1. BitTorrent is not even approximately anonymous. Sorry.
2. WASTE is too hard to use for the average user. You need to find and join a network that has good content in order for it to be useful, which means actually communicating with people already in the network and convincing them to let you join. You can't just download the program and go. If *AA force users onto WASTE, they've won.
* I have a motherboard from an ICL 286 (complete with EGA graphics card [8-bit ISA] and I/O card [16-bit ISA, connects to MFM hard disks]) hanging on my wall. I call it a "talking point".
* I have a friend who used an old keyboard to practice his martial arts skills. He eventually cracked the back board with a fingertip thrust, after a number of kicks and punches failed to have much impact -- apparently, they're flexible enough that a gentler but more persistent strike does more damage.
This seems funny, since my Toyota Prius gets ~50 MPG
My Citroen XM got 45, before I scrapped it. That's on diesel, not hybrid. A work colleague drives a Range Rover and gets better than 25.
Just because some people drive ridiculously uneconomical vehicles doesn't mean driving something that is slightly better than you could have got traditionally makes you saviour of the Earth. A true electric vehicle probably still consumes less than half the amount of fossil fuel you're using.
OK, I'm serious here. I've been attempting to use ProDVD under Windows for the last 3 months, but Schilling doesn't seem to be responding to requests for new licenses (there isn't a public one for Windows like there is for Linux), so I've abandoned that idea. I'm currently using Nero, but I would much rather have a _free_ _command line_ tool that I can do this with, because then I can integrate it with DVDStyler and have author & burn in a single step. I can burn CDs just fine with cdrdao, but I haven't found anything equivalent for DVDs. Any suggestions?
I use it under Windows, rather than Linux, but DVDStyler (its on sourceforge, not sure of the exact project name) works well for me. Its a wxWindows based GUI, drag & drop. Very intuitive interface. I think you'll need to convert your files to MPEG beforehand, though.
First off, having more than 2GB of physcial memory on a 32-bit processor requires some really ugly hacks to make things work.
Actually:
1. Full memory on a 32 bit machine is 4GB, not 2. You don't need to do any hacks to break this barrier.
2. If your architecture supports it, you can have processes using a 4GB paged section of a larger physical memory. This isn't really a hack, it works pretty flawlessly and allows a single computer to deal with more than 4GB of data, just not a single process. IA32 processors have had this ability since (I believe) the Pentium III (not sure when AMD implemented it).
3. If all you're doing with the memory is cacheing data (which is what most applications using that much memory are doing with it), you can use the paging facilities to implement a "sliding window" into a larger buffer. This slightly complicates access to the data, slowing it down a little, but it works and is easy enough to implement.
I think it'll be about 5 years before most end users would benefit from a 64 bit system, maybe even a little longer.
Do you have any references on this? It sounds counter-intuitive to me. I would have thought that as long as both cores were accessing constantly accessing memory, the cache would be effectively split between them in a roughly 50/50 split. Actually, if one process was using more memory than the other, the split might end up being proportional, I think -- and this ought to improve performance, as it effectively means that the cache size (which in total is presumably twice as large as the unshared caches would be) is split in an adaptive fashion between the two processes.
Now, I'm not an expert on cache behaviour or memory access patterns, so I'll accept I could easily be wrong -- but I think the way I see at as the more likely scenario.
Interesting. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe this is the book I heard mentioned a few months ago where the author had written a game specifically to promote it.
Now that's in-game advertising. Can't find a game to fit your product? Write one that does fit.
I'm not sure about US law, but in the UK recovery of fines is not a civil action, but is based in criminal law and handled by entirely separate courts. My understanding of US law is that it is quite similar to UK law in many regards, and I would have thought that this is one of them.
I recently downloaded an ISO of SuSE personal, which fits on one CD (including source). The scope of the distribution is a little limited (e.g. there were very few development tools), but it would suit most people who just want a word processor + internet access platform.
It certainly included at least one of every kind of application that's on the Windows CD.
1. Not every site is google or slashdot -- these are two sites that carry an exceptionally high amount of traffic.
2. Once you get up to the sort of traffic slashdot receives, the extra overhead of a Java implementation is low compared to the amount of work you're doing that really has to be done.
