Why Intel chips are slower than AMD chips
on
News on Pentium IV
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· Score: 5
Well, gosh guys, no wonder intel chips are slower than AMD chips. They run Roman Numerals for crying out loud. It probably takes a few more clock cycles to add XX, IV, M and then divide by V than to use that pesky binary stuff. Personally, I am waiting for the Pentium XXVII, which should be a real screamer.
I agree. I have used dozens of keyboards, from the curved, smooth MS one, to innumerable cheap plastic gimcracks. The best keyboard I have ever had is the one I bought second hand from a college. One of those old, heavy-duty IBM ps/2 keyboards that they made to go with the spanking new 286 PS/2 machines.. they were designed by engineers to withstand the apocalypse. Metal and insane mil-spec plastics... big, thick springs under each key... a loud, satisfying CLICK when you type down on it.
I ended up getting five of the things, two to use, three for parts... although I really don't think that I will need em for parts, even though these things are over 8 years old and have been pounded on by legions of students over that time, they are all as responsive as they were the day they were uncrated. This was a keyboard designed by people who made typewriters, and they wanted them to last. Unlike todays keyboard makers, who are just churning out cheap plastic crap.
I actually felt my hands getting better after I got these things, mainly because they force you to use the correct typing procedures, or your entire hand goes numb with the effort of pressing the key down. heh heh... you won't have a chance to get RSI with these babies, as you will run out of juice long before the damage sets in.
One of the things that is being lost here on the BSA is that the real serious pirate groups don't have more than a token presence out on IRC. They do a lot of distributing, but most of their serious work is done via private, encrypted servers. Unless you are part of the krewe, you don't get to play. Waerz doodz have always been paranoid, its just that now they have a reason to be.
Well, I vote for Chinux. but then, I'm kind of goofy. Seriously, it should be interesting to see how many new coders suddenly appear. In a country with a billion people, there have to be some first rate hackers hiding in those crowds. I think this is a good thing.
Not Quite... the directors themselves wanted to do a super-hero movie that didn't rely on the standard super-hero conventions. The first movie, as cool as it is, was just concieved as a way to get Neo his powers. Granted, he is a badass now, but he's not god.
After all, he is only hardcore in the Matrix. The big nasty badass robots can still eat his lunch in the "real" world.
Also, my understanding is that the story was plotted out as a trilogy, from the beginning. This all comes from some recent interviews with the Brothers (no way am I going to try to spell that name.) on both cinescape.com http://www.cinescape.com/ ) and Aint-it-cool-news ( http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/ )
Like the article pointed out, (and I think didn't give enough focus to, ) the original series had a certain something that the later ones lacked... they were written by people who had experience in life. They were the generation of WW2, and were rooted in the Cold War. They were also, for the most part, writers who were damn good Science Fiction writers first, and writing for television second. They wrote real, deep characters that got into trouble, and thought (or fought) their way out of it.
When the Next Generation show came along, it was... okay. There seemed to be a general lessening in (expensive to film) action, and the situations didn't quite seem as tense. Granted, as the series progressed, there were flashes of brilliance (borg) and things happened that were truly cool and interesting. (Klingons!) But...
I could see the slow slide into lazy writing getting worse with each new episode. More and more often, they reverted to a technobabble, last minute super tech fix. (yes they did this on the orginal series too, but not as often.) Pretty soon, all the new Trek shows had the new Nose/Head/Ear prosthesis aliens who would show up, hell would break loose, and then at the last minute, the problem would be fixed with a technobabble answer. Deux et Machina.
Not to mention, but these guys would come across more weird spatial anomalies than I do meals, but that's another minor gripe.
The only series I really thought that approached the feel of TOS (the original series) was DS9, and then only towards the end. Sure, DS9 had more than its share of technobabble, but dammit, people made hard decisions, and they had to live with them. Things that Mattered happened. Someone pulled out a phaser almost every damn episode, and you weren't entirely sure how things were going to turn out. Sigh.
What I would like to see is the shutting down of trek. Let Voyager finally, thankfully get home. Beam up the welcome mat, and put Trek into hiatus for oh, lets say 5 years. Then bring back something that is:
A. Internally consistent (something no trek series has really ever been) ie: less technobabble / Spatial Anomaly du jour / reliant on last minute inventions)
B: More character driven, with longer story arcs. DS9 was best when it did this.
C: Important to the Trek Universe. This is why DS9 got interesting towards the end. War! And its also why Voyager is mainly interesting to see what Jeri Ryan was squeezed into this week. (not that this is a Bad Thing.)
