Summary picks out one point where the article states that graphics haven't improved, but article goes on to discuss improvements in other areas. The pictures speak for themselves; the shadows are much more realistic and the water effects are much more realistic. The textures were fine to start with -- who cares if they improved?
* For instance, if you were a crewman storing a rifle or pistol in your quarters while making a stop in the lovely Port of Boston, you would be guilty of possessing a firearm without a license. I'm sure the authorities aren't keen on enforcing that law but that such conduct is technically criminal since there is no exemption.
Well, yes, if you didn't do the paperwork for it. But the requirements are fairly simple
Most merchant ships cannot carry deadly weapons legally into most ports in the world. Certainly not any of the big ports. Jail time or worse can result from violating these laws.
This isn't actually true. Most countries will permit a ship to hold weapons while in port, as long as they are stored securely and are legal in the ship's flag country. See the useful summary here.
The small crew of a merchant ship even armed with deadly weapons would be hard pressed to stop a determined pirate attack
While this is true, it's also true that most pirates are opportunists. There are no shortage of valuable cargoes (and ransomable crews) travelling through their waters, and given the choice between boarding a ship whose crew are unarmed and one whose crew are carrying AK47s and warning that anyone attempting to board them will be shot, they aren't going to choose the latter.
If you are in the territorial waters of a foreign country you are subject to their laws and some places take a fairly dim view of killing another person even in self defense. Especially if you are not a citizen of that country and the (alleged) pirate is a citizen.
Most countries where there are piracy problems have very lax laws.
Personally, for the truly lights-out for months at a time, Linux Software RAID with (3) drives in a RAID-1 mirror (all drives active) is my preferred solution. Even if two drives fail, you're still up and running on the 3rd drive. And in the normal case where one drive fails, you're still being mirrored on the two good drives.
Just don't forget that one of those drives should be from a different vendor to the others, in case of faulty parts.
(I've had two drives in a RAID array fail within hours of each other because both had the same firmware bug)
Sure, good HW can keep churning for quite some time, but sooner or later the HD will die.
RAID-0 would keep it running until somebody who checks up weekly can get around to fixing it. Alternatively, there's no reason it couldn't boot off a CD or a USB stick and use a ramdisk. A router shouldn't need to be doing much disk access anyway.
Or the PSU will grow tired
This doesn't happen very often, unless you're using cheap kit. A Dell or HP box should have its PSU keep running pretty much indefinitely.
Maybe a fan will die and leave the system overheated?
A fan is the most likely failure point, but most systems can be underclocked to the point they don't need a fan and still outperform cheap router appliances.
A handy spare 1Ghz machine with 256Mb RAM is overkill, but easily available in most of our homes.
For reference, this is actually *way* overkill. Most cheap router appliances have ~300MHz processor (usually PPC variants with a single pipeline, so not even getting as many instructions dispatched per cycle as a Pentium) and about 64MB of RAM, which they typically use half of as a ramdisk for the OS image. Most use Linux and iptables. A 2000-era PC will easily win.
If you don't have one hanging around, I'd bet there's a load of people on your local freecycle list who do.
How about using an old laptop, or a low-end refurb netbook. Either should have the processing power required, has low power consumption, and can run other services (media server) if required.
Low power consumption is relative. According to my plug-in meter, my wireless router uses about 8W. My 6-year-old laptop uses about 40W most of the time. Admittedly that's somewhat better than my desktop machine's 110W (or 90W on standby) but it's still pretty wasteful.
No one's writing web applications in assembly. And no one's using Jakarta Struts to control an embedded device.
I wouldn't be so sure about either of those, to be honest with you. I've certainly seen people attempting to write web apps in Forth, which is approximately the next best thing in terms of ease of writing, and the hardware you'd need to run JRE+Tomcat+Jakarta+Struts (+ presumably HSQL or something similar for storage) is already present in some higher-end embedded devices.
Only about 30. There was an order-of-magnitude increase when suprnova bit the dust. I'm gonna guess that when all the best of the current crop are gone (or, as looks likely to happen with TPB now, become so unreliable that you'd prefer to look elsewhere) it'll happen again.
So the conclusion is that some people perservere with longer than others while others get bored and don't always fini
No, there's more to it than that. Taking TFA's two characters, while Paul may give up quickly when given a task that's too difficult to solve quickly, he may actually try for longer than Matt when given, say, a series of challenges each of which gets slightly harder, but all of which use the same skill, e.g. a series of more and more complex sudoku. Matt will do the first couple, realise they're all the same and then give up, but Paul will still see them as challenges to overcome merely because each one is slightly harder than the last, even though he isn't learning anything new.