3. PERL couldn't cope with Slashdot's load by itself. Slashdot uses a content cacheing scheme where most requests aren't actually handled by the main CGI scripts. It's the only way of handling such a high load.
4. I've seen sites slashdotted that were using a whole variety of scripting technologies. Some of them are just static HTML. Slashdotting has more to do with the speed of the server's Internet connection than it does the software running on it.
Maybe recycled plastic does cost a lot to produce, but I see a lot of it in use so it doesn't seem to deter everyone. Almost all of the plastic containers used for products I buy from my local supermarket are made with 50% (or similar) recycled plastic. I think this kind of thing accounts for a substantial proportion of all plastic use.
So I bought a new 19" NEC LCD, named it Nicole, and declared that it can now be my new girlfriend. Strangely enough (to answer ACs right up front), the sex got better.
Watch out, you can electrocute yourself like that. I'd recommend always unplugging it first.;)
The manufacturers are now scampering to get to 16x speed first.
That's _ridiculous_. A quick top of the head calculation tells me that (if I remembered the speed of 4x correctly) that's 22 megabytes per second. I believe this is actually faster than my hard disk can supply the data to write to the DVD, particularly if there's any fragmentation to worry about (which, with 4.5Gb of data stored on a 20Gb disc, there almost certainly will be).
At least they're not going to be even attempting to push it up to 32x any time soon -- at least, not while the majority of people are using an interface (ATA) to connect their drives that only supports 33 meg/second (roughly 24x in terms of DVD speed).
"how can any consumer intelligently know which one to buy into?"
Um, the same way they always have? Diligent research, maybe? I mean, it's just a thought...
You presumably mean they'll get to the computer store and look at the recorders, and say something like:
"This one does DVD-R9 and costs GBP39.99. This one does DVD+R9 and costs GBP41.99. Looks like I'll get..." and then choose either the cheaper one because they don't like spending money, or the more expensive one because they assume that more expensive == better.
For example, desktop apps with need for a fast startup time will always be best written in C++ until Java Vms are built into the OS.
The original ancestor post we're replying to suggested one of the two things that can be done to remove this problem: don't use AWT/SWING, they're very slow and resource hungry. The alternatives result in programs that start up much more quickly.
For instance, with Java 1.4.1 and my own toolkit, I get typical application start times of 3 seconds, including loading initialisation files and resources.
Also, there are several compilers available now which can compile Java code to a native executable. One is even included with GCC. Using this technology, I get that time down to less than a second.
Thus is the 'java slow startup time' myth debunked: it entirely depends on the libraries your application uses, what your application does, and the implementation of Java that you're using.
Very funny. But I think a good joke should be at least based on the truth.
Java is a lot simpler than C++. I'm not aware of any 'corporate interference', and the Java Community Process ought to ensure that such things don't happen.
And it's substantially faster than most interpreted languages I've ever used. Particularly if I compile it to native code (which you can do, if you want), although this isn't necessary.
RAM usage isn't that bad, either, if you don't use AWT. CPU power is just another speed comparison.
One of these days I'm going to find Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for anti-virus firm Sophos, and ask him how he manages to get his name into every single news article on viruses in existance. I mean, its not like they're the only company operating in the area...
Slashdot Mirror
you do realize that by dithering in anything other than an ordered fashion ruins your compression ratio right?
Which probably makes the images nearly as much larger as having an additional 8 bit alpha channel alongside them does.
1. BitTorrent is not even approximately anonymous. Sorry.
2. WASTE is too hard to use for the average user. You need to find and join a network that has good content in order for it to be useful, which means actually communicating with people already in the network and convincing them to let you join. You can't just download the program and go. If *AA force users onto WASTE, they've won.
* I have a motherboard from an ICL 286 (complete with EGA graphics card [8-bit ISA] and I/O card [16-bit ISA, connects to MFM hard disks]) hanging on my wall. I call it a "talking point".
* I have a friend who used an old keyboard to practice his martial arts skills. He eventually cracked the back board with a fingertip thrust, after a number of kicks and punches failed to have much impact -- apparently, they're flexible enough that a gentler but more persistent strike does more damage.
