I'm not sure how large your 720p LCD screen is but I've done some A/B testing of the same movie between blu-ray and dvd on my 56" 1080p LCD at normal viewing distance and the improvement is quite noticeable. Even though there is noticeable improvement in picture sharpness I find the color depth to be the main thing I appreciate.
That said movie production quality is a big factor also. For example on blu-ray you can clearly see how some of the non-cgi scenes in Transformers look grainy most likely do them trying to punch up the light of shots made in low light with lenses that were too slow.
As much as I dislike Vista, I've 'downgraded' my laptop which came with Vista to XP, I can't see how this is entirely Microsoft's fault.
SSDs are new to the scene and still today are not anywhere near the commonplace. Vista has been out for a while now, how could they have optimized for SSDs and why would you spend the resources, perhaps delaying the already massively delayed OS for a niche market.
It sounds to me that SanDisk is trying to divert the blame a little. I would want my SSD to outperform a HDD under any workload no matter what OS it is running under.
SanDisk QQ and fix your product then take these dinosaur spinning disk manufacturers down.:)
I decided to start disabling that system service after I had noticed it was trying to cache an incomplete ~100 MB file that was being downloaded by a P2P application to RAM. WTF, I was never going to open that file until it was done!
I would have to disagree. Unless you are leaching 100% the P2P program would need to access the entire file.
I would bet that Microsoft was not narrowly looking at the next 12 months when they made the decision to require Vista for DX10. This is more like a 2-3 year strategy to force people away from XP and perhaps even Wine/Cedega. DX10 itself wasn't even targeted for todays graphics cards.
That said, I don't think it's healthy for the industry and I dread the day I break down and install Vista to get the most out of Starcraft2.
I loved StarCraft/BroodWar. I played all of the solo content and heaps of LAN and B.Net play. For it's day, and for a good while after, it was the best RTS out there. But I'm always confused how people like it more then Warcraft3/Frozen Throne which I feel even today is the best RTS game. In my view WC3/FT does almost everything SC did but better.
I still play WC3/FT, and one of the best mods DotA, quite often. That said I'm not sure I would take an RTS game on a desert island as I wouldn't be able to play other humans. The computer AI does not hold any long term enjoyment.
Perhaps solitaire, tetris or core wars.
Can I choose to wait until Spore is released to become stranded?
Was this judgment against a individual or a company? I would assume a collection agency would be more interested in going after a company.
With an individual there would be effort tracking them down and the like. With a company it seems it would be a more straightforward and have a much higher chance of return.
I will also cast my vote for Python. I have used Python as an introduction to programming with very good results.
Early on being able to directly interact with the interrupter is very useful.
Due to Python's high level nature programs can be written with very few lines of code allowing students to focus on what they want the program to do without the language getting in the way.
I agree with proportional representation but I also do not feel that IRV is useless on it's own.
If a candidate is elected through the IRV process on the 2nd Instant Runoff round they would know that, using your figure of 20% of people marking Nader as their first choice, a significant population didn't vote for him/her as their first choice.
The secondary effects of this information are powerful. For example the elected official will need to pay attention to the issues of this portion of their constituency.
Another positive effect would be that negative campaigns are less useful as your main goal would to gather as much positive support from the whole electorate not simply to mire the reputation of their one single opponent. Hopefully candidates might actually even need to debate a little.
People would also feel more comfortable voting for candidates other then the top two as their vote would not split the vote. This could help change the view that that voting is just picking the lesser of two evils and reduce voter apathy.
IRV could also help bring attention from the elected officials to issues like proportional representation and campaign finance reform.
IRV is not a 'silver bullet' but one stepping stone on the path to a healthy political system in the USA.
If you are a Green, or other third party, supporter please help to get the the following, or similar message out.
"If Kerry supports IRV, Greens will support Kerry"
There are IRV initiatives going in most of the states now. Please investigate IRV and if you agree that is could help bring about positive changes please support the local action in your area and help spread the word.
I was disappointed to find out that this is the same version (v1069) which has been available on MSDN for months now. I have used it only slightly as there are still no audio drivers for the NForce3 chipset.
I can't bring myself to put a sound card in the single PCI slot on my Shuttle XPC just to see how fast Warcraft III loads with a 64bit OS, is there any other program worth running on Windows?
I will have to disagree here. I have spend a good amount of effort trying to quite down the tree systems I have in my small 'office' at home.
By far the loudest thing in the cases are the CPU fans and I don't even have 'quite' power supplies. I've started the ran the system for 10 seconds or so with the CPU fan unplugged. I have bought 3 or 4 Athlon CPU fans which were supposed to be quiet but I haven't been happy with any of them.
My wife but a new Shuttle XPC and those are damn silent. My next system will be the Athlon64 Shuttle XPC.
IC engines have low HP at low RPMs. As you decrease the size of your IC engine it gets harder for the car to start rolling. The electric motor assists the underpowered IC engine, especially at low RPMs, to keep you from feeling you need to get out and push the car
My wife has a Honda Insight and it is a great car, being a 2 seater the only real drawback is size. I would love to replace my Subaru Outback with a hybrid and I will do so as soon as there is a suitable replacement.
I love driving the Insight it has plenty of pickup when you want it to and very fun to drive. We get 70+ MPG on road trips, about 54 MPG overall.
Slashdot Mirror
"Gabe" from Penny Arcade proposed to his wife via a web comic.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/02/17/
I'm not sure how large your 720p LCD screen is but I've done some A/B testing of the same movie between blu-ray and dvd on my 56" 1080p LCD at normal viewing distance and the improvement is quite noticeable. Even though there is noticeable improvement in picture sharpness I find the color depth to be the main thing I appreciate.
