I doubt it. Neil Armstrong likely saw the first foot to set foot on the moon but probably never saw the entirety of the first astronaut to do it - given that he was the guy and thus got a limited view from inside a helmet rather than the wider angle coverage of the camera.
It's like first person vs. third person games. Accepting that there can be different viewpoints, no one perspective can show "all" the "glory". Neil likely experience a different, very powerful glory as he jumped down - but has also, quite likely, never experienced "all the glory" of watching the first man to do it in all the recorded detail available.
LCD screen... swaps out for the monitor plugged in to the docking station. Keyboard... swaps out for the monitor plugged in to the docking station. Mousepad... swaps out for the monitor plugged in to the docking station. Graphics system... swaps out for the monitor plugged in to the docking system.
About the only remaining parts that don't swap out are the hard drive, CPU and memory. In exchange for that, you tend to get a clunky docking station that takes up way too much desk space rather than discretely sitting under your desk like a dedicated tower. Given laptop memory and CPUs tend to be underpowered compared to desktop equivalents, replacing them for a typical laptop would run, what, $150 at the outside?
At what point does it become a much better idea to make your laptop hard drive hot swappable and then have a dedicated tower with all of the better priced components the desktop allows with an open bay in the front to move your data and OS setup over? By the time you have a docking station with a high end graphics card in it, the additional components are pretty trivial.
These days, most of my gaming is what I'd call casual: I pick up games that can be completely played in 5 minute blocks.
Now it just so happens that I'll likely get hooked once I start and play a good dozen of those blocks and find an hour has gone by - often longer still. But, if I knew I had to invest an hour to even try, I likely wouldn't pick up the game in the first place.
So, yes, casual gamer play sessions are often much longer than one five-to-fifteen minute block. But, no, that doesn't mean you can create a game that requires those longer average play times and still capture the same market. It's a false conclusion based on completely missing the low barrier to entry aspect and fixating on average playtimes.
In short: Casual gaming isn't about short play times. It's about the ability to play for short sessions and thus having a low barrier to entry that then leads to those longer play times.
And with that, I'm off for just one more game of sudoku.
GameSpot indicates that consoles are down, but PC titles are up, led by MMORPG sales.
Console sales are down during a transition period where many people are hesitant to buy current gen games when they know they'll be upgrading soon and publishers are holding off interesting titles waiting for the exciting new systems.
Obviously the only possible explanation is that people are playing a different type of game on an entirely different platform.
There are 100m+ PS3s out there, 30m? XBoxes and 5-6m WOW accounts. Let's call it 10m players across all MMOs. So, assuming every MMO account holder actually actively plays, isn't a mule, owned a console (rather than was only a PC gamer anyway) and has entirely stopped purchasing new games for their consoles (though they're apparently still purchasing just fine for their PCs). Wow, that'd knock the console market by a whole 5-10%.
Sure, there are other variables like whether they were hardcore gamers or not. But that's kind of the point - it's a weak theory based on dozens of unknowns and conveniently ignoring the most likely answer: the console market's in a transition phase and always expected to be low for the first year of a change over.
But, whilst we're on the exciting headlines, isn't it time to pronounce adventure games/flight simulators/PC gaming as on it's deathbed again?
I have one from Dell, it somehow runs as cool and quiet as a slower 5400
And the upgrade cost from Dell is greater than the cost of buying the same drive new from NewEgg AND having Dell ship the original. Unfortunately, to then simply unscrew a cover, pop out a drive, pop in another and reinstall the OS completely invalidates your warranty which is that much more essential on laptops.
5400 RPM drives are a curse on laptops. Unfortunately, Dell knows it has the customers who know better over a barrel and thus gouges happily for the upgrade to reasonable performance.
So now that we have all these motion and light sensors under control, is there a MacBook discotheque in the works?"
Consider, for a moment, the traditional Mac user. These are often very smart, very intellectual people. They enjoy culture, fine achievements and the arts. They enjoy long philosophical discussions that, whilst boring to many others, are deeply important to them. They prefer an environment that isn't necessarily the most competetive but has a reassuring sense of doing everything right rather than rushing through the modern world and all the kludginess that seems to bring with it. They enjoy sitting in coffee houses, where their apple logo is even more of a lifestyle symbol than a starbucks cup, and working on worthy novels.
