Although it isn't a MSc in Computer Science, Athabasca University does offer a MSc in Computing and Information Systems... I am presently enrolled for my undergrad BSc in this program - good well rounded course. The school is located in Alberta (Canada). All you need is someone local to proctor your tests - generally a library or a community college will work. It's a great school, interesting philosophy compared to conventional brick and mortar schools.
Got an interest in changing your town's name? The California Milk Processor Board, which is behind the "Got Milk?" advertising campaign, wants to rename a small town in California.
Last month, it wrote to the mayors of 20 of them, asking them to consider a change -- to Got Milk?, Calif. It offered to build a Got Milk? museum and to make a contribution to local schools. Only one town -- Biggs, population 1,793 -- expressed any interest. But last week, a town meeting voted it down.
I dunno about you - but that doesn't sound like inchworm robot drills... Did I miss something in the article? I think someone mucked up copying and pasting or NYT's backend hiccuped.
LPBN caught all the SCALE talks on video and has them available online. Everything from the case for Linux in the University, to the latest 2.5 updates from Robert Love and Patrick Mochel.
So we beat the fscking shit out of thier servers and rack up their bandwidth bills... how nice.
A year ago, when we finally settled into our still incomplete solar powered house, we set up our trusty three-year-old computer. Then, having no landlines (electricity or telephone) we installed a wireless broadband Internet connection. So we were sitting pretty, right? Wrong.
In fifteen years of home computer use, we have never just left the computer on all day. But times and uses have changed. Our computer has become more and more of an appliance rather than a specialty tool. In our new home, it became apparent that we needed it available constantly for Internet research and e-mail. Yet leaving the system on, even in sleep mode, used too much energy. Our fairly typical desktop system draws 180 to 190 watts.
Flipping it off and on was too much of a hassle because of the almost 2 minute boot up each time we needed to check something. Besides, even turning it on and off as needed was a serious drain on our 1.2 KW PV system. Expanding our PV array (sixteen, 77 watt modules) was not an option because the present rack and wiring are maxxed out, not to mention the hassle of having to submit a new electrical permit application, complete with engineering stamp.
The Search
So I began researching notebook computers. Without a doubt, they would provide a much better energy use scenario. I wanted the lowest possible energy use in a quality unit.
I have always purchased desktop systems from smaller companies that offer good quality parts for the money. I could always make changes later if necessary. But notebooks are a different animal, since they are more or less a closed package. So it is very important that it has all the functions you will need.
For many people, the notebook can replace the desktop unit. So a 14 or 15 inch (36 or 38 cm) screen, 5 to 7 pound (2Ð3 kg) "desktop replacement" machine will work. For others, a really lightweight 3 to 4 pound (1.4Ð1.8 kg) unit with a 10 to 12 inch (25Ð30 cm) screen is fine, since the desktop unit is not being displaced, but supplemented and networked. The former will certainly save watts over a desktop unit, but with its built-in drives and large screen, will use considerably more energy than the latter.
For us, keeping the desktop unit for graphics-intensive tasks seemed desirable, since the screen is larger, and CRT monitors generally handle graphics better. So I researched what was available in the smallest of the Windows-based notebooks.
Our personal parameters included finding a highly rated, quality product from a well-known company (such as Dell, IBM, Gateway, Micron, Sony), long battery life, no built-in drives other than the hard drive (but with an attachable CD/DVD drive for loading programs, etc.), at least 256 MB RAM and a 20 GB hard drive, a touchpad pointing device, and a high quality graphics card that will not drop frames when playing a DVD movie.
I began looking more than six months ago. Because of their customer satisfaction record, I was somewhat predisposed to look most seriously at the Dell offerings, in particular the Latitude L-400. But it was weak on graphics and, having been on the market quite awhile, was not tops in energy efficiency. We came close to trying a Sony unit available from Costco for less than US$1,000, but it only had a 10.4 inch (26.4 cm) screen, older chip sets, and mediocre graphics. That finally kept it out of the running.
A Small Gem In November 2001, Dell introduced a new model, the Latitude C-400. It was much like the earlier L-400, but had updated processors (866 MHz or 1.2 GHz, running on half a watt), a new generation of energy-saving Intel support chips (830M), graphics adequate for DVD movies, both a touchpad and a pointing stick, and some other goodies I found desirable.
I watched the prices, including the Dell "refurbished" units. In January, after the Christmas rush was over, I kept close track and finally bit on a good offer. (Remember, if you buy on the phone rather than off the Net, you may be able to negotiate for even better than the current sale prices, but beware of the frustrating sales-speak even from reputable firms.)
This particular model best met our needs. The US$2,300 price is in the midranges, with basic economy models available around US$1,000, and corporate road-warrior models well above US$3,000. (Note: laptop prices continue to fall, so you may be able to do even better by the time you read this.)
In terms of energy usage, though, this model has to be near the lower limit. We measured usage with a Watts up? meter. The meter isn't extremely accurate when measuring loads drawing less than 20 watts, but it's close enough for general use. In any case, the C-400 uses just 15 to 18 watts when in regular use.
This figure, when compared to the desktop system, is cause enough for joy. But when we close the case, putting the system in standby (it goes to hibernation in 15 minutes, or whatever you want to set), the usage is too low to measure with this meter.
Wireless Internet When it comes to broadband Internet service, there are three major routes and one minor route. Leading the charge these days is cable modem service from the cable TV companies. This is followed closely by DSL (digital subscriber line) service from the telephone companies. Satellite service from the two satellite TV companies has made inroads mainly where the other two services are not available.
