This is a very interesting and true point. I used to have to buy the parts and build a new computer every 8 months or so to be able to play the latest games with all the options on full and the max resolution.
For over a year and a half now however I have had as my games playing computer, a system that was low-end when I built it: Celery 1.2G.
True, I upgraded the hard drives on it, and the video card to a GF3 (non MX), but it still plays games fine...
It is true that I can't play games at the highest resolutions anymore, but the highest resolutions are more than I need- 1600x1200 to play Quake2 in ? Pffft.
I am glad that every time I upgraded in the past I kept the old machine and built a totally new one because now I have a whole network of machines to do different things on, (though of course they usually don't have sound because the soundblaster migrates to the new machine).
That's another weird thing: sound cards. I have had the same soundblaster live for years and not felt the need to upgrade, whereas with video cards the old one always got left in the old machine and I bought a new one for the new machine.
As for monitors I do fine thanks to kvm switches, running machines headless and one runs on the tv in the living room.
Since I am currently unemployed I am grateful for the fact that I don't have to upgrade hardware so often nowadays just to play the latest games.
It seems to be the same but more so for workstations: my main programming/web surfing machine is a dual-PIII 500 that was bargain price over 3 years' ago. (Though everyone at the time thought I was insane for sticking 512MB RAM in it).
I enjoyed all those great tunes on the 8 and 16 bit micros back in the day and I can see why someone would download emulators and get the songs to play whenever they want. Hell, I'd even nearly sort of sympathise with someone who made a cd for the car.
However I don't see the point of a radio station playing these tunes.
Actually, oops, shoot me, I've figured out a valid reason while typing this: so you can hear songs you've never heard before that you didn't know you liked. In fact I suppose this is the point of all radio stations compared to buying cds (or however you acquire music).
God I'm such a dumbass. Anyway I do have a cold so that's my excuse. Woozy in da head!
Too bad that you will be reading this because it's at +2!
FUCK cunt SHIT wank BILL GATES felates monkeys in his spare time! Hot grits! Natalie Pr0tman. All your base are belong to graspee! Imagine a beowulf cluster of salon readers! Could they change a lightbulb? Probably not. Goatse goatse goatse.cx!
P.S. Please leave this comment at +2 to introduce Salon readers to the "joy" of/.
I set my mother's machine up with freeBSD. All she needed it for was web browsing, email and solitaire. I even made her even more super-elite by setting the desktop to be windowmaker.
If someone is using a computer as a web terminal then you can put virtually any OS on it.
"Which means, unfortunately, the Slashdot community is going to have to try to wrap its collective head around a more meaningful measurement of potential performance."
Hmm. (rubs chin). Well, there's that ASCII graphics version of Quake for the console- that should work!
People always say that you shouldn't convert from one compressed format to another- it will be horrible etc., but when you think about it, that is what is going on when you rip a DVD to divx.
Actually I have some Dr. Who episodes that I recorded off satellite, and here's the path of compression:
1) Dr Who ep is transmitted on digital satellite in mpg2. 2) I record it on my Hauppage TV card (mpg2) 3) I divxify it.
So: mpg2 -> analog.> mpg2 (lower bitrate) -> divx.
And these episodes look much better quality than people ripping from official BBC videos... (When ripping divx from videos the codec has lots of fun encoding the wobbly bits at the top/bottom of the screen, video noise etc.).
OK, so I haven't tried converting mp3s to ogg so I don't know anything about that, but as for compressed format -> compressed format in general is concerned I have provided a counter-example.
But I like falling into traps! One of my favorites is falling into the trap of believing that my insurance covers me against attack by lemurs.
Also of course, with this reply, I have fallen into the trap of using stupid surreal humour in an attempt to get out of a situation where I showed my ignorance...
"I couldn't disagree more. There ARE absolutes that govern our existence. There are laws that govern morality as there are laws of physics that govern our physical existence."