In short, they are society's university lecturers.
103 million PS2s have been sold worldwide...what's the impact on the environment of generating that energy?
So, by that rational, the Phantom game console, by virtue of never seeing the light of day or selling a single instance, is "THE SINGLE GREATEST THING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, EVER!"?
Similarly, we should take the total number of lightbulbs sold in the world, their power consumption, look at how it dwarfs console standby levels, and establish humanity should really just go to sleep when it gets dark.
When assessing environmental impact, you need to assess it per unit. If you assess by multiplying the number of units in existence, all you're really saying is "Anything that uses power is worse the more popular it gets." True, overall, that does contribute more to humanity's power usage but does a lousy job of looking at how efficiently it does so.
Two years ago Microsoft had their exciting answer. It was some exciting Media Player based store or somesuch and companies could brand their MP3 players as compatible. It was going to be the next big thing that'd replace iTunes and iPod. It flopped.
This year they're releasing a new version of media player with MTV branded store by default. It'll be the next big thing. Well, we're guessing not because they're already planning the next next big thing. Sounds like this incarnation was a flop.
So they have this one planned. It'll be hyped as the next big thing. It'll likely flop and they'll likely work on the next one. And the next one. And the next one.
Who knows, maybe someday they'll eventually stumble on how to get it right. Unlikely though in a genre where being "hip" is important and they the generic big, grey company that your mom uses to do word processing. Of course Walmart isn't "hip" either and yet they virtually control the music industry because they're everywhere and can simply reach more consumers whilst forcing prices lower.
The point being that it's too lucrative a market for Microsoft to just ignore. There'll always be some project or other in Redmond until they either crack it or the end of days comes when the antichrist steps down from day to day operations and starts walking the earth.
Baldur's Gate could have used the original D&D basic set rules and still been a good game - because story, content, game design, user interface, graphics engine, etc. were all there. Similarly, should there ever be one universally identified "The Greatest Rulest Of All Time" and it be applied to a half-assed, buggy game with two dimensional characters and bad voice acting, it will still suck.
Rules are a nice gimmick. They make it even more of a must buy for people who are already fans of the ruleset and want to experience a new adventure with a rule system that makes sense to them. They add to the chances of the game being reasonably well balanced (though by no means guarantee it when almost every combat concept can get converted to a video game but a large number of spells just don't convert over - meaning combat vs. spell casting classes may need a rebalance). They can also add a huge gameworld in say the case of the Forgotten Realms that can add a huge amount of depth. And, finally, they are somewhat reassuring to people who don't necessarily know the ruleset because they at least imply the basic ruleset has been tested elsewhere first.
But, gimmick aside, the statistics a game engine uses to determine what can and cannot happen are relatively minor compared to all the other aspects that go in to a great fun RPG. I'd take a huge game with great AI, a great user interface, great characters, an amazing story, excellent pacing and sound/graphics that really drew me in over a great ruleset trapped in a clunky game every single time.
Most any science department will tell you that the amount of interest and involvement of women pales next to men of similar age and background. Is this sponsorship a creative way to get women interested in GNOME, or is it merely sexist?
As even the most basic scholar of Disney can tell you, there's almost always a ratio of one woman to every seven gnomes.
Of course, Smurfologists would argue the situation's even worse. No wonder the little buggers are blue.
The background to this exercise is that until the Innovatek water cooling set became available, none of the vendors offered compatible brackets for socket 775. Thus, a bit of handiwork was the only option available.
Completely ignoring that Zalman's ZM-WB3 which has been part of their Reserator 1 Plus kit and the older Reserator 1 has been out for quite a while.
Then again, certainly without the additional fan, it's likely unable to handle the half killowat (why am I so tempted to write it as 5x10-4 MegaWatts?) that the crazily jacked Pentium draws. Granted it costs more than the watercooling used in the not overclocked cheap rig - but it runs a little less than the option used in the rig they actually did overclock.
Personally, I was happier with overclocking the 4200+ X2, totally silently, with absolutely no fans, to the same kind of benchmark scores. Sure, it was $200 more - but the price difference bought a processor that needed vastly less overclocking, thus generated vastly less heat, and thus could run totally silently - as opposed to leaving me with ringing ears every time the rig got switched on.
I'm somewhat puzzled with their choice of using 3G/s discs on a 1.5 G/s SATA board, however.