D: Action! Less debate society. As much as I liked the Next gen, god they talked a lot. Sure, space battle was more expensive to film, so they minimized it as often as they could, but heck, nobody has to build a model ever again! Fire up lightwave and let's go!
Man, the one cool thing I got out of this was the warm fuzzy feeling that remembering the Meta-Zippy page gave me. This was one of the most entertaining sites on the net, and never ceased to spice up a drab, boring website. In fact, the more staid and upright (Boring) the page was, the better it worked. I wish it was still around.
Sorry folks, but the ultimate keyboard is the old, nasty, hardcore IBM bulletproof models that used to live on their PS/2 machines. These are the keyboards that are circa 1991 (according to the date on the back of mine.) and are obviously descended from the days when a computer took up an entire room and required a team of geeks complete with slide rules to run 'em. They are massive as a 50's Buick, require a team of weightlifters with levers to move around, require lots and lots of positive force to push the keys down, respond with a loud, ear damaging, obnoxious, but somehow wonderful *CLICK!*, and most probably cause serious nerve damage -- BUT -- they don't have those damn windows keys, and are the most durable keyboards known to man.
I know, because the one I am currently typing on was salvaged from an old parts sale at a local college, where it was pounded on for 8 years by ham-fisted CS majors. All other keyboards are to this keyboard what a sheet of toilet paper is to kevlar.
(And I have 4 of em! yippee!)
so naturally, because they are the best keyboards ever, you can't buy them anymore.
Man, I seriously hope that since the main actors are leaving the show, the powers that be will just let it go. There is nothing lamer than having the main character leave, only to be replaced suddenly with someone else who shares that person's motivations... The show wouldn't make sense if they add in new characters. (and no, I don't want it to suddenly be about the CSM and Mimi Rogers, thank you.) The entire show has been about Mulder, his obsession with the truth, and his burgeoning relationship with Scully. To try and add in a new set of characters will kill the entire idea off and ruin the memory of the show. It will always live on in reruns and movies.
This is exactly what needs to be done in order to get the space industry up to speed.
The biggest problem that NASA has historically had is that it was originally set up for a specific "big push" task. (Beat the Soviet Union to the Moon.) Once that was over, the standard bureaucratic disease set in. (Justify my Job!) Once that happened, the shuttle appeared.
We need a viable SSTO craft, and I think that it will be a cold day in hell before the U.S. goverment allocates the money to build one that really works.
Jerry Pournelle has a lot to say on this issue. Check it out over at: http://www.jerrypournelle.com/
I have a shell only account with io.com. (Owned by Steve Jackson Games.) Being a game geek, I once had the account mainly for access to GURPS playtest materials, but I quickly found that the shell account much more useful as I became more of a computer geek and less of a gamer geek.
Additionally, the ten bones a month has kept my email address the same for the last few years.
Besides that, I am an Illuminati Online member. How cool is that?
Seriously, what you have here is a man who spent his entire life in a monomaniacal push to develop devices to wipe out vast portions of the human race. It doesn't suprise me that he is rather cranky about the way his life's work is seen. The Infamous Edward Teller, indeed.
Quite simply, someone sneaks into your house and installs something "extra" into your computer.. be it a new cable for your keyboard (mine is well - markered up now, thanks..) or something else.. in any event, it will be transparent to your system, and agnostic regarding your OS. This new chunk of hardware will sit there, cheerfully capturing every stroke you make on your keyboard, giving them your passwords and encryption keys.
Lotek---
The UN is involved, time for some raving paranoia!
on
UN Proposes Email Tax
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· Score: 2
Sure, that's how it will start. With just a simple one-cent tax per 100 emails. Then "they" are flying over your house in black helicopters, beaming mind-control lasers in from their orbital platforms, monitoring every keystroke you make on your keyboard while they watch the output of your monitor, and eventually, showing up for your guns. Its really just the first step to the One World Wide Web Order.
Besides, we all know the Rosicrucian's are manipulating the Jaycees, who are using the influence of the international banking cartels and the Gnomes of Zurich to have The Vast Right-Wing conspiracy manipulate UN policy through their devious front, FEMA.
I know its true, because my Ouija board said so! And I heard the time traveler (who was also the Antichrist) discussing it with Art Bell last week.
Ow, my headache is back. I think I need to double up on the tinfoil...
I have to disagree. In this situation, I think that removing the computer was the right thing to do. The kid is Ten Years Old. Ten year olds need guidance. If the parents aren't able to devote enough time to this poor kid (and I agree that they should make the time.) to watch what H/she is up to on the net, then it's perfectly appropriate for them to remove the computer from the situation.
