Damn... I could have swore it said (_) sparc (_) intel when I did my order earlier today. No mention of version 8.
Anyhow, one of the reasons I was excited about trying rev 9 on x86 is Sun is bundling a J2EE app server with Solaris 9. Yes, I could use Jboss - but if Sun released something that even comes close to what I can do with Weblogic and it is free - I can use it for personal use. Alas, no x86 rev9.... No bundled app server.... Not quite sure what is going to be part of the Platform Edition, but it looks interesting...
The Platform Edition of the Sun ONE Application Server is integrated into the Solaris 9 OE. The licensing terms are for NO COST, evaluation, development and deployment of this J2EE 1.3 compliant application server. The license allows a single administration server for each application server instance, which means that centralized management of multiple application servers is not provided with this product.
Not quite so fast... you can get a slocket - slot 1 to socket - adapter cheap. I use an Abit adapter on my SuperMicro SBU with an 800 mhz celeron, a fair jump from the PII 350 it started life as.
You want hosed, you should see my old slot 2 xeon board. It will never see anything faster than the dual 450... With slot 1, you have a chance to upgrade cheap.
I'm not trying to troll here, but seriously, why are people throwing parties (and why does that make it to/.)? Its a piece of software that helps people do their jobs in a way that they like more. I mean, its not like mechanics go and throw parites because Craftsman releases a new wrench
Here is my take on it. Unlike Apache (for the most part), Mozilla was a project that brought the end user into the development cycle - usability, bug hunting, feature enhancement, etc. It was more than just coders working hard to make it viable. Every end user who made the initially painful transition to early builds to where it rocks today has reason to celebrate. Whenever a large software project went gold, my team always partied. This just has a lot more people.
As for the wrench, I saw the strangest thing today as I paid my Discover bill at Sears today.
Craftsman 75th Anniversary Ratchet, Teardrop Quick release 22k Gold plated 3/8 in Drive This standard 2/8 in. drive, fully polished 22k gold-plated ratchet is a Craftsman collector's item. Comes with premium wooden storage display to show off your new collector's item.
Who said machanics don't know how to party... go to sears.com, search for "gold plated ratchet"
I doubt the FAA will let him launch on US soil. (slashdotted, but I'm assuming he is a yank) I'm going to bet they launch a few miles outside international boarders in the water.
Jamming a signal is simple, compared to intercepting it. And as the US military becomes increasingly reliant on its advanced communication network to wage war, it will become a simple way of levelling the playing field for the bad guys.
I was thinking about jamming too, but the real furball usually starts with knocking out the SAM sites -- the guys still flying F-4's with HARM missles. Turn on your radar/jammer, eat a missle. Things quite down after a bit of hunting with those. Unmanned patrol craft set to paste anyone who tries to target it with a SAM... or even tries to see what is flying about with the radar...
The real cost is more than the OS for each machine on a network. You want to have a print, intranet, or file server? You pay per-seat for a Client Access License (CAL) as well (about $350/20 depending on quantity for corporate, ~$180/20 for academic licenses). This adds up fast.... And while it is not half, it ends up being more than a couple hundred bucks once you get exchange, office, dev tools, a proxy server, and all of the other things they can bill you for on $600 worth of hardware.
From a development platform, the Java IDE's out there are quite good for young student level programmers. The thing that nearly killed me in college was vi/emacs before I could even start coding. Seems each TA had a differing opinion on which was better. Wimper... Tools like nedit go a long way to help newbies edit text rather than learn platforms. Sun's IDE, Eclipse, and a few others are pretty polished IDE's for the initial training.
1) You have been caught using broken microsoft software to post to slashdot. Had you used a real computer, you would have either a) real quotation marks or b) html quotation marks rather than some microsoft nonsense that looks like question marks on a real computer. But that's not my point.:)
Trust me, you _WANT_ my spelling checked before I post. (grin)
How about a real browser, however. The quotes render just fine on Mozilla - x86 and my sunblade. You must be using an old version of NN. Preview and browsing looks good from my side!
I'm close to having it done. I'm guessing a bit on my grub.conf at this point. I was able to compile the image, but cannot find/make the initrd-2.4.18-xxxx.img so far.
There is no rpm for the RH 7.3 yet anyhow, so I got to do that from the src rpm they provide.
I'll give you one thing -- my laptop has the nvidia chipset. I need 2.4.18-4 or higher -- RedHat 7.3 ships with 2.4.18-3 -- to get something better than the generic video drivers working.