This seems funny, since my Toyota Prius gets ~50 MPG
My Citroen XM got 45, before I scrapped it. That's on diesel, not hybrid. A work colleague drives a Range Rover and gets better than 25.
Just because some people drive ridiculously uneconomical vehicles doesn't mean driving something that is slightly better than you could have got traditionally makes you saviour of the Earth. A true electric vehicle probably still consumes less than half the amount of fossil fuel you're using.
OK, I'm serious here. I've been attempting to use ProDVD under Windows for the last 3 months, but Schilling doesn't seem to be responding to requests for new licenses (there isn't a public one for Windows like there is for Linux), so I've abandoned that idea. I'm currently using Nero, but I would much rather have a _free_ _command line_ tool that I can do this with, because then I can integrate it with DVDStyler and have author & burn in a single step. I can burn CDs just fine with cdrdao, but I haven't found anything equivalent for DVDs. Any suggestions?
Does Linux have a text editor?
True story -- I was installing SuSE personal the other day, just to see what you got on a 1cd distribution these days.
I went through my usual application selection routine, disabling the stuff that I can't stand (e.g. vim, joe).
By the time I was finished, the only console based text editor installed on the system was 'ed'.
WHAT? No emacs? Not even an emacs-compatible editor? (I used to be a big fan of jove -- like emacs, only loaded _instantly_, even on my old 386).
Was most disappointed. Hooked straight up to their FTP site to download the missing rpms.
I use it under Windows, rather than Linux, but DVDStyler (its on sourceforge, not sure of the exact project name) works well for me. Its a wxWindows based GUI, drag & drop. Very intuitive interface. I think you'll need to convert your files to MPEG beforehand, though.
First off, having more than 2GB of physcial memory on a 32-bit processor requires some really ugly hacks to make things work.
Actually:
1. Full memory on a 32 bit machine is 4GB, not 2. You don't need to do any hacks to break this barrier.
2. If your architecture supports it, you can have processes using a 4GB paged section of a larger physical memory. This isn't really a hack, it works pretty flawlessly and allows a single computer to deal with more than 4GB of data, just not a single process. IA32 processors have had this ability since (I believe) the Pentium III (not sure when AMD implemented it).
3. If all you're doing with the memory is cacheing data (which is what most applications using that much memory are doing with it), you can use the paging facilities to implement a "sliding window" into a larger buffer. This slightly complicates access to the data, slowing it down a little, but it works and is easy enough to implement.
I think it'll be about 5 years before most end users would benefit from a 64 bit system, maybe even a little longer.
Do you have any references on this? It sounds counter-intuitive to me. I would have thought that as long as both cores were accessing constantly accessing memory, the cache would be effectively split between them in a roughly 50/50 split. Actually, if one process was using more memory than the other, the split might end up being proportional, I think -- and this ought to improve performance, as it effectively means that the cache size (which in total is presumably twice as large as the unshared caches would be) is split in an adaptive fashion between the two processes.
Now, I'm not an expert on cache behaviour or memory access patterns, so I'll accept I could easily be wrong -- but I think the way I see at as the more likely scenario.
Jennifer Government.
Read it.
Interesting. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe this is the book I heard mentioned a few months ago where the author had written a game specifically to promote it.
Now that's in-game advertising. Can't find a game to fit your product? Write one that does fit.
you'll be incapacitated for several seconds while your avatar stops and conspicuously consumes:
[...]
- a can of Red Bull
He'd better be able to fly afterwards, or I'll be demanding my money back.
I'm not sure about US law, but in the UK recovery of fines is not a civil action, but is based in criminal law and handled by entirely separate courts. My understanding of US law is that it is quite similar to UK law in many regards, and I would have thought that this is one of them.
Can anyone provide references about this?
I recently downloaded an ISO of SuSE personal, which fits on one CD (including source). The scope of the distribution is a little limited (e.g. there were very few development tools), but it would suit most people who just want a word processor + internet access platform.
It certainly included at least one of every kind of application that's on the Windows CD.
