>>Whenever I read about hard disks in a cell >>phone I always wonder about the gyroscope >>effect making the phone hard to manage.
What....? Those millions of peoples with iPods seem to be able to power them up and turn them without falling over.
Current implementations demonstrate the gyroscopic effects aren't a concern (except possible for the engineers designing them). Smaller disks will make it even less so.
My new Toshiba laptop with 17" display, hard drive, DVD drive, battery, keyboard, partridge in a pear tree, etc is 9lbs! What have they put in this thing???
Even the Apple powerbook with all it's internal goodies is 6+ lbs. For what it does, the weight and battery life of this thing is inexcusable. Fire your engineers!
>>She has HIV, does not take any of the AZT drugs >>and is and has been healthy as a horse for a >>looong time.
Well.......... DUH!
Guess what --- approximately 10% of HIV infections are people who are considered "long term non-progressors". They luckily have the right chance combination of genes that lets their immune system keep the virus under control. Indefinately, or at least much longer than the general population.
Around 1% (value subject to debate) have immunity to it.
One person has a spectacular result and doesn't need drugs.... Whooop-de-do. Don't they teach anybody basic statistics anymore? Even Ebola doesn't kill 100% of those infected.
One result is not proof or a result. It's a fluke.
>>XSI was the name of the new version when it was released as a major upgrade.
BZZZZZZZZZT - wrong - try again.
XSI was a complete rewrite from the ground up. It is not a major upgrade - it is a completely new package. It was originally called 'Sumatra' and wasn't started until 1996.
>>I would think an ex-employee would know that...
I do. Oh - btw - Pixar has NEVER used a single softimage product. The use their own animation system ('Marionette') and their own rendering system ('PhotoRealistic Renderman') which they also sell.
Again - you have no clue.
BTW - what does XSI have to do with an article about MUSIC at SIGGRAPH? Oh yeah.... nothing there two.
Centropolis was NOT doing the majority of the CGI work - they were doing a minimum amount of work.... around 100 shots. And that work has been moved over to Sony Pictures Imageworks who is more than capable.
the American Maginot Line will be the current administrations fetish with "missle defense sheild". A concept that has little chance to ever succeed (notice how after all the tests failed they either made the tests simpler, or classified the results) and isn't needed anyway.
Unfortunately, it's gonna take one nut with a low yeild nuke in a suitcase to show what a waste of money and effort this whole endevour has been.
>>Boucher is one of very few people on the hill >>who will give us the time of day. We need him.
Granted it was a nice gesture, but let me play devils advocate here.
What we NEED is somebody who's doing to do something *useful*.
He knows (and we know) that this bill has absolutely ZERO chance of going anywhere with elections weeks away. None. Zilch. It's so dead it's already stinkin up the place.
So why does he do it? For political reasons of course. Make himself look good - fighting for the little guy - but there's zero chance that he'll actually need to put his neck on the line and accomplish anything. Nice gig.
Give me a call when he actually starts doing something USEFUL. Not when he's doing political grandstanding and grubbing for votes (which is all this REALLY is).
I know this gesture raises his stature around here. But for me, he's dropped a few notches becuase it's the same old political bullshit. If he had introduced this a year ago I'd be right on board with the rest clapping and cheering. Introducing it now -- just playing manipulative politics and mugging for the cameras.
It's like writing a check but postdating it for the year 5000. A nice gesture, but you'll never have to worry about it being cashed. That doesn't make u cool in my book. It makes you a weasel.
thank you. A voice of reason. Hungarian (while not perfect, and not that pretty) is DAMN useful.
I was someone who was introduced to it kicking and screaming, but eventually I came around. As soon as you have to work in a LARGE software project it's a godsend. It makes reading someone else's code, or your own code 2 years later, MUCH easlier. When i can look at a variable in a strange piece of code and tell it's type and scope just from it's name, that saves a ton of time.
Yes it was a horrible tragedy. Yes we should do what is required to make sure it doesn't happen.
NO - MOST OF US DON"T WANT TO RELIVE IT EVERY SINGLE FUCKING MINUTE UNTIL THE END OF TIME.
Gawd - some of you people are like a dog with a tennis ball..... Let it go. In case you haven't noticed, memorials, etc are NOT for the dead. The dead are dead - they don't care. They are for the living. And this country is so ridiculously self absorbed it cannot miss another chance to wring it's hands and wail at the sky about these attackes. Christ - let it go.
I think Jim Lehrer said it best when he was asked how the media should remember the attacks:
Yup - Serway is excellent. I'm still using it as an occasional reference years after university.
This was going to be my suggestion - go to a used bookstore or university bookstore and buy textbooks instead of most of the things being suggested here. Sure "Brief History in Time" is interesting, but there isn't much in the way of detail.... it's lots of handwaving but very slim on actual facts and concrete concepts. It's the stuff of magazine articles but not something to really LEARN from.
