The problem with all these new GFX card reviews is that they don't compare to the cards most of us already have.
I highly dobut that anybody who owns a Gf4 Ti or Raedon 9700 wants a new graphics card. On the other hand, I have a Geforce I DDR (still adequate for most games, IMHO), and I have no clue how it stacks up against this beast. Is it THAT much better?, or do I save my money?
Another overlooked point is comparing to other more recent cards, such as ATI's 9500. This card, ignored in most reviews sells for under $150, and while not as fast as the 9700, it gives the Gf4 Ti a run for its money. Why are we always focusing on the absolute latest and greatest (and costliest)?
I'll have to disagree with you on this here. In its shipping configuration, windows xp CAN make cds, but cannot eidt video (the version of movie maker that ships with XP is a joke), pictures, and windows media player is one of the most confusing programs in existance.
On the other hand, Macs do this out of the box. Cd recording, movie editing, image editing, and audio all work well and intuitively OUT OF THE BOX.
In windows' defence, I will say that I recently bought a sony PC which had a slew of preinstalled software at no extra price - Premere LE, Sound Forge and ACID, Photoshop LE, and a media player which wasn't as good as iTunes, but definitely beat windows media player. If the normal version of windows did all of this, I'd be happier, but it doesn't, and requires a lot of extra (expensive) software do it. Apple bundles utilities to do all these things INTUITIVELY, and intergrates them well into the OS. If you want something more powerful, go get Final Cut, photoshop, premere, etc. But, for most people, the iApps are fine.
Don't we have 20gb PCMCIA hard drives already? While they're not exactly as THIN as a credit card, they're pretty darn close. FYI, Apple uses PCMCIA hard drives in their iPods.
If the $100 price is only for the 100mb version, you're better off getting a USB disk-on-key.
Faster than any other console?
on
Phantom Game Console
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm a bit stumped as to how they can claim that they make a 'fast' console. Quite frankly, I've never used a 'slow' console.
NTSC TVs have a maximum frame rate of 30 FPS (29.7 if you want to get technical). I don't find load times particularly offensive for most consoles now ( the N64 could load anything instantly). Almost every game I've ever played on a console could be played that 30FPS rate ALL THE TIME.
Do they want to turn up the quality of the graphics? It won't be FASTER, but it'll look nicer (although there's only so much you can do at 640x480 interlaced). Sure, you can play pong at 8,000 FPS (even though your TV can only display 30), but do you really WANT to?
It's certainly not as proprietary as the consoles from nintendo and sega.
Think of it this way. There are tons of tools availible for developing on windows-based systems, and many (most) developers are quite experienced with it. Developing for a system such as the N64 or PS2 requires you to learn to program with a new cpu, OS, graphics API, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I normally bash microsoft, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. Hopefully *nix consoles will follow.
Re:Four years and half too late.
on
Ark Linux
·
· Score: 2
Knowing slashdot, chances are it's just a typographical error.
From what i've heard, the latest driver build breaks things very badly on many 2.4.x kernels, as well as slowing down 2d performance to the point where the generic open-source drivers outperform this build.
slashdottec jokes are doesn't seem too funny anymore
What idiots voted this insightful? He is either making a joke, or has the linguistic ability of a slashdot editor.
Re:steel mouse pad looks nice
on
Hardware Bits
·
· Score: 2
My friend has one of these. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well with a mechanical mouse after several years of service, as the writing eventually begins to seperate from the aluminum.
Either way, it's an awesome pad.
Re:Maybe I just don't get it...
on
Hardware Bits
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
So.... why not just use a PSU with an A/C passthrough, and plug a powerstrip into that.
Requires a $2 adapter plus a powerstrip with no modifications necessary.
Or even better, tell your bios to automatically power on the pc after a power failure (in other words, plug the PC into an outlet with a lightswitch.) Turn the lightswitch on, the pc goes on, as well as anything else plugged into the outlet.
Sounds like a good way to make something INSTANELY heavy and dense.
