I don't know about other people, but I hate warm toilet seats. That's because around here it means that someone's just made use of it, and I don't like that thought (or smell.)
Previously I'd used a few shitty el-cheapo monitors and I must say that you really do get what you pay for when it comes to monitors.
My 1st was a Commodore 1084S for my C64 (it's still working and sitting next to me =] ) - it's got S-Video (before it was called that) and composite. It has a huge curve and is only 13 or 14" but works great as a TV or PlayStation display. Overall, excellent quality.
Next was another Commodore monitor - a PC one. 14" (long since buried at the dump) but still, very good image quality despite the enormous curve in the glass.
Next was a 15" KTX monitor - had good high-end image controls, but it had this habit of not working at 1 year intervals. The OSD chip or something kept frying. Fortunately, the 3-year warranty enabled me to get it replaced, then on the 4th year when it fritzed I ditched it.
LiteOn came next, 15" - acceptable curve but a very blurry display. I still use it for LAN-parties as crispness doesn't matter much when you're fragging. =]
For the last 16 months I've been using this wonderful Sony 21" FD Trinitron (CPD-G520). For the amount of time I spend in front of a computer, it was definately worth the $2000 I paid for it. It's got great colour, brightness, contrast, sharpness and geometry. In fact, I prefer it over a LCD screen. 2048x1536 @ 75Hz, dual inputs, colour matching and a USB hub - yeah baby!
But, here is the most important thing! A top-notch monitor like this doesn't count for squat unless you have a HIGH QUALITY cable and video card! I can't stress this point enough! Until last month I had been using a Matrox G400 with it and at this insane resolution the image was as crisp and sharp as a LCD. Unfortunately, I needed a 'better' (in terms of polygon-pushing power and features) video card, so in an interim upgrade I bought a Radeon 9000. One word... UGHH!!! Though I don't notice it AS MUCH now, the image suffers from poor colour definition and 'bleeding' on high contrast areas (like word processing) as well as just being generally blury. If I didn't need a more powerful 3D card I'd go back to the Matrox until I have more money for a better quality card (mmm... Parhelia).
Oh yeah... how did I come to my decision about buying the monitor? Well, I'm a stickler for quality, so like with everything I buy, I make sure I do my homework first. This usually involves looking for user reviews online, reading reviews both online and in print. Finally though, you have to decide for yourself. So when you've narrowed it down to a few models, go and demo them - any store that won't let you demo them if they have them in stock is definately not worth your custom. (I demo'd this one at Sony Central, which was the most expensive place to buy it - even with cash, then when I fell in love with it I hunted around for the best price.) =P
The Hindeenburg went down not because Hydrogen is as unstable as everyone says it is, but because the thing was doped with rocket fuel! Combined with certain atmospheric conditions resulting in a large static charge and improper grounding, you had the recipe for disaster.
If it wasn't for that rocket fuel doping, perhaps we might have a Hydrogen economy today.
SDL - 2D and input (granted, it doesn't support as wide a range of input devices, but in most cases keyboard and mouse are all you need fmod - best sound lib out there, used by loads of commercial games. HawkNL/HawkVoice - good networking libs
Sure, like all technologies it can have as many bad applications as good ones.
When I read that they had antennas and buttons, etc. I suddenly thought of electronic ink/OLED-type touch screens, perhaps to be used as wireless x-terms or such? I figure that perhaps the power supply problem could be solved by powering through induction(is that the term?) - like how my electric toothbrush charges (no plugs or wires - just sit it on the base) - or perhaps the battery could be contained in a clipboard? Hell, you could probably fit it all into a cardboard sheet!
This and the printable-screen technologies are seriously cool and exciting things. Perhaps the potential to use such technology to 'invade' privacy isn't a bad thing? Age of transparency anyone?
I've got a Panasonic laser too, KX-P6100 - it's like a tower case for a PC. Whilst it's not the greatest printer, it sure does the job and has been for the 6 years I've had it. Only replaced the drum once, and I'd have to say that its printed over 10,000 pages. It's pretty much the same deal with refilling it too, you get a bottle of toner and plug it onto the drum then shake it about until it fills up.