From what I've read, no current drives are pushing even close to the limits of 1.5G/s. On the other hand, given that 3G/s is backward compatible to 1.5G/s hardware, would you saddle any new drive with a label that makes those not in the know think it's "clearly not as good" as the exact same drive with a more exciting label.
It's like Goodyear coming out with tires that are rated stable at up to 250mph. If Ford can put them on for the same cost as the 125mph version, do you really think they're going to advertise their "Ford Focus with 125mph tires" when they can advertise a "Ford Focus with 250mph tires". Sure, it makes no difference to anything - but those not in the know will flock to the "Nissan Sentra with 250mph tires" if Ford doesn't change too.
Then again, E-IDE ("Enhanced so clearly better than regular IDE") became PATA ("Parallel so clearly at least as cool as Serial" ATA) once SATA became the latest exciting thing too - just like many USB products that don't come close to USB1 speeds suddenly became USB2 the moment USB2 turned up and USB1 suddenly became "USB2 Full Speed". In short, marketing bull doesn't make products any better but it convinces enough people that they are that companies then have no choice but to adopt it.
Re:Widescreen Gaming Rig built around a 37" Westy
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The 'Perfect' Gaming Setup
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· Score: 2, Informative
I have been considering water cooling but have yet to take the plunge
Having just installed it, I can really recommend the Zalman Reserator 1 Plus kit. It has everything you need, everything is designed to fit together without leaks, and it goes together really easily. You literally unscrew a bunch of mount points for the old heatsinks, put on your new ones, add your new heatsinks and gunk, push the tubes on, drop the clamps in to position, fill with distilled water and its supplied coolant, then go. It's maybe a half hour job at the outside and keeps a 4200+ X2 running at about 5000+ equivalent speeds at 45C under load. It's also effectively silent.
If you really need to cool an N-Force motherboard's overheating and thus overfanned north bridge, an extra $25 part does that too.
Granted, for SLI, you'll need an extra VGA block (also about $25) and I'm not sure how that works out heatwise. The one problem with water is you get a long time before the water reaches its final temp so it's really hard to tell what it actually runs at under load and whether there's headroom for a second card on a single radiator.
A better quality case with quick release bays and less general pointiness: $50 extra.
A trip to the E.R. to stitch your finger back together: $50 co-pay.
There's minimal cost difference between the two but one hurts a lot less and looks a lot cooler.
At least, that was my argument to my wife for my new Antec case. Granted, I was pushing it somewhat on the Zalman watercooling system when I told her it was "to avoid the risk of burns" but, fortunately, she's not a geek and thus accepts what I tell her.
Hey, don't forget George Broussard, producer of Duke Nukem Forever. Now there's a way to make a name for yourself.
Remember, Gods don't have to become Gods by doing happy, fluffy things for the good of humanity. Hades and Aries come to mind along with just about every other act carried out by Hera.
In thousands of years, mythology will cause Broussard to be remembered as the son of and (Chaos and Chronos), combining the powers of eternal time and the nothingness from which all else could have sprung but ultimately was delayed.
Given past performance, suspectibility to lobbying, short-sighted political behaviour, "it's for the children", simple incompetence and failure to understand the issues, I'd be far happier with zero State intevention.
"I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."
The six thousand Iraqi civilian corpses in the morgue so far this year would, were they still able to speak, likely disagree with you that zero State intervention is a good thing.
Are you saying we can't forecast Microsoft's doom in December because December 2006 OS sales will be considerably down (to the point of almost non-existant) compared to December 2005 given that Vista launches the next month?
Next you'll crazily suggest auto retailers should drop their prices right before a new model year comes out in order to clear old stock and maintain sales.
Crazy talk.
Where would sensationalist journalism be if people like you were allowed to keep throwing the cold water of basic reason upon their arguments?
To quote my mother in law, "Swear words are simply a sign that you don't have a more intelligent way to state something."
But thank you for pointing out to me that people with your views are not ignorant. I'll do my best to remember that in the future. I will have to live with the ache that your lack of respect entails for now.
'...the story itself can only tolerate a certain amount of improbability before the credibility budget is exhausted, and the story is ruined.'
Because I, for one, don't like there to be any improbability whatsoever in my games. They should be exactly like real life, diverging in no way whatsoever. Escapism indeed! Gaming should be sheer drudgery and nothing more or you won't truly appreciate it.
