn't this somewhat like how directx started out? Now if this thing can automatically off-load any processing on the built-in GPU and still keep up its performance, then this could be the beginning of cross platform 3D gaming which would mean the beginning of a widespread move to Linux.
I think we should christen this the Decade of Linux. Things have come very far from where they were in 2000 - Linux is now being shipped on OEM machines. I think its safe to say that by 2010, Linux gaming will be a reality and will be on par with Windows, if not better.
Add that to things like distros standardizing and striving for compatibility, usability studies being conducted that help in improving the end user's Linux experience and the availability of great development platforms like Eclipse, and you have the components in place.
So I think these 10 years will mark Linux's rise and will stabilize Linux as a widely accepted operating system and an alternative to Windows. I couldn't be bothered whether it marks Microsoft's fall or not, but I'm sure we will see more widespread Linux adoption.
As always, never forget the people who started this in the first place. They are the giants on whose shoulders Linux now stands.
...and don't whine if you buy some god forsaken piece of hardware for your PC and find it's a bitch to get it working on Linux.
Seriously though, give the OSS developers some credit. How in hell can you expect them to support every damn piece of hardware that is available for your PC? Sure, there are good drivers for what is commonly used and there will continue to be.
For Linux drivers, you will need to stop worrying once Linux becomes a more widely recognized OS. Because it is the manufacturers who will need to provide the drivers for their devices and that's the only way you're going to be sure that something will work. Even then, how many devices do you know come with perfect drivers for Windows? Even after it's so widely used, if you buy cheap hardware, chances are you'll get dodgy drivers.
So if you dont want to Google, buy stuff that's in common use or grin and bear it and if you can, help write the drivers for that exotic piece of hardware. Either that, or buy from a retailer who's known to sell devices that ship with linux drivers. Don't know about the USA, but if you're in Australia or New Zealand, you can shop at Dick Smith Electronics and they'll even tell you which VERSION of the Linux kernel the drivers have been tested with.
So just be patient. Linux is getting there. Device driver support for Linux is on its way. It just takes time. So either be patient for now and do your research to make sure the hardware will work with linux, or try and help Linux to get there.
Anyone see the icons used for this story? "Space" and "Technology" :)
Maybe we need an "Engineering Achievement" icon or something? Maybe a construction hat with a set of spanners orthe like...IANAA (I am not an artist), but I'm sure others will be able to come out with a suitable icon for these types of stories.
They definitely are of interest to the average geek, so they deserve to be on Slashdot. I think that engineering feats like these deserve their own icon too.
You're a lawyer right?
Oh yeah...now I bet this won't take 5 minutes to get modded -1 flamebait.
Why do you think all these issues are popping up all of a sudden? It's because the US has been sticking its nose where it does not belong for quite some time now - even going to the extent of occupying other countries. What's to prevent them from doing a similar thing electronically? Do you seriously think that if the US held its position as the no. 1 superpower in the world responsibly, that anyone would have a problem with them controlling the internet?
Would you let someone with a history of frequent abuse baby sit your kids? Would you let a bully of a company control the supply of power to your house?
Think people! THINK!
Don't go get all patriotic about it. When you get angry about it, you stop thinking straight.
Yeh, it hurts your national pride, but there is a reason behind it and a damn good one at that.
----------------------
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx
line 2 column 1 - Warning: missing declaration
line 8 column 356 - Warning: ' is not approved by W3C
line 10 column 2403 - Warning: missing before
line 10 column 2435 - Warning: inserting implicit
line 10 column 2547 - Warning: discarding unexpected
line 12 column 46 - Error: is not recognized!