I didn't bother checking, but most advertising boards are self-regulating groups that actually have zero real authority.
The UK's ASA is a government sponsored body that has the power to levy fines and issue orders that specific advertisements not be used in future.
1. Not every site is google or slashdot -- these are two sites that carry an exceptionally high amount of traffic.
2. Once you get up to the sort of traffic slashdot receives, the extra overhead of a Java implementation is low compared to the amount of work you're doing that really has to be done.
3. PERL couldn't cope with Slashdot's load by itself. Slashdot uses a content cacheing scheme where most requests aren't actually handled by the main CGI scripts. It's the only way of handling such a high load.
4. I've seen sites slashdotted that were using a whole variety of scripting technologies. Some of them are just static HTML. Slashdotting has more to do with the speed of the server's Internet connection than it does the software running on it.
Maybe recycled plastic does cost a lot to produce, but I see a lot of it in use so it doesn't seem to deter everyone. Almost all of the plastic containers used for products I buy from my local supermarket are made with 50% (or similar) recycled plastic. I think this kind of thing accounts for a substantial proportion of all plastic use.
Ammonium nitrate (yes, THAT ammonium nitrate)
;)
I'm glad you cleared that up. I thought you might be talking about the other ammonium nitrate for a minute there.
So I bought a new 19" NEC LCD, named it Nicole, and declared that it can now be my new girlfriend. Strangely enough (to answer ACs right up front), the sex got better.
;)
Watch out, you can electrocute yourself like that. I'd recommend always unplugging it first.
The manufacturers are now scampering to get to 16x speed first.
That's _ridiculous_. A quick top of the head calculation tells me that (if I remembered the speed of 4x correctly) that's 22 megabytes per second. I believe this is actually faster than my hard disk can supply the data to write to the DVD, particularly if there's any fragmentation to worry about (which, with 4.5Gb of data stored on a 20Gb disc, there almost certainly will be).
At least they're not going to be even attempting to push it up to 32x any time soon -- at least, not while the majority of people are using an interface (ATA) to connect their drives that only supports 33 meg/second (roughly 24x in terms of DVD speed).
"how can any consumer intelligently know which one to buy into?"
..." and then choose either the cheaper one because they don't like spending money, or the more expensive one because they assume that more expensive == better.
Um, the same way they always have? Diligent research, maybe? I mean, it's just a thought...
You presumably mean they'll get to the computer store and look at the recorders, and say something like:
"This one does DVD-R9 and costs GBP39.99. This one does DVD+R9 and costs GBP41.99. Looks like I'll get
For example, desktop apps with need for a fast startup time will always be best written in C++ until Java Vms are built into the OS.
The original ancestor post we're replying to suggested one of the two things that can be done to remove this problem: don't use AWT/SWING, they're very slow and resource hungry. The alternatives result in programs that start up much more quickly.
For instance, with Java 1.4.1 and my own toolkit, I get typical application start times of 3 seconds, including loading initialisation files and resources.
Also, there are several compilers available now which can compile Java code to a native executable. One is even included with GCC. Using this technology, I get that time down to less than a second.
Thus is the 'java slow startup time' myth debunked: it entirely depends on the libraries your application uses, what your application does, and the implementation of Java that you're using.
Very funny. But I think a good joke should be at least based on the truth.
Java is a lot simpler than C++. I'm not aware of any 'corporate interference', and the Java Community Process ought to ensure that such things don't happen.
And it's substantially faster than most interpreted languages I've ever used. Particularly if I compile it to native code (which you can do, if you want), although this isn't necessary.
RAM usage isn't that bad, either, if you don't use AWT. CPU power is just another speed comparison.
HotSync's icon is useful -- it allows you to start a sync from the desktop.
The other useful one I have on my system is for my spam filter -- double click it to start downloading my email. Right click on it to train it.
One of these days I'm going to find Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for anti-virus firm Sophos, and ask him how he manages to get his name into every single news article on viruses in existance. I mean, its not like they're the only company operating in the area...
Well, I remember hearing about a filter that was 90% accurate at identifying porn JPEGs. Now we just need to give it taste. Hmmm.