I mean sure, technology has improved, but not that much. With the example of the cruise missile, you really want a rocket because you need it to be fast moving and you need it to fly quite low to the ground (easier said than done).
While I agree about the ICBM, I suspect you are thinking way to high-tech about the cruise missiles. As an alternative to a ground hugging, rocket powered, flying bomb - how about a homebuilt with a transponder and a valid flight plan filed.
You really have to be watching the radar to catch these things when you are trying to shoot them down in wartime conditions because they are low to the ground. As for rocket powered, even our Tomahawks use a turbo-fan engine for flight (though a booster rocket for takeoff). These things are subsonic (550mph if you believe the listed spec) relying on stealth rather than speed. Compare that to the German V1 at 401mph.
I believe a cruise missile is within the skill set of the hobbyist. Course, I've built a composite aircraft and am restoring a 1948 Playboy (aircraft) today... so my view is a bit twisted.
Someone has finally worked out that cruise missiles are easy to knock up and a threat to US cities Actually they are fucking difficult to make. It's significantly easier to make a nuclear warhead or a biochemical weapon than it is to make an ICBM to deliver it
Cruise missiles are not much more than big RC airplanes with a payload. The German "buzz bombs" were a good example - a simple gyro and altimeter, a bomb, and enough fuel to make it over to London.
Think of this with commodity hardware.
The nav system is not too difficult - something to take the input and correct the course and altitude. A GPS with a COM port and a Palm Pilot makes this really easy (though mine are too clunky to actually put into anything that does not float).
Power plant - don't think jet, think rotax. Since you are not looking for FAA certification, you would be surprised what you can stuff on an airframe. VW bug engines are used in a number of homebuilt projects.
Payload. No clue, but I'm sure someone could manage.
Anyhow, it is probably a mute issue. Cruse missiles are intended to execute an attack from a "safe distance" to prevent retaliation and also obscure where you are attacking from. Way too much harpoon in college... If the terrorist keep up with there current track record, they will just have someone drive/fly the payload in person. Those cruise missiles often have another name - kamikaze.
Do both, and get the best (and worst) of both worlds. You are going to get an entry level job regardless, so might as well start while you are going to school.
On the plus side,
work often pays for tuition
you have a lot of experience when the time comes to move into that "real" job.
might even find that real job while going to school (woot!)
Downside?
It will take an extra 2-3 years to get your degree
you may become cold and jaded as the real world exposes you to the way things work in business rather than class.
Re:My Gripes about Java &tm;
on
Bitter Java
·
· Score: 2
However, as the father of a 2 year old, I have to say that kid's minds are blank slates that you can write anything to.
You can write anything? I have yet to figure out the command line parameters to FDISK my 3 year old's MBR.... Got a bug in there somewhere, because she keeps on sticking goldfish (crackers for you non-parents) in the VCR.
Try buying a case of beer with a "non-driver identification card" some time. Or god forbid, a passport.
No kidding. Last week I went to Taco Johns, paid with a check, and was asked for some ID. I had my passport, but they would not take it.... had to be a driver's license.
A week later I go to get a new drivers license -- moved states. The DMV would not take the others state's license since it only had my middle initial, not my full middle name. They did take the passport as ID, however.
True - I really wish they had a nickle or copper cap on the AMD cores. A shim or high grade heat sink (from a mounting standpoint) goes a long way in making things go. I cruched a couple durons back when I saved a few bucks on a rev 1 chrome orb.
This is a mine field, but if you must -- buy your machines as a bare bones kit that has the CPU mounted, heat sink installed, RAM installed, and a POST test before they ship it to you. Nothing cuts into margins like crushing CPUs. Trust me... nothing speeds things up like only screwing in the HDD, FDD, DVD/CDRW, and video - knowing you don't have to hork with mainboard settings or crushing CPUs. Did I mention how easy it is to crush a CPU? Buy good equipment too, cause you get to support it...
Ah, no... they (StarOffice) did it on other platforms as well. Trust me, the "start" button and integrated desktop was the last thing I wanted to see on my Sunblade or Linux box...
Did you ever try StarOffice 5.2? The "desktop" feature was just plain stupid.
My DDR story with BB
on
Worst Buy
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
My DDR Ram story
Here is my story. I was putting off getting a couple sticks of DDR RAM until after the MPX motherboards were ready to ship. Prices started to skyrocket - thinking they would come down again I waited another week. That next week, Best Buy ran an add for 256 stick of crucial DDR RAM for $25 (after $10 rebate on one) when the market was closer to $50. I went to the store and sure enough, it was stripped clean. On-line, however, it showed in stock so I picked up some for in-store pickup.