Finally, in a few areas, ISPs have established fixed wireless service, which uses a line-of-sight radio link between their operation and subscribers. The radio signal is in the same frequency range as a microwave oven, and can be fairly characterized as a "microwave link." It conforms to the IEEE 802.11b standard used for wireless networking within the home or office, and is theoretically capable of 11 MB per second information transfer. A radio transceiver and small antenna are required.
We had a choice of going to Starband satellite service or Interlink Hawaii (local ISP) fixed wireless service. Starband was just becoming available with no track record, high upfront costs of more than US$1,500 (installation is less expensive in the continental U.S.) and a monthly cost of US$70. Interlink's fixed wireless service had been around for several years, had an installation package of US$500, and cost US$50 a month. Needless to say we went with the latter, which uses a Breezenet Pro.11 radio.
Overall, we have been very satisfied with the service. When our radio was failing after less than a year (it is leased and was used), they were slow to replace it. But otherwise, we have had mostly speedy surfing, with very little downtime. And being a local company, they are usually easy to work with. Power draw of the wireless system is 1 to 2 watts.
Over a typical day of turning the system on first thing in the morning, using it for about 5 hours off and on, with it in standby or hibernation the rest of the time (about 7 to 8 hours), the total watt-hours used is 84. That's equivalent to about 25 minutes use of the desktop system! If it is on standby, the C-400 comes back to full use in a few seconds. From hibernation, it takes all of about 15 seconds. That's very tolerable for an appliance.
Other Considerations
As a selling feature, notebook manufacturers try to maximize battery life, that is, the amount of time their computers will run on a single charge. Since we keep the unit plugged in so much, battery life is not critical, but it's still a good indicator of system efficiency.
Within groups of similar computers, the longer the--battery life, the more efficient the computer is. This comparison works best if independently measured, but manufacturers' estimated time is usually a good rough estimate. Just remember that this measurement applies within a given category of processor, screen size, battery size, and peripherals.
While it may seem good to keep the battery charged up, it is also good to let it cycle some. So don't leave it plugged in all the time. Unplug it every once in a while, and let it discharge fully before charging again. If NiCd is used, the battery should be fully discharged routinely (several times a month) and then refilled. If the battery is NiMH or lithium technology, it isn't as important to fully discharge the battery routinely, but it should be fully discharged once every month or two. Most modern notebooks use the NiMH or lithium ion batteries.
Keyboards are also a concern with notebooks. The great portability of a 3+ pound (1.4+ kg) unit is somewhat offset by a slightly smaller keyboard, not to mention a few keys in somewhat different places. I find the tradeoff to be acceptable. You may not. The larger notebooks do have equivalent keyboards, but not exactly ergonomically correct ones.
Another alternative is to buy a notebook with an auxiliary keyboard port. Then you can use a standard keyboard ordinarily used with a desktop unit. Most larger notebooks have similar ports for a mouse and monitor. Others have auxiliary ports in docking stations so a notebook can emulate a desktop computer.
Of course, not everyone is in a position to part with more than US$2,000 to save some watt-hours. But it was worth it for us. The cost of adding more PVs and related equipment to have our desktop unit available full time would have exceeded what we spent. Almost any notebook computer, with the ability to handle similar tasks, is far preferable to a desktop system for energy conservation.
As time goes on, more models will use the new energy-saving chip sets. Even the model we bought is now available as refurbished. (Usually they are returned within 30 days after purchase and like new.) I just saw one similar to ours for less than US$1,600.
Although I was researching PCs, Apple's latest notebooks are also quite frugal. I managed to get permission (not without a questioning look from the store manager) to measure one of the 600 MHz G3 iBooks, and it came in at around 20 watts.
Dessert The rest of the changes to our computing scene may seem frivolous. Still, if we see the computer as an appliance, the handier the better. We added a D-Link wireless router (Model DI 713P, US$140, 7 watts) that gives us the ability to use the laptop almost anywhere in the house. It also connects the two computers together and provides good Internet security from hackers. (Incidentally, software can provide good protection also, but it's not as good as the hardware solution in a router.)
The setup of the router was very time consuming. I have read of others who have had an easier setup, and still others who have given up and returned the unit. So I have mixed feelings about it. Setting up a single computer would be easier, as would setting up with only a newer operating system.
The manufacturers need to provide more information than we received. Usually I like to exhaust my own resources before calling tech support, but I still spent quite a few hours sorting things out with both the router tech support and my Internet service provider tech support.
Energy-Sipping Computing Everything needs to be on switched outlets for efficiency, preferably surge protected outlets. On one switch, we have the fixed wireless radio and the router, which have no internal switches, and the printer, which does have an internal switch (usually turned off). The notebook computer is on another, and the desktop computer and scanner (usually turned off) on another. So we can handle almost any combination of computing needs without having unnecessary equipment sucking electricity.
In spite of the less-than-satisfactory router experience, our new computer system has been a great convenience. After half a year of no computer availability in our off-grid home, we learned that our desktop computer was just too much of an energy hog to work for us in our limited-energy environment. Having cast about for a solution, I believe we found a good one with our 3 pound (1.4 kg) notebook computer. It draws only 15 to 18 watts when being used, and practically none when in standby.
We no longer have to feel guilty when using a very important appliance. It is handy anywhere we are in the house, anytime we need it. And so far, we have run the generator hardly at all. Aloha.