The thing I hate about it most is that it seems to put out a lot of ozone when it prints.
I'm in Australia, so I suppose I can't really help you out with regards as to where you can get the toner, but I can say that I get the toner from a nearby franchise store Cartridge World (I think) - they can get drums, toner, ink, cartridges and ribbons for pretty much any printer. (Even my old Commodore dot-matrix!) Have you tried looking around for shops like that where you are?
As terrible and horrific as it's been, I really can't stand that people are labelling it the "worst ever". Not being from the eastern side of Australia probably has something to do with the way I feel about this (yes, people west of Qld, NSW and Vic feel like they're in a different, neglected country), but it seems that people are forgetting that *the* worst fires *ever* were Ash Wednesday in SA and Vic on February 16, 1983:
2545 Buildings destroyed 75 People died >390,000 Hectares burnt
I don't know if it's the worst in terms of loss of life. I think Ash Wednesday still holds the lead there.
But yes, it does seem to be one of the worst fires ever in terms of property loss.
The other week there was a fire here that threatened our town, it was the biggest fire I've ever seen in real life. I couldn't believe how quickly it raced up the hill that I'd been standing on only a week or two before taking photos. Simply, I would have been incinerated - there was no outrunning it. I watched the CFS chase after the front in vain, then minutes later it spread to the adjacent hill and went out of control in a gust of wind and little firefighters were running for their lives from tornadoes of flame. I could see occasional clouds of black smoke mixed in amongst the rest of the smoke, which my neighbor (retired CFS) said were from feral olive trees exploding! Yes, he (and others) say they explode like bombs! The firies said it was nothing compared to Ash Wednesday or the Sydney fires - if our 'little' fire seemed so huge in real life I can't imagine how big those fires were, as huge as they looked on TV.
The other day I was talking to my boss about the fire here and he told me he was in the CFS during Ash Wednesday... he said that he watched a whole hill explode into flames in less than a minute, how he'd watched houses literally explode and burn to the ground in only a couple of minutes.
I think that people overseas don't understand the ferociousness of bush fires... these fires become so intense that they turn into storms... they generate ferocious winds of cyclonic/hurricane strength as they suck up oxygen, which further fuels them out of control and sends smoke and embers kilometers into the air. Embers fall back to earth kilometers away, sparking other fires as they touch the tinder-dry bush. When I say storms I mean storms... it's like being plunged into the depths of hell where there's fire everywhere and as well as burning around you, it rains down from the sky. Flames reach 10's of metres into the air and rush forwards like a massive tidal wave. They say that they're so hot that trees explode into flames before the fire reaches them.
Yet for some reason people never learn the lessons. I feel so angry and sick to the stomach when I drive through the hills that were annihilated on Ash Wednesday and see houses with roofs covered with dead leaves and trees growing alongside and overhanging houses. Houses without sprinkler systems on their roofs... people disregarding simple things like clearing all vegetation for 20m from around your house and keeping gutters and roofs clean - things that I remember being drilled into me at primary school (which was, I admit, a few years after Ash Wednesday). These people behave like this then *expect* *volunteer* firefighters to put their lives on the line to save their houses when disaster strikes! How can people be so complacent?
Every year now the CFS warns us that we're facing a greater and greater risk of another Ash Wednesday because there's been no fires since and the fuel load is higher than ever - so high that it's suicide to do back burning - they just have to leave it now. It's only a matter of time before it happens again, yet people *still* don't keep their houses in shape!
I'm not religious, but God help us all should we have another Ash Wednesday.
I swear all they did was to unload their in-memory structures into a file - no attempt to convert to a portable format, like XDR, XML, or even plain old ASCII.
Obviously, you're they "incompetent" or rather, "inexperienced" one. Lots of games store data as a dump of a struct for one crucial reason - SPEED. It's a helluva lot faster (and simpler and smaller, etc.) to fread() a struct than parse a bloody XML file! Believe it or not, XML is not the solution to everything.