My knowledge about ARM is lacking, but AFAIK an ARM application can freely switch CPU mode at any time.
It's been a while since I programmed an ARM, and I've never programmed in Thumb, but I believe a mode switch can only occur at a call/return boundary, so the mechanism for determining which instruction decoding system to use will be bound up with branch prediction.
No, it actually *is* anonymous. I have pay-as-you-go mobile broadband from 3. I bought the modem and SIM cash, and didn't provide any contact details when I did. I pay for the service using vouchers, bought with cash over the counter at supermarkets. They have no idea who I am, and probably only a vague idea where I am, and that only because I've made no effort to disguise it. If I had refrained from using the modem at home or in places I visit regularly, I'd be practically unidentifiable.
Outright retarded article... Mobile data fees are so expensive that this whole story it makes no sense whatsoever
15GB for £20 still costs somewhat less than buying original copies of most of what you'd be downloading. Sure, it's more expensive than a fixed line phone deal, but if you need it anyway (e.g. for accessing email while on the road) then it's probably actually more cost effective than having two subscriptions.
Wasn't the guy who pushed this shit through removed from two elected positions for corruption, and now only holds an appointed position?
"Removed for corruption" is perhaps overstating the matter. The first time he resigned because he'd failed to declare an interest that should have been on the public record (although he hadn't actually been personally involved in any decisions where there would be a conflict of interest, his department was handling such a decision). The second time he resigned again, but an independent enquiry cleared him of any impropriety.
Reminds me of trying to download Firefox onto a computer on dialup (averaging 5kbps) with IE6.
Downloading...10% - crap internet connection breaks Downloading...1% - ok try again Downloading...3% - ok try again Downloading...20%...40%...come on!... 47% - crap
And so on until I gave up.
Should've used FTP; it could resume the broken download. There's a command line FTP client packaged with Windows.
Yes, but only because they have prearranged short codes for orders that are likely to be given. A message only a handful of characters long can be useful under those circumstances.
Given that we didn't beam out the Wikipedia article for the first message, I'm going to try and anticipate what the alien civilization will see it as by deciphering it myself without reading the article first:
Two things:
1. Why is wikipedia using SVG to encode what is, basically, a bitmap? Surely a PNG would work much better in this context. 2. Seriously. WTF is that supposed to mean? OK, I get the top bar, a simple binary count-up with timing indicators, which is simple enough that it unambiguously identifies the width of the image and should be obvious enough to any intelligence that understands place-based number systems (which is to say, likely anything with the technology to receive the message). But what purpose does the rest of it serve? Even with a cultural understanding of Earth I'm struggling to grasp what it's all about.
Keep in mind that even the ancient 8086 had microcode (aka. instructions that were broken up into simpler instructions)
Yes, but the way it worked is very different: it had what was effectively an interpreter for microcode programs and stepped through each microcode instruction on a one-per-cycle basis, with the single microcode instruction dictating everything that happened in the processor at the time. That's a very different architecture to translating the instructions to a RISC-like instruction set and then dispatching them on what is effectively a pretty-close to traditional RISC execution pipeline, which is what the more modern x86 processors do.
ARM (with thumb) got variable length instructions
ARM Thumb instructions aren't variable length; they're fixed-width at 16 bits. Whether to read 32-bit or 16-bit instructions is determined by a processor mode, not by the instruction encoding.
First of all, it's not an OS, so please don't call it an OS. That term has an actual prior meaning that should not be hijacked in an attempt to sound geeky-cool.
Err.. you sure? If it isn't an OS, why do I need a virtual machine to run it? And I'm pretty sure the specs I've seen say it's based on a modified Linux kernel, which suggests to me that it's an OS.
Slashdot Mirror
Summary picks out one point where the article states that graphics haven't improved, but article goes on to discuss improvements in other areas. The pictures speak for themselves; the shadows are much more realistic and the water effects are much more realistic. The textures were fine to start with -- who cares if they improved?
* For instance, if you were a crewman storing a rifle or pistol in your quarters while making a stop in the lovely Port of Boston, you would be guilty of possessing a firearm without a license. I'm sure the authorities aren't keen on enforcing that law but that such conduct is technically criminal since there is no exemption.