Either way, breaking up stuff to the molecular level wouldn't help in some cases (ie. covalently bonded compounds, in which two atoms intersect each other.
Quite frankly, I believe that what microsoft did to IBM would be enough to warrant a breakup.
Unfortunately, the attempt to break up microsoft was carried out on the basis of IE being bundled with Win98 (big deal! OS2 bundled a browser, as did almost all Unixes (the browser being either Mosaic or lynx)). Netscape got pissed, and sued.
Now, let's think about this. Netscape was based around free software. Navigator never really made any signifigant amount of money for netscape. It wasn't agressively developed, etc.
On the other hand, IBM poured billions upon billions of dollars into OS2 to make sure it was an GOOD OPERATING SYSTEM. All of the sudden, Microsoft refuses to license code to IBM, and the operating system dies.
This seems like one hulluva antitrust violation. It's possible that Microsoft intended all along to ditch IBM.
I dobut that there was ever an operating system which was as agressively developed as OS2 was (MacOS evolved slowly over the course of 15 years, and eventually merged with NExTSTEP, DOS was writen and never signifigantly updated after version 2.0, Linux was an accident, NT was put on the backburner at MS for several years, The commercial unixes were expensive, and Win9x wasn't really an OS at all.)
OS2 had a good GUI with a powerful backend. Nothing else has this today. Windows XP/NT is all proprietary, and 'dumbed down' to an extent. Granted, windows has a lot going for it on the backend - it's simple, yet powerful (ie. device drivers,.dlls, filesystem layout, etc). OSX has a great backend and GUI, although it's a bit oversimplistic, and geared twoard home users. Unix has a great backend, but a horrific GUI (X, Gnome, and KDE are nice, but they do very little to tie into the backend of the OS, which is quite fragmented)
No. Not necessarily. I'm sure there are other parties involved in the post-production of LOTR which are not directly part of the studios.
Think of how they have to put the movie onto film for distribution. I highly dobut that New Line does this themselves. A leak here is much more likely.
I've owned two LaCie pocketdrives for a little under a year (48gb and 30gb), and I must say that they've been a godsend for a geek like myself.
I can store all my stuff on them. Take them to virtually ANY PC in existance, (anything with usb or firewire - just about any OS works - linux, mac, windows... no drivers required), and "it just works".
The most practical application i've found for these drives is doing backups of my pcs or client's pcs before doing major upgrades, etc.
I can take my Mp3 collection anywhere. I once even configured one of them to be a BOOTABLE LINUX DRIVE which I could use ANYWHERE (on older pcs, i needed a bootdisk, but the idea was still cool...)
The only gripe with the 500gb drive is that it's too big to tote around like the pocketdrives, which fit into a pocket, run completely silent, have a shock absorbant silicone buffer, can be self-powered on firewire, etc.
Either way, all geeks can benefit from external usb/firewire drives. Before I got them, I never envisioned needing one, but now that I own two, I couldn't envision living without them.
From the look of the comments posted so far, it appears that nobody has read the reviews (even though they argue that those who have read the books shouldn't have to worry about spoilers.)
When in school, all of the teachers were teaching metrics, execpt for the shop teacher. And I liked his reasoning.
For everyday tasks, a meter is too big of a measurment, and a centimeter is far too small.
In addition, it's easy to accurately measure sixteenths of an inch, while it is near impossible to even measure quarters of a centimeter. Go look on a ruler if you don't believe me.
Sure, the math works out great, but in the real world, 6 feet is much easier to comprehend than 2.4 meters (or whatever the correct conversion is)
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with all these new GFX card reviews is that they don't compare to the cards most of us already have.
I highly dobut that anybody who owns a Gf4 Ti or Raedon 9700 wants a new graphics card. On the other hand, I have a Geforce I DDR (still adequate for most games, IMHO), and I have no clue how it stacks up against this beast. Is it THAT much better?, or do I save my money?