I suspect that people who started programming in the last decade don't quite understand the issue of portability. It works on their Windoze box, so it must be OK.
Or simply they couldn't give a shit about Linux, and who could blame them? Is it really worth the effort (cost) to port the game or write it to be portable just to snare a few thousand more sales? I highly doubt it.
When I saw them I grabbed a handfull (thinking of the laughs I'd get back home), although the picture on the front has them looking like the button shapes, they're all just regular rubbers. Maybe it was just the luck of the draw, still a really cool idea though =]
Microforte organised an excellent outdoor party on a historic sail ship (though it was very cold and windy for a Melbourne summer night). Everyone had fun, and noone fell over drunk from the ship into the cold water.
It was excellent? Well, props to Micro Forte for putting on the do, but I wouldn't really call it excellent... I mean, 4 hours long... only 5 tins of cat piss plus a vodka slurpee that was more water than ice - no wonder no-one fell overboard whilst drunk! How can you get pissed off just that teensy amount of booze?
Well, overall I was glad that I went. I learnt some new stuff, met some new people, was brainwashed into wanting a PS2 Linux kit, loved those choc-chip macadamia nut biscuits and free Maya t-shirts. =]
It's a cool event and I'm looking forward to going again next year. I think I'll fly though, I got a $200 speeding ticket on the way home today for doing 120 in a 100 zone. Damn Victoria to hell for having 100 instead of 110 on loooong, straight, smooth roads like here in SA!
In almost every discussion that involves PowerPC vs. x86 sooner or later this sentiment comes up. Ok, it may be right or not - but HOW DO YOU TELL ? Are you programming assembler on any of these platforms ?
As a matter of fact, yes - I have done asm with them. 68K/PPC asm is much nicer than x86 because it's a better architecture.
Are you really knowing about a relevant difference or are you just babbling some marketing fluff you heard somewhere without having a clue ?
I speak from experience. You sound like you aren't, but are trying to sound like you are.
I mean - Unix (used as a basis for OS X) is a 20+ year old architecture that's been kludged over and over - does that mean that OS X sucks ? What about Linux ? Different is good - so why not run Plan 9 - that's as different as it can get, I think. But both are not really valid arguments for or against any platform IMO.
That's because Unix was (pretty much) done right the first time. Besides, my comment wasn't about OS's, it was about ISA's.
When I say kludge, I mean look at how they extended x86 from 16-bit to 32-bit (286 protected-mode anyone?) MMX? Fuck that! SSE? Yeah, right - that's why there's SSE2.
This is probably the reason the new G4 towers are dual-CPU, but perhaps Motorola or whoever does the PPC chips Apple use are secretly working on a new chip that will blitz everything.
Now, speaking from my limited experience with OS X (only had my iBook for a couple of months) I suppose that with bundles a move to x86 would be seamless to the user, provided x86 binaries are included in the bundle.
The main reason I hope Apple don't switch to x86 is because PPC is different (different is good) and frankly, x86 is a fucked up architecture - it's a 20+ year old architecture that's been kludged over and over.
Great to see Novell is still alive and kicking, they've really taken a beating over the last decade.
I read the other week that they're cashed up with a billion in the bank or something.
Anyways, I love NetWare - rock solid, efficient and fast. Remember the story here about the NetWare box a uni discovered behind a wall? It had been running for years.
Windows file sharing and its' clones just suck, plain and simple. Don't knock NetWare until you've played around with it and/or seen a network setup properly with it.
NDS rocks hard.
A common (but rather misguided) complaint is that NetWare has crappy multiprocessor support - because one CPU is at 95% utilisation and the other is idle. Ever considered there's no need to use the other CPU(s) if the first isn't maxed out? =]
Now, I don't profess to be an expert on it (I'm not a CNA, CNE or whatever the other one is), but from my experience with using it I just like it, and if you have a network of Windows boxes, use NetWare for file/print serving and whatever else!
Hooray, when this comes out I'll have another reason to go spend more money on another player as entertainment companies will abandon DVD! Thankyou consumer electronics and entertainment companies!
