I was one of the first to jump on Mediaone Express service when it rolled out here in the Chicago suburbs last fall. It was excellent - I loved it and I never even had to *think* bout how long something was going to take to upload/download, or did I have any trouble finding fast game servers.
Now, almost a year later, it is still a very good service, but I have seen some deterioration as more users are added. I see some slowdowns on Saturday nights, the e-mail and news servers are usually much slower than before, and we get short outages from time to time.
Overall, I agree that MediaOne has been a good ISP - I'm just wondering what happens when AT&T/TCI/@Home takes over here?
True, not a fair comparison. When I got the card it was part of a $3000 PC (before I started building my own) that was supposed to be a 3d-accelerated multi-media machine. Probably true that this was mostly the fault of Gateway for putting this card into a machine to do something it wasn't capable of, I still thought it was a piece of crap.
>How long before Nvidia/Permedia/#9 or whoever teams up w. Creative leaving us with out a venue for interesting 3rd party chips such as the TNT
TNT = nVidia
I'm not sure how attractive Creative would be for a video processor company to buy. Isn't Creative into all kinds of multimedia products like sound cards, cd roms and such?
But I agree overall that chip mfrs. like 3dfx and S3 buying card fabricators will probably mean less choice and for consumers, less competition which could mean lower quality and higher prices (lower value) for customers. Right now when a chip like TNT2 comes out, I can look around and see which card mfrs. have the better drivers, software bundle, added features and price. It would stink if that goes away.
> Maybe they'll bundle Rio's with video cards or something.
Hrrmmm... Well, since Diamond already makes video cards (just got my Viper 770 Ultra last month) they could have done this bundle without S3.
I'm not real excited about this because I'm very happy with Diamond (good hardware, great drivers) and my previous experience with S3 (Virge, need I say more?) was bad.
When companies get bought like this, it seems the reasons are to get an instant market share boost (Diamond seems to have a very strong presence in the 3D accelerator market) and to take advantage of 'synergies' - which usually means eliminate overlapping staff. Unually it is the company being bought where the 'overlap' is eliminated.
I don't have anything concrete to back this up, but I'm just uneasy that this move is probably in the best interest of S3 stock-holders (if they are even public?) and not in the best interest of customers who already own Diamond products.
While it is true that traditional "cellular" operates at 850 Mhz, c-block PCS, which is sold right next to cellular phones at Wal-mart, do operate at 1900 Mhz, which is closer to microwave communication link frequescies, but very far far away from microwave ovens.
Boy, that's for sure. I never even bought anything, and they sent me at least one love letter a day about some fantastic offer they had. Took me a month of asking before they took me off their list. (ugh)
I'm still very interested in doing something with this at some point. I just won't ever give x10.com an e-mail address ever again.
>write a 2D driver for the new XFree86 architecture. As far as I know, this hasn't happened with any of the Riva stuff yet.
You're talking about the XF86 4.0 architecture, right? The current 3.3.1 stuff has plenty of good support for nVidia, I used to run a Riva 128 and recently swapped in a TNT2 and the 2D X server is great.
BTW, there is a development Mesa/GLX for nVidia project underway (was mentioned in/. a couple weeks ago). Looks like this is moving forward at a pretty good pace.:-)
Re:Go buy a divx player!
on
DIVX is dead
·
· Score: 2
Exactly. Let them sell them them all off to Sam's Club for pennies on the dollar and then go pick one up at Sam's for $60.
"This week only at Wal-Mart - get a free DiVX player and 100 free discs with any purchase of $100 or more!"
haahaahaa, assholes - serves them right
Re:Go buy a divx player!
on
DIVX is dead
·
· Score: 2
Exactly. Let them sell them them all off to Sam's Club for pennies on the dollar and then go pick one up at Sam's for $60.
"This week only at Wal-Mart - get a free DiVX player and 100 free discs with any purchase of $100 or more!"
haahaahaa, assholes - serves them right
Re:So now I'll buy DVD player, any recommendations
on
DIVX is dead
·
· Score: 2
>I would suggest a DVD-ROM rather than, or in addition to, a DVD for the following reasons
That's a given:-)
Now if I could figure out how to use a PC DVD to play movies and output the signal over to my TV, I'd be set.;-)
Holding out until there is (better/widespread/any) support for DVD rom in Linux, tho...
(Father's day is this weekend, my wife is bugging me for ideas, Best Buy has the Panasonics on sale... hmmm)
So now I'll buy DVD player, any recommendations?
on
DIVX is dead
·
· Score: 2
Well, my last excuse for not buying a DVD player has vanished overnight. Which one should I get?