Order Date: Dec 10, 2001 In-store Pick-up Items: Crucial Technologies 256MB PC2 --- 2 $34.99 $69.
It looked good. No problems. The store was near by, so I stopped in and checked. We should have another shipment any day now.... Then the email...
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 From: onlinestore@bestbuy.com To: xxx Subject: BestBuy.com Order Cancellation Notice
Dear (sucker-my-name-here),
Thank you for shopping at BestBuy.com.
One or more of the items that you've recently ordered have cancelled. Please take a moment to contact our Customer Care representatives by replying to this e-mail or by calling us toll-free at 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289) for further assistance.
I called the customer service people, and they said that if the item was offered again, they would honor the price. Early January, I saw the RAM was listed on the website again. I called the CS department before I ordered and asked for the details. They said if the item was exactly the same skew number, they would honor the price and ship it to me free this time. Call back with the order number. I ordered, called with the info, and got the item....
Order Date: Jan 10, 2002 Shipped Items:
Crucial Technology 256MB PC210 --- 2 $89.99 $179.98 Shipped on Jan 11, 2002
As one may guess, getting the credit was less than easy. Turns out after I took shipment they tell me - ah, well the credit is not automatic. OK... They will forward it to another department for review.. Gha! Well, after many phone calls and showing up in person (something about working a few blocks away may help) they relented and gave me the full credit promised. The email was not clear, but eventually the credits came.
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 From: BestBuy.com Customer Care Subject: Shipping Credit Applied
Greetings from BestBuy.Com,
This email is regarding the recent order you placed on www.BestBuy.com for In-Store Pick-up. Because our store did not have the product(s) you ordered in-stock, we are providing you with free shipping to your home.
Your credit card statement will show that you were charged the price of the product(s) plus applicable taxes and shipping costs. The billing statement will also show a credit to your account that reflects the cost of shipping and handling. There may also be a credit for any applicable tax difference and difference in the price of the product(s). Your credit card bank will receive notice of this credit within the next 24-48 hours, however, it may take up to 2-3 billing cycles for the credit to appear on your billing statement. If you have questions regarding this credit please contact your credit card bank for more information.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and we hope that you will continue to shop www.BestBuy.com for all of your future entertainment needs.
It gets worse.... One of my friends ordered for normal delivery. They decided not to give her the credit, but were gracious enough to take the unopened package back and refund all the cost involved. The lameness filter here sucks - but the twists and turns it took to do both were insane.
The Register has links to most of the information on the DVD+R $100 upgrade, along with some other threads wworth reading. From personal experience, the DVD burner will create "generic" CD's (able to be used by nnormal CD-ROMs) if you enable a compatibility program if you use the DLA software (makes it a big floppy, closes session when you run the proggy). Only works for CDs, not DVDs. The "create data DVD" software does not work in any drive that I have tested, unless it is in the box tthat has the HP dvd100i (or the samsung cdrw/dvd sm-308b is the only other drive that can read these bloody DVD+RWs). My bad if I said DVD-R, it is DVD+R.... the +R are a few bucks cheaper today.... and will probably be the "bulk" CD+RW like we have today. As a side note, most of the software does not work on win2k server -- pro is ok, but they never say that on the box or press.
The matrox card plays tuxracer and quake3 our of the box. I tried the video capture stuff a while back, but it did not work well for me. The old G400 marvel did hardware MJPEG, which could be cut into different formats. The card did most of the work, so I could really make a 400mhz P-II w/SCSI drives go far. I'm not sure where things are today - I have access to a rt2000 whenever I need to chop real video - but for home use it is not worth the hassles.
Here is another Matrox story... I have a Matrox G400 Marvel - nice TV tuner, (hardware) video capture, good stuff. They only had drivers for win98, but drivers for win2k were right around the corner. The box ran better than I expected, but still had the stability and 2G file limits with the win9x core...
Fast forward a year and a half. The blessed win2k drivers come out. The card turns my $300 card (lots for me at the time) into nothing more than a tv tuner card under win2k -- after much weeping and nashing of teeth, they tell users they will give a $50 rebate to the new and improved G450 Marvel -- without any hardware encoding.
I'm also one of those poor slobs who got stuck with a HP dvd100i too. Stay way clear of it. The best part is when HP asked for $100 to "upgrade" the DVD+RW to record DVD-R like they said it would in the press release. That, and none of the laptops with DVDs will actually read a data DVD+RW I created with it. Total waste of money.