It's rather annoying really, DVD has just become established and now they want to obsolete it!? I bet that the media will be even more expensive than DVD's are now, which are even more expensive than VHS tapes (how it can be ~$10 cheaper to make a tape than press a DVD?)
Though it does mean that videos and audio will be able to be stored with higher quality - which is a good thing because degrading quality sucks. IMHO they should not bring out another format until they can store 4 hours of video on a disc without resorting to lossy compression.
Reading the posts above, it's pretty clear to me that 90% of posters don't have a clue what they're talking about.
Now, I've been a fan of Id since Commander Keen, I've bought *all* their games (Dangerous Dave - yay! =]) and liked/loved them. One thing I do remember though, is that they used to say they just made games they thought were cool and they liked to play, if other people liked them then even better. I also seem to remember hearing somewhere that multiplayer in Doom was a quick hack that they did because they thought it would be fun, and didn't expect other people to use it.
I noticed that with Quake 2 and 3 they seemed to listen to what gamers wanted, which is why I'd say that I don't like those games that much.
I'm glad to hear that with Doom 3 they're back to doing what they think is cool and great. It's looking great and I reckon it's going to be a great game to play - I know that I'm holding out on upgrading my computer until it comes out =]
Apocalypse Now (it scares the shit out of the gooks!) Alien (put on a nappy before entering cinema) Aliens (love the sound of the marine's guns!) Full Metal Jacket (picturing Drill Sergeant screaming at me) Saving Private Ryan (err... stunning) The Great Escape (can you say motorbike chase?) Terminator (one of the best action movies of all time) Terminator 2 (the truck chase would be sooo scary!) 2001: A Space Odessey (drop acid beforehand) Lawrence of Arabia (magnificent) Bullit (car chase - whoop whoop!) Dirty Harry (funky) Predator (well, because!) Die Hard (one of the best action movies of all time) Die Hard 2 (bloodier and more action!) The Matrix (woah!) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (beautiful scenery) Lord Of The Rings (oooh)
There's many more I can't think of now, but basically any movie in superwidescreen format - I'm talking 2.35:1 minimum aspect here! (or good action movies) =D
also, if what you really want is to do your final renders with hardware then i have two things to say:
1. write a render plugin to do it. 2. 'scuse the french, but you're fucking nuts unless you have a card that does 64 - 128bit colour rendering like modellers do. cards are also designed for realtime rendering, and as such are full of tricks and hacks to get the speed at the sacrifice of quality.
3ds max r4 has plugins available that allow you to create d3d8 pixel shaders on materials and view them in viewports. i presume that's what you're after?
really though, i think your question is silly because you want a procedural modeller, not a polygon based one like versions of 3ds prior to it becoming 3ds max. procedural modellers allow you to go back through the stack and modify parameters, rather than deleting and recreating to change something.
because of the procedural nature of modellers, the polygon geometry that the renderer uses has to be regenerated everytime you make a change, which is slower than manipulating polygons directly.
other modellers probably have the same shader previewing functionality now, or the ability to create plugins to allow them to. i can't speak for them though because i'm only familiar with 3ds max.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know about other people, but I hate warm toilet seats. That's because around here it means that someone's just made use of it, and I don't like that thought (or smell.)
Previously I'd used a few shitty el-cheapo monitors and I must say that you really do get what you pay for when it comes to monitors.
My 1st was a Commodore 1084S for my C64 (it's still working and sitting next to me =] ) - it's got S-Video (before it was called that) and composite. It has a huge curve and is only 13 or 14" but works great as a TV or PlayStation display. Overall, excellent quality.
Next was another Commodore monitor - a PC one. 14" (long since buried at the dump) but still, very good image quality despite the enormous curve in the glass.
Next was a 15" KTX monitor - had good high-end image controls, but it had this habit of not working at 1 year intervals. The OSD chip or something kept frying. Fortunately, the 3-year warranty enabled me to get it replaced, then on the 4th year when it fritzed I ditched it.