Access John Bertrand, PO Box 811, Holualoa, HI 96725 caber@kona.net
Dell Computer Corporation, One Dell Way, Round Rock, TX 78682 800-915-3355 or 512-338-4400 csd@dell.com www.dell.com Dell Latitude C-400 notebook computer
Alvarion, Inc., 5858 Edison Pl., Carlsbad, CA 92008 760-517-3100 Fax: 760-517-3200 sales-north.america@alvarion.com www.alvarion.com Breezenet Pro.11 radio
Some Useful PC Computer Web Sites Major Notebook Manufacturers: www.dell.com www.gateway.com www.ibm.com www.micronpc.com www.sonystyle.com www.hp.com www.apple.com
Internet Security Software: www.zonelabs.com Zonelabs' Zone Alarm is a free download; the Pro version costs US$40. The free version has been highly recommended and has been used by the author. The Pro version has more bells & whistles.
Notebook Power Management: www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,ap n=2&s=1005&a= 24385&ap=1,00.asp This is an article at the Extreme Tech site and may be available for a limited time.
Thats okay, Mozilla can block those nasty unwanted pop-ups (Preferences -> Advanced: Scripts & Plugins). Kudos to the Mozilla developers for allowing everyone, no matter their disability, to relax whilst pr0ning through the internet.
Blender probably has a nipple incorporated already... you just need to right click the mouse on a metaball and hold alt-m (assumingly for mammaries) and hop on one foot while whistling a happy tune in the nude... piece of cake!
I'm guessing he started out with COBOL due to the stability of the world, but around the time the dinosaurs got nuked he was persuaded to switch to Visual BASIC by Satan(last name Gates) and ever since we've had nothing but one general protection fault after another.
Are you kidding? GOD would have to use Perl as the duct-tape to hold the universe together.
Why wouldn't they pay for it? What more do citizens want than a gov't admitting fault and then *fixing* a problem. Even if they don't implement the findings they are still boosting the "honesty" they public perceives they have. Alternativley there may have been some extra fiscal dollars sitting aroud in the "Orwell" Fund.
Just an eskimo's perspective from Canada. We do all live in igloos right?
wow, the site was/.'ed after only about a million trolls:) here is the story:
The Doug and Warren Show: Thief and Deus Ex Criticism from the this should be on tech tv department
Posted on Mon Apr 1st, 2002 07:24:15 AM
At the end of the last day, The Doug Church and Warren Spector show was perhaps my most anticipated session. Deus Ex and Thief are two of my favorite games, and to see their respective creators pick apart each other's game sounded like a great opportunity to learn more about their designs. It turned out to be the best session of the week.
I headed over to the auditorium to find both Doug and Warren sitting down and joking with their microphones off. When the session got started, Warren explained that the purpose of the session was to critique games without jeopardizing their professional or personal relationship. He also quipped that since the audience was all game developers, they could feel safe without a site like fatbabies.com picking it up (sorry guys.)
After they had their introductions, they both stressed how the game developer is only one part of a large and important team. At this point I started taking notes... Usually I write down what I think is important in a session - but the session was so interesting, I started taking their main points down verbatim (more or less). Since I'm not a transcriber, I apologize in advance for not getting this 100% right, but I think I nailed most of the dialogue behind their critique, and if you find their words half as interesting as I did, then I think you'll be pleased with the result.
Overview of each other's game:
Warren: Thief is a mission based, first person game with an emphasis on stealth. The players interaction is with the world. The AI is really a foil for the player, making the player feel powerful. Audio is state of the art. There's a deep fictitious setting and deeply simulated gameplay. It was a new type of game.
Doug: Deus Ex is a mission based first person action game with expansive fiction. There are a large scale of possibilities, with a lot of different contexts and roles. The game blends genre with a mix of action, RPG's and other genre's mixed in. There's a lot of choices that impact who you are and where you're going. The game goes in one direction, but you get a lot of say in how you approach the process.
Narrative and Control of the Narration: Neither game has significant control:
Doug: The narrative of thief was in the cutscenes. Deus Ex combines in into the game, but neither game has significant control, so why did you integrate it?
Warren: A lot of it was my frustration with Thief. I produced it for years and it (the narrative) was so minimal, that I got frustrated with it. Thief was constraining in gameplay. What we wanted to do was bring together a variety of things. We wanted to bring out some action, some stealth and role-play. Inventory management, object manipulation, and conversations. We wanted to include conventional role play conversation into Deus Ex.
Doug: But the player can't impact the narrative..
Warren: The conversations talk to you about the world, and that propels you through the narrative.
Warren Fights Back:
Warren: Why can't I fight my way through a Thief mission?
Doug: Well you can... but you'd be playing your own game.
Doug- The game isn't about defeating the AI, they're foils like you said... not the enemy. The AI could defeat you if we wanted it to. "I think I hear something... pause pause pause", "I better investigate... pause pause pause..." "I guess it was rats... Loud footsteps"
Doug: Thief is a game about territory. In each game the player and the AI have their safe zones, but to get to the player's goal they need to adjust that territory by changing the environment.
Warren: How is standing and waiting fun?
Doug: Make the player about to do something. Those moments are loosing someone and waiting for the AI to calm down, or waiting to bonk someone on the head when they turn around. We have to provoke those feelings in the player to make the game fun.
Is there really player choice in Deus Ex?:
Warren: Almost everyone on the Deus Ex team argues that player control is much more powerful, but here's the secret, much of that choice was fake. We did some simulation, much more than a lot of games, but much of the gameplay, much of what people thought was the depth of the solution was hardcoded like Ultima... Some of the most memorable parts were the most scripted. look at mission 6, Hong Kong. On the PS2 version we were 5 months late just because we tinkered with it and broke that fragile mission. Preplanning everything makes things fragile and takes too much time. Mission 6 felt much more like a traditional game mission.
Back to Thief:
Warren: Is there a difficulty curve in Thief? How is it implemented, and how did you test it?