Go find a textbook - they are meant to teach. And you can find used ones generally very cheap.
I'm sure i'll get flamed to a crisp, but what the hey......
In my first job outside of school i was working for a consulting firm where we did a lot of work for the government (setting up networks, computer security, etc etc etc)
After that experience I would say that I will never EVER work for the government myself, nor will I ever have much respect for those that work in government.
Some reasons:
-well, it was the government. Slow moving people mired in burocracy.
-minimal accountability. The amount of $$$$ that was being spent on stupid stuff, plus the amount of $$$ being wasted by incompetance was just sickening.
-institutational paralysis. Try to get anybody to make a freaking decision? Forget it - we're gonna need three comittees and a dozen meetings to make the most trivial decision. I think this is part of the government mentality - it's part of the job security.
That being said, there are good people working in the government. But i'll never go anywhere near that sector again. My self respect couldn't take it.
>>What good is it to have all that hardware if >>you're not going to actually take advantage of >>it by making it more realistic?!
Why? Whats the point in trying to produce an exact copy of reality? If thats what they wanted they could just go out and shoot some REAL plates with a real camera and it would be cheaper and faster than all this CGI nonsense....
I guess you think Monet and Van Gough were terrible painters because they weren't 'realistic'?
>>So it seems, according to these figures, that a >>frame should take about 3 minutes 15 seconds, >>give or take, depending how you alter my >>assumptions. But 80 HOURS per frame is so absurd!
Life is absurd:)
I didn't say 80 hours for ALL frames, but they did peak at 80 hours on some frames. Get the ToyStoryII DVD and listen to the directors commentary track. They state it quite clearly.
>>It looks realistic where as all the Pixar stuff looks like a cartoon.
And? Thats an artistic decision by Pixar. The same software that renders the 'cartoons' like ToyStory and Monsters Inc is also doing the goblins in Lord of the Rings, the dragons in Reign of Fire, Jurassic Park I/II/III, Perl Harbor, Men in Black, etc etc etc. And probably every other effects movie you've seen in the last 15 years. I can go on all day. Pixar is deliberately going for a non-realistic look.
>>First off, movies are raytraced and even on >>their machine clusters take on the order of >>minutes per frame to render.
Wrong and wrong. Most movies are NOT raytraced. Most movies and movie effects are rendered with PRMan (probalby >90%) and PRMan most certainly does not raytrace.
'minutes per frame'. The guys running the renderfarms WISHED. ToyStoryII had frames up to 80 HOURS per frame. The only people doing minutes per frame are doing low quality, low res stuff for weekly TV.
>>But as far as i can understand from the >>article, they still are'nt raytracing the >>light. Which is oftenly used in movies etc. for >>über precise ligting effects.
Nonsense. 95% of movies and movie effects are rendered with PRman which doesn't do raytracing at all.
Really? An imac is easly to move around without all that other crap? Last time i checked it was just a regular PC but had the monitor stuck onto the case.
Don't get me wrong, i think the iMac is a sweet piece of engineering and a nice computer, but it doesn't fit the need that I have. Moving it around would still be a PITA. How would i use an iMac in bed?? I think that round base would keep tipping over and bonking me on the head with the screen
Now if you had said TiBook maybe i would have agreed with you Now if apple would only put more than one damn mouse button i may take it seriously.....
Slashdot Mirror
>>Whenever I read about hard disks in a cell
>>phone I always wonder about the gyroscope
>>effect making the phone hard to manage.
What....? Those millions of peoples with iPods seem to be able to power them up and turn them without falling over.
Current implementations demonstrate the gyroscopic effects aren't a concern (except possible for the engineers designing them). Smaller disks will make it even less so.
Only remote desktop display, and it's 6lbs???
My new Toshiba laptop with 17" display, hard drive, DVD drive, battery, keyboard, partridge in a pear tree, etc is 9lbs! What have they put in this thing???
Even the Apple powerbook with all it's internal goodies is 6+ lbs. For what it does, the weight and battery life of this thing is inexcusable. Fire your engineers!
>>She has HIV, does not take any of the AZT drugs
>>and is and has been healthy as a horse for a
>>looong time.
Well.......... DUH!
Guess what --- approximately 10% of HIV infections are people who are considered "long term non-progressors". They luckily have the right chance combination of genes that lets their immune system keep the virus under control. Indefinately, or at least much longer than the general population.
Around 1% (value subject to debate) have immunity to it.
One person has a spectacular result and doesn't need drugs.... Whooop-de-do. Don't they teach anybody basic statistics anymore? Even Ebola doesn't kill 100% of those infected.
One result is not proof or a result. It's a fluke.
Funny - Microsoft doesn't do this.
When I worked for them (1995-2000) the ownership of ideas was spelled out pretty clear in the terms of employment.