LiteOn came next, 15" - acceptable curve but a very blurry display. I still use it for LAN-parties as crispness doesn't matter much when you're fragging. =]
For the last 16 months I've been using this wonderful Sony 21" FD Trinitron (CPD-G520). For the amount of time I spend in front of a computer, it was definately worth the $2000 I paid for it. It's got great colour, brightness, contrast, sharpness and geometry. In fact, I prefer it over a LCD screen. 2048x1536 @ 75Hz, dual inputs, colour matching and a USB hub - yeah baby!
But, here is the most important thing! A top-notch monitor like this doesn't count for squat unless you have a HIGH QUALITY cable and video card! I can't stress this point enough! Until last month I had been using a Matrox G400 with it and at this insane resolution the image was as crisp and sharp as a LCD. Unfortunately, I needed a 'better' (in terms of polygon-pushing power and features) video card, so in an interim upgrade I bought a Radeon 9000. One word... UGHH!!! Though I don't notice it AS MUCH now, the image suffers from poor colour definition and 'bleeding' on high contrast areas (like word processing) as well as just being generally blury. If I didn't need a more powerful 3D card I'd go back to the Matrox until I have more money for a better quality card (mmm... Parhelia).
Oh yeah... how did I come to my decision about buying the monitor? Well, I'm a stickler for quality, so like with everything I buy, I make sure I do my homework first. This usually involves looking for user reviews online, reading reviews both online and in print. Finally though, you have to decide for yourself. So when you've narrowed it down to a few models, go and demo them - any store that won't let you demo them if they have them in stock is definately not worth your custom. (I demo'd this one at Sony Central, which was the most expensive place to buy it - even with cash, then when I fell in love with it I hunted around for the best price.) =P
What's disturbing to me about this is that there's actually a company called 'News Corp'.
It's called that because the company started here in Adelaide, South Australia when Rupert became the owner of a newspaper called 'The News'.
I presume you are joking, but:
The Hindeenburg went down not because Hydrogen is as unstable as everyone says it is, but because the thing was doped with rocket fuel! Combined with certain atmospheric conditions resulting in a large static charge and improper grounding, you had the recipe for disaster.
If it wasn't for that rocket fuel doping, perhaps we might have a Hydrogen economy today.
May I suggest that you take a look at:
SDL - 2D and input (granted, it doesn't support as wide a range of input devices, but in most cases keyboard and mouse are all you need
fmod - best sound lib out there, used by loads of commercial games.
HawkNL/HawkVoice - good networking libs
Hope that helps you out. It helped me out.
--
Sure, like all technologies it can have as many bad applications as good ones.
When I read that they had antennas and buttons, etc. I suddenly thought of electronic ink/OLED-type touch screens, perhaps to be used as wireless x-terms or such? I figure that perhaps the power supply problem could be solved by powering through induction(is that the term?) - like how my electric toothbrush charges (no plugs or wires - just sit it on the base) - or perhaps the battery could be contained in a clipboard? Hell, you could probably fit it all into a cardboard sheet!
This and the printable-screen technologies are seriously cool and exciting things. Perhaps the potential to use such technology to 'invade' privacy isn't a bad thing? Age of transparency anyone?
Bleh, just image the possibilities!
I've got a Panasonic laser too, KX-P6100 - it's like a tower case for a PC. Whilst it's not the greatest printer, it sure does the job and has been for the 6 years I've had it. Only replaced the drum once, and I'd have to say that its printed over 10,000 pages. It's pretty much the same deal with refilling it too, you get a bottle of toner and plug it onto the drum then shake it about until it fills up.
The thing I hate about it most is that it seems to put out a lot of ozone when it prints.
I'm in Australia, so I suppose I can't really help you out with regards as to where you can get the toner, but I can say that I get the toner from a nearby franchise store Cartridge World (I think) - they can get drums, toner, ink, cartridges and ribbons for pretty much any printer. (Even my old Commodore dot-matrix!) Have you tried looking around for shops like that where you are?
A better, more economical solution that would also deliver infinitely better print quality would be to buy a laser printer.