Another overlooked point is comparing to other more recent cards, such as ATI's 9500. This card, ignored in most reviews sells for under $150, and while not as fast as the 9700, it gives the Gf4 Ti a run for its money. Why are we always focusing on the absolute latest and greatest (and costliest)?
Don't forget Apple's QuartzExtreme. That is TRUE 2D acceleration (utilizing the rediculously overpowered 3d features of the cards)
I'll have to disagree with you on this here. In its shipping configuration, windows xp CAN make cds, but cannot eidt video (the version of movie maker that ships with XP is a joke), pictures, and windows media player is one of the most confusing programs in existance.
On the other hand, Macs do this out of the box. Cd recording, movie editing, image editing, and audio all work well and intuitively OUT OF THE BOX.
In windows' defence, I will say that I recently bought a sony PC which had a slew of preinstalled software at no extra price - Premere LE, Sound Forge and ACID, Photoshop LE, and a media player which wasn't as good as iTunes, but definitely beat windows media player. If the normal version of windows did all of this, I'd be happier, but it doesn't, and requires a lot of extra (expensive) software do it. Apple bundles utilities to do all these things INTUITIVELY, and intergrates them well into the OS. If you want something more powerful, go get Final Cut, photoshop, premere, etc. But, for most people, the iApps are fine.
I'm skeptical. Where? How? Why would they want to give ME hardware?
Either way, the demands of the Adopt-a-geek program ask for computers way better than my own (heh...)
Uhhhh..... last time I checked, most of us don't eat DRAM chips. Organic produce is purchased mostly due to health reasons.
It should also be noted that free-range meat seems to taste a good deal better than farm-bred meat.
First off, the song was set in New Jersey.
212 used to be used for the entire state of New York.
201 used to be used for the entire state of New Jersey (and it was at the time the song was written)
Don't we have 20gb PCMCIA hard drives already? While they're not exactly as THIN as a credit card, they're pretty darn close. FYI, Apple uses PCMCIA hard drives in their iPods.
If the $100 price is only for the 100mb version, you're better off getting a USB disk-on-key.
I'm a bit stumped as to how they can claim that they make a 'fast' console. Quite frankly, I've never used a 'slow' console.
NTSC TVs have a maximum frame rate of 30 FPS (29.7 if you want to get technical). I don't find load times particularly offensive for most consoles now ( the N64 could load anything instantly). Almost every game I've ever played on a console could be played that 30FPS rate ALL THE TIME.
Do they want to turn up the quality of the graphics? It won't be FASTER, but it'll look nicer (although there's only so much you can do at 640x480 interlaced). Sure, you can play pong at 8,000 FPS (even though your TV can only display 30), but do you really WANT to?
It's certainly not as proprietary as the consoles from nintendo and sega.
Think of it this way. There are tons of tools availible for developing on windows-based systems, and many (most) developers are quite experienced with it. Developing for a system such as the N64 or PS2 requires you to learn to program with a new cpu, OS, graphics API, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I normally bash microsoft, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. Hopefully *nix consoles will follow.
Knowing slashdot, chances are it's just a typographical error.
All your ring are belong to sauron!
No, no no....
2003 will be the year of the Gnu/Penguin (goats and Gnus are interchangable anyway...)
All your collectibles are belong to zero wing!
Whoops. Forgot to attach this thread with information on the problems in the drivers.
From what i've heard, the latest driver build breaks things very badly on many 2.4.x kernels, as well as slowing down 2d performance to the point where the generic open-source drivers outperform this build.
slashdottec jokes are doesn't seem too funny anymore
What idiots voted this insightful? He is either making a joke, or has the linguistic ability of a slashdot editor.
My friend has one of these. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well with a mechanical mouse after several years of service, as the writing eventually begins to seperate from the aluminum.
Either way, it's an awesome pad.
So.... why not just use a PSU with an A/C passthrough, and plug a powerstrip into that.
Requires a $2 adapter plus a powerstrip with no modifications necessary.
