My recipe for a gaming PC was a SilverStone Fortress FT03-Mini, a Be Quiet SFX 300W PSU, an Asrock H61 mini ITX MB, an i5-2400 with a Scythe Kozuti, an MSI GTX660 Twin Frozr, 8GB of RAM and an SSD. All fans are set to their lowest speed.
It's silent, almost inaudible when not gaming and produces a muted sound when under full load, like an AC unit. I share the office with my wife and I can game wearing headsets while she studies and she doesn't mind. Temperatures under full load are OK as well, CPU 65oC and GPU 80oC with a room temperature ~25oC. Small, noiseless and good looking. The case costs a mint though.
By comparing the results from benchmark software with different code bases for desktop and mobile processors that happen to use the same term (CPUMarks) for results...
A sci-fi writer did write a short story about teddy bear robo-nannies shaping up future adults, back in 1965. Take a look at Harry Harrison's I always do what teddy says.
Apple has its strengths, but it is firstly a design company and then an engineering one, where it makes sense for its products and no one else makes something that fits. Function always follows form, the G4 Cube is a nice example and perhaps even the new Mac Pro will prove my point once it's available and tested.
Combine that with excellent marketing (eg do recall the backpedaling on the significance of unavailable features once competition has them, shows they are useful and Apple finally makes them available) and the ability to ride trends as they start and define them (eg smartphones existed long before the iPhone and failed, but Apple was the first to correctly evaluate the then current state of technology and market demand) and you have Apple.
As far as technology goes, I agree with the other Anonymous Coward; if you get outside the consumer space, Apple isn't as innovative as it appears within. My example might not be the best, but I believe it does serve to show my point even in the consumer space; small size, excellent finish, comparable idea of cooling method, available at least a year before Apple's product. It cannot be your idea of similar because it has to follow PC component standards (like Mini-ITX for the motherboard), while Apple can just go custom. That's an advantage Apple enjoys due to its target market, but it isn't innovative by itself.
Let me introduce you to the SilverStone Fortress Mini. I have one under my desk, it takes standard components, screams quality, uses the same cooling principle and is near silent. Apple does not innovate nearly as much as some people think, but is quite adept at creating arquably valuable closed ecosystems, both hardware and software.
It does have a remote access card you can put in, take a look at its manual or a review. I have one N36L installed with this card in a closet back home and it makes one hell of a Proxmox VE machine.
I am typing this through a WiMAX connection in Greece, so let me clarify a couple of things...
The technology itself is proven and works, both for data and VoIP. You do need to have a proper backbone though; it just doesn't scale to use WiMAX everywhere. A better idea is to use Ethernet microwave links for the backbone and WiMAX stations locally. If you couple this with a multiservice access node (MSAN) you can service remote areas that have local copper lines installed, but lack a proper backbone (eg fiber is too expensive to install and maintain in a mountain side). Right now, this is the killer application for this technology, as this is how it sells itself with most countrys' incumbent telecommunications providers.
The range is just fine, we have tested successfully with distances up to 30Km. Mind you, this is line of sight, the first generation (called fixed WiMAX) is not very good in urban conditions, but for semi-urban and rural areas it performs as advertised. The second generation (called mobile WiMAX) is supposed to give as 2G penetration and coverage, but I have not played around with it yet. This is also supposed to be the killer application for the second generation; broadband everywhere, even on the go.
The available spectrum is limited, but proper planning goes a long way. I can't get too specific, but in our trials we have been quite limited with spectrum with no real problems.
I don't see prices to be dirt cheap though; licensed spectrum costs money. On the other hand, stations and terminals are getting cheaper all the time. I think that WiMAX services' cost will follow the same general trend; slightly more expensive that the equivalent fixed line broadband at first, getting cheaper as it catches on.
Well, I constantly see people mock those who spend three or four times the money for computer parts in order to get a minuscule increase in games' performance which, however small, can be accurately measured.
In that light, spending ten times the money in order to get some improvement which you cannot even prove that is there or that is attributed to the change you made and getting laughed at, is not prejudice; it's the logical conclusion.
I also find it amusing that most, if not all, of the editors for the various hi-end magazines are in their 40s. Hearing ability suffers with age, meaning either they are in a very lucky minority with above average ears or they just imagine hearing things. Either way, it makes little difference to the rest of us, just as it makes little difference if we get half a frame more in our favorite game-of-the-moment...