As terrible and horrific as it's been, I really can't stand that people are labelling it the "worst ever". Not being from the eastern side of Australia probably has something to do with the way I feel about this (yes, people west of Qld, NSW and Vic feel like they're in a different, neglected country), but it seems that people are forgetting that *the* worst fires *ever* were Ash Wednesday in SA and Vic on February 16, 1983:
L AG/ASHWED83/AW83.HTM
m e/Transcripts/s678221.htm / FAAF080E6756F7904A25679300155B2B?OpenDocument e nts/nature/1983_ash%20wednesday%20bushfires.htm
2545 Buildings destroyed
75 People died
>390,000 Hectares burnt
source: http://sres.anu.edu.au/associated/fire/IUFRO/CONF
Don't get me wrong, the current predicament is terrible and serious, but please don't forget history or act like NSW is the only state that matters.
These are also some pages descibing that day:
http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_ti
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~gscfa/ash.htm
http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/4A25676D0022F2EE/BCView
http://www.historysmiths.com.au/CentFedPlayKit/ev
Google will help you find more.
I don't know if it's the worst in terms of loss of life. I think Ash Wednesday still holds the lead there.
But yes, it does seem to be one of the worst fires ever in terms of property loss.
The other week there was a fire here that threatened our town, it was the biggest fire I've ever seen in real life. I couldn't believe how quickly it raced up the hill that I'd been standing on only a week or two before taking photos. Simply, I would have been incinerated - there was no outrunning it. I watched the CFS chase after the front in vain, then minutes later it spread to the adjacent hill and went out of control in a gust of wind and little firefighters were running for their lives from tornadoes of flame. I could see occasional clouds of black smoke mixed in amongst the rest of the smoke, which my neighbor (retired CFS) said were from feral olive trees exploding! Yes, he (and others) say they explode like bombs! The firies said it was nothing compared to Ash Wednesday or the Sydney fires - if our 'little' fire seemed so huge in real life I can't imagine how big those fires were, as huge as they looked on TV.
The other day I was talking to my boss about the fire here and he told me he was in the CFS during Ash Wednesday... he said that he watched a whole hill explode into flames in less than a minute, how he'd watched houses literally explode and burn to the ground in only a couple of minutes.
I think that people overseas don't understand the ferociousness of bush fires... these fires become so intense that they turn into storms... they generate ferocious winds of cyclonic/hurricane strength as they suck up oxygen, which further fuels them out of control and sends smoke and embers kilometers into the air. Embers fall back to earth kilometers away, sparking other fires as they touch the tinder-dry bush. When I say storms I mean storms... it's like being plunged into the depths of hell where there's fire everywhere and as well as burning around you, it rains down from the sky. Flames reach 10's of metres into the air and rush forwards like a massive tidal wave. They say that they're so hot that trees explode into flames before the fire reaches them.
Yet for some reason people never learn the lessons. I feel so angry and sick to the stomach when I drive through the hills that were annihilated on Ash Wednesday and see houses with roofs covered with dead leaves and trees growing alongside and overhanging houses. Houses without sprinkler systems on their roofs... people disregarding simple things like clearing all vegetation for 20m from around your house and keeping gutters and roofs clean - things that I remember being drilled into me at primary school (which was, I admit, a few years after Ash Wednesday). These people behave like this then *expect* *volunteer* firefighters to put their lives on the line to save their houses when disaster strikes! How can people be so complacent?
Every year now the CFS warns us that we're facing a greater and greater risk of another Ash Wednesday because there's been no fires since and the fuel load is higher than ever - so high that it's suicide to do back burning - they just have to leave it now. It's only a matter of time before it happens again, yet people *still* don't keep their houses in shape!
I'm not religious, but God help us all should we have another Ash Wednesday.
Digital Illusions (or DiCE as they like to call themselves now) was formed by ex-sceners. Right now I can't remember which group it was.
Statix released the source for Square and it's been ported to Win32.