I've had nothing but the worst experiences of my life killing Hitler armed with twin gatling guns, wiping out every Nazi in WWII Germany, turning the tides of major battles, stealing cars and eating ghosts whilst looking like a pizza with a slice missing. When I play a war game I want to sit there numb with fear then die as soon as the ramp goes down on the landing craft with absolutely no possibility to have a real effect on the massive landings, let alone "restart". When I steal a car in a game, I want the police to chase me, catch me, then throw me in a jail that locks my console with absolutely no possibility of playing a computer game for another three years (unless I behave well in which case it might unlock in two years instead). Now that's entertainment. Mmm. Credibility.
Oh, and those hookers in GTA3? I want them to take one look at me from head to toe and say, "I'm going to have to charge you double." Sure it crushes my ego but it's all about the credible reality!
3 XP PCs running Microsoft Update at 3am in a desperate attempt to keep up with Microsoft's bugs.
A couple of Vista PCs, running at likely the same time, no doubt impossible to stop downloading updates because Microsoft has decided it's safer.
Nintendo Wii running its nightly pushes.
Potential similar systems for XBox360s and PS3s.
On a good night, that lot'll jam my connection until early the next evening. Setting systems to automatically go and get updates in the middle of the night is a great idea when you're the only system doing it. As everyone starts doing it, people with multiple systems will start seeing their bandwidth cap out as a half dozen half-hour-to-an-hour downloads all try running in parallel.
And there are no doubt a bunch of wannabe NetFlixes starting up who all think it'll be a great idea to push your next round of movies during the night too.
And then there's the joy of cable etc. where a bunch of people are all sharing the same basic pipe with bandwidth quotes given assuming hardly anyone else is using it at the given instant. Imagine when every PC in the neighborhood goes, "Woo, 3am!" on a major patch day, and suddenly half a dozen machines in every household decides to hammer the pipe at the same instant. With everyone dropping their alleged 8mbps connections down to 0.5mbps as everyone maxes out their stream, how much worse is it going to get?
God forbid you also use IP Telephony and want to make a phonecall before everything's finished in the morning.
Would immigrant workers trade their privacy for the opportunity to work in the U.S.?
No. I, for one, would be leaving.
Granted, I am here as a spouse of an American citizen and working simply because of that, not because I simply came for work.
We're in California because she was badly injured in a car accident and her injuries hurt her less in that climate (I know, another one of those selfish immigrants selfishly supporting your disabled citizens so they don't need to claim benefits - it shouldn't be allowed!). But, should any government expect to implant chips in my body, tattoo a series of numbers on my wrist or demand I wear a Star Of David, in the name of "administrative tracking", I'm sure as hell not staying. We gave that a shot in Europe back in the 30s and 40s - it wasn't too popular. Much as I'd hate putting my wife through the physical pain associated with what the British climate does to her injuries, America can do without a highly skilled and heavily in demand science worker. And then everyone who remains can post on Slashdot lamenting how, once all of those workers leave, America's strangely falling even further behind in the sciences.
I'm sorry but it's just not worth starting down that slippery slope to keep a job. I can earn just as well back in Europe and not go down that slope. Forgetting about my wife's specific case, the only people who'll really lose out are the American citizens whose country continues to fall further behind (don't worry, I'm sure your president will authorize borrowing even more to make up for it). So, granted I don't speak for all immigrants (given I have blonde hair, blue eyes, white skin, and the ability to legally work anywhere in Europe which means most Americans don't think of me when justifying their racism in the name of immigration control) but I am at least one immigrant who'd happily sacrifice living in the states for avoiding a path with disturbing similarities to something the Nazi's (with the help of another U.S. business, IBM, tried back in the 40's).
And, yes, this was just one long post to repeatedly hammer home on Slashdot that I have a wife. Some guys'll do anything to show off.;)
Slashdot Mirror
I doubt it. Neil Armstrong likely saw the first foot to set foot on the moon but probably never saw the entirety of the first astronaut to do it - given that he was the guy and thus got a limited view from inside a helmet rather than the wider angle coverage of the camera.
It's like first person vs. third person games. Accepting that there can be different viewpoints, no one perspective can show "all" the "glory". Neil likely experience a different, very powerful glory as he jumped down - but has also, quite likely, never experienced "all the glory" of watching the first man to do it in all the recorded detail available.