I believe the quote from one of the Hellraiser movies (2 I think):
"There is no good. There is no evil. There is only flesh".
graspee
Re:What a waste, don't let Microsoft distract you!
on
XBox Linux HOWTOs
·
· Score: 5, Funny
" How much energy and effort has been expended to get linux to run in some marginal fashion on the Microsoft Xbox? Imagine if instead that effort had been used to improve linux. Which end result is better?"
Well, you see, the situation where people tell you what to code (because it's useful) rather than you coding what you want to is called having a job.
Coding what you want to is a hobby.
If I want to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get freeBSD running on a kitten then that's between me and the kitten (and possibly the RSPCA...).
Who are you to tell me what to code ? I'll code what I damn well want to, motherfucker!
Actually, alpha-blending is not just eye-candy. I find it very useful (in Windows) to be able to type in a console window while still being able to more or less see what is in the window underneath it. You really need the terminal itself to be transparent (or rather translucent) but the text on it to be 100% opaque, otherwise it's hard to read.
And before you ask, no Windows doesn't come as standard with alpha-blended terminals.
The lemurs plan a daring heist involving 3 minis, some steps and some comedy fruit stalls/chicken coops to drive through... They plan to steal the $1 million in transit and use it to buy snacks.
The money may never be recovered in order to fight evil laws- you'll just have a bunch of fat, contented lemurs.
Honestly though- Duke University- best in the world. They should ditch all the other departments and concentrate on the conservation of, study of, and feeding snacks to lemurs.
I can only hope that there are enough clueful computer users who violate intellectual property to create a large market for non-DRM hardware.
The thing is, I can't imagine that there will be a time when you can't compile and run your own programs because there are just too many developers out there. And if you can compile and run programs you can compile and run xvid codecs. If MS decide to have processors check for xvid etc headers then you can change the xvid headers to something else- put the info fields in a different order etc.
If people can't transfer their home videos to their pc, or their photos or home-made music, they're going to get pissed-off.
In fact, thinking about it, if Palladium is everything we fear, AND it becomes so that you can't even buy loose components that aren't palladium-based, then I don't see how you wouldn't get a huge mega-meltdown-apocolypse as people refuse to upgrade their computers.
" can any single one of you actually describe, in under 200 words, exactly what the.NET Framework is, what its comprised of, and why I should find it so exciting? "
The.net framework is a collection of command-line compilers for various languages which produce bytecode. It also includes the compiler from bytecode to native-code, a disassembler and the.net classes. Basically the.net framework is everything you need to compile and run.net code. It is free as in beer.
There you go. Pipe that to wc -w and I think you'll find I win.
"What's to prevent the poisoner from spoofing the checksum by taking the correct checksum from this supposed website?"
Do you mean writing a p2p client that allows you to send whatever hash you want for a file (which is not *too* difficult), or creating a fake file which has the same hash as a genuine file ?
This last is referred to a searching for a hash collision. It is, needless to say, very time-consuming. Maybe with MD4 and faster computers it could be done fairly quickly, but any thing longer in a hash and your search time goes way up.
Believe me- I have my computer searching for MD4 hash collisions (for, erm. some reason) and it takes a very very very long time.
Slashdot Mirror
*Your* desktop, hmm ? All of them- belong to me, they do!
graspee
This is a very interesting and true point. I used to have to buy the parts and build a new computer every 8 months or so to be able to play the latest games with all the options on full and the max resolution.
For over a year and a half now however I have had as my games playing computer, a system that was low-end when I built it: Celery 1.2G.
True, I upgraded the hard drives on it, and the video card to a GF3 (non MX), but it still plays games fine...
It is true that I can't play games at the highest resolutions anymore, but the highest resolutions are more than I need- 1600x1200 to play Quake2 in ? Pffft.
I am glad that every time I upgraded in the past I kept the old machine and built a totally new one because now I have a whole network of machines to do different things on, (though of course they usually don't have sound because the soundblaster migrates to the new machine).
That's another weird thing: sound cards. I have had the same soundblaster live for years and not felt the need to upgrade, whereas with video cards the old one always got left in the old machine and I bought a new one for the new machine.
As for monitors I do fine thanks to kvm switches, running machines headless and one runs on the tv in the living room.