Doug: There is a difficulty curve. The environments get more difficult. For example, the drunk guards at mission one are easy vs. the alert guards at the end. In Deus Ex you (the player) get more powerful, but in Thief, we decided not to do that. We wanted the environment and the player to be the two factors. To balance the game we just tested it a lot.
Warren: Deus Ex is a different game - we forced them to play through the game in radical ways to test it. One tester never drew a weapon and could beat the game. We had other testers run through it never increasing their skill level or not using augmentations. It may not be as much fun, but they can do it.
Doug: Someone played through Thief in 42 minutes. It shows you how skill can be an impact. Let the player play their own game with their own "scores" and you will end up with a new game.
Give me Direction!
Warren: Why in Thief am I given so little information about the mission and what I'm getting into?
Doug: We did it deliberately, not that it wasn't discussed endlessly. There was lots of team chaos and discussion. We wanted Thief to be a game that forces the user to dynamically react to what occurs. We didn't want a lot of planning, we wanted it to be played on the fly. Give the player enough information for an initial plan of attack.
Warren: (shakes his head) I want more direction on how big the mission is. You never know how close you are to your goals or some general difficulty information.
Warren: The other thing is that I'd be less upset if you'd replenished my inventory. It's so inconsistently replenished that I don't know if this is a time to use my fire arrows.
Doug: But that's not strategy... the player shouldn't know.
Warren: I just want informed choices..
Doug: We didn't want our players to hoard inventory... we wanted them to run out and use them. In games like first person shooters, inventory and powerups are very short term (like quake). That's true of most games of that style. You don't get a large stream of powerups and the play is determined by skill. This isn't final fantasy with 3000 healing potions.
Warren: (emphatically) But I have no way of knowing that the barracks is full of guards!
Doug: SCOUT THE BARRACKS!
Doug gets the final blow
Doug: Thief has a strong focus, with approachability and clarity. What do you lose by not having that focus?
Warren: Part of the Deus Ex game is that it gives players a large number of ways to approach it. Clearly the game is important, but we wanted to appeal to fans of sneakers, RPG's, and FPS. I was so nervous when we signed off on the game, because I had no idea how it would be received. What if people compared it to the best of each genre? What if they said you couldn't sneak as well as Thief? Our success was that people were excited about choosing how they played.
Doug: Attempts to do things out of Thief's focus results in failure. You can't change the narrative because we wanted that focus.
They wrapped up by reiterating that game development was a team effort. They are just the most visible of the team, but that doesn't make the team less valuable. They also expressed their hope that other game developers could have the same type of dialogue about similar games like Halo and Half Life. Personally I think this is a great idea.. I think we could all learn something about game criticism by hearing the developers deconstruct each other's games.
my $bs = "No wonder Unix makes you feel boxed in. It ties you to an inflexible system. It requires you to pay for expensive experts. It makes you struggle daily with a server environment that's more complex than ever";
"What do you mean we will not meet the fourth quarter relase date?" Asks Bill Gates.
"Well there is always the steal BSD source option, that probably won't be noticed until the software is out of date" mentions a lackey sitting close.
The omniscient walls pipes up "Well, Bill! according to google the best operating system to steal is... is... is... Oh No! Cyclical reference you already stole it..."
Meanwhile back at the enron of the future... "Wall - this is the FBI what illicit activities were spoke of in this room in the last two years?"
"4,212,326 Items in queue. list all?" the wall awaits a response.
-- Its cold up here, turn up the heat in my igloo please.
He enjoys these movies for the same reason programmers enjoy reusing code from earlier projects... less work and *generally* equal result. If you got millions of dollars to say the same lines over and over again from movie to movie wouldn't you continue?
I just started downloading the bzipped iso to try this puppy out.
I wonder when the connection will crash from the/.ing of the site... i give it another 5-10 mins. As the tv show Bonzai! would say "Place your bets... NOWWW!!!"
I am in the planning stage of an internet cafe with similar needs. The thin clients that have caught my eye are the IBM NetVista N2200e or NetVista N2800e. Spec Sheets say it will do everything you've asked...
Price is probably a bit of a kicker unless you order 50+... good old IBM.
As suggested above the security of mag cards are quite trivial. However if you kept a record of what *should* be on the cards on a database of some kind any attempt to use a modified card could be spottted and dealt with.
This somewhat stupifies the usage of the mag cards as you could just as easily use a barcoded card to track the users and keep all information local.
CD borrowing system could work just like any library system now. Each user has a barcoded card (easily could be a mag card) that has a user id of some sort. Then the server keeps track of the rest. An added bonus to using the barcode is people could "log-in" from home and check account status. With a mag card the users would need an additional user id printed on the card. (Or assigned one in the application process).
Slashdot Mirror
"Sony ... will add a new function to music CDs early next year "
Uh... Shouldn't that read "Sony will be removing functions from music CDs?"
What's that junior?
Oh the process is hung?
Well, just open up an Xterm and kill -9 that biatch.
Although it isn't a MSc in Computer Science, Athabasca University does offer a MSc in Computing and Information Systems... I am presently enrolled for my undergrad BSc in this program - good well rounded course. The school is located in Alberta (Canada). All you need is someone local to proctor your tests - generally a library or a community college will work. It's a great school, interesting philosophy compared to conventional brick and mortar schools.
Main Street, Got Milk?, Calif.
Got an interest in changing your town's name? The California Milk Processor Board, which is behind the "Got Milk?" advertising campaign, wants to rename a small town in California.
Last month, it wrote to the mayors of 20 of them, asking them to consider a change -- to Got Milk?, Calif. It offered to build a Got Milk? museum and to make a contribution to local schools. Only one town -- Biggs, population 1,793 -- expressed any interest. But last week, a town meeting voted it down.
