Having struggled through years of gaming on rigs with various GPUs, I have to wonder where it will hit the point that nobody needs any faster cards.
I started out gaming on the computer on computers with no GPU, and when I got one with a Rage Pro 4MB it was awesome. Then I got a Voodoo card from 3DFX with a whopping 8MB and it was more awesomer. Now you can get whatever that will do whatever for however many dollars.
I really don't see the game programming keeping up with the GPU power. I'm at least 2 GeForce's behind the latest series (560ti) and I can play any game at 1200p resolution with a very decent framerate. Yes I beta-tested Battlefield 4.
How much more is enough? I don't want them to stop trying, but somebody needs to ask where it reaches the point of diminishing returns. They could focus on streamlining and cheapening the "good enough" lines...
This is a disturbing trend. I also was figuratively puking when I tested Windows 8 and it was all "MICROSOFT ACCOUNT NOW YOU SIGN IN TO EVERYTHING 24/7 MOTHERFUCKER!!". I managed to get by without the account somehow though. There's almost always a way.
BTW if you want to sign up for a throwaway Apple ID with no payment method, do this:
Go to store.apple.com online wherever and "buy" a Free app. It will prompt for a sign-in, but only with Free Apps can you create a new account with the option for No Payment Method. Use that Apple ID for whatever.
LOL that is stupid. Brushed metal was the best. Snow Leopard's UI is the peak of any operating system's design. All computers should look and work like Mac OS 10.6.8 from 2007 onward. I tried Lion and was like "bleh" and then I ended up having to use Mountain Lion to get new-enough GeForce drivers for my 560ti card, but I don't like its UI. Many tweaks and it's still not as good as Snow. So anything they can do to get back towards to impeccable usefulness of the Snow Leopard look, feel, and functions of Exposé and Spaces will be for the best.
It's not necessary to fully abandon US infrastructure, but it will be necessary for people/companies inside the USA to start creating more secured endpoints. For example, it's not terribly hard to build an email server with free software, and then you just need DNS + MX records that will usually cost a little bit per year.
So just build your own stuff, and build in encryption, and build a community of folks who you (in person by hand if necessary) share keys with etc.
If you aren't the type to build your own stuff, well hopefully you can find someone trustworthy who is the type. We just need more of these.
Actually it is a typical experience with the particular model I'm discussing. It has almost no air ventilation, and I even took it apart to mod the chassis a bit and gave it better airflow, after using an app to undervolt the CPU. My mods of software + hardware netted about a 20 C drop in average temps under OSX, but failed to help nearly as much under XP (though it did help enough to make it usable). This particular model just makes too much heat as it comes stock. It's the Core2 Duo with ATI X1600 graphics model. Right now browsing the web I am at 46-47 C core temp.
This is sorta like Apples and Oranges, but... on my 6-year old MacBookPro that I cling to and administrate servers from, the power management is far better on the several-years-old Snow Leopard OS than when I boot it up to the even-more-years-old Windows XP 32-bit.
So much so, that when I fire up XP it goes into TURBOFAN MODE and CPU temps still climb into nutsack-roasting level. 90 to 100 C for the CPU temps (Core2 Duo) have occurred without too much heavy lifting. So forget about the battery life, there is no use without the power cord. It's more an issue to be concerned with the physical limits of the rest of the hardware, like when does it melt?
most dishwashers and refrigerators run off of 120V AC power in the USA, so the voltage they operate on is definitely dangerous. However, they do not pose a risk of being hit by cars usually, so the "zapping wires flailing everywhere" nightmare is not likely with them. With the high power-density Lithium ion batteries, there is often a risk of fire or explosion when they are damaged in the right way. With enough cars on the road endangering each other by being piloted by dumbasses texting or putting on makeup, the risk skyrockets...
I would like to see a lower-cost, ARM-based Apple laptop. They are merging they software development kits to make desktop-class applications coded to run on ARM, so it might be in the roadmap.
The laptop I would want would have to have a real keyboard, USB ports, and I could totally do without any touchscreen FWIW.
This is exactly what the problem is. Touch screens suck for real computer use. People on these boards know what "real computer use" is so I shouldn't have to go on and on about bigass video cards that take 2x 6x 12v power wires in addition to the power drawn from the PCIe slot, hard drive expansions, card slot expansions, etc.
The mouse still rules for fine precision. Nobody has a fingertip as small or accurate as the pointy end of the almighty mouse arrow. Hell, I'm using a laser mouse on my laptop right now just because I like it better than my multitouch trackpad.
Ubuntu basically shit the bed when they put out unity. Microsoft did the same but rolled around in it with glee when they put out The-Interface-Formerly-Known-As-Metro (aka Angry Fruit Salad by some slashdot posters). Apple went in that direction, towards the bad trend of phone-like interface, starting with Lion and then Mountain Lion, but not full-retard mode like the others. It's still usable, but I still load pro workstations (Mac Pro's) with Snow Leopard. Let's hope they don't go any further down the road of stupid evil.