You can find it at Pouet
(now try to find a monitor with a 170hz refresh rate)
I'm looking at one right now as I type this. =]
21" Sony FD Trinitron, model CPD-G520
I swear all they did was to unload their in-memory structures into a file - no attempt to convert to a portable format, like XDR, XML, or even plain old ASCII.
Obviously, you're they "incompetent" or rather, "inexperienced" one. Lots of games store data as a dump of a struct for one crucial reason - SPEED. It's a helluva lot faster (and simpler and smaller, etc.) to fread() a struct than parse a bloody XML file! Believe it or not, XML is not the solution to everything.
I suspect that people who started programming in the last decade don't quite understand the issue of portability. It works on their Windoze box, so it must be OK.
Or simply they couldn't give a shit about Linux, and who could blame them? Is it really worth the effort (cost) to port the game or write it to be portable just to snare a few thousand more sales? I highly doubt it.
Sony handed out condoms shaped like PS2 buttons
When I saw them I grabbed a handfull (thinking of the laughs I'd get back home), although the picture on the front has them looking like the button shapes, they're all just regular rubbers. Maybe it was just the luck of the draw, still a really cool idea though =]
Microforte organised an excellent outdoor party on a historic sail ship (though it was very cold and windy for a Melbourne summer night). Everyone had fun, and noone fell over drunk from the ship into the cold water.
It was excellent? Well, props to Micro Forte for putting on the do, but I wouldn't really call it excellent... I mean, 4 hours long... only 5 tins of cat piss plus a vodka slurpee that was more water than ice - no wonder no-one fell overboard whilst drunk! How can you get pissed off just that teensy amount of booze?
Well, overall I was glad that I went. I learnt some new stuff, met some new people, was brainwashed into wanting a PS2 Linux kit, loved those choc-chip macadamia nut biscuits and free Maya t-shirts. =]
It's a cool event and I'm looking forward to going again next year. I think I'll fly though, I got a $200 speeding ticket on the way home today for doing 120 in a 100 zone. Damn Victoria to hell for having 100 instead of 110 on loooong, straight, smooth roads like here in SA!
Like the Mr. Bean movie?
They really wrecked that.
They're both government departments - can't they be happy that it belongs to the government no matter what? Ahh the wonders of bureaucracy!
Damn bitches! err... lawyers.
In almost every discussion that involves PowerPC vs. x86 sooner or later this sentiment comes up. Ok, it may be right or not - but HOW DO YOU TELL ? Are you programming assembler on any of these platforms ?
As a matter of fact, yes - I have done asm with them. 68K/PPC asm is much nicer than x86 because it's a better architecture.
Are you really knowing about a relevant difference or are you just babbling some marketing fluff you heard somewhere without having a clue ?
I speak from experience. You sound like you aren't, but are trying to sound like you are.
I mean - Unix (used as a basis for OS X) is a 20+ year old architecture that's been kludged over and over - does that mean that OS X sucks ? What about Linux ? Different is good - so why not run Plan 9 - that's as different as it can get, I think. But both are not really valid arguments for or against any platform IMO.
That's because Unix was (pretty much) done right the first time. Besides, my comment wasn't about OS's, it was about ISA's.
When I say kludge, I mean look at how they extended x86 from 16-bit to 32-bit (286 protected-mode anyone?) MMX? Fuck that! SSE? Yeah, right - that's why there's SSE2.
Do you see where I'm going?
This is probably the reason the new G4 towers are dual-CPU, but perhaps Motorola or whoever does the PPC chips Apple use are secretly working on a new chip that will blitz everything.
Now, speaking from my limited experience with OS X (only had my iBook for a couple of months) I suppose that with bundles a move to x86 would be seamless to the user, provided x86 binaries are included in the bundle.
The main reason I hope Apple don't switch to x86 is because PPC is different (different is good) and frankly, x86 is a fucked up architecture - it's a 20+ year old architecture that's been kludged over and over.
Now, I shall return to playing with my iBook. =]
Great to see Novell is still alive and kicking, they've really taken a beating over the last decade.
I read the other week that they're cashed up with a billion in the bank or something.