I dunno about you - but that doesn't sound like inchworm robot drills... Did I miss something in the article? I think someone mucked up copying and pasting or NYT's backend hiccuped.
It seems pretty poiintless to me...
What?!? Pointless? Think of how the porn industry can apply this technology...
LPBN caught all the SCALE talks on video and has them available online. Everything from the case for Linux in the University, to the latest 2.5 updates from Robert Love and Patrick Mochel.
So we beat the fscking shit out of thier servers and rack up their bandwidth bills... how nice.
That has to be the funiest thing I have seen all day: Drill a hole and fuck it (Score:1, Insightful)
kuro5hin?
Efficient Computing & Wireless Internet
x b,00.asp
p n=2&s=1005&a= 24385&ap=1,00.asp This is an article at the Extreme Tech site and may be available for a limited time.
©2002 John Bertrand
A year ago, when we finally settled into our still incomplete solar powered house, we set up our trusty three-year-old computer. Then, having no landlines (electricity or telephone) we installed a wireless broadband Internet connection. So we were sitting pretty, right? Wrong.
In fifteen years of home computer use, we have never just left the computer on all day. But times and uses have changed. Our computer has become more and more of an appliance rather than a specialty tool. In our new home, it became apparent that we needed it available constantly for Internet research and e-mail. Yet leaving the system on, even in sleep mode, used too much energy. Our fairly typical desktop system draws 180 to 190 watts.
Flipping it off and on was too much of a hassle because of the almost 2 minute boot up each time we needed to check something. Besides, even turning it on and off as needed was a serious drain on our 1.2 KW PV system. Expanding our PV array (sixteen, 77 watt modules) was not an option because the present rack and wiring are maxxed out, not to mention the hassle of having to submit a new electrical permit application, complete with engineering stamp.
The Search
So I began researching notebook computers. Without a doubt, they would provide a much better energy use scenario. I wanted the lowest possible energy use in a quality unit.
I have always purchased desktop systems from smaller companies that offer good quality parts for the money. I could always make changes later if necessary. But notebooks are a different animal, since they are more or less a closed package. So it is very important that it has all the functions you will need.
For many people, the notebook can replace the desktop unit. So a 14 or 15 inch (36 or 38 cm) screen, 5 to 7 pound (2Ð3 kg) "desktop replacement" machine will work. For others, a really lightweight 3 to 4 pound (1.4Ð1.8 kg) unit with a 10 to 12 inch (25Ð30 cm) screen is fine, since the desktop unit is not being displaced, but supplemented and networked. The former will certainly save watts over a desktop unit, but with its built-in drives and large screen, will use considerably more energy than the latter.
For us, keeping the desktop unit for graphics-intensive tasks seemed desirable, since the screen is larger, and CRT monitors generally handle graphics better. So I researched what was available in the smallest of the Windows-based notebooks.
Our personal parameters included finding a highly rated, quality product from a well-known company (such as Dell, IBM, Gateway, Micron, Sony), long battery life, no built-in drives other than the hard drive (but with an attachable CD/DVD drive for loading programs, etc.), at least 256 MB RAM and a 20 GB hard drive, a touchpad pointing device, and a high quality graphics card that will not drop frames when playing a DVD movie.
I began looking more than six months ago. Because of their customer satisfaction record, I was somewhat predisposed to look most seriously at the Dell offerings, in particular the Latitude L-400. But it was weak on graphics and, having been on the market quite awhile, was not tops in energy efficiency. We came close to trying a Sony unit available from Costco for less than US$1,000, but it only had a 10.4 inch (26.4 cm) screen, older chip sets, and mediocre graphics. That finally kept it out of the running.
A Small Gem
In November 2001, Dell introduced a new model, the Latitude C-400. It was much like the earlier L-400, but had updated processors (866 MHz or 1.2 GHz, running on half a watt), a new generation of energy-saving Intel support chips (830M), graphics adequate for DVD movies, both a touchpad and a pointing stick, and some other goodies I found desirable.
I watched the prices, including the Dell "refurbished" units. In January, after the Christmas rush was over, I kept close track and finally bit on a good offer. (Remember, if you buy on the phone rather than off the Net, you may be able to negotiate for even better than the current sale prices, but beware of the frustrating sales-speak even from reputable firms.)
This particular model best met our needs. The US$2,300 price is in the midranges, with basic economy models available around US$1,000, and corporate road-warrior models well above US$3,000. (Note: laptop prices continue to fall, so you may be able to do even better by the time you read this.)
In terms of energy usage, though, this model has to be near the lower limit. We measured usage with a Watts up? meter. The meter isn't extremely accurate when measuring loads drawing less than 20 watts, but it's close enough for general use. In any case, the C-400 uses just 15 to 18 watts when in regular use.
This figure, when compared to the desktop system, is cause enough for joy. But when we close the case, putting the system in standby (it goes to hibernation in 15 minutes, or whatever you want to set), the usage is too low to measure with this meter.
Wireless Internet
When it comes to broadband Internet service, there are three major routes and one minor route. Leading the charge these days is cable modem service from the cable TV companies. This is followed closely by DSL (digital subscriber line) service from the telephone companies. Satellite service from the two satellite TV companies has made inroads mainly where the other two services are not available.
Finally, in a few areas, ISPs have established fixed wireless service, which uses a line-of-sight radio link between their operation and subscribers. The radio signal is in the same frequency range as a microwave oven, and can be fairly characterized as a "microwave link." It conforms to the IEEE 802.11b standard used for wireless networking within the home or office, and is theoretically capable of 11 MB per second information transfer. A radio transceiver and small antenna are required.