It's a combined search/run app for all versions of Windows. You tell it where to look and what file types to index. When you need to find something, you call it using a hotkey and type away.
You can also use it to search google etc, see the tips & tricks section on its website. I use it all the time and it is very stable and handy.
The more effective way I have found to stop spam is grey listing. In the last two months, I have had zero spam messages go through to my mail server. I use GSLT (http://www.xmailserver.org/glst-mod.html), which is mostly for the XMail mail server ( http://www.xmailserver.org/) but will work anywhere.
I don't know if it fits your definition of high quality, but there is CTorrent, a console client written in C. You can check it at http://ctorrent.sourceforge.net/
First of all, the ECDL stands for European Computer Driving Licence, but it has found success in a large number of countries, including countries outside of Europe.
It consists of seven modules, computer basics and a bit of theory, operating system usage and file handling, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, database applications and last but not least, the Internet.
The whole idea is to teach you the basics about computers and office applications, although there are some other units you can take later, which deal with advanced topics (eg. ECDL CAD).
Since I prepare classes for the ECDL examinations and I am an examiner myself, I can also testify that most of the market (I am located in Greece) is oriented towards the MS Windows+MS Office+Outlook Express+Internet Explorer combination.
But, the way the ECDL Foundation is structuring the documents upon which the learning process is based, are platform and application agnostic. They do not assume that you are familiar with MS products only. They place general requirements, every capable product can satisfy.
The examination process itself is a different matter; you can take manual or automated (CBT style) examinations. The manual examination is application agnostic, but right now, the automated one is oriented towards MS products. As fas as I know, they (ECDL Foundation) have only implemented alternatives for two products; Linux+KDE (for OS and file management exams) and Netscape (for Internet exams). There have been requests for OpenOffice support in the examinations and they are considering it.
So, at its core the ECDL is platform and application agnostic, but those who teach and those who come to learn are oriented towards MS products.
I try to make my girlfriend feel nice whenever I can see her. It doesn't take much; a glance, a nice thing to say about something she bought, make her laugh...
These are things she lives all year long and make our relationship strong. If you have a fiance and you are waiting for one day to make up for the rest of the year, you are doing it all wrong.
Think of you relationship with your significant other as one of your projects; if you don't assign time and thought to it, it will fail.
Block the port. To be honest, I can't understand why you would leave any ports open, when on an always-on connection, with a static IP address. Unless you have a service running on a port, that you want it to be public accessible, all other ports should be blocked and stealth. Experience says this is especially true for netbios ports...
As for the second part, you cannot count on an ISP's usage terms to protect you from malicious acts. For good or for bad, they sell access services, not security services.
Only a couple of months ago, we finished a roll-out for IP phones. The client was a bank and security was the top consideration. In essence, whatever worked to secure data, worked to secure VoIP. The problem in general is not with the technology; it is with the "old school" PBX designers and engineers.
I have met quite a few people, extremely skilled with PBXs, who view data networks as a black box and have almost no knowledge or methodology to work with products that use them, much less secure them.
When these people grasp the realities of the new, converged, technology, we can expect to see quite a few changes both on VoIP systems' built-in security and fail-safe operation.
There are a lot of specialized applications running on legacy systems, such as many mechanical corridors that connect to aircrafts (Win 3.11) or handheld barcode scanners (DOS), or even a lot of ATMs (OS/2 1.x).
The basic advantage is the understanding someone comes to have by working a number of years with something specific. Most bugs, and for certain all the serious ones, are known and documented. Design limitations are known also. There are field proven designs and in many cases known tweaks to extend functionality, even beyond the original capabilities.
This stands true for pretty much everything; another poster pointed out that NASA still uses 8086 hardware!
The need for maintenance is also something relative; if you have something that constantly works reliably, the maintenance required to keep it that way is minimal.
I believe that even if 2.0.39 was the last kernel of the 2.0.x series, people who use 2.0.x won't really care. I know, since I have a 2.0.36 based home router that runs for the past year and a half with zero maintenance. I don't even plan to upgrade to another 2.0.x kernel, let alone 2.2 or 2.4, as long as it just works (tm).:)
I don't know the exact reasoning of the decision, but compatibility was a major factor. I believe they need to retain compatibility, in order to speed up its approval and the rate at which it will be adopted.
