The power of GPUs comes from their specialization at performing certain computational tasks, tasks such as manipulation of large matrices and bitwise operations on huge datasets. These tasks are not limited to pixelpushing, but many kinds of task (such as audio processing) can be visualized as operations on graphical bitmaps. For instance, a reverb filter is very similar to a directional blur in photoshop.
There are also many optimizing tricks involving GPUs that may lend themselves to certain tasks more than others. For instance, feeding data to the card is expensive, so you need to do it in chunks of a certain size. Read the gpgpu.org site and you'll see what I mean-- there are many explanations on there of why GPUs are good at some things and not so good at others.
Problem with this idea is that graphics processors get much of their power from specialization. There are certain things they are good for and certain things they aren't so good for-- the CPU is still necessary as a "gatekeeper," to farm out tasks to different subsystems.
People are doing extremely interesting things with modern graphics hardware, including fluid dynamics simulation, cloud simulation and multiplication of large matrices.
A good site for information on it is www.gpgpu.org, where there are perhaps 200 different projects related to general purpose GFX card use.
As the capabilities of graphics cards expand and become more esoteric, perhaps game developers will begin to eschew the use of certain graphics featuers in favor of using those parts of the pipeline to perform generic calculations, such as physics.
Perhaps there are also ways of performing such calculations and using the results as decorative graphics, ie when we're showing decorative ripples on water, perhaps those ripples are artifacts of some calculation that is being used elsewhere in the game.
No, it just shows how extreme malfeasance and coverup by an organization like the catholic church (of rampant pederasty within their ranks, to very high levels) can (and should) cause people to revile them. Yes, it damn should reflect on Father WiFi. If he feels insulted by this, he can lodge a complaint with the diocese and suggest that they stop defending molesters.
Is it ok to make fun of NAMBLA members?
What about an organization that puts itself up as the paragon of righteousness that at the same time is using its influence to DEFEND NAMBLA-ESQUE BEHAVIOR?
I do see where you're coming from, but I spit on christianity, I mock christians-- especially priests-- and I believe catholicism to be an example of the most vile kind of sniggering hypocrisy. And your mealymouthed protests to the contrary are not about to change my opinion. Also, usually people who are trolling aren't deadly serious. I am.
You're putting words into my mouth, which perhaps shows your own bigotry and assumptions.
News flash: Catholicism and christianity are destructive cults.
Their priests molest children and participate in kiddie porn rings, and are then spirited away by the vatican and granted immunity for some peculiar reason.
Maybe it's time for you to open your eyes and smell the cynical corruption that's filling the church.
OH NO, I'm being insensitive to a cabal that protects child molesters! Go fuck yourself.
It has always kind of worried me that we're so happy about announcing our presence to whoever. Not only that, but we're now sending out the code to our DNA.
Is this a good idea?
How do we know that right next door, comparatively, there isn't intelligent life that for one reason or another might be inimical to humanity? Face it, we are just down out of the trees, and I have always thought that it might be a good idea to lay low, so to speak, rather than trying to yell "Here we are! Here is our genetic code!"
I think that for staying power and sheer thought-provokingness (is that a word?) Blade Runner has to be up there. The central issue of the movie is totally unspoken but it is a constant thread that goes through everything and contrary to Hollywood tradition, is NOT revealed at the end in hamhanded fashion.
Additionally, the movie deals with issues that are far ahead of its time, such as human cloning, organ transplants, environmental despoilation.
Blade Runner is among a very few movies I'd call Cyberpunk.
For sheer enjoyment and excitement at the time, I'd say The Matrix (part I) is up there. But The Matrix is only rehashing issues already digested by countless others. It does pretty well, arguably, at bringing the over-the-top atmosphere of William Gibson to the screen, at least far better than any other movie. I suspect that Matrix isn't going to have staying power; we'll remember it in 20 years but we won't still be pondering it.
What they can do for lots of money, we can do better, and for free...
Why not start releasing pages for kids telling them all the benefits of piracy and the legal benefits of p2p?
It could be pretty funny and you know who the kids would prefer... they would like our character's easy cynicism and honesty much better than the Copyright Weasel.