We had a choice of going to Starband satellite service or Interlink Hawaii (local ISP) fixed wireless service. Starband was just becoming available with no track record, high upfront costs of more than US$1,500 (installation is less expensive in the continental U.S.) and a monthly cost of US$70. Interlink's fixed wireless service had been around for several years, had an installation package of US$500, and cost US$50 a month. Needless to say we went with the latter, which uses a Breezenet Pro.11 radio.
Overall, we have been very satisfied with the service. When our radio was failing after less than a year (it is leased and was used), they were slow to replace it. But otherwise, we have had mostly speedy surfing, with very little downtime. And being a local company, they are usually easy to work with. Power draw of the wireless system is 1 to 2 watts.
Over a typical day of turning the system on first thing in the morning, using it for about 5 hours off and on, with it in standby or hibernation the rest of the time (about 7 to 8 hours), the total watt-hours used is 84. That's equivalent to about 25 minutes use of the desktop system! If it is on standby, the C-400 comes back to full use in a few seconds. From hibernation, it takes all of about 15 seconds. That's very tolerable for an appliance.
Other Considerations
As a selling feature, notebook manufacturers try to maximize battery life, that is, the amount of time their computers will run on a single charge. Since we keep the unit plugged in so much, battery life is not critical, but it's still a good indicator of system efficiency.
Within groups of similar computers, the longer the--battery life, the more efficient the computer is. This comparison works best if independently measured, but manufacturers' estimated time is usually a good rough estimate. Just remember that this measurement applies within a given category of processor, screen size, battery size, and peripherals.
While it may seem good to keep the battery charged up, it is also good to let it cycle some. So don't leave it plugged in all the time. Unplug it every once in a while, and let it discharge fully before charging again. If NiCd is used, the battery should be fully discharged routinely (several times a month) and then refilled. If the battery is NiMH or lithium technology, it isn't as important to fully discharge the battery routinely, but it should be fully discharged once every month or two. Most modern notebooks use the NiMH or lithium ion batteries.
Keyboards are also a concern with notebooks. The great portability of a 3+ pound (1.4+ kg) unit is somewhat offset by a slightly smaller keyboard, not to mention a few keys in somewhat different places. I find the tradeoff to be acceptable. You may not. The larger notebooks do have equivalent keyboards, but not exactly ergonomically correct ones.
Another alternative is to buy a notebook with an auxiliary keyboard port. Then you can use a standard keyboard ordinarily used with a desktop unit. Most larger notebooks have similar ports for a mouse and monitor. Others have auxiliary ports in docking stations so a notebook can emulate a desktop computer.
Of course, not everyone is in a position to part with more than US$2,000 to save some watt-hours. But it was worth it for us. The cost of adding more PVs and related equipment to have our desktop unit available full time would have exceeded what we spent. Almost any notebook computer, with the ability to handle similar tasks, is far preferable to a desktop system for energy conservation.
As time goes on, more models will use the new energy-saving chip sets. Even the model we bought is now available as refurbished. (Usually they are returned within 30 days after purchase and like new.) I just saw one similar to ours for less than US$1,600.
Although I was researching PCs, Apple's latest notebooks are also quite frugal. I managed to get permission (not without a questioning look from the store manager) to measure one of the 600 MHz G3 iBooks, and it came in at around 20 watts.
Dessert
The rest of the changes to our computing scene may seem frivolous. Still, if we see the computer as an appliance, the handier the better. We added a D-Link wireless router (Model DI 713P, US$140, 7 watts) that gives us the ability to use the laptop almost anywhere in the house. It also connects the two computers together and provides good Internet security from hackers. (Incidentally, software can provide good protection also, but it's not as good as the hardware solution in a router.)
The setup of the router was very time consuming. I have read of others who have had an easier setup, and still others who have given up and returned the unit. So I have mixed feelings about it. Setting up a single computer would be easier, as would setting up with only a newer operating system.
The manufacturers need to provide more information than we received. Usually I like to exhaust my own resources before calling tech support, but I still spent quite a few hours sorting things out with both the router tech support and my Internet service provider tech support.
Energy-Sipping Computing
Everything needs to be on switched outlets for efficiency, preferably surge protected outlets. On one switch, we have the fixed wireless radio and the router, which have no internal switches, and the printer, which does have an internal switch (usually turned off). The notebook computer is on another, and the desktop computer and scanner (usually turned off) on another. So we can handle almost any combination of computing needs without having unnecessary equipment sucking electricity.
In spite of the less-than-satisfactory router experience, our new computer system has been a great convenience. After half a year of no computer availability in our off-grid home, we learned that our desktop computer was just too much of an energy hog to work for us in our limited-energy environment. Having cast about for a solution, I believe we found a good one with our 3 pound (1.4 kg) notebook computer. It draws only 15 to 18 watts when being used, and practically none when in standby.
We no longer have to feel guilty when using a very important appliance. It is handy anywhere we are in the house, anytime we need it. And so far, we have run the generator hardly at all. Aloha.