Since I am currently unemployed I am grateful for the fact that I don't have to upgrade hardware so often nowadays just to play the latest games.
It seems to be the same but more so for workstations: my main programming/web surfing machine is a dual-PIII 500 that was bargain price over 3 years' ago. (Though everyone at the time thought I was insane for sticking 512MB RAM in it).
graspee
I enjoyed all those great tunes on the 8 and 16 bit micros back in the day and I can see why someone would download emulators and get the songs to play whenever they want. Hell, I'd even nearly sort of sympathise with someone who made a cd for the car.
However I don't see the point of a radio station playing these tunes.
Actually, oops, shoot me, I've figured out a valid reason while typing this: so you can hear songs you've never heard before that you didn't know you liked. In fact I suppose this is the point of all radio stations compared to buying cds (or however you acquire music).
God I'm such a dumbass. Anyway I do have a cold so that's my excuse. Woozy in da head!
graspee
P.S. This is the voice of the Slashdot.
Our lawyers are going to sue you suckas for deep linking without our permission.
We need the money from litigation because no-one went for our subscription idea and instead block our adverts with mozilla.
Note to moderators- this is almost on-topic!
graspee
Oh yeah, look! Salon Readers!
/.
Hello! *flaps hand*.
How are you gentlemen !
Too bad that you will be reading this because it's at +2!
FUCK cunt SHIT wank BILL GATES felates monkeys in his spare time! Hot grits! Natalie Pr0tman. All your base are belong to graspee! Imagine a beowulf cluster of salon readers! Could they change a lightbulb? Probably not. Goatse goatse goatse.cx!
P.S. Please leave this comment at +2 to introduce Salon readers to the "joy" of
graspee
I set my mother's machine up with freeBSD. All she needed it for was web browsing, email and solitaire. I even made her even more super-elite by setting the desktop to be windowmaker.
If someone is using a computer as a web terminal then you can put virtually any OS on it.
graspee
"Which means, unfortunately, the Slashdot community is going to have to try to wrap its collective head around a more meaningful measurement of potential performance."
Hmm. (rubs chin). Well, there's that ASCII graphics version of Quake for the console- that should work!
graspee
People always say that you shouldn't convert from one compressed format to another- it will be horrible etc., but when you think about it, that is what is going on when you rip a DVD to divx.
.> mpg2 (lower bitrate) -> divx.
Actually I have some Dr. Who episodes that I recorded off satellite, and here's the path of compression:
1) Dr Who ep is transmitted on digital satellite in mpg2.
2) I record it on my Hauppage TV card (mpg2)
3) I divxify it.
So: mpg2 -> analog
And these episodes look much better quality than people ripping from official BBC videos... (When ripping divx from videos the codec has lots of fun encoding the wobbly bits at the top/bottom of the screen, video noise etc.).
OK, so I haven't tried converting mp3s to ogg so I don't know anything about that, but as for compressed format -> compressed format in general is concerned I have provided a counter-example.
graspee
I am intrigued and wish to subscribe to your stupid joke masquerading as a scam.
graspee
"Please don't fall into that trap."
But I like falling into traps! One of my favorites is falling into the trap of believing that my insurance covers me against attack by lemurs.
Also of course, with this reply, I have fallen into the trap of using stupid surreal humour in an attempt to get out of a situation where I showed my ignorance...
graspee
"Maybe we need to set up a web site with a Hippocratic Oath of sorts for things we WILL NOT DO,"
Just like the Hippocratic oath that states that the person taking it will not perform abortions ? That really stops them.
I'm not pro or con abortion- it's just interesting to note that it should be called the Hypocritic oath.
graspee
"I couldn't disagree more. There ARE absolutes that govern our existence. There are laws that govern morality as there are laws of physics that govern our physical existence."
I believe the quote from one of the Hellraiser movies (2 I think):
"There is no good. There is no evil. There is only flesh".
graspee
" How much energy and effort has been expended to get linux to run in some marginal fashion on the Microsoft Xbox? Imagine if instead that effort had been used to improve linux. Which end result is better?"
Well, you see, the situation where people tell you what to code (because it's useful) rather than you coding what you want to is called having a job.