The "agro" - what term could sum it up better?
Yes, I realize I misread it but, with any problems at all, you know that's the name that'll stick.
LCD screen... swaps out for the monitor plugged in to the docking station.
Keyboard... swaps out for the monitor plugged in to the docking station.
Mousepad... swaps out for the monitor plugged in to the docking station.
Graphics system... swaps out for the monitor plugged in to the docking system.
About the only remaining parts that don't swap out are the hard drive, CPU and memory. In exchange for that, you tend to get a clunky docking station that takes up way too much desk space rather than discretely sitting under your desk like a dedicated tower. Given laptop memory and CPUs tend to be underpowered compared to desktop equivalents, replacing them for a typical laptop would run, what, $150 at the outside?
At what point does it become a much better idea to make your laptop hard drive hot swappable and then have a dedicated tower with all of the better priced components the desktop allows with an open bay in the front to move your data and OS setup over? By the time you have a docking station with a high end graphics card in it, the additional components are pretty trivial.
These days, most of my gaming is what I'd call casual: I pick up games that can be completely played in 5 minute blocks.
Now it just so happens that I'll likely get hooked once I start and play a good dozen of those blocks and find an hour has gone by - often longer still. But, if I knew I had to invest an hour to even try, I likely wouldn't pick up the game in the first place.
So, yes, casual gamer play sessions are often much longer than one five-to-fifteen minute block. But, no, that doesn't mean you can create a game that requires those longer average play times and still capture the same market. It's a false conclusion based on completely missing the low barrier to entry aspect and fixating on average playtimes.
In short: Casual gaming isn't about short play times. It's about the ability to play for short sessions and thus having a low barrier to entry that then leads to those longer play times.
And with that, I'm off for just one more game of sudoku.
Weekly coffee jar takings (default): $10
Adding $17.80 from your own pocket for each of 4 "sample" weeks to ensure you get a sensational result: $71.20
Internet hype: Free
An extra year of educational grants $50,000.
Knowing you scammed the system by anonymously dropping under $20/week in to a coffee jar and thus got $50,000 for the next year: Priceless.
GameSpot indicates that consoles are down, but PC titles are up, led by MMORPG sales.
Console sales are down during a transition period where many people are hesitant to buy current gen games when they know they'll be upgrading soon and publishers are holding off interesting titles waiting for the exciting new systems.
Obviously the only possible explanation is that people are playing a different type of game on an entirely different platform.
There are 100m+ PS3s out there, 30m? XBoxes and 5-6m WOW accounts. Let's call it 10m players across all MMOs. So, assuming every MMO account holder actually actively plays, isn't a mule, owned a console (rather than was only a PC gamer anyway) and has entirely stopped purchasing new games for their consoles (though they're apparently still purchasing just fine for their PCs). Wow, that'd knock the console market by a whole 5-10%.
Sure, there are other variables like whether they were hardcore gamers or not. But that's kind of the point - it's a weak theory based on dozens of unknowns and conveniently ignoring the most likely answer: the console market's in a transition phase and always expected to be low for the first year of a change over.
But, whilst we're on the exciting headlines, isn't it time to pronounce adventure games/flight simulators/PC gaming as on it's deathbed again?
I have one from Dell, it somehow runs as cool and quiet as a slower 5400
And the upgrade cost from Dell is greater than the cost of buying the same drive new from NewEgg AND having Dell ship the original. Unfortunately, to then simply unscrew a cover, pop out a drive, pop in another and reinstall the OS completely invalidates your warranty which is that much more essential on laptops.
5400 RPM drives are a curse on laptops. Unfortunately, Dell knows it has the customers who know better over a barrel and thus gouges happily for the upgrade to reasonable performance.
So now that we have all these motion and light sensors under control, is there a MacBook discotheque in the works?"
Consider, for a moment, the traditional Mac user. These are often very smart, very intellectual people. They enjoy culture, fine achievements and the arts. They enjoy long philosophical discussions that, whilst boring to many others, are deeply important to them. They prefer an environment that isn't necessarily the most competetive but has a reassuring sense of doing everything right rather than rushing through the modern world and all the kludginess that seems to bring with it. They enjoy sitting in coffee houses, where their apple logo is even more of a lifestyle symbol than a starbucks cup, and working on worthy novels.