Access
John Bertrand, PO Box 811, Holualoa, HI 96725 caber@kona.net
Dell Computer Corporation, One Dell Way, Round Rock, TX 78682 800-915-3355 or 512-338-4400 csd@dell.com www.dell.com Dell Latitude C-400 notebook computer
Alvarion, Inc., 5858 Edison Pl., Carlsbad, CA 92008 760-517-3100 Fax: 760-517-3200 sales-north.america@alvarion.com www.alvarion.com Breezenet Pro.11 radio
D-Link U.S.A., 53 Discovery Dr., Irvine, CA 92618 800-326-1688 Fax: 949-753-7033 sales@dlink.com www.dlink.com D-Link DI-713P wireless router
Some Useful PC Computer Web Sites
Major Notebook Manufacturers:
www.dell.com www.gateway.com www.ibm.com www.micronpc.com www.sonystyle.com www.hp.com www.apple.com
Networking Info:
www.wown.com www.pcworld.com/features/article/0,aid,86935,tk,c
Internet Security Software:
www.zonelabs.com Zonelabs' Zone Alarm is a free download; the Pro version costs US$40. The free version has been highly recommended and has been used by the author. The Pro version has more bells & whistles.
Notebook Power Management:
www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,a
Evaluations & Comparisons:
www.pcmagazine.com www.zdnet.com www.techtv.com www.pcworld.com www.practicallynetworked.com
Shopping/Price Comparisons:
www.pricewatch.com www.pricegrabber.com www.techbargains.com www.amazon.com www.cnet.com
Thats okay, Mozilla can block those nasty unwanted pop-ups (Preferences -> Advanced: Scripts & Plugins). Kudos to the Mozilla developers for allowing everyone, no matter their disability, to relax whilst pr0ning through the internet.
/pub/canadian_beer
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chown vreeker
Blender probably has a nipple incorporated already... you just need to right click the mouse on a metaball and hold alt-m (assumingly for mammaries) and hop on one foot while whistling a happy tune in the nude... piece of cake!
I'm guessing he started out with COBOL due to the stability of the world, but around the time the dinosaurs got nuked he was persuaded to switch to Visual BASIC by Satan(last name Gates) and ever since we've had nothing but one general protection fault after another.
Are you kidding? GOD would have to use Perl as the duct-tape to hold the universe together.
Press select until the view changes to the overhead view you are used to in the original(s) - do you like it better yet?
Best mascot ever? Only if you are trying to market to a bunch of 10 year old pokemon obsessed kids!
Why wouldn't they pay for it? What more do citizens want than a gov't admitting fault and then *fixing* a problem. Even if they don't implement the findings they are still boosting the "honesty" they public perceives they have. Alternativley there may have been some extra fiscal dollars sitting aroud in the "Orwell" Fund.
Just an eskimo's perspective from Canada. We do all live in igloos right?
Stupidity Procreates -- here is a hint... don't have children.
The Doug and Warren Show: Thief and Deus Ex Criticism
from the this should be on tech tv department
Posted on
Mon Apr 1st, 2002 07:24:15 AM
At the end of the last day, The Doug Church and Warren Spector show was perhaps my most anticipated session. Deus Ex and Thief are two of my favorite games, and to see their respective creators pick apart each other's game sounded like a great opportunity to learn more about their designs. It turned out to be the best session of the week.
I headed over to the auditorium to find both Doug and Warren sitting down and joking with their microphones off. When the session got started, Warren explained that the purpose of the session was to critique games without jeopardizing their professional or personal relationship. He also quipped that since the audience was all game developers, they could feel safe without a site like fatbabies.com picking it up (sorry guys.)
After they had their introductions, they both stressed how the game developer is only one part of a large and important team. At this point I started taking notes... Usually I write down what I think is important in a session - but the session was so interesting, I started taking their main points down verbatim (more or less). Since I'm not a transcriber, I apologize in advance for not getting this 100% right, but I think I nailed most of the dialogue behind their critique, and if you find their words half as interesting as I did, then I think you'll be pleased with the result.
Overview of each other's game:
Warren: Thief is a mission based, first person game with an emphasis on stealth. The players interaction is with the world. The AI is really a foil for the player, making the player feel powerful. Audio is state of the art. There's a deep fictitious setting and deeply simulated gameplay. It was a new type of game.
Doug: Deus Ex is a mission based first person action game with expansive fiction. There are a large scale of possibilities, with a lot of different contexts and roles. The game blends genre with a mix of action, RPG's and other genre's mixed in. There's a lot of choices that impact who you are and where you're going. The game goes in one direction, but you get a lot of say in how you approach the process.
Narrative and Control of the Narration: Neither game has significant control:
Doug: The narrative of thief was in the cutscenes. Deus Ex combines in into the game, but neither game has significant control, so why did you integrate it?
Warren: A lot of it was my frustration with Thief. I produced it for years and it (the narrative) was so minimal, that I got frustrated with it. Thief was constraining in gameplay. What we wanted to do was bring together a variety of things. We wanted to bring out some action, some stealth and role-play. Inventory management, object manipulation, and conversations. We wanted to include conventional role play conversation into Deus Ex.
Doug: But the player can't impact the narrative..
Warren: The conversations talk to you about the world, and that propels you through the narrative.
Warren Fights Back:
Warren: Why can't I fight my way through a Thief mission?
Doug: Well you can... but you'd be playing your own game.
Doug- The game isn't about defeating the AI, they're foils like you said... not the enemy. The AI could defeat you if we wanted it to. "I think I hear something
Doug: Thief is a game about territory. In each game the player and the AI have their safe zones, but to get to the player's goal they need to adjust that territory by changing the environment.
Warren: How is standing and waiting fun?
Doug: Make the player about to do something. Those moments are loosing someone and waiting for the AI to calm down, or waiting to bonk someone on the head when they turn around. We have to provoke those feelings in the player to make the game fun.
Is there really player choice in Deus Ex?:
Warren: Almost everyone on the Deus Ex team argues that player control is much more powerful, but here's the secret, much of that choice was fake. We did some simulation, much more than a lot of games, but much of the gameplay, much of what people thought was the depth of the solution was hardcoded like Ultima... Some of the most memorable parts were the most scripted. look at mission 6, Hong Kong. On the PS2 version we were 5 months late just because we tinkered with it and broke that fragile mission. Preplanning everything makes things fragile and takes too much time. Mission 6 felt much more like a traditional game mission.