You are right about the backbone usage. At this speed, it's not strictly LAN stuff. It can also be used for MANs and WANs. Backbone providers were also part of the draft board and one of its intended usages is this.
I can't really tell you why these decisions were made, but basically, every decision was a compromise between the needs of LAN and WAN guys.
It's not bad, but the point of this spec is to retain compatibility with and seem natural to those familiar with Ethernet, for server to desktop data distribution, not to help design a backplane.
The decision to go fiber only, was based on technical and manufacturing factors and was not taken lightly. Pretty much everyone having something to gain from 10Gb Ethernet, big customers and manufacturers alike, was involved.
One big reason for this decision is that 10Gb Ethernet can't keep compatibility with existing copper-based wiring solutions. If one is to change a paid for CAT5e copper-based wiring solution, already capable of 1Gb, due to bandwidth needs, the path is fiber.
There are a lot of other shows out there presenting the same quality viewing... They are just glorified and called names like reality, social, news...
Come to thing of it, this must be the first show on TV where you get to see what promised!
As for ads, they will just throw subliminal messages. I bet if you watch a ball bounce for a couple of hours, you are receiptive to pretty much everything they show you!
Slashdot Mirror
That should be CPU stays under 65oC and GPU stays under 80oC...
My recipe for a gaming PC was a SilverStone Fortress FT03-Mini, a Be Quiet SFX 300W PSU, an Asrock H61 mini ITX MB, an i5-2400 with a Scythe Kozuti, an MSI GTX660 Twin Frozr, 8GB of RAM and an SSD. All fans are set to their lowest speed.
It's silent, almost inaudible when not gaming and produces a muted sound when under full load, like an AC unit. I share the office with my wife and I can game wearing headsets while she studies and she doesn't mind. Temperatures under full load are OK as well, CPU 65oC and GPU 80oC with a room temperature ~25oC. Small, noiseless and good looking. The case costs a mint though.
Hilarity ensues...
By comparing the results from benchmark software with different code bases for desktop and mobile processors that happen to use the same term (CPUMarks) for results...
A sci-fi writer did write a short story about teddy bear robo-nannies shaping up future adults, back in 1965. Take a look at Harry Harrison's I always do what teddy says.
Apple has its strengths, but it is firstly a design company and then an engineering one, where it makes sense for its products and no one else makes something that fits. Function always follows form, the G4 Cube is a nice example and perhaps even the new Mac Pro will prove my point once it's available and tested.
Combine that with excellent marketing (eg do recall the backpedaling on the significance of unavailable features once competition has them, shows they are useful and Apple finally makes them available) and the ability to ride trends as they start and define them (eg smartphones existed long before the iPhone and failed, but Apple was the first to correctly evaluate the then current state of technology and market demand) and you have Apple.
As far as technology goes, I agree with the other Anonymous Coward; if you get outside the consumer space, Apple isn't as innovative as it appears within. My example might not be the best, but I believe it does serve to show my point even in the consumer space; small size, excellent finish, comparable idea of cooling method, available at least a year before Apple's product. It cannot be your idea of similar because it has to follow PC component standards (like Mini-ITX for the motherboard), while Apple can just go custom. That's an advantage Apple enjoys due to its target market, but it isn't innovative by itself.
Let me introduce you to the SilverStone Fortress Mini. I have one under my desk, it takes standard components, screams quality, uses the same cooling principle and is near silent. Apple does not innovate nearly as much as some people think, but is quite adept at creating arquably valuable closed ecosystems, both hardware and software.
It does have a remote access card you can put in, take a look at its manual or a review. I have one N36L installed with this card in a closet back home and it makes one hell of a Proxmox VE machine.
Following the second link of TFA, I saw the picture of the robot and it was somehow familiar... What could possibly go wrong?
There is a book called The Holographic Universe and it is quite well-written and interesting.
You can also read more here and at Wikipedia.
Modern physics is full of mind-blowing theories... Interesting times indeed!
I am typing this through a WiMAX connection in Greece, so let me clarify a couple of things...