That said movie production quality is a big factor also. For example on blu-ray you can clearly see how some of the non-cgi scenes in Transformers look grainy most likely do them trying to punch up the light of shots made in low light with lenses that were too slow.
As much as I dislike Vista, I've 'downgraded' my laptop which came with Vista to XP, I can't see how this is entirely Microsoft's fault.
SSDs are new to the scene and still today are not anywhere near the commonplace. Vista has been out for a while now, how could they have optimized for SSDs and why would you spend the resources, perhaps delaying the already massively delayed OS for a niche market.
It sounds to me that SanDisk is trying to divert the blame a little. I would want my SSD to outperform a HDD under any workload no matter what OS it is running under.
SanDisk QQ and fix your product then take these dinosaur spinning disk manufacturers down.:)
I decided to start disabling that system service after I had noticed it was trying to cache an incomplete ~100 MB file that was being downloaded by a P2P application to RAM. WTF, I was never going to open that file until it was done!
I would have to disagree. Unless you are leaching 100% the P2P program would need to access the entire file.
I would bet that Microsoft was not narrowly looking at the next 12 months when they made the decision to require Vista for DX10. This is more like a 2-3 year strategy to force people away from XP and perhaps even Wine/Cedega. DX10 itself wasn't even targeted for todays graphics cards.
That said, I don't think it's healthy for the industry and I dread the day I break down and install Vista to get the most out of Starcraft2.
He isn't being charged for making copies of coupons but rather providing a program and instructions for other people to make copies of coupons.
All it seems to me is that he provided a program which would allow others to potentially commit fraud.
I loved StarCraft/BroodWar. I played all of the solo content and heaps of LAN and B.Net play. For it's day, and for a good while after, it was the best RTS out there. But I'm always confused how people like it more then Warcraft3/Frozen Throne which I feel even today is the best RTS game. In my view WC3/FT does almost everything SC did but better.
I still play WC3/FT, and one of the best mods DotA, quite often. That said I'm not sure I would take an RTS game on a desert island as I wouldn't be able to play other humans. The computer AI does not hold any long term enjoyment.
Perhaps solitaire, tetris or core wars.
Can I choose to wait until Spore is released to become stranded?
It seems people don't know their history. You have it right, the core NT was from Cutler's crew not a copy of OS/2. The name NT even came from VMS.
V + 1 = W[indows]
M + 1 = N
S + 1 = T
Was this judgment against a individual or a company? I would assume a collection agency would be more interested in going after a company.
With an individual there would be effort tracking them down and the like. With a company it seems it would be a more straightforward and have a much higher chance of return.
I will also cast my vote for Python. I have used Python as an introduction to programming with very good results.
Early on being able to directly interact with the interrupter is very useful.
Due to Python's high level nature programs can be written with very few lines of code allowing students to focus on what they want the program to do without the language getting in the way.
Did you notice how the parent said Infineon not Infinium?
Infineon Price Fixing
And then he used Infin*, if you read the post you would have got the mildly funny joke about bad luck for companies whose names start with INFIN.
I agree with proportional representation but I also do not feel that IRV is useless on it's own.
If a candidate is elected through the IRV process on the 2nd Instant Runoff round they would know that, using your figure of 20% of people marking Nader as their first choice, a significant population didn't vote for him/her as their first choice.
The secondary effects of this information are powerful. For example the elected official will need to pay attention to the issues of this portion of their constituency.
Another positive effect would be that negative campaigns are less useful as your main goal would to gather as much positive support from the whole electorate not simply to mire the reputation of their one single opponent. Hopefully candidates might actually even need to debate a little.
People would also feel more comfortable voting for candidates other then the top two as their vote would not split the vote. This could help change the view that that voting is just picking the lesser of two evils and reduce voter apathy.
IRV could also help bring attention from the elected officials to issues like proportional representation and campaign finance reform.
IRV is not a 'silver bullet' but one stepping stone on the path to a healthy political system in the USA.
We are in desperate need major voting reform in the US.
This is a prime example that two major political parties have way to much control on the whole election and legislative system.
I feel that Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) can truly help to give the power back to the voters.
Take a look at these sites:
IRV Info
IRV Flash Demo
If you are a Green, or other third party, supporter please help to get the the following, or similar message out.
"If Kerry supports IRV, Greens will support Kerry"
There are IRV initiatives going in most of the states now. Please investigate IRV and if you agree that is could help bring about positive changes please support the local action in your area and help spread the word.
We have to take the power back - RATM
I was disappointed to find out that this is the same version (v1069) which has been available on MSDN for months now. I have used it only slightly as there are still no audio drivers for the NForce3 chipset.
I can't bring myself to put a sound card in the single PCI slot on my Shuttle XPC just to see how fast Warcraft III loads with a 64bit OS, is there any other program worth running on Windows?
I will have to disagree here. I have spend a good amount of effort trying to quite down the tree systems I have in my small 'office' at home.
By far the loudest thing in the cases are the CPU fans and I don't even have 'quite' power supplies. I've started the ran the system for 10 seconds or so with the CPU fan unplugged. I have bought 3 or 4 Athlon CPU fans which were supposed to be quiet but I haven't been happy with any of them.
My wife but a new Shuttle XPC and those are damn silent. My next system will be the Athlon64 Shuttle XPC.
IC engines have low HP at low RPMs. As you decrease the size of your IC engine it gets harder for the car to start rolling. The electric motor assists the underpowered IC engine, especially at low RPMs, to keep you from feeling you need to get out and push the car
My wife has a Honda Insight and it is a great car, being a 2 seater the only real drawback is size. I would love to replace my Subaru Outback with a hybrid and I will do so as soon as there is a suitable replacement.
I love driving the Insight it has plenty of pickup when you want it to and very fun to drive. We get 70+ MPG on road trips, about 54 MPG overall.