In short, they are society's university lecturers.
Do we really need to give them a faculty disco?
103 million PS2s have been sold worldwide...what's the impact on the environment of generating that energy?
So, by that rational, the Phantom game console, by virtue of never seeing the light of day or selling a single instance, is "THE SINGLE GREATEST THING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, EVER!"?
Similarly, we should take the total number of lightbulbs sold in the world, their power consumption, look at how it dwarfs console standby levels, and establish humanity should really just go to sleep when it gets dark.
When assessing environmental impact, you need to assess it per unit. If you assess by multiplying the number of units in existence, all you're really saying is "Anything that uses power is worse the more popular it gets." True, overall, that does contribute more to humanity's power usage but does a lousy job of looking at how efficiently it does so.
Two years ago Microsoft had their exciting answer. It was some exciting Media Player based store or somesuch and companies could brand their MP3 players as compatible. It was going to be the next big thing that'd replace iTunes and iPod. It flopped.
This year they're releasing a new version of media player with MTV branded store by default. It'll be the next big thing. Well, we're guessing not because they're already planning the next next big thing. Sounds like this incarnation was a flop.
So they have this one planned. It'll be hyped as the next big thing. It'll likely flop and they'll likely work on the next one. And the next one. And the next one.
Who knows, maybe someday they'll eventually stumble on how to get it right. Unlikely though in a genre where being "hip" is important and they the generic big, grey company that your mom uses to do word processing. Of course Walmart isn't "hip" either and yet they virtually control the music industry because they're everywhere and can simply reach more consumers whilst forcing prices lower.
The point being that it's too lucrative a market for Microsoft to just ignore. There'll always be some project or other in Redmond until they either crack it or the end of days comes when the antichrist steps down from day to day operations and starts walking the earth.
Oh.
Shit.
Baldur's Gate could have used the original D&D basic set rules and still been a good game - because story, content, game design, user interface, graphics engine, etc. were all there. Similarly, should there ever be one universally identified "The Greatest Rulest Of All Time" and it be applied to a half-assed, buggy game with two dimensional characters and bad voice acting, it will still suck.
Rules are a nice gimmick. They make it even more of a must buy for people who are already fans of the ruleset and want to experience a new adventure with a rule system that makes sense to them. They add to the chances of the game being reasonably well balanced (though by no means guarantee it when almost every combat concept can get converted to a video game but a large number of spells just don't convert over - meaning combat vs. spell casting classes may need a rebalance). They can also add a huge gameworld in say the case of the Forgotten Realms that can add a huge amount of depth. And, finally, they are somewhat reassuring to people who don't necessarily know the ruleset because they at least imply the basic ruleset has been tested elsewhere first.
But, gimmick aside, the statistics a game engine uses to determine what can and cannot happen are relatively minor compared to all the other aspects that go in to a great fun RPG. I'd take a huge game with great AI, a great user interface, great characters, an amazing story, excellent pacing and sound/graphics that really drew me in over a great ruleset trapped in a clunky game every single time.
Most any science department will tell you that the amount of interest and involvement of women pales next to men of similar age and background. Is this sponsorship a creative way to get women interested in GNOME, or is it merely sexist?
As even the most basic scholar of Disney can tell you, there's almost always a ratio of one woman to every seven gnomes.
Of course, Smurfologists would argue the situation's even worse. No wonder the little buggers are blue.
The background to this exercise is that until the Innovatek water cooling set became available, none of the vendors offered compatible brackets for socket 775. Thus, a bit of handiwork was the only option available.
Completely ignoring that Zalman's ZM-WB3 which has been part of their Reserator 1 Plus kit and the older Reserator 1 has been out for quite a while.
Then again, certainly without the additional fan, it's likely unable to handle the half killowat (why am I so tempted to write it as 5x10-4 MegaWatts?) that the crazily jacked Pentium draws. Granted it costs more than the watercooling used in the not overclocked cheap rig - but it runs a little less than the option used in the rig they actually did overclock.
Personally, I was happier with overclocking the 4200+ X2, totally silently, with absolutely no fans, to the same kind of benchmark scores. Sure, it was $200 more - but the price difference bought a processor that needed vastly less overclocking, thus generated vastly less heat, and thus could run totally silently - as opposed to leaving me with ringing ears every time the rig got switched on.
