FYI, Gametap just added Civ3 to its lineup. They have a suprisingly large collection of reasonably new games (less than 3-4 years old) available, and they seem to be adding new ones at a rate that just barely keeps me from dropping my subscription.
I liken the single-player gaming experience to someting along the same lines as reading a book, solving a puzzle, or watching a movie. Comparing computer gaming to all other gameplay throughout human history is not really applicable.
I've been playing PC games for decades, and probably will continue to do so for as long as they are available. That said, the XBox I received as a gift a year ago has taken over much of of the time that I would have otherwise spent in front of my PC.
The main reason is that not only can I rent and play console games without the risk of purchasing a dud (or get stuck with something that was released as Beta), I can trade in used console games for a reasonable return. PC game rental isn't a possibility (as far as I know), and the most you can hope to receive in trade for a PC game is 2-5% of the original sale price most times.
Gamefly has saved me countless $$ on titles that I would have otherwise had to purchase for my PC. The only titles that I see worth purchasing for my PC are MMPORPGs and the occasional FPS, but if I ever see a console that offers up a wireless mouse/keyboard as a standard interface option, that could easily change.
One other thing that should be pointed out, FPGAs are probably NEVER going to be faster or have higher capacities than custom ASICs. Their general performance and sizes increase constantly, but you can stuff much, much more and much, much faster logic into an ASIC than into an FPGA. Regardless of volumes, certain applications will always be forced to fixed silicon due to their performance and size requirements.
These articles tend to make FPGAs sound like the newest next-best-thing. They have been around for a very long time, and they alwasy lag behind ASICs when compared to performance and size.
Why should Intel care if people overclock their chips? The only reason I could come up was that they didn't want to hassle with people trying to get returns/refunds on toasted chips due to over-enthusiastic overclocking, which seems pretty far fetched.
Personally, if I accidentally blew my processor I'd be too embarassed to try and scam Intel out of a new chip.
I thought I should point out, the intended audience for this book was not the wacky conspiracy theorists, it was for teachers and students who had questions about non-intuitive physics that take place on the moon, so they didn't propagate the insanity spouted by wacky conspiracy theorists (and the FOX network). Any book targeted at those who were paranoid to begin with is doomed to fail, but some of the explanations of why things looked the way they did (lack of a blast crater, strange shadows, waving flags, etc.) make for some very interesting physics lessons.
I agree, the currently available hardward description languages out there (nearly nothing but VHDL & Verilog) are sorely behind the curve. Unfortunately, you're not going to get the support of the big EDA vendors (Synopsys,Cadence,etc.) if you go with an academically developed language like the one you mentioned. There are new languages coming down the pipe, however. A new Verilog standard was approved last year, which makes a few steps in the right direction. Also, there has been a good bit of momentum behind some newer languages, such as Superlog from Co-Design Automation, which is still under NDA, but looks like it has promise.
HDLs develop very slowly. Companies invest millions of dollars in EDA software that only support the big two languages, and nobody is willing to budge unless everybody moves at once (sounds familiar!)
Slashdot Mirror
The laws of thermodynamics might apply nicely in many cases outside of the general world of physics, but not in economics.
Mooooo!
FYI, Gametap just added Civ3 to its lineup. They have a suprisingly large collection of reasonably new games (less than 3-4 years old) available, and they seem to be adding new ones at a rate that just barely keeps me from dropping my subscription.
I liken the single-player gaming experience to someting along the same lines as reading a book, solving a puzzle, or watching a movie. Comparing computer gaming to all other gameplay throughout human history is not really applicable.
The main reason is that not only can I rent and play console games without the risk of purchasing a dud (or get stuck with something that was released as Beta), I can trade in used console games for a reasonable return. PC game rental isn't a possibility (as far as I know), and the most you can hope to receive in trade for a PC game is 2-5% of the original sale price most times.
Gamefly has saved me countless $$ on titles that I would have otherwise had to purchase for my PC. The only titles that I see worth purchasing for my PC are MMPORPGs and the occasional FPS, but if I ever see a console that offers up a wireless mouse/keyboard as a standard interface option, that could easily change.
Can I quote you after humanity got defeated by DNA-based Uberhumans?
Thank you, but I already consider myself a DNA-based uberhuman.
One other thing that should be pointed out, FPGAs are probably NEVER going to be faster or have higher capacities than custom ASICs. Their general performance and sizes increase constantly, but you can stuff much, much more and much, much faster logic into an ASIC than into an FPGA. Regardless of volumes, certain applications will always be forced to fixed silicon due to their performance and size requirements. These articles tend to make FPGAs sound like the newest next-best-thing. They have been around for a very long time, and they alwasy lag behind ASICs when compared to performance and size.
Why should Intel care if people overclock their chips? The only reason I could come up was that they didn't want to hassle with people trying to get returns/refunds on toasted chips due to over-enthusiastic overclocking, which seems pretty far fetched. Personally, if I accidentally blew my processor I'd be too embarassed to try and scam Intel out of a new chip.
Mmmm... Universe... (knew someone would do this, thought I'd try to get in first)
I thought I should point out, the intended audience for this book was not the wacky conspiracy theorists, it was for teachers and students who had questions about non-intuitive physics that take place on the moon, so they didn't propagate the insanity spouted by wacky conspiracy theorists (and the FOX network). Any book targeted at those who were paranoid to begin with is doomed to fail, but some of the explanations of why things looked the way they did (lack of a blast crater, strange shadows, waving flags, etc.) make for some very interesting physics lessons.
I agree, the currently available hardward description languages out there (nearly nothing but VHDL & Verilog) are sorely behind the curve. Unfortunately, you're not going to get the support of the big EDA vendors (Synopsys,Cadence,etc.) if you go with an academically developed language like the one you mentioned. There are new languages coming down the pipe, however. A new Verilog standard was approved last year, which makes a few steps in the right direction. Also, there has been a good bit of momentum behind some newer languages, such as Superlog from Co-Design Automation, which is still under NDA, but looks like it has promise. HDLs develop very slowly. Companies invest millions of dollars in EDA software that only support the big two languages, and nobody is willing to budge unless everybody moves at once (sounds familiar!)