Unixware, SCO Unixware, SCO Unix, everything SCO touches turn to dog shit. They survive EXCLUSIVELY by business weight and marketing to stupid MBAs who don't know any better.
At least Microsoft provides some tiny amount of value and a semi-stable OS (nowadays) to go with their FUD and pump.
I should probably get rid of that. That was in reference to the Bushies' move to "delay elections" in the event of a terror threat or attack at or around election time.
Wouldn't that be nice for them? Of course they'd just want the process to go smoothly.
I should have qualified my comment re: benefits of military service.
I think that in certain ways, some degree of regimentation is good for people. On the other hand, there may be qualities that military regimentation breaks down.
Just to make it clear, I'm utterly opposed to military conscription. Perhaps it's not so horrible in historically neutral places like Finland, but I'm certainly against it in countries where the military is used by an unelected commander in chief to wage wars of aggression against lesser countries. I'm also against it in burgeoning secret-police states.
I often wonder if the United States is headed for a general conscription.
Many other democratic countries have it, and arguably it's good for people. I often wonder how my life would have been changed by a term in the military.
And hey, since we're now fighting an endless war, it seems more likely than ever.
Sounds like this will be used as a biological weapon. Such a thing could cause a "prion holocaust" in a country, killing huge numbers, with total plausible deniability.
Vegetarian diets sound like a better idea all the time.
Slashdot Mirror
Are these the people who write, like, software programs?
Is there another kind of programmer? Maybe UML programmers? But I thought those were called MBAs...
God help me, I just realized that I referred to the multiplication of large matrices as "extremely interesting."
Someone please kill me.
The power of GPUs comes from their specialization at performing certain computational tasks, tasks such as manipulation of large matrices and bitwise operations on huge datasets. These tasks are not limited to pixelpushing, but many kinds of task (such as audio processing) can be visualized as operations on graphical bitmaps. For instance, a reverb filter is very similar to a directional blur in photoshop.
There are also many optimizing tricks involving GPUs that may lend themselves to certain tasks more than others. For instance, feeding data to the card is expensive, so you need to do it in chunks of a certain size. Read the gpgpu.org site and you'll see what I mean-- there are many explanations on there of why GPUs are good at some things and not so good at others.
Problem with this idea is that graphics processors get much of their power from specialization. There are certain things they are good for and certain things they aren't so good for-- the CPU is still necessary as a "gatekeeper," to farm out tasks to different subsystems.
:)
I've thought the same thing though.
People are doing extremely interesting things with modern graphics hardware, including fluid dynamics simulation, cloud simulation and multiplication of large matrices.
A good site for information on it is www.gpgpu.org, where there are perhaps 200 different projects related to general purpose GFX card use.
As the capabilities of graphics cards expand and become more esoteric, perhaps game developers will begin to eschew the use of certain graphics featuers in favor of using those parts of the pipeline to perform generic calculations, such as physics.
Perhaps there are also ways of performing such calculations and using the results as decorative graphics, ie when we're showing decorative ripples on water, perhaps those ripples are artifacts of some calculation that is being used elsewhere in the game.
No, it just shows how extreme malfeasance and coverup by an organization like the catholic church (of rampant pederasty within their ranks, to very high levels) can (and should) cause people to revile them. Yes, it damn should reflect on Father WiFi. If he feels insulted by this, he can lodge a complaint with the diocese and suggest that they stop defending molesters.
Is it ok to make fun of NAMBLA members?
What about an organization that puts itself up as the paragon of righteousness that at the same time is using its influence to DEFEND NAMBLA-ESQUE BEHAVIOR?
I do see where you're coming from, but I spit on christianity, I mock christians-- especially priests-- and I believe catholicism to be an example of the most vile kind of sniggering hypocrisy. And your mealymouthed protests to the contrary are not about to change my opinion. Also, usually people who are trolling aren't deadly serious. I am.
You're putting words into my mouth, which perhaps shows your own bigotry and assumptions.
News flash: Catholicism and christianity are destructive cults.
Their priests molest children and participate in kiddie porn rings, and are then spirited away by the vatican and granted immunity for some peculiar reason.
Maybe it's time for you to open your eyes and smell the cynical corruption that's filling the church.
OH NO, I'm being insensitive to a cabal that protects child molesters! Go fuck yourself.