Well, yes, if you didn't do the paperwork for it. But the requirements are fairly simple
Most merchant ships cannot carry deadly weapons legally into most ports in the world. Certainly not any of the big ports. Jail time or worse can result from violating these laws.
This isn't actually true. Most countries will permit a ship to hold weapons while in port, as long as they are stored securely and are legal in the ship's flag country. See the useful summary here.
The small crew of a merchant ship even armed with deadly weapons would be hard pressed to stop a determined pirate attack
While this is true, it's also true that most pirates are opportunists. There are no shortage of valuable cargoes (and ransomable crews) travelling through their waters, and given the choice between boarding a ship whose crew are unarmed and one whose crew are carrying AK47s and warning that anyone attempting to board them will be shot, they aren't going to choose the latter.
If you are in the territorial waters of a foreign country you are subject to their laws and some places take a fairly dim view of killing another person even in self defense. Especially if you are not a citizen of that country and the (alleged) pirate is a citizen.
Most countries where there are piracy problems have very lax laws.
Eh? RAID-1 would keep it up and running...
Ahem. Always confuse those two. ;)
Personally, for the truly lights-out for months at a time, Linux Software RAID with (3) drives in a RAID-1 mirror (all drives active) is my preferred solution. Even if two drives fail, you're still up and running on the 3rd drive. And in the normal case where one drive fails, you're still being mirrored on the two good drives.
Just don't forget that one of those drives should be from a different vendor to the others, in case of faulty parts.
(I've had two drives in a RAID array fail within hours of each other because both had the same firmware bug)
Sure, good HW can keep churning for quite some time, but sooner or later the HD will die.
RAID-0 would keep it running until somebody who checks up weekly can get around to fixing it. Alternatively, there's no reason it couldn't boot off a CD or a USB stick and use a ramdisk. A router shouldn't need to be doing much disk access anyway.
Or the PSU will grow tired
This doesn't happen very often, unless you're using cheap kit. A Dell or HP box should have its PSU keep running pretty much indefinitely.
Maybe a fan will die and leave the system overheated?
A fan is the most likely failure point, but most systems can be underclocked to the point they don't need a fan and still outperform cheap router appliances.
A handy spare 1Ghz machine with 256Mb RAM is overkill, but easily available in most of our homes.
For reference, this is actually *way* overkill. Most cheap router appliances have ~300MHz processor (usually PPC variants with a single pipeline, so not even getting as many instructions dispatched per cycle as a Pentium) and about 64MB of RAM, which they typically use half of as a ramdisk for the OS image. Most use Linux and iptables. A 2000-era PC will easily win.
If you don't have one hanging around, I'd bet there's a load of people on your local freecycle list who do.
How about using an old laptop, or a low-end refurb netbook. Either should have the processing power required, has low power consumption, and can run other services (media server) if required.
Low power consumption is relative. According to my plug-in meter, my wireless router uses about 8W. My 6-year-old laptop uses about 40W most of the time. Admittedly that's somewhat better than my desktop machine's 110W (or 90W on standby) but it's still pretty wasteful.
A netbook might work better.
No one's writing web applications in assembly. And no one's using Jakarta Struts to control an embedded device.
I wouldn't be so sure about either of those, to be honest with you. I've certainly seen people attempting to write web apps in Forth, which is approximately the next best thing in terms of ease of writing, and the hardware you'd need to run JRE+Tomcat+Jakarta+Struts (+ presumably HSQL or something similar for storage) is already present in some higher-end embedded devices.
You really cannot turn every one-liner into separate function. Really.
Why not?
Therefore, this shutdown is infringing on my legal right to download music.
You have no such right. The levy is extortion, plain and simple, not part of a bargain that gives you rights.
how many major indexers are left?
Only about 30. There was an order-of-magnitude increase when suprnova bit the dust. I'm gonna guess that when all the best of the current crop are gone (or, as looks likely to happen with TPB now, become so unreliable that you'd prefer to look elsewhere) it'll happen again.
> Mininova Removes All Copyright-Infringing Torrents
Mininova Removes All Torrents ...Here, fixed that for ya
What do you mean? They've still got a couple of linux distros left. And some songs by bands you've never heard of.
The original Newton - the MessagePad - was released in 1993. Heck, The Steve *cancelled* Newton more than 10 years ago. Really.
That's the submitter's error. Article says the Newton was 10 years old last time they did such a comparison, against an early windows mobile device.