The technology itself is proven and works, both for data and VoIP. You do need to have a proper backbone though; it just doesn't scale to use WiMAX everywhere. A better idea is to use Ethernet microwave links for the backbone and WiMAX stations locally. If you couple this with a multiservice access node (MSAN) you can service remote areas that have local copper lines installed, but lack a proper backbone (eg fiber is too expensive to install and maintain in a mountain side). Right now, this is the killer application for this technology, as this is how it sells itself with most countrys' incumbent telecommunications providers.
The range is just fine, we have tested successfully with distances up to 30Km. Mind you, this is line of sight, the first generation (called fixed WiMAX) is not very good in urban conditions, but for semi-urban and rural areas it performs as advertised. The second generation (called mobile WiMAX) is supposed to give as 2G penetration and coverage, but I have not played around with it yet. This is also supposed to be the killer application for the second generation; broadband everywhere, even on the go.
The available spectrum is limited, but proper planning goes a long way. I can't get too specific, but in our trials we have been quite limited with spectrum with no real problems.
I don't see prices to be dirt cheap though; licensed spectrum costs money. On the other hand, stations and terminals are getting cheaper all the time. I think that WiMAX services' cost will follow the same general trend; slightly more expensive that the equivalent fixed line broadband at first, getting cheaper as it catches on.
Well, I constantly see people mock those who spend three or four times the money for computer parts in order to get a minuscule increase in games' performance which, however small, can be accurately measured.
In that light, spending ten times the money in order to get some improvement which you cannot even prove that is there or that is attributed to the change you made and getting laughed at, is not prejudice; it's the logical conclusion.
I also find it amusing that most, if not all, of the editors for the various hi-end magazines are in their 40s. Hearing ability suffers with age, meaning either they are in a very lucky minority with above average ears or they just imagine hearing things. Either way, it makes little difference to the rest of us, just as it makes little difference if we get half a frame more in our favorite game-of-the-moment...
Try Launchy.
It's a combined search/run app for all versions of Windows. You tell it where to look and what file types to index. When you need to find something, you call it using a hotkey and type away.
You can also use it to search google etc, see the tips & tricks section on its website. I use it all the time and it is very stable and handy.
You can find it at http://www.launchy.net/.
It's true, on DOS you could run debug and give a d c000:0000 command to get the message. Some examples include:
:-)
"This is not a product of IBM (IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corp.)" -- Tseng Labs VGA
"Compatibility requires "IBM " name here" -- UMC VGA
"IBM COMPATIBLE" -- unknown VGA
"IBM VGA Compatible" -- Cirrus Logic VGA
"IBM VGA compatible BIOS" -- S3 VGA
"IBM" -- AT Mach32
"Reserved for IBM compatibility" -- Trident VGA
Used to do that a lot on friends' machines!
ATH
The more effective way I have found to stop spam is grey listing. In the last two months, I have had zero spam messages go through to my mail server. I use GSLT (http://www.xmailserver.org/glst-mod.html), which is mostly for the XMail mail server ( http://www.xmailserver.org/) but will work anywhere.
s _spam_postfix?page=0%2C0, lots and lots of good advice on spam filtering.
You should also check this article http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/focu
I don't know if it fits your definition of high quality, but there is CTorrent, a console client written in C. You can check it at http://ctorrent.sourceforge.net/
First of all, the ECDL stands for European Computer Driving Licence, but it has found success in a large number of countries, including countries outside of Europe.
It consists of seven modules, computer basics and a bit of theory, operating system usage and file handling, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, database applications and last but not least, the Internet.
The whole idea is to teach you the basics about computers and office applications, although there are some other units you can take later, which deal with advanced topics (eg. ECDL CAD).
Since I prepare classes for the ECDL examinations and I am an examiner myself, I can also testify that most of the market (I am located in Greece) is oriented towards the MS Windows+MS Office+Outlook Express+Internet Explorer combination.
But, the way the ECDL Foundation is structuring the documents upon which the learning process is based, are platform and application agnostic. They do not assume that you are familiar with MS products only. They place general requirements, every capable product can satisfy.
The examination process itself is a different matter; you can take manual or automated (CBT style) examinations. The manual examination is application agnostic, but right now, the automated one is oriented towards MS products. As fas as I know, they (ECDL Foundation) have only implemented alternatives for two products; Linux+KDE (for OS and file management exams) and Netscape (for Internet exams). There have been requests for OpenOffice support in the examinations and they are considering it.