I'm somewhat puzzled with their choice of using 3G/s discs on a 1.5 G/s SATA board, however.
From what I've read, no current drives are pushing even close to the limits of 1.5G/s. On the other hand, given that 3G/s is backward compatible to 1.5G/s hardware, would you saddle any new drive with a label that makes those not in the know think it's "clearly not as good" as the exact same drive with a more exciting label.
It's like Goodyear coming out with tires that are rated stable at up to 250mph. If Ford can put them on for the same cost as the 125mph version, do you really think they're going to advertise their "Ford Focus with 125mph tires" when they can advertise a "Ford Focus with 250mph tires". Sure, it makes no difference to anything - but those not in the know will flock to the "Nissan Sentra with 250mph tires" if Ford doesn't change too.
Then again, E-IDE ("Enhanced so clearly better than regular IDE") became PATA ("Parallel so clearly at least as cool as Serial" ATA) once SATA became the latest exciting thing too - just like many USB products that don't come close to USB1 speeds suddenly became USB2 the moment USB2 turned up and USB1 suddenly became "USB2 Full Speed". In short, marketing bull doesn't make products any better but it convinces enough people that they are that companies then have no choice but to adopt it.
I have been considering water cooling but have yet to take the plunge
Having just installed it, I can really recommend the Zalman Reserator 1 Plus kit. It has everything you need, everything is designed to fit together without leaks, and it goes together really easily. You literally unscrew a bunch of mount points for the old heatsinks, put on your new ones, add your new heatsinks and gunk, push the tubes on, drop the clamps in to position, fill with distilled water and its supplied coolant, then go. It's maybe a half hour job at the outside and keeps a 4200+ X2 running at about 5000+ equivalent speeds at 45C under load. It's also effectively silent.
If you really need to cool an N-Force motherboard's overheating and thus overfanned north bridge, an extra $25 part does that too.
Granted, for SLI, you'll need an extra VGA block (also about $25) and I'm not sure how that works out heatwise. The one problem with water is you get a long time before the water reaches its final temp so it's really hard to tell what it actually runs at under load and whether there's headroom for a second card on a single radiator.
A better quality case with quick release bays and less general pointiness: $50 extra.
A trip to the E.R. to stitch your finger back together: $50 co-pay.
There's minimal cost difference between the two but one hurts a lot less and looks a lot cooler.
At least, that was my argument to my wife for my new Antec case. Granted, I was pushing it somewhat on the Zalman watercooling system when I told her it was "to avoid the risk of burns" but, fortunately, she's not a geek and thus accepts what I tell her.
Hey, don't forget George Broussard, producer of Duke Nukem Forever. Now there's a way to make a name for yourself.
Remember, Gods don't have to become Gods by doing happy, fluffy things for the good of humanity. Hades and Aries come to mind along with just about every other act carried out by Hera.
In thousands of years, mythology will cause Broussard to be remembered as the son of and (Chaos and Chronos), combining the powers of eternal time and the nothingness from which all else could have sprung but ultimately was delayed.
Given past performance, suspectibility to lobbying, short-sighted political behaviour, "it's for the children", simple incompetence and failure to understand the issues, I'd be far happier with zero State intevention.
"I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."
The six thousand Iraqi civilian corpses in the morgue so far this year would, were they still able to speak, likely disagree with you that zero State intervention is a good thing.
Are you saying we can't forecast Microsoft's doom in December because December 2006 OS sales will be considerably down (to the point of almost non-existant) compared to December 2005 given that Vista launches the next month?
Next you'll crazily suggest auto retailers should drop their prices right before a new model year comes out in order to clear old stock and maintain sales.
Crazy talk.
Where would sensationalist journalism be if people like you were allowed to keep throwing the cold water of basic reason upon their arguments?
To quote my mother in law, "Swear words are simply a sign that you don't have a more intelligent way to state something."
But thank you for pointing out to me that people with your views are not ignorant. I'll do my best to remember that in the future. I will have to live with the ache that your lack of respect entails for now.
Why hey, cutie. Bet you've never seen a beowulf cluster of these before! Want to I/O?
'...the story itself can only tolerate a certain amount of improbability before the credibility budget is exhausted, and the story is ruined.'