Argh. Never again for both of those folks. Not that I am bitter....
Slashdot Mirror
Anyhow, one of the reasons I was excited about trying rev 9 on x86 is Sun is bundling a J2EE app server with Solaris 9. Yes, I could use Jboss - but if Sun released something that even comes close to what I can do with Weblogic and it is free - I can use it for personal use. Alas, no x86 rev9.... No bundled app server.... Not quite sure what is going to be part of the Platform Edition, but it looks interesting...
The Platform Edition of the Sun ONE Application Server is integrated into the Solaris 9 OE. The licensing terms are for NO COST, evaluation, development and deployment of this J2EE 1.3 compliant application server. The license allows a single administration server for each application server instance, which means that centralized management of multiple application servers is not provided with this product.
Not quite so fast... you can get a slocket - slot 1 to socket - adapter cheap. I use an Abit adapter on my SuperMicro SBU with an 800 mhz celeron, a fair jump from the PII 350 it started life as.
You want hosed, you should see my old slot 2 xeon board. It will never see anything faster than the dual 450... With slot 1, you have a chance to upgrade cheap.
Here is my take on it. Unlike Apache (for the most part), Mozilla was a project that brought the end user into the development cycle - usability, bug hunting, feature enhancement, etc. It was more than just coders working hard to make it viable. Every end user who made the initially painful transition to early builds to where it rocks today has reason to celebrate. Whenever a large software project went gold, my team always partied. This just has a lot more people.
As for the wrench, I saw the strangest thing today as I paid my Discover bill at Sears today.
Craftsman 75th Anniversary Ratchet, Teardrop Quick release 22k Gold plated 3/8 in Drive
This standard 2/8 in. drive, fully polished 22k gold-plated ratchet is a Craftsman collector's item. Comes with premium wooden storage display to show off your new collector's item.
Who said machanics don't know how to party... go to sears.com, search for "gold plated ratchet"
I doubt the FAA will let him launch on US soil. (slashdotted, but I'm assuming he is a yank) I'm going to bet they launch a few miles outside international boarders in the water.
Jamming a signal is simple, compared to intercepting it. And as the US military becomes increasingly reliant on its advanced communication network to wage war, it will become a simple way of levelling the playing field for the bad guys.
I was thinking about jamming too, but the real furball usually starts with knocking out the SAM sites -- the guys still flying F-4's with HARM missles. Turn on your radar/jammer, eat a missle. Things quite down after a bit of hunting with those. Unmanned patrol craft set to paste anyone who tries to target it with a SAM... or even tries to see what is flying about with the radar...
The comercial distros for things like HP-UX, the large IBM boxes/mainframes are not free. GPL, perhaps... but not free as in beer.
The real cost is more than the OS for each machine on a network. You want to have a print, intranet, or file server? You pay per-seat for a Client Access License (CAL) as well (about $350/20 depending on quantity for corporate, ~$180/20 for academic licenses). This adds up fast.... And while it is not half, it ends up being more than a couple hundred bucks once you get exchange, office, dev tools, a proxy server, and all of the other things they can bill you for on $600 worth of hardware.
From a development platform, the Java IDE's out there are quite good for young student level programmers. The thing that nearly killed me in college was vi/emacs before I could even start coding. Seems each TA had a differing opinion on which was better. Wimper... Tools like nedit go a long way to help newbies edit text rather than learn platforms. Sun's IDE, Eclipse, and a few others are pretty polished IDE's for the initial training.
1) You have been caught using broken microsoft software to post to slashdot. Had you used a real computer, you would have either a) real quotation marks or b) html quotation marks rather than some microsoft nonsense that looks like question marks on a real computer. But that's not my point. :)
Trust me, you _WANT_ my spelling checked before I post. (grin)
How about a real browser, however. The quotes render just fine on Mozilla - x86 and my sunblade. You must be using an old version of NN. Preview and browsing looks good from my side!
I'm close to having it done. I'm guessing a bit on my grub.conf at this point. I was able to compile the image, but cannot find/make the initrd-2.4.18-xxxx.img so far.
There is no rpm for the RH 7.3 yet anyhow, so I got to do that from the src rpm they provide.
That which does not kill us...
I'll give you one thing -- my laptop has the nvidia chipset. I need 2.4.18-4 or higher -- RedHat 7.3 ships with 2.4.18-3 -- to get something better than the generic video drivers working.