So the conclusion is that some people perservere with longer than others while others get bored and don't always fini
No, there's more to it than that. Taking TFA's two characters, while Paul may give up quickly when given a task that's too difficult to solve quickly, he may actually try for longer than Matt when given, say, a series of challenges each of which gets slightly harder, but all of which use the same skill, e.g. a series of more and more complex sudoku. Matt will do the first couple, realise they're all the same and then give up, but Paul will still see them as challenges to overcome merely because each one is slightly harder than the last, even though he isn't learning anything new.
For anyone wondering why this story is tagged phaseiv...
I thought it was pretty cool, because AFAI knew I was the only person who remembered this film.
My knowledge about ARM is lacking, but AFAIK an ARM application can freely switch CPU mode at any time.
It's been a while since I programmed an ARM, and I've never programmed in Thumb, but I believe a mode switch can only occur at a call/return boundary, so the mechanism for determining which instruction decoding system to use will be bound up with branch prediction.
Unbelievable - it's actually close to anonymous?
No, it actually *is* anonymous. I have pay-as-you-go mobile broadband from 3. I bought the modem and SIM cash, and didn't provide any contact details when I did. I pay for the service using vouchers, bought with cash over the counter at supermarkets. They have no idea who I am, and probably only a vague idea where I am, and that only because I've made no effort to disguise it. If I had refrained from using the modem at home or in places I visit regularly, I'd be practically unidentifiable.
Outright retarded article... Mobile data fees are so expensive that this whole story it makes no sense whatsoever
15GB for £20 still costs somewhat less than buying original copies of most of what you'd be downloading. Sure, it's more expensive than a fixed line phone deal, but if you need it anyway (e.g. for accessing email while on the road) then it's probably actually more cost effective than having two subscriptions.
Wasn't the guy who pushed this shit through removed from two elected positions for corruption, and now only holds an appointed position?
"Removed for corruption" is perhaps overstating the matter. The first time he resigned because he'd failed to declare an interest that should have been on the public record (although he hadn't actually been personally involved in any decisions where there would be a conflict of interest, his department was handling such a decision). The second time he resigned again, but an independent enquiry cleared him of any impropriety.
Reminds me of trying to download Firefox onto a computer on dialup (averaging 5kbps) with IE6.
Downloading...10% - crap internet connection breaks
Downloading...1% - ok try again
Downloading...3% - ok try again
Downloading...20%...40%...come on!... 47% - crap
And so on until I gave up.
Should've used FTP; it could resume the broken download. There's a command line FTP client packaged with Windows.
One bit per second is good enough for the Navy...
Yes, but only because they have prearranged short codes for orders that are likely to be given. A message only a handful of characters long can be useful under those circumstances.
Given that we didn't beam out the Wikipedia article for the first message, I'm going to try and anticipate what the alien civilization will see it as by deciphering it myself without reading the article first:
Two things:
1. Why is wikipedia using SVG to encode what is, basically, a bitmap? Surely a PNG would work much better in this context.
2. Seriously. WTF is that supposed to mean? OK, I get the top bar, a simple binary count-up with timing indicators, which is simple enough that it unambiguously identifies the width of the image and should be obvious enough to any intelligence that understands place-based number systems (which is to say, likely anything with the technology to receive the message). But what purpose does the rest of it serve? Even with a cultural understanding of Earth I'm struggling to grasp what it's all about.
i concur, teamviewer is simply the best.
Better than all the rest?
Keep in mind that even the ancient 8086 had microcode (aka. instructions that were broken up into simpler instructions)
Yes, but the way it worked is very different: it had what was effectively an interpreter for microcode programs and stepped through each microcode instruction on a one-per-cycle basis, with the single microcode instruction dictating everything that happened in the processor at the time. That's a very different architecture to translating the instructions to a RISC-like instruction set and then dispatching them on what is effectively a pretty-close to traditional RISC execution pipeline, which is what the more modern x86 processors do.
ARM (with thumb) got variable length instructions
ARM Thumb instructions aren't variable length; they're fixed-width at 16 bits. Whether to read 32-bit or 16-bit instructions is determined by a processor mode, not by the instruction encoding.
First of all, it's not an OS, so please don't call it an OS. That term has an actual prior meaning that should not be hijacked in an attempt to sound geeky-cool.
Err.. you sure? If it isn't an OS, why do I need a virtual machine to run it? And I'm pretty sure the specs I've seen say it's based on a modified Linux kernel, which suggests to me that it's an OS.