Because I, for one, don't like there to be any improbability whatsoever in my games. They should be exactly like real life, diverging in no way whatsoever. Escapism indeed! Gaming should be sheer drudgery and nothing more or you won't truly appreciate it.
I've had nothing but the worst experiences of my life killing Hitler armed with twin gatling guns, wiping out every Nazi in WWII Germany, turning the tides of major battles, stealing cars and eating ghosts whilst looking like a pizza with a slice missing. When I play a war game I want to sit there numb with fear then die as soon as the ramp goes down on the landing craft with absolutely no possibility to have a real effect on the massive landings, let alone "restart". When I steal a car in a game, I want the police to chase me, catch me, then throw me in a jail that locks my console with absolutely no possibility of playing a computer game for another three years (unless I behave well in which case it might unlock in two years instead). Now that's entertainment. Mmm. Credibility.
Oh, and those hookers in GTA3? I want them to take one look at me from head to toe and say, "I'm going to have to charge you double." Sure it crushes my ego but it's all about the credible reality!
Damn, I just broke my sarcasm switch.
3 XP PCs running Microsoft Update at 3am in a desperate attempt to keep up with Microsoft's bugs.
A couple of Vista PCs, running at likely the same time, no doubt impossible to stop downloading updates because Microsoft has decided it's safer.
Nintendo Wii running its nightly pushes.
Potential similar systems for XBox360s and PS3s.
On a good night, that lot'll jam my connection until early the next evening. Setting systems to automatically go and get updates in the middle of the night is a great idea when you're the only system doing it. As everyone starts doing it, people with multiple systems will start seeing their bandwidth cap out as a half dozen half-hour-to-an-hour downloads all try running in parallel.
And there are no doubt a bunch of wannabe NetFlixes starting up who all think it'll be a great idea to push your next round of movies during the night too.
And then there's the joy of cable etc. where a bunch of people are all sharing the same basic pipe with bandwidth quotes given assuming hardly anyone else is using it at the given instant. Imagine when every PC in the neighborhood goes, "Woo, 3am!" on a major patch day, and suddenly half a dozen machines in every household decides to hammer the pipe at the same instant. With everyone dropping their alleged 8mbps connections down to 0.5mbps as everyone maxes out their stream, how much worse is it going to get?
God forbid you also use IP Telephony and want to make a phonecall before everything's finished in the morning.
Would immigrant workers trade their privacy for the opportunity to work in the U.S.?
;)
No. I, for one, would be leaving.
Granted, I am here as a spouse of an American citizen and working simply because of that, not because I simply came for work.
We're in California because she was badly injured in a car accident and her injuries hurt her less in that climate (I know, another one of those selfish immigrants selfishly supporting your disabled citizens so they don't need to claim benefits - it shouldn't be allowed!). But, should any government expect to implant chips in my body, tattoo a series of numbers on my wrist or demand I wear a Star Of David, in the name of "administrative tracking", I'm sure as hell not staying. We gave that a shot in Europe back in the 30s and 40s - it wasn't too popular. Much as I'd hate putting my wife through the physical pain associated with what the British climate does to her injuries, America can do without a highly skilled and heavily in demand science worker. And then everyone who remains can post on Slashdot lamenting how, once all of those workers leave, America's strangely falling even further behind in the sciences.
I'm sorry but it's just not worth starting down that slippery slope to keep a job. I can earn just as well back in Europe and not go down that slope. Forgetting about my wife's specific case, the only people who'll really lose out are the American citizens whose country continues to fall further behind (don't worry, I'm sure your president will authorize borrowing even more to make up for it). So, granted I don't speak for all immigrants (given I have blonde hair, blue eyes, white skin, and the ability to legally work anywhere in Europe which means most Americans don't think of me when justifying their racism in the name of immigration control) but I am at least one immigrant who'd happily sacrifice living in the states for avoiding a path with disturbing similarities to something the Nazi's (with the help of another U.S. business, IBM, tried back in the 40's).
And, yes, this was just one long post to repeatedly hammer home on Slashdot that I have a wife. Some guys'll do anything to show off.
If we use 'Ford's Law', I would expect my computer to spontaneously flip over and catch on fire because of a faulty five cent connector.
Actually, Ford sued to have this renamed the Bridgstone Law.
The correct Ford Law was coined in the 1980's and early 1990's: "You can have any color so long as it's beige."