Ah, you are correct. Drinking and posting do not mix.
I mean sure, technology has improved, but not that much. With the example of the cruise missile, you really want a rocket because you need it to be fast moving and you need it to fly quite low to the ground (easier said than done).
While I agree about the ICBM, I suspect you are thinking way to high-tech about the cruise missiles. As an alternative to a ground hugging, rocket powered, flying bomb - how about a homebuilt with a transponder and a valid flight plan filed.
You really have to be watching the radar to catch these things when you are trying to shoot them down in wartime conditions because they are low to the ground. As for rocket powered, even our Tomahawks use a turbo-fan engine for flight (though a booster rocket for takeoff). These things are subsonic (550mph if you believe the listed spec) relying on stealth rather than speed. Compare that to the German V1 at 401mph.
I believe a cruise missile is within the skill set of the hobbyist. Course, I've built a composite aircraft and am restoring a 1948 Playboy (aircraft) today... so my view is a bit twisted.
Cruise missiles are not much more than big RC airplanes with a payload. The German "buzz bombs" were a good example - a simple gyro and altimeter, a bomb, and enough fuel to make it over to London.
Think of this with commodity hardware.
The nav system is not too difficult - something to take the input and correct the course and altitude. A GPS with a COM port and a Palm Pilot makes this really easy (though mine are too clunky to actually put into anything that does not float).
Power plant - don't think jet, think rotax. Since you are not looking for FAA certification, you would be surprised what you can stuff on an airframe. VW bug engines are used in a number of homebuilt projects.
Payload. No clue, but I'm sure someone could manage.
Anyhow, it is probably a mute issue. Cruse missiles are intended to execute an attack from a "safe distance" to prevent retaliation and also obscure where you are attacking from. Way too much harpoon in college... If the terrorist keep up with there current track record, they will just have someone drive/fly the payload in person. Those cruise missiles often have another name - kamikaze.
On the plus side,
work often pays for tuition
you have a lot of experience when the time comes to move into that "real" job.
might even find that real job while going to school (woot!)
Downside?
It will take an extra 2-3 years to get your degree
you may become cold and jaded as the real world exposes you to the way things work in business rather than class.
OO Cobol - println inherits from space...
However, as the father of a 2 year old, I have to say that kid's minds are blank slates that you can write anything to.
You can write anything? I have yet to figure out the command line parameters to FDISK my 3 year old's MBR.... Got a bug in there somewhere, because she keeps on sticking goldfish (crackers for you non-parents) in the VCR.
Try buying a case of beer with a "non-driver identification card" some time. Or god forbid, a passport.
No kidding. Last week I went to Taco Johns, paid with a check, and was asked for some ID. I had my passport, but they would not take it.... had to be a driver's license.
A week later I go to get a new drivers license -- moved states. The DMV would not take the others state's license since it only had my middle initial, not my full middle name. They did take the passport as ID, however.
True - I really wish they had a nickle or copper cap on the AMD cores. A shim or high grade heat sink (from a mounting standpoint) goes a long way in making things go. I cruched a couple durons back when I saved a few bucks on a rev 1 chrome orb.
This is a mine field, but if you must -- buy your machines as a bare bones kit that has the CPU mounted, heat sink installed, RAM installed, and a POST test before they ship it to you. Nothing cuts into margins like crushing CPUs. Trust me... nothing speeds things up like only screwing in the HDD, FDD, DVD/CDRW, and video - knowing you don't have to hork with mainboard settings or crushing CPUs. Did I mention how easy it is to crush a CPU? Buy good equipment too, cause you get to support it...
Ah, no... they (StarOffice) did it on other platforms as well. Trust me, the "start" button and integrated desktop was the last thing I wanted to see on my Sunblade or Linux box...
Why is covering up the start button a bad thing?
Did you ever try StarOffice 5.2? The "desktop" feature was just plain stupid.
My DDR Ram story
Here is my story. I was putting off getting a couple sticks of DDR RAM until after the MPX motherboards were ready to ship. Prices started to skyrocket - thinking they would come down again I waited another week. That next week, Best Buy ran an add for 256 stick of crucial DDR RAM for $25 (after $10 rebate on one) when the market was closer to $50. I went to the store and sure enough, it was stripped clean. On-line, however, it showed in stock so I picked up some for in-store pickup.
Order Date: Dec 10, 2001
In-store Pick-up Items:
Crucial Technologies 256MB PC2 --- 2 $34.99 $69.