Re:Go buy a divx player!
on
DIVX is dead
·
· Score: 2
>Divx players are fully featured DVD players, right?
No, not by most accounts.
And as far as saving $100, these players typically cost $100 more than DVD so you are getting no bargain. Now, if you could wrangle one for $100 total, but I would rather not give Circuit City any freebies buy taking one off their hands. Let them realize the full impact of this gaff and pay thru the nose to dispose of all these aborted devices.
Re:Could someone tell me why it was bad?
on
DIVX is dead
·
· Score: 2
>2) Need to connect to a phone to watch a disc.
I didn't think this was true. I understood that the player would connect to a server through the phone line to charge you for additional viewings after the initial 48 hour rental. I didn't think this happened before any/every viewing. Sounded more like it kept track of your pay-per-views and connected at regular intervals.
Not that I think this is a good idea either, just seemed like the way this was stated was incorrect.
Well, if I'm not mistaken, there is a specific 'whistleblower' law or something that lets you do just that... rat out your employer for doing something anonymously. Differences are, it has to be true, and you have to do more than just post it anonymously on the net, I think you have to actually go to some government agency and spill it.
Anyone know the specific of this or am I totally confused on this?
>Rumours tend to die fast without someone to take responsibility for them, even on the Net
Ok, but the damage can occur pretty fast also and not be recoverable. Take the case where some AC posts lies about a company where a lot of e-traders prowl and then the stock gets run up until the lie is revealed and then the stock drops down below where it was before.
Sure, the dolts that trade on these rumors and get burned deserve what they get for being stupid. But what about everyone else (including the employees with savings plans/retirement accounts) that get screwed over because their company's reputation is damaged because of this incident?
This AC should (IMO) be no more protected from prosecution then someone who causes a stampede in a crowded theatre (overused analogy, i know). Maybe most people are smarter than to start a panic when someone shouts fire, but there's always a few who aren't (smart enough to not panic) and their actions can affect everyone else.
>Make the accuser prove there is a crime before restricting free speach.
So, there is a trial/hearing with an un-named defendant who cannot defend himself because he is anonymous?
So, assuming a crime is proven to exist, perpetrated by an anonymous net user, then your identity is revealed by court-order, there needs to then be a 'real' trial? Seems like that puts you at a real disadvantage, as the crime has already been proven, linked to your identity, and now its just a formality to pin it on you.
Re:Is there any reason to stay with the 2.0.x seri
on
Linux 2.0.37 Released
·
· Score: 2
RH6 has a fairly painless install/upgrade thingy that brings you up to a 2.2.5 kernel without any suffering at all (at least in my case).
Re:Is there any reason to stay with the 2.0.x seri
on
Linux 2.0.37 Released
·
· Score: 2
I'm running a 486/100 w/16mb as a masquerading and port-forwarding firewall, perfectly happy on 2.0.36, thank you. This machine has only a 1.2 gig or so HD so I'm not inclined to download and compile a 2.2 kernel on it unless some real problem comes up that I cant solve with a 2.0 kernel. But for now, it just happily sits in my kitchen closet with my cable modem and hub and trades packets back and forth all day with no complaints.
Punish? By moderating down? Boy, I gotta figure out how to be a moderator when I grow up so that I can punish people with a mere click of the mouse!
Geez, you'd think a moderator had powers to garnish your wages for making bad posts. If a moderated post is too much of a slap to your ego to bear, you need to get out more.
>Go ahead moderate this down. Squash my opinion. Squelch my voice
If only I could;-) but for some reason I can't comprehend, I like to read comments at -1 threshold anyway.
No, you sound like an ignorant, self-important snob.
You have no business wagging your finger at people who have trouble compiling kernels when you don't seem to know the difference between a stable (2.2.x) release and the current development (2.3.x) tree.
The guy was just asking a question, which someone else was able to answer simply. Seems a lot more constructive than your comment (IMO).
(sorry, I couldn't resist the urge to lash out. People like this make it hard for newbies to join the linux "movement" or "community" or whatever you want to call it.)
>all we're doing is supporting the magazine he writes for and making it more likely his editor will get him back for more
Um, he's not a journalist, not that it excuses the crap he wrote but:
"JP Morgenthal is president of NC.Focus, which provides strategic planning, analysis and consulting of application integration technologies. He can be reached at jp@ncfocus.com."
I think the point of linking to stuff like this is so we're all aware of the voices out there that discredit linux. If they have bad/wrong info, we can at leat discredit it. If they make some valid points, it is something for us to think about then use to improve linux.