On a related note, I saw in a recent plan file / interview / I don't remember exactly with John Romero that all the sounds in Daikatana are going to be in MP3 format.
Of course, by the time that game eventually ships, that may not be news. (given the seemingly perpetual development time and rotating development teams...)
This new mouse looks great. I admit to being a user of the Microsoft Mouse for a long time now, but mainly for the fact that it feels comfortable to me left-handed. (the original mouse and the later wheeled intellimouse.) this version, however, looks like its going to suffer from the same problem the latest, most advanced version of the intellimouse did... Right-handedness.
Most of these advanced mice, like the intellimouse and the top of the line wheeled mouse from Logitech are over engineered so that your right hand grips them perfectly. The mouse and your hand just seem to float together. However, if you are like me, Left handed, grabbing one of these wonderful new advanced mice feels like using one of those iMac Hockey-puck mice... Wrong.
The downside of this is simple. I am stuck using an older design of a mouse that feels comfortable, rather than the latest version of a mouse designed to fit my hand. What I don't understand is why you can't get a left-handed version of the top-end version of either the Microsoft Intellimouse or what ever the equivalent mouse is from Logitech. After all, don't Lefties make up 1/5 to 1/6 of the population? Heck, I would gladly pay more for a mouse that was comfortable...
The main reason I want one of those new mice with multiple buttons and wheels is simple: Games. The more inputs I have to bind actions to, the better. And more than anything else, gaming requires that you have nice comfortable inputs that you can forget about and let become part of your hand. You try deathmatching with an uncomfortable mouse and tell me how you like it...
Finally, I have been told before that yes, I could order a left-handed version of the Logitech top of the line mouse... but damned if I can find a way to do it online. I suspect that I am screwed. Anyone know if Microsoft or Logitech actually make a left-handed version for us weird folks out here?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, gosh guys, no wonder intel chips are slower than AMD chips. They run Roman Numerals for crying out loud. It probably takes a few more clock cycles to add XX, IV, M and then divide by V than to use that pesky binary stuff.
Personally, I am waiting for the Pentium XXVII, which should be a real screamer.
I ended up getting five of the things, two to use, three for parts... although I really don't think that I will need em for parts, even though these things are over 8 years old and have been pounded on by legions of students over that time, they are all as responsive as they were the day they were uncrated. This was a keyboard designed by people who made typewriters, and they wanted them to last. Unlike todays keyboard makers, who are just churning out cheap plastic crap.
I actually felt my hands getting better after I got these things, mainly because they force you to use the correct typing procedures, or your entire hand goes numb with the effort of pressing the key down. heh heh... you won't have a chance to get RSI with these babies, as you will run out of juice long before the damage sets in.
Lotek---
Lotek---
Seriously, it should be interesting to see how many new coders suddenly appear. In a country with a billion people, there have to be some first rate hackers hiding in those crowds. I think this is a good thing.
Lotek---
the directors themselves wanted to do a super-hero movie that didn't rely on the standard super-hero conventions. The first movie, as cool as it is, was just concieved as a way to get Neo his powers. Granted, he is a badass now, but he's not god.
After all, he is only hardcore in the Matrix. The big nasty badass robots can still eat his lunch in the "real" world.
Also, my understanding is that the story was plotted out as a trilogy, from the beginning. This all comes from some recent interviews with the Brothers (no way am I going to try to spell that name.) on both cinescape.com http://www.cinescape.com/ ) and Aint-it-cool-news ( http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/ )
I don't doubt that they can pull it off, either.
Lotek---
When the Next Generation show came along, it was... okay. There seemed to be a general lessening in (expensive to film) action, and the situations didn't quite seem as tense. Granted, as the series progressed, there were flashes of brilliance (borg) and things happened that were truly cool and interesting. (Klingons!) But...
I could see the slow slide into lazy writing getting worse with each new episode. More and more often, they reverted to a technobabble, last minute super tech fix. (yes they did this on the orginal series too, but not as often.) Pretty soon, all the new Trek shows had the new Nose/Head/Ear prosthesis aliens who would show up, hell would break loose, and then at the last minute, the problem would be fixed with a technobabble answer. Deux et Machina.
Not to mention, but these guys would come across more weird spatial anomalies than I do meals, but that's another minor gripe.
The only series I really thought that approached the feel of TOS (the original series) was DS9, and then only towards the end. Sure, DS9 had more than its share of technobabble, but dammit, people made hard decisions, and they had to live with them. Things that Mattered happened. Someone pulled out a phaser almost every damn episode, and you weren't entirely sure how things were going to turn out. Sigh.