Since like forever, the old men who are afraid of their womens getting loose have used the Korans, Bibles, Talmuds, etc to control their womens.
Fear and Freedom don't mix well. Let's all be a little more brave and learn to tell all the batshit religious crazies to fuck off. I don't care if they do raise hell and blow stuff up - eventually there won't be enough left of them to matter.
We may or may not have ever had any real privacy online, and only the naive would post revealing/personal/sensitive things anywhere online, but all along most folks have assumed that it would be WRONG for anyone to spy on your online business without warrants. And it most certainly fucking IS.
And here's the big-ass BUT, really, DARPA built the Internet. Someone has been spying on some of it all along, most certainly. BUT the level it has risen to with the holy excuse of THA TURRISTS is unexcusable. The Snowden Shaming was long overdue.
No worries, the malware will all get cooked out while I'm overclocking the GPU. Frequently I get driver crashes while it's OC'd, and sometimes the DX11 game will dump out completely, and other times it even causes artifacts in the game while I'm cooking it up over 85 C
So yeah, not too worried about the malware. Fever immunity FTW
Who cares about what speeds are legal? If you're in a Ferrari, the speed limit signs are a joke to laugh at as they whiz by in a blur.
Seriously, I really don't give a fuck about the speed limits anyway, and I commute in a 4-cylinder compact. Every single day, I break the law by driving at least 10 mph in excess of the posted limits. And I haven't had a speeding ticket in years, LOL.
Sometimes I go up to 100 mph on the 4-lane, in brief stretches. My car has the tires to handle it, and the suspension geometry to be stable at those speeds.
If I had a Ferrari, I probably wouldn't drive it often, and when I did I would make the speed limit signs spin around like the Road Runner on those cartoons.
Did noone see the announcement today about the Apple A7 processors?
Here are the specs:
1.7GHz dual core, 64-bit RISC cpu, 1GB DDR3, quad-core GPU integrated... etc
All of that in the new ARM-based "Apple A7" cpu is inside of a damn phone! How many heatsinks and fans do ya reckon are in that iPhone?
Extrapolate all that with your brain head, and think what some GHz scaling with copper heatsinks and fans (etc) could do in a desktop machine? There is not long to wait before we do have laptops and desktops running on RISC architecture again, given these new published specs.
"If one who practices gluttony is a glutton, and one who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron." Maybe misquoted... going from memory.
Point being, it's pretty obvious that God loves irony. It brings itself out of nowhere in far too many improbable circumstances in life, I have come to notice over time.
Too many apps are coming out now that parrot the "Metro" look and it's damn ugly. I just fired up Foxit Reader the other day and it had updated itself automatically with the new "Metro" look to match Win8 and I was like "Damn, what is this - Windows 3.1?!?" Because it looks like shit!
It's all flat and everything is square with an outline. Just like Windows 3.1
Virtual Reality was all the rage in the 90's but the tech wasn't really there to power it. I find it interesting to see the tech catching up after everyone (mostly) has let it fall off the radar...
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That stuff is built-in on OSX, check it out.
I started out gaming on the computer on computers with no GPU, and when I got one with a Rage Pro 4MB it was awesome. Then I got a Voodoo card from 3DFX with a whopping 8MB and it was more awesomer. Now you can get whatever that will do whatever for however many dollars.
I really don't see the game programming keeping up with the GPU power. I'm at least 2 GeForce's behind the latest series (560ti) and I can play any game at 1200p resolution with a very decent framerate. Yes I beta-tested Battlefield 4. How much more is enough? I don't want them to stop trying, but somebody needs to ask where it reaches the point of diminishing returns. They could focus on streamlining and cheapening the "good enough" lines...
BTW if you want to sign up for a throwaway Apple ID with no payment method, do this:
Go to store.apple.com online wherever and "buy" a Free app. It will prompt for a sign-in, but only with Free Apps can you create a new account with the option for No Payment Method. Use that Apple ID for whatever.
LOL that is stupid. Brushed metal was the best. Snow Leopard's UI is the peak of any operating system's design. All computers should look and work like Mac OS 10.6.8 from 2007 onward. I tried Lion and was like "bleh" and then I ended up having to use Mountain Lion to get new-enough GeForce drivers for my 560ti card, but I don't like its UI. Many tweaks and it's still not as good as Snow. So anything they can do to get back towards to impeccable usefulness of the Snow Leopard look, feel, and functions of Exposé and Spaces will be for the best.
Not really true. It just needs special bootloaders to emulate Macs' EFI, and a few customized drivers, and a healthy disregard for EULAs.
So just build your own stuff, and build in encryption, and build a community of folks who you (in person by hand if necessary) share keys with etc.