Slashdot Mirror
Just curious, what part of the Country is this?
I was one of the first to jump on Mediaone Express service when it rolled out here in the Chicago suburbs last fall. It was excellent - I loved it and I never even had to *think* bout how long something was going to take to upload/download, or did I have any trouble finding fast game servers.
Now, almost a year later, it is still a very good service, but I have seen some deterioration as more users are added. I see some slowdowns on Saturday nights, the e-mail and news servers are usually much slower than before, and we get short outages from time to time.
Overall, I agree that MediaOne has been a good ISP - I'm just wondering what happens when AT&T/TCI/@Home takes over here?
True, not a fair comparison. When I got the card it was part of a $3000 PC (before I started building my own) that was supposed to be a 3d-accelerated multi-media machine. Probably true that this was mostly the fault of Gateway for putting this card into a machine to do something it wasn't capable of, I still thought it was a piece of crap.
>How long before Nvidia/Permedia/#9 or whoever teams up w. Creative leaving us with out a venue for interesting 3rd party chips such as the TNT
TNT = nVidia
I'm not sure how attractive Creative would be for a video processor company to buy. Isn't Creative into all kinds of multimedia products like sound cards, cd roms and such?
But I agree overall that chip mfrs. like 3dfx and S3 buying card fabricators will probably mean less choice and for consumers, less competition which could mean lower quality and higher prices (lower value) for customers. Right now when a chip like TNT2 comes out, I can look around and see which card mfrs. have the better drivers, software bundle, added features and price. It would stink if that goes away.
> Maybe they'll bundle Rio's with video cards or something.
Hrrmmm... Well, since Diamond already makes video cards (just got my Viper 770 Ultra last month) they could have done this bundle without S3.
I'm not real excited about this because I'm very happy with Diamond (good hardware, great drivers) and my previous experience with S3 (Virge, need I say more?) was bad.
When companies get bought like this, it seems the reasons are to get an instant market share boost (Diamond seems to have a very strong presence in the 3D accelerator market) and to take advantage of 'synergies' - which usually means eliminate overlapping staff. Unually it is the company being bought where the 'overlap' is eliminated.
I don't have anything concrete to back this up, but I'm just uneasy that this move is probably in the best interest of S3 stock-holders (if they are even public?) and not in the best interest of customers who already own Diamond products.
Uh, you mean is-136, which is a time division ma technology, not really standard TDMA (d-amps)
While it is true that traditional "cellular" operates at 850 Mhz, c-block PCS, which is sold right next to cellular phones at Wal-mart, do operate at 1900 Mhz, which is closer to microwave communication link frequescies, but very far far away from microwave ovens.
>they spam you daily with their new offers.
Boy, that's for sure. I never even bought anything, and they sent me at least one love letter a day about some fantastic offer they had. Took me a month of asking before they took me off their list. (ugh)
I'm still very interested in doing something with this at some point. I just won't ever give x10.com an e-mail address ever again.
I think if you go to the www.nvidia.com site there is a faq, probably be able to find a mailing list from there, I would suspect.
> The current 3.3.1
:-/
ACK! Meant to say 3.3.3.1 - of course
>write a 2D driver for the new XFree86 architecture. As far as I know, this hasn't happened with any of the Riva stuff yet.
/. a couple weeks ago). Looks like this is moving forward at a pretty good pace. :-)
You're talking about the XF86 4.0 architecture, right? The current 3.3.1 stuff has plenty of good support for nVidia, I used to run a Riva 128 and recently swapped in a TNT2 and the 2D X server is great.
BTW, there is a development Mesa/GLX for nVidia project underway (was mentioned in
Exactly. Let them sell them them all off to Sam's Club for pennies on the dollar and then go pick one up at Sam's for $60.
"This week only at Wal-Mart - get a free DiVX player and 100 free discs with any purchase of $100 or more!"
haahaahaa, assholes - serves them right
Exactly. Let them sell them them all off to Sam's Club for pennies on the dollar and then go pick one up at Sam's for $60.
"This week only at Wal-Mart - get a free DiVX player and 100 free discs with any purchase of $100 or more!"
haahaahaa, assholes - serves them right
>I would suggest a DVD-ROM rather than, or in addition to, a DVD for the following reasons
:-)
;-)
That's a given
Now if I could figure out how to use a PC DVD to play movies and output the signal over to my TV, I'd be set.
Holding out until there is (better/widespread/any) support for DVD rom in Linux, tho...