line 12 column 46 - Warning: discarding unexpected
line 14 column 980 - Warning: discarding unexpected
line 24 column 6844 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 6997 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 7004 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 7166 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 7173 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 7423 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 7574 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 7581 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 7729 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 7736 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 24 column 8210 - Warning: is not approved by W3C
line 6 column 115 - Warning: inserting "type" attribute
line 8 column 381 - Warning: inserting "type" attribute
line 8 column 449 - Warning: inserting "type" attribute
line 10 column 58 - Warning: proprietary attribute "topmargin"
line 10 column 58 - Warning: proprietary attribute "leftmargin"
line 10 column 58 - Warning: proprietary attribute "marginwidth"
line 10 column 58 - Warning: proprietary attribute "marginheight"
line 10 column 289 - Warning: proprietary attribute "height"
line 10 column 938 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 938 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 1230 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 1230 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 1423 - Warning: proprietary attribute "height"
line 10 column 1570 - Warning: attribute "bgcolor" had invalid value "FFFFFF" and has been replaced
line 10 column 1612 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 1612 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 2554 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 2554 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 3339 - Warning: proprietary attribute "height"
line 10 column 3460 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 3460 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 3761 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 3761 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 4066 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 4066 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 4363 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 4363 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 4672 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "url"
line 10 column 4818 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu"
line 10 column 5121 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 5121 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 5258 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu"
line 10 column 5561 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 5561 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 5706 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu"
line 10 column 6009 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 6009 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 6144 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu"
line 10 column 6447 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 column 6447 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkid"
line 10 column 6578 - Warning:
proprietary attribute "menu"
line 10 column 6881 - Warning: proprietary attribute "linkarea"
line 10 c
A lot of the classic games did not place high demands on hardware, yet were very enjoyable and fun to play even on a modern system. In contrast, a lot of today's games are very visually appealing and heavy on the system, but do not leave a lasting impression. Why would you say this is happening? In your opinion, can anything be done to bring the "joy of the game" back to computer gaming?
Grant everyone a free and open license to use the patents. Then when there are enough patents, just destroy the whole bunch in one quick action. Can it be done?
or, destroy the patents, release their contents to the public domain and establish existing software as prior art to any idiot who thinks he can re-apply for the patents and then sue the open source community won't be able to.
Actually, what we need in addition to the patent database is a prior art database that deters people from applying for patents for stuff that already exist.
Not yet...they've just gotten air-conditioning installed. Still a huge bunch of demons down there...
1TB = 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 8 bits
. htm
19.2MBits = 19.2 x 1e6
1TB/19.2MBits = 458129.844 seconds
In hours, that is : 458129.8449 / 3600
= 127.258
That's how they got it.
However, here are the real numbers:
From Hitachi's page on its 7K500 drive, we have
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/7k500/7k500
1 GB equals one billion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity;
So, the correct numbers are:
8*1e12/3600
2222222222.2222222222222222222222
8*1e12/(19.2*1e6)
416666.66666666666666666666666667
answer/3600
115.74074074074074074074074074074
115.7 hours.
Then again, we must also take note of some more fine print on hitachi's product support page :
accessible capacity may be less.
So yeah, it is a bit of a stretch...probably more like 110 hours at the end of the day.
nuff said.
the APwC - accumulated performance-per-watt cost.
(performance/watt) / cost
I think that's more relevant.
The best processor would be one that offers the highest performance-per-watt at the lowest price. I have a feeling that the AMD-64s currently hold that crown.
Since dual cores are the quite common these days, we need a measure that can scale even based on the number of processors used to achieve the performance numbers.
So whether it takes 50 transmeta processors or 2 AMD 64s or x Intel processors, at the end of the day, what matters is how much was spent to achieve the same performance. Therefore, we need to take this into account as well.
Use any platform to teach the concepts of computing - like what drag and drop is for, what the clipboard is used for, the concept of a file system structure, u know...stuff like that. Once they have the concepts down, give them an operating system as an excercise to show them the different computing environments available. Then ask them their opinions. I think that could be a very constructive session - both for the kids and the school.
If I remember right...the P4 was supposed to scale to 10GHz. It almost reached 4Ghz... so maybe we might see around 4 cores or so before intel throws up its hands this time around? And I wonder what AMD will have by then...
Sory Intel. Just looks like you're playing catch up to me.
How about setting up a site where everyone who has Firefox visits and it creates a unique cookie for every browser that visits it? Each browser is counted only once. Keep it open for a week and we should see some interesting results.
or how about an extension that calculates a unique ID based on your hardware and sends it in? Yeah yeah, i know, privacy and all that...but here it is being used just to count Firefox users. Wouldn't you voluntarily install that extension to show you're a Firefox user out of sheer pride in the browser you're using? And once you're counted, you could un-install it.
If I were the gamer, I'd move my character to the ad, then get up and go get a cup of coffee...when I get back, the ad's over, I continue playing.