What I would like to see is the shutting down of trek. Let Voyager finally, thankfully get home. Beam up the welcome mat, and put Trek into hiatus for oh, lets say 5 years. Then bring back something that is:
A. Internally consistent (something no trek series has really ever been) ie: less technobabble / Spatial Anomaly du jour / reliant on last minute inventions)
B: More character driven, with longer story arcs. DS9 was best when it did this.
C: Important to the Trek Universe. This is why DS9 got interesting towards the end. War! And its also why Voyager is mainly interesting to see what Jeri Ryan was squeezed into this week. (not that this is a Bad Thing.)
D: Action! Less debate society. As much as I liked the Next gen, god they talked a lot. Sure, space battle was more expensive to film, so they minimized it as often as they could, but heck, nobody has to build a model ever again! Fire up lightwave and let's go!
Well, anyway, that's my two cents.
Lotek---
sigh.
Lotek---
I know, because the one I am currently typing on was salvaged from an old parts sale at a local college, where it was pounded on for 8 years by ham-fisted CS majors. All other keyboards are to this keyboard what a sheet of toilet paper is to kevlar.
(And I have 4 of em! yippee!)
so naturally, because they are the best keyboards ever, you can't buy them anymore.
Such is progress.
Lotek---
Or... is that just what he wants us all to think?
Lotek---
Lotek---
The biggest problem that NASA has historically had is that it was originally set up for a specific "big push" task. (Beat the Soviet Union to the Moon.) Once that was over, the standard bureaucratic disease set in. (Justify my Job!) Once that happened, the shuttle appeared.
We need a viable SSTO craft, and I think that it will be a cold day in hell before the U.S. goverment allocates the money to build one that really works.
Jerry Pournelle has a lot to say on this issue. Check it out over at: http://www.jerrypournelle.com/
Lotek---
Additionally, the ten bones a month has kept my email address the same for the last few years.
Besides that, I am an Illuminati Online member. How cool is that?
Check em out.
Lotek---
Seriously, what you have here is a man who spent his entire life in a monomaniacal push to develop devices to wipe out vast portions of the human race. It doesn't suprise me that he is rather cranky about the way his life's work is seen. The Infamous Edward Teller, indeed.
Lotek---
Here is the URL.. http://www.cyberhighway.net/news/wir eless.html
Lotek---
Lotek---
Besides, we all know the Rosicrucian's are manipulating the Jaycees, who are using the influence of the international banking cartels and the Gnomes of Zurich to have The Vast Right-Wing conspiracy manipulate UN policy through their devious front, FEMA.
I know its true, because my Ouija board said so! And I heard the time traveler (who was also the Antichrist) discussing it with Art Bell last week.
Ow, my headache is back. I think I need to double up on the tinfoil...
:)
Lotek---
Lotek---
Lotek---
Life does suck. Helmets don't help.
Lotek---
Of course, by the time that game eventually ships, that may not be news. (given the seemingly perpetual development time and rotating development teams...)
Lotek---
Most of these advanced mice, like the intellimouse and the top of the line wheeled mouse from Logitech are over engineered so that your right hand grips them perfectly. The mouse and your hand just seem to float together. However, if you are like me, Left handed, grabbing one of these wonderful new advanced mice feels like using one of those iMac Hockey-puck mice... Wrong.
The downside of this is simple. I am stuck using an older design of a mouse that feels comfortable, rather than the latest version of a mouse designed to fit my hand. What I don't understand is why you can't get a left-handed version of the top-end version of either the Microsoft Intellimouse or what ever the equivalent mouse is from Logitech. After all, don't Lefties make up 1/5 to 1/6 of the population? Heck, I would gladly pay more for a mouse that was comfortable...
The main reason I want one of those new mice with multiple buttons and wheels is simple: Games. The more inputs I have to bind actions to, the better. And more than anything else, gaming requires that you have nice comfortable inputs that you can forget about and let become part of your hand. You try deathmatching with an uncomfortable mouse and tell me how you like it...
Finally, I have been told before that yes, I could order a left-handed version of the Logitech top of the line mouse... but damned if I can find a way to do it online. I suspect that I am screwed. Anyone know if Microsoft or Logitech actually make a left-handed version for us weird folks out here?
Lotek---
Since becoming a Professional Web Designer(tm) I immediately stopped updating my crappy website.
That was two years ago.
No Pay, No Play. heh
Lotek---
Lotek---
Cop: "RIGHT! Well, we'll be charging them, too!"
Lotek---