Anyways, I love NetWare - rock solid, efficient and fast. Remember the story here about the NetWare box a uni discovered behind a wall? It had been running for years.
Windows file sharing and its' clones just suck, plain and simple. Don't knock NetWare until you've played around with it and/or seen a network setup properly with it.
NDS rocks hard.
A common (but rather misguided) complaint is that NetWare has crappy multiprocessor support - because one CPU is at 95% utilisation and the other is idle. Ever considered there's no need to use the other CPU(s) if the first isn't maxed out? =]
Now, I don't profess to be an expert on it (I'm not a CNA, CNE or whatever the other one is), but from my experience with using it I just like it, and if you have a network of Windows boxes, use NetWare for file/print serving and whatever else!
Hooray, when this comes out I'll have another reason to go spend more money on another player as entertainment companies will abandon DVD! Thankyou consumer electronics and entertainment companies!
It's rather annoying really, DVD has just become established and now they want to obsolete it!? I bet that the media will be even more expensive than DVD's are now, which are even more expensive than VHS tapes (how it can be ~$10 cheaper to make a tape than press a DVD?)
Though it does mean that videos and audio will be able to be stored with higher quality - which is a good thing because degrading quality sucks. IMHO they should not bring out another format until they can store 4 hours of video on a disc without resorting to lossy compression.
Reading the posts above, it's pretty clear to me that 90% of posters don't have a clue what they're talking about.
Now, I've been a fan of Id since Commander Keen, I've bought *all* their games (Dangerous Dave - yay! =]) and liked/loved them. One thing I do remember though, is that they used to say they just made games they thought were cool and they liked to play, if other people liked them then even better. I also seem to remember hearing somewhere that multiplayer in Doom was a quick hack that they did because they thought it would be fun, and didn't expect other people to use it.
I noticed that with Quake 2 and 3 they seemed to listen to what gamers wanted, which is why I'd say that I don't like those games that much.
I'm glad to hear that with Doom 3 they're back to doing what they think is cool and great. It's looking great and I reckon it's going to be a great game to play - I know that I'm holding out on upgrading my computer until it comes out =]
In no particular order (I love them all):
Apocalypse Now (it scares the shit out of the gooks!)
Alien (put on a nappy before entering cinema)
Aliens (love the sound of the marine's guns!)
Full Metal Jacket (picturing Drill Sergeant screaming at me)
Saving Private Ryan (err... stunning)
The Great Escape (can you say motorbike chase?)
Terminator (one of the best action movies of all time)
Terminator 2 (the truck chase would be sooo scary!)
2001: A Space Odessey (drop acid beforehand)
Lawrence of Arabia (magnificent)
Bullit (car chase - whoop whoop!)
Dirty Harry (funky)
Predator (well, because!)
Die Hard (one of the best action movies of all time)
Die Hard 2 (bloodier and more action!)
The Matrix (woah!)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (beautiful scenery)
Lord Of The Rings (oooh)
There's many more I can't think of now, but basically any movie in superwidescreen format - I'm talking 2.35:1 minimum aspect here! (or good action movies) =D
also, if what you really want is to do your final renders with hardware then i have two things to say:
1. write a render plugin to do it.
2. 'scuse the french, but you're fucking nuts unless you have a card that does 64 - 128bit colour rendering like modellers do. cards are also designed for realtime rendering, and as such are full of tricks and hacks to get the speed at the sacrifice of quality.
3ds max r4 has plugins available that allow you to create d3d8 pixel shaders on materials and view them in viewports. i presume that's what you're after?
really though, i think your question is silly because you want a procedural modeller, not a polygon based one like versions of 3ds prior to it becoming 3ds max. procedural modellers allow you to go back through the stack and modify parameters, rather than deleting and recreating to change something.
because of the procedural nature of modellers, the polygon geometry that the renderer uses has to be regenerated everytime you make a change, which is slower than manipulating polygons directly.
other modellers probably have the same shader previewing functionality now, or the ability to create plugins to allow them to. i can't speak for them though because i'm only familiar with 3ds max.