Or even better, tell your bios to automatically power on the pc after a power failure (in other words, plug the PC into an outlet with a lightswitch.) Turn the lightswitch on, the pc goes on, as well as anything else plugged into the outlet.
Actually, no. They can have THAT for free. Please take it.... PLEASE!
Sounds like a good way to make something INSTANELY heavy and dense.
Either way, breaking up stuff to the molecular level wouldn't help in some cases (ie. covalently bonded compounds, in which two atoms intersect each other.
Quite frankly, I believe that what microsoft did to IBM would be enough to warrant a breakup.
.dlls, filesystem layout, etc). OSX has a great backend and GUI, although it's a bit oversimplistic, and geared twoard home users. Unix has a great backend, but a horrific GUI (X, Gnome, and KDE are nice, but they do very little to tie into the backend of the OS, which is quite fragmented)
Unfortunately, the attempt to break up microsoft was carried out on the basis of IE being bundled with Win98 (big deal! OS2 bundled a browser, as did almost all Unixes (the browser being either Mosaic or lynx)). Netscape got pissed, and sued.
Now, let's think about this. Netscape was based around free software. Navigator never really made any signifigant amount of money for netscape. It wasn't agressively developed, etc.
On the other hand, IBM poured billions upon billions of dollars into OS2 to make sure it was an GOOD OPERATING SYSTEM. All of the sudden, Microsoft refuses to license code to IBM, and the operating system dies.
This seems like one hulluva antitrust violation. It's possible that Microsoft intended all along to ditch IBM.
I dobut that there was ever an operating system which was as agressively developed as OS2 was (MacOS evolved slowly over the course of 15 years, and eventually merged with NExTSTEP, DOS was writen and never signifigantly updated after version 2.0, Linux was an accident, NT was put on the backburner at MS for several years, The commercial unixes were expensive, and Win9x wasn't really an OS at all.)
OS2 had a good GUI with a powerful backend. Nothing else has this today. Windows XP/NT is all proprietary, and 'dumbed down' to an extent. Granted, windows has a lot going for it on the backend - it's simple, yet powerful (ie. device drivers,
No. Not necessarily. I'm sure there are other parties involved in the post-production of LOTR which are not directly part of the studios.
Think of how they have to put the movie onto film for distribution. I highly dobut that New Line does this themselves. A leak here is much more likely.
I've owned two LaCie pocketdrives for a little under a year (48gb and 30gb), and I must say that they've been a godsend for a geek like myself.
I can store all my stuff on them. Take them to virtually ANY PC in existance, (anything with usb or firewire - just about any OS works - linux, mac, windows... no drivers required), and "it just works".
The most practical application i've found for these drives is doing backups of my pcs or client's pcs before doing major upgrades, etc.
I can take my Mp3 collection anywhere. I once even configured one of them to be a BOOTABLE LINUX DRIVE which I could use ANYWHERE (on older pcs, i needed a bootdisk, but the idea was still cool...)
The only gripe with the 500gb drive is that it's too big to tote around like the pocketdrives, which fit into a pocket, run completely silent, have a shock absorbant silicone buffer, can be self-powered on firewire, etc.
Either way, all geeks can benefit from external usb/firewire drives. Before I got them, I never envisioned needing one, but now that I own two, I couldn't envision living without them.
From the look of the comments posted so far, it appears that nobody has read the reviews (even though they argue that those who have read the books shouldn't have to worry about spoilers.)
Or isn't that how slashdot always works?
When in school, all of the teachers were teaching metrics, execpt for the shop teacher. And I liked his reasoning.
For everyday tasks, a meter is too big of a measurment, and a centimeter is far too small.
In addition, it's easy to accurately measure sixteenths of an inch, while it is near impossible to even measure quarters of a centimeter. Go look on a ruler if you don't believe me.
Sure, the math works out great, but in the real world, 6 feet is much easier to comprehend than 2.4 meters (or whatever the correct conversion is)