Back to Thief:
Warren: Is there a difficulty curve in Thief? How is it implemented, and how did you test it?
Doug: There is a difficulty curve. The environments get more difficult. For example, the drunk guards at mission one are easy vs. the alert guards at the end. In Deus Ex you (the player) get more powerful, but in Thief, we decided not to do that. We wanted the environment and the player to be the two factors. To balance the game we just tested it a lot.
Warren: Deus Ex is a different game - we forced them to play through the game in radical ways to test it. One tester never drew a weapon and could beat the game. We had other testers run through it never increasing their skill level or not using augmentations. It may not be as much fun, but they can do it.
Doug: Someone played through Thief in 42 minutes. It shows you how skill can be an impact. Let the player play their own game with their own "scores" and you will end up with a new game.
Give me Direction!
Warren: Why in Thief am I given so little information about the mission and what I'm getting into?
Doug: We did it deliberately, not that it wasn't discussed endlessly. There was lots of team chaos and discussion. We wanted Thief to be a game that forces the user to dynamically react to what occurs. We didn't want a lot of planning, we wanted it to be played on the fly. Give the player enough information for an initial plan of attack.
Warren: (shakes his head) I want more direction on how big the mission is. You never know how close you are to your goals or some general difficulty information.
Warren: The other thing is that I'd be less upset if you'd replenished my inventory. It's so inconsistently replenished that I don't know if this is a time to use my fire arrows.
Doug: But that's not strategy... the player shouldn't know.
Warren: I just want informed choices..
Doug: We didn't want our players to hoard inventory... we wanted them to run out and use them. In games like first person shooters, inventory and powerups are very short term (like quake). That's true of most games of that style. You don't get a large stream of powerups and the play is determined by skill. This isn't final fantasy with 3000 healing potions.
Warren: (emphatically) But I have no way of knowing that the barracks is full of guards!
Doug: SCOUT THE BARRACKS!
Doug gets the final blow
Doug: Thief has a strong focus, with approachability and clarity. What do you lose by not having that focus?
Warren: Part of the Deus Ex game is that it gives players a large number of ways to approach it. Clearly the game is important, but we wanted to appeal to fans of sneakers, RPG's, and FPS. I was so nervous when we signed off on the game, because I had no idea how it would be received. What if people compared it to the best of each genre? What if they said you couldn't sneak as well as Thief? Our success was that people were excited about choosing how they played.
Doug: Attempts to do things out of Thief's focus results in failure. You can't change the narrative because we wanted that focus.
They wrapped up by reiterating that game development was a team effort. They are just the most visible of the team, but that doesn't make the team less valuable. They also expressed their hope that other game developers could have the same type of dialogue about similar games like Halo and Half Life. Personally I think this is a great idea.. I think we could all learn something about game criticism by hearing the developers deconstruct each other's games.
You could wait until the sky car comes out... or just hold the Moller Engineers hostage with a large salmon until they give you a prototype...
my $bs = "No wonder Unix makes you feel boxed in. It ties you to an inflexible system. It requires you to pay for expensive experts. It makes you struggle daily with a server environment that's more complex than ever";
$bs =~ s/unix/microsoft/i;
$bs =~ s/complex/nonsense/i;
$bs =~ s/expensive/clueless/i;
print $bs;
"What do you mean we will not meet the fourth quarter relase date?" Asks Bill Gates.
... is ... is ... Oh No! Cyclical reference you already stole it ..."
"Well there is always the steal BSD source option, that probably won't be noticed until the software is out of date" mentions a lackey sitting close.
The omniscient walls pipes up "Well, Bill! according to google the best operating system to steal is
Meanwhile back at the enron of the future...
"Wall - this is the FBI what illicit activities were spoke of in this room in the last two years?"
"4,212,326 Items in queue. list all?" the wall awaits a response.
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Its cold up here, turn up the heat in my igloo please.
He enjoys these movies for the same reason programmers enjoy reusing code from earlier projects... less work and *generally* equal result. If you got millions of dollars to say the same lines over and over again from movie to movie wouldn't you continue?
Some airports already have the infrastructure that they use for baggage checks.
Now every run down to you nearest money grubbing airport and eavesdrop... err... I mean connect to the net and browse slashdot.
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brr its cold up here, some want to pass me a polar bear skin?
I just started downloading the bzipped iso to try this puppy out.
/.ing of the site... i give it another 5-10 mins. As the tv show Bonzai! would say "Place your bets... NOWWW!!!"
I wonder when the connection will crash from the
I am in the planning stage of an internet cafe with similar needs. The thin clients that have caught my eye are the IBM NetVista N2200e or NetVista N2800e. Spec Sheets say it will do everything you've asked...
Price is probably a bit of a kicker unless you order 50+... good old IBM.
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$Canada = $US;
$Canada =~ s/house/igloo/g;
As suggested above the security of mag cards are quite trivial. However if you kept a record of what *should* be on the cards on a database of some kind any attempt to use a modified card could be spottted and dealt with.
This somewhat stupifies the usage of the mag cards as you could just as easily use a barcoded card to track the users and keep all information local.
CD borrowing system could work just like any library system now. Each user has a barcoded card (easily could be a mag card) that has a user id of some sort. Then the server keeps track of the rest. An added bonus to using the barcode is people could "log-in" from home and check account status. With a mag card the users would need an additional user id printed on the card. (Or assigned one in the application process).
Just my two clams from above the border.