It looked good. No problems. The store was near by, so I stopped in and checked. We should have another shipment any day now.... Then the email...
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001
From: onlinestore@bestbuy.com
To: xxx
Subject: BestBuy.com Order Cancellation Notice
Dear (sucker-my-name-here),
Thank you for shopping at BestBuy.com.
One or more of the items that you've recently ordered have cancelled. Please take a moment
to contact our Customer Care representatives by replying to this e-mail or by calling us
toll-free at 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289) for further assistance.
I called the customer service people, and they said that if the item was offered again, they would honor the price. Early January, I saw the RAM was listed on the website again. I called the CS department before I ordered and asked for the details. They said if the item was exactly the same skew number, they would honor the price and ship it to me free this time. Call back with the order number. I ordered, called with the info, and got the item....
Order Date: Jan 10, 2002
Shipped Items:
Crucial Technology 256MB PC210 --- 2 $89.99 $179.98 Shipped on Jan 11,
2002
As one may guess, getting the credit was less than easy. Turns out after I took shipment they tell me - ah, well the credit is not automatic. OK... They will forward it to another department for review.. Gha! Well, after many phone calls and showing up in person (something about working a few blocks away may help) they relented and gave me the full credit promised. The email was not clear, but eventually the credits came.
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002
From: BestBuy.com Customer Care
Subject: Shipping Credit Applied
Greetings from BestBuy.Com,
This email is regarding the recent order you placed on www.BestBuy.com for
In-Store Pick-up. Because our store did not have the product(s) you ordered
in-stock, we are providing you with free shipping to your home.
Your credit card statement will show that you were charged the price of the
product(s) plus applicable taxes and shipping costs. The billing statement
will also show a credit to your account that reflects the cost of shipping
and handling. There may also be a credit for any applicable tax difference
and difference in the price of the product(s). Your credit card bank will
receive notice of this credit within the next 24-48 hours, however, it may
take up to 2-3 billing cycles for the credit to appear on your billing
statement. If you have questions regarding this credit please contact your
credit card bank for more information.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and we hope that you
will continue to shop www.BestBuy.com for all of your future entertainment
needs.
It gets worse.... One of my friends ordered for normal delivery. They decided not to give her the credit, but were gracious enough to take the unopened package back and refund all the cost involved. The lameness filter here sucks - but the twists and turns it took to do both were insane.
The Register has links to most of the information on the DVD+R $100 upgrade, along with some other threads wworth reading. From personal experience, the DVD burner will create "generic" CD's (able to be used by nnormal CD-ROMs) if you enable a compatibility program if you use the DLA software (makes it a big floppy, closes session when you run the proggy). Only works for CDs, not DVDs. The "create data DVD" software does not work in any drive that I have tested, unless it is in the box tthat has the HP dvd100i (or the samsung cdrw/dvd sm-308b is the only other drive that can read these bloody DVD+RWs). My bad if I said DVD-R, it is DVD+R.... the +R are a few bucks cheaper today.... and will probably be the "bulk" CD+RW like we have today. As a side note, most of the software does not work on win2k server -- pro is ok, but they never say that on the box or press.
The matrox card plays tuxracer and quake3 our of the box. I tried the video capture stuff a while back, but it did not work well for me. The old G400 marvel did hardware MJPEG, which could be cut into different formats. The card did most of the work, so I could really make a 400mhz P-II w/SCSI drives go far. I'm not sure where things are today - I have access to a rt2000 whenever I need to chop real video - but for home use it is not worth the hassles.
nah... now all I have to do is convince her she _really_ wants one of those OSX based laptops the next time around.
Here is another Matrox story... I have a Matrox G400 Marvel - nice TV tuner, (hardware) video capture, good stuff. They only had drivers for win98, but drivers for win2k were right around the corner. The box ran better than I expected, but still had the stability and 2G file limits with the win9x core...
Fast forward a year and a half. The blessed win2k drivers come out. The card turns my $300 card (lots for me at the time) into nothing more than a tv tuner card under win2k -- after much weeping and nashing of teeth, they tell users they will give a $50 rebate to the new and improved G450 Marvel -- without any hardware encoding.
I'm also one of those poor slobs who got stuck with a HP dvd100i too. Stay way clear of it. The best part is when HP asked for $100 to "upgrade" the DVD+RW to record DVD-R like they said it would in the press release. That, and none of the laptops with DVDs will actually read a data DVD+RW I created with it. Total waste of money.
Argh. Never again for both of those folks. Not that I am bitter....