(Father's day is this weekend, my wife is bugging me for ideas, Best Buy has the Panasonics on sale... hmmm)
Well, my last excuse for not buying a DVD player has vanished overnight. Which one should I get?
>Divx players are fully featured DVD players, right?
No, not by most accounts.
And as far as saving $100, these players typically cost $100 more than DVD so you are getting no bargain. Now, if you could wrangle one for $100 total, but I would rather not give Circuit City any freebies buy taking one off their hands. Let them realize the full impact of this gaff and pay thru the nose to dispose of all these aborted devices.
>2) Need to connect to a phone to watch a disc.
I didn't think this was true. I understood that the player would connect to a server through the phone line to charge you for additional viewings after the initial 48 hour rental. I didn't think this happened before any/every viewing. Sounded more like it kept track of your pay-per-views and connected at regular intervals.
Not that I think this is a good idea either, just seemed like the way this was stated was incorrect.
Well, if I'm not mistaken, there is a specific 'whistleblower' law or something that lets you do just that... rat out your employer for doing something anonymously. Differences are, it has to be true, and you have to do more than just post it anonymously on the net, I think you have to actually go to some government agency and spill it.
Anyone know the specific of this or am I totally confused on this?
>Rumours tend to die fast without someone to take responsibility for them, even on the Net
Ok, but the damage can occur pretty fast also and not be recoverable. Take the case where some AC posts lies about a company where a lot of e-traders prowl and then the stock gets run up until the lie is revealed and then the stock drops down below where it was before.
Sure, the dolts that trade on these rumors and get burned deserve what they get for being stupid. But what about everyone else (including the employees with savings plans/retirement accounts) that get screwed over because their company's reputation is damaged because of this incident?
This AC should (IMO) be no more protected from prosecution then someone who causes a stampede in a crowded theatre (overused analogy, i know). Maybe most people are smarter than to start a panic when someone shouts fire, but there's always a few who aren't (smart enough to not panic) and their actions can affect everyone else.
>Make the accuser prove there is a crime before restricting free speach.
So, there is a trial/hearing with an un-named defendant who cannot defend himself because he is anonymous?
So, assuming a crime is proven to exist, perpetrated by an anonymous net user, then your identity is revealed by court-order, there needs to then be a 'real' trial? Seems like that puts you at a real disadvantage, as the crime has already been proven, linked to your identity, and now its just a formality to pin it on you.
RH6 has a fairly painless install/upgrade thingy that brings you up to a 2.2.5 kernel without any suffering at all (at least in my case).
I'm running a 486/100 w/16mb as a masquerading and port-forwarding firewall, perfectly happy on 2.0.36, thank you. This machine has only a 1.2 gig or so HD so I'm not inclined to download and compile a 2.2 kernel on it unless some real problem comes up that I cant solve with a 2.0 kernel. But for now, it just happily sits in my kitchen closet with my cable modem and hub and trades packets back and forth all day with no complaints.
>Moderators should not punish people
;-) but for some reason I can't comprehend, I like to read comments at -1 threshold anyway.
Punish? By moderating down? Boy, I gotta figure out how to be a moderator when I grow up so that I can punish people with a mere click of the mouse!
Geez, you'd think a moderator had powers to garnish your wages for making bad posts. If a moderated post is too much of a slap to your ego to bear, you need to get out more.
>Go ahead moderate this down. Squash my opinion. Squelch my voice
If only I could
> hate to sound like a snob
No, you sound like an ignorant, self-important snob.
You have no business wagging your finger at people who have trouble compiling kernels when you don't seem to know the difference between a stable (2.2.x) release and the current development (2.3.x) tree.
The guy was just asking a question, which someone else was able to answer simply. Seems a lot more constructive than your comment (IMO).
(sorry, I couldn't resist the urge to lash out. People like this make it hard for newbies to join the linux "movement" or "community" or whatever you want to call it.)
>all we're doing is supporting the magazine he writes for and making it more likely his editor will get him back for more
Um, he's not a journalist, not that it excuses the crap he wrote but:
"JP Morgenthal is president of NC.Focus, which provides strategic planning, analysis and consulting of application integration technologies. He can be reached at jp@ncfocus.com."
I think the point of linking to stuff like this is so we're all aware of the voices out there that discredit linux. If they have bad/wrong info, we can at leat discredit it. If they make some valid points, it is something for us to think about then use to improve linux.
>Care to wager that the author of this article is a specialist in NT integration?
A visit to his company's web site (NC.focus) doesn't reveal a whole lot of NT integration slant, but the site map mentions XML quite a bit.
If he's just an NT whore, its not very obvious from his web pages.