It has always kind of worried me that we're so happy about announcing our presence to whoever. Not only that, but we're now sending out the code to our DNA.
Is this a good idea?
How do we know that right next door, comparatively, there isn't intelligent life that for one reason or another might be inimical to humanity? Face it, we are just down out of the trees, and I have always thought that it might be a good idea to lay low, so to speak, rather than trying to yell "Here we are! Here is our genetic code!"
Maybe that had something to do with it if you know what I mean...
You never know what a priest could be doing on an unsecured wifi network. Not these days.
Since when did looking ridiculous matter to the sorts of people who use this kind of thing?
Actually though this sounds like a really sweet product...
I think the matrix is rehashed and massmarketed cyberpunk.
It's cyberpunk in the sense of nested virtual realities, which I think is a fundamental aspect of CP.
I like it that Matrix brought many very subversive ideas into the public mainstream. We need more of that.
I think that for staying power and sheer thought-provokingness (is that a word?) Blade Runner has to be up there. The central issue of the movie is totally unspoken but it is a constant thread that goes through everything and contrary to Hollywood tradition, is NOT revealed at the end in hamhanded fashion.
:)
Additionally, the movie deals with issues that are far ahead of its time, such as human cloning, organ transplants, environmental despoilation.
Blade Runner is among a very few movies I'd call Cyberpunk.
For sheer enjoyment and excitement at the time, I'd say The Matrix (part I) is up there. But The Matrix is only rehashing issues already digested by countless others. It does pretty well, arguably, at bringing the over-the-top atmosphere of William Gibson to the screen, at least far better than any other movie. I suspect that Matrix isn't going to have staying power; we'll remember it in 20 years but we won't still be pondering it.
At least I won't.
I would have a "no goatse" button.
So the makers of p2p software are annoyed with opportunists stepping on their copyrights?
Sorry, but I have no pity for Sharman Networks.
What they can do for lots of money, we can do better, and for free...
Why not start releasing pages for kids telling them all the benefits of piracy and the legal benefits of p2p?
It could be pretty funny and you know who the kids would prefer... they would like our character's easy cynicism and honesty much better than the Copyright Weasel.
Don't give these bozos any publicity.
Unixware, SCO Unixware, SCO Unix, everything SCO touches turn to dog shit. They survive EXCLUSIVELY by business weight and marketing to stupid MBAs who don't know any better.
At least Microsoft provides some tiny amount of value and a semi-stable OS (nowadays) to go with their FUD and pump.
Where the beowulf cluster imagines you...
Just great when we're moving towards a police state on all other fronts.
These boxes will really be used a lot to help individuals, you may be sure. This is why organizations are pushing so hard for them.
I should probably get rid of that. That was in reference to the Bushies' move to "delay elections" in the event of a terror threat or attack at or around election time.
Wouldn't that be nice for them? Of course they'd just want the process to go smoothly.
Like it did last time.
I should have qualified my comment re: benefits of military service.
I think that in certain ways, some degree of regimentation is good for people. On the other hand, there may be qualities that military regimentation breaks down.
Just to make it clear, I'm utterly opposed to military conscription. Perhaps it's not so horrible in historically neutral places like Finland, but I'm certainly against it in countries where the military is used by an unelected commander in chief to wage wars of aggression against lesser countries. I'm also against it in burgeoning secret-police states.
Lately I have no energy, I've been sleeping 17 hours a day and even more sometimes. How much do they get funded for these sorts of studies?!?
I often wonder if the United States is headed for a general conscription.
Many other democratic countries have it, and arguably it's good for people. I often wonder how my life would have been changed by a term in the military.
And hey, since we're now fighting an endless war, it seems more likely than ever.
I suspect you of being a dumbfuck. If you don't understand my sig et cetera, seriously read the news.
My mom knows this guy. He had dinner at her house a couple of weeks back. Haven't read this book but people speak of it very highly.
Awesome to see some "children's cyberpunk" if that's not an oxymoron. I should pick this book up.
Sounds like this will be used as a biological weapon. Such a thing could cause a "prion holocaust" in a country, killing huge numbers, with total plausible deniability.
Vegetarian diets sound like a better idea all the time.