If you aren't the type to build your own stuff, well hopefully you can find someone trustworthy who is the type. We just need more of these.
You must comply
Exterminate
Actually it is a typical experience with the particular model I'm discussing. It has almost no air ventilation, and I even took it apart to mod the chassis a bit and gave it better airflow, after using an app to undervolt the CPU. My mods of software + hardware netted about a 20 C drop in average temps under OSX, but failed to help nearly as much under XP (though it did help enough to make it usable). This particular model just makes too much heat as it comes stock. It's the Core2 Duo with ATI X1600 graphics model. Right now browsing the web I am at 46-47 C core temp.
yes i did that already
So much so, that when I fire up XP it goes into TURBOFAN MODE and CPU temps still climb into nutsack-roasting level. 90 to 100 C for the CPU temps (Core2 Duo) have occurred without too much heavy lifting. So forget about the battery life, there is no use without the power cord. It's more an issue to be concerned with the physical limits of the rest of the hardware, like when does it melt?
most dishwashers and refrigerators run off of 120V AC power in the USA, so the voltage they operate on is definitely dangerous. However, they do not pose a risk of being hit by cars usually, so the "zapping wires flailing everywhere" nightmare is not likely with them. With the high power-density Lithium ion batteries, there is often a risk of fire or explosion when they are damaged in the right way. With enough cars on the road endangering each other by being piloted by dumbasses texting or putting on makeup, the risk skyrockets...
*their* not "they software dev kits" sorry
The laptop I would want would have to have a real keyboard, USB ports, and I could totally do without any touchscreen FWIW.
The mouse still rules for fine precision. Nobody has a fingertip as small or accurate as the pointy end of the almighty mouse arrow. Hell, I'm using a laser mouse on my laptop right now just because I like it better than my multitouch trackpad.
Ubuntu basically shit the bed when they put out unity. Microsoft did the same but rolled around in it with glee when they put out The-Interface-Formerly-Known-As-Metro (aka Angry Fruit Salad by some slashdot posters). Apple went in that direction, towards the bad trend of phone-like interface, starting with Lion and then Mountain Lion, but not full-retard mode like the others. It's still usable, but I still load pro workstations (Mac Pro's) with Snow Leopard. Let's hope they don't go any further down the road of stupid evil.
Fear and Freedom don't mix well. Let's all be a little more brave and learn to tell all the batshit religious crazies to fuck off. I don't care if they do raise hell and blow stuff up - eventually there won't be enough left of them to matter.
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
And here's the big-ass BUT, really, DARPA built the Internet. Someone has been spying on some of it all along, most certainly. BUT the level it has risen to with the holy excuse of THA TURRISTS is unexcusable. The Snowden Shaming was long overdue.
So yeah, not too worried about the malware. Fever immunity FTW
Seriously, I really don't give a fuck about the speed limits anyway, and I commute in a 4-cylinder compact. Every single day, I break the law by driving at least 10 mph in excess of the posted limits. And I haven't had a speeding ticket in years, LOL.
Sometimes I go up to 100 mph on the 4-lane, in brief stretches. My car has the tires to handle it, and the suspension geometry to be stable at those speeds. If I had a Ferrari, I probably wouldn't drive it often, and when I did I would make the speed limit signs spin around like the Road Runner on those cartoons.
Innovation is Repetition: The mantra of the film and TV industry
Ferrari is still awesome though. Give me one now.
Here are the specs:
1.7GHz dual core, 64-bit RISC cpu, 1GB DDR3, quad-core GPU integrated... etc
All of that in the new ARM-based "Apple A7" cpu is inside of a damn phone! How many heatsinks and fans do ya reckon are in that iPhone?
Extrapolate all that with your brain head, and think what some GHz scaling with copper heatsinks and fans (etc) could do in a desktop machine? There is not long to wait before we do have laptops and desktops running on RISC architecture again, given these new published specs.
WOOT my face is so muscular now! O yea bustin' walnuts with my nostrils and shit!
"If one who practices gluttony is a glutton, and one who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron." Maybe misquoted... going from memory.
Point being, it's pretty obvious that God loves irony. It brings itself out of nowhere in far too many improbable circumstances in life, I have come to notice over time.
Too many apps are coming out now that parrot the "Metro" look and it's damn ugly. I just fired up Foxit Reader the other day and it had updated itself automatically with the new "Metro" look to match Win8 and I was like "Damn, what is this - Windows 3.1?!?" Because it looks like shit!
It's all flat and everything is square with an outline. Just like Windows 3.1
It's a giant leap backwards
Virtual Reality was all the rage in the 90's but the tech wasn't really there to power it. I find it interesting to see the tech catching up after everyone (mostly) has let it fall off the radar...
Troll cares enough about it to hate it and expend energy complaining about it.