So, at its core the ECDL is platform and application agnostic, but those who teach and those who come to learn are oriented towards MS products.
For this day, at least.
I try to make my girlfriend feel nice whenever I can see her. It doesn't take much; a glance, a nice thing to say about something she bought, make her laugh...
These are things she lives all year long and make our relationship strong. If you have a fiance and you are waiting for one day to make up for the rest of the year, you are doing it all wrong.
Think of you relationship with your significant other as one of your projects; if you don't assign time and thought to it, it will fail.
Take a look at the ATI Radeon 7500. There exists a PCI version with 64MB DDR RAM on board. It should be quite fast.
Block the port. To be honest, I can't understand why you would leave any ports open, when on an always-on connection, with a static IP address. Unless you have a service running on a port, that you want it to be public accessible, all other ports should be blocked and stealth. Experience says this is especially true for netbios ports...
As for the second part, you cannot count on an ISP's usage terms to protect you from malicious acts. For good or for bad, they sell access services, not security services.
Only a couple of months ago, we finished a roll-out for IP phones. The client was a bank and security was the top consideration. In essence, whatever worked to secure data, worked to secure VoIP. The problem in general is not with the technology; it is with the "old school" PBX designers and engineers.
I have met quite a few people, extremely skilled with PBXs, who view data networks as a black box and have almost no knowledge or methodology to work with products that use them, much less secure them.
When these people grasp the realities of the new, converged, technology, we can expect to see quite a few changes both on VoIP systems' built-in security and fail-safe operation.
There are a lot of specialized applications running on legacy systems, such as many mechanical corridors that connect to aircrafts (Win 3.11) or handheld barcode scanners (DOS), or even a lot of ATMs (OS/2 1.x).
:)
The basic advantage is the understanding someone comes to have by working a number of years with something specific. Most bugs, and for certain all the serious ones, are known and documented. Design limitations are known also. There are field proven designs and in many cases known tweaks to extend functionality, even beyond the original capabilities.
This stands true for pretty much everything; another poster pointed out that NASA still uses 8086 hardware!
The need for maintenance is also something relative; if you have something that constantly works reliably, the maintenance required to keep it that way is minimal.
I believe that even if 2.0.39 was the last kernel of the 2.0.x series, people who use 2.0.x won't really care. I know, since I have a 2.0.36 based home router that runs for the past year and a half with zero maintenance. I don't even plan to upgrade to another 2.0.x kernel, let alone 2.2 or 2.4, as long as it just works (tm).
I don't know the exact reasoning of the decision, but compatibility was a major factor. I believe they need to retain compatibility, in order to speed up its approval and the rate at which it will be adopted.
You are right about the backbone usage. At this speed, it's not strictly LAN stuff. It can also be used for MANs and WANs. Backbone providers were also part of the draft board and one of its intended usages is this.
I can't really tell you why these decisions were made, but basically, every decision was a compromise between the needs of LAN and WAN guys.
It's not bad, but the point of this spec is to retain compatibility with and seem natural to those familiar with Ethernet, for server to desktop data distribution, not to help design a backplane.
The decision to go fiber only, was based on technical and manufacturing factors and was not taken lightly. Pretty much everyone having something to gain from 10Gb Ethernet, big customers and manufacturers alike, was involved.
One big reason for this decision is that 10Gb Ethernet can't keep compatibility with existing copper-based wiring solutions. If one is to change a paid for CAT5e copper-based wiring solution, already capable of 1Gb, due to bandwidth needs, the path is fiber.
The reason is material properties.
Six months ago, I had the chance to talk with the 3Com technical manager who was on the board drafting the spec.
What he said was very simple; all tests indicated that the only way to have 10Gb over copper is to limit the connection distance to centimeters!
1Gb already pushed the envelope for copper, using all pairs, multiplexing, and error correction; 10Gb is just not possible.
There are a lot of other shows out there presenting the same quality viewing... They are just glorified and called names like reality, social, news...
Come to thing of it, this must be the first show on TV where you get to see what promised!
As for ads, they will just throw subliminal messages. I bet if you watch a ball bounce for a couple of hours, you are receiptive to pretty much everything they show you!
(watch the ball, Luke... (-: )