Coding what you want to is a hobby.
If I want to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get freeBSD running on a kitten then that's between me and the kitten (and possibly the RSPCA...).
Who are you to tell me what to code ? I'll code what I damn well want to, motherfucker!
graspee
Actually, alpha-blending is not just eye-candy. I find it very useful (in Windows) to be able to type in a console window while still being able to more or less see what is in the window underneath it. You really need the terminal itself to be transparent (or rather translucent) but the text on it to be 100% opaque, otherwise it's hard to read.
And before you ask, no Windows doesn't come as standard with alpha-blended terminals.
graspee
Yeah but X can't do proper alpha-blended windows, whereas XP can.
Please note- I love freeBSD. Don't tell my friends I said something nice about Windows.
graspee
The lemurs plan a daring heist involving 3 minis, some steps and some comedy fruit stalls/chicken coops to drive through... They plan to steal the $1 million in transit and use it to buy snacks.
The money may never be recovered in order to fight evil laws- you'll just have a bunch of fat, contented lemurs.
Honestly though- Duke University- best in the world. They should ditch all the other departments and concentrate on the conservation of, study of, and feeding snacks to lemurs.
graspee
"Perhaps footsteps in the sand."
Lives of great men all remind us
We may make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.
graspee
I can only hope that there are enough clueful computer users who violate intellectual property to create a large market for non-DRM hardware.
The thing is, I can't imagine that there will be a time when you can't compile and run your own programs because there are just too many developers out there. And if you can compile and run programs you can compile and run xvid codecs. If MS decide to have processors check for xvid etc headers then you can change the xvid headers to something else- put the info fields in a different order etc.
If people can't transfer their home videos to their pc, or their photos or home-made music, they're going to get pissed-off.
In fact, thinking about it, if Palladium is everything we fear, AND it becomes so that you can't even buy loose components that aren't palladium-based, then I don't see how you wouldn't get a huge mega-meltdown-apocolypse as people refuse to upgrade their computers.
It's certainly going to be interesting.
graspee
" The acid test is the ability to compile a kernel with it."
Horses for courses. There are languages I'd want to use for writing a kernel, and other languages I'd want to write dumb-ass business apps in.
I would NOT want to write business apps in a mixture of c and asm for example, nor would I want to write a kernel in lisp.
graspee
" can any single one of you actually describe, in under 200 words, exactly what the .NET Framework is, what its comprised of, and why I should find it so exciting? "
.net framework is a collection of command-line compilers for various languages which produce bytecode. It also includes the compiler from bytecode to native-code, a disassembler and the .net classes. Basically the .net framework is everything you need to compile and run .net code. It is free as in beer.
The
There you go. Pipe that to wc -w and I think you'll find I win.
graspee
First post pointing out that this guy looks like a smug twat and has far too much money.
;)
Go on, you know you thought that too.
graspee
"What's to prevent the poisoner from spoofing the checksum by taking the correct checksum from this supposed website?"
Do you mean writing a p2p client that allows you to send whatever hash you want for a file (which is not *too* difficult), or creating a fake file which has the same hash as a genuine file ?
This last is referred to a searching for a hash collision. It is, needless to say, very time-consuming. Maybe with MD4 and faster computers it could be done fairly quickly, but any thing longer in a hash and your search time goes way up.
Believe me- I have my computer searching for MD4 hash collisions (for, erm. some reason) and it takes a very very very long time.
graspee
" Your lucky if they can read let alone need or care about a computer."
Gosh, and I bet they are so primitive they can't use apostrophes either!
("Your"/"You're").
Dumbass.
graspee
"streaming OGG"
Dude, I can't cub indo work doday, I got sdreamig ogg.
graspee
"OggVorbis is the future."
...
... getting ... smaller !
... everywhere !
Help! I'm living in the future and the future is blocky !
My music is compressed, my films are compressed, my digital TV is compressed
How soon before trouser presses become trouser compressors ? Hey, they look like shorts but they were sold as slacks !
Everything
Artefacts
HlpMePls!
graspee