If I came up with something completely on my own time and didn't use any company resources then it was MINE. Spelled out in black and white.
I interviewed with Apple a year ago - they do cool stuff but the more I hear about it the less I think I'd want to work for them........
>>they can sneak some socialist in and tax
- 20 03Nov11?language=printer
>>us all to death.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28252
The GOP is already taxing you to death. Wake up.
http://www.foveon.com
'nuff said.
Color filters and staggered pixels? Ringing, moire patterns and color bleeding. No thank you.
Now that there is a proper color CCD technology, why is anybody using the old system (at least, on a $1200 'professional' camera).
j
>>XSI was the name of the new version when it was released as a major upgrade.
BZZZZZZZZZT - wrong - try again.
XSI was a complete rewrite from the ground up. It is not a major upgrade - it is a completely new package. It was originally called 'Sumatra' and wasn't started until 1996.
>>I would think an ex-employee would know that...
I do. Oh - btw - Pixar has NEVER used a single softimage product. The use their own animation system ('Marionette') and their own rendering system ('PhotoRealistic Renderman') which they also sell.
Again - you have no clue.
BTW - what does XSI have to do with an article about MUSIC at SIGGRAPH? Oh yeah.... nothing there two.
Three strikes - you're out.
>>XSI was used to make the animation and effects >>in movies like Toy Story
Toy Story came out in what...... 94? XSI was released in 2001.
When spreading bullshit at least TRY to be believable.
(ex SOFTIMAGE employee here)
In my old office, whenever one was forced to deal with a Sco box you were expected to yell out SCO!!! (Rhymes with DOH!!)
Centropolis was NOT doing the majority of the CGI work - they were doing a minimum amount of work.... around 100 shots. And that work has been moved over to Sony Pictures Imageworks who is more than capable.
yeah - you're right. i guess all those people buying them are just confused.
Close....
the American Maginot Line will be the current administrations fetish with "missle defense sheild". A concept that has little chance to ever succeed (notice how after all the tests failed they either made the tests simpler, or classified the results) and isn't needed anyway.
Unfortunately, it's gonna take one nut with a low yeild nuke in a suitcase to show what a waste of money and effort this whole endevour has been.
Interface builder lets you place buttons and assorted widgets in dialogs. It doesn't design software architecture for you.
Congratulations. You didn't understand the question at all.
This is like somebody asking "Speilberg makes great movies - how do i learn how to do that?"
And you reply "get a Panavision camera. Thats what he uses. They're the best."
A tool is a tool, not a solution.
>>Boucher is one of very few people on the hill >>who will give us the time of day. We need him.
Granted it was a nice gesture, but let me play devils advocate here.
What we NEED is somebody who's doing to do something *useful*.
He knows (and we know) that this bill has absolutely ZERO chance of going anywhere with elections weeks away. None. Zilch. It's so dead it's already stinkin up the place.
So why does he do it? For political reasons of course. Make himself look good - fighting for the little guy - but there's zero chance that he'll actually need to put his neck on the line and accomplish anything. Nice gig.
Give me a call when he actually starts doing something USEFUL. Not when he's doing political grandstanding and grubbing for votes (which is all this REALLY is).
I know this gesture raises his stature around here. But for me, he's dropped a few notches becuase it's the same old political bullshit. If he had introduced this a year ago I'd be right on board with the rest clapping and cheering. Introducing it now -- just playing manipulative politics and mugging for the cameras.
It's like writing a check but postdating it for the year 5000. A nice gesture, but you'll never have to worry about it being cashed. That doesn't make u cool in my book. It makes you a weasel.
Sorry Boucher - no better than the rest of them.
thank you. A voice of reason. Hungarian (while not perfect, and not that pretty) is DAMN useful.
I was someone who was introduced to it kicking and screaming, but eventually I came around. As soon as you have to work in a LARGE software project it's a godsend. It makes reading someone else's code, or your own code 2 years later, MUCH easlier. When i can look at a variable in a strange piece of code and tell it's type and scope just from it's name, that saves a ton of time.
Most geeks don't like it cause it's extra typing.
blah blah blah.
GET OVER IT.
Yes it was a horrible tragedy.
Yes we should do what is required to make sure it doesn't happen.
NO - MOST OF US DON"T WANT TO RELIVE IT EVERY SINGLE FUCKING MINUTE UNTIL THE END OF TIME.
Gawd - some of you people are like a dog with a tennis ball..... Let it go. In case you haven't noticed, memorials, etc are NOT for the dead. The dead are dead - they don't care. They are for the living. And this country is so ridiculously self absorbed it cannot miss another chance to wring it's hands and wail at the sky about these attackes. Christ - let it go.
I think Jim Lehrer said it best when he was asked how the media should remember the attacks:
"As quietly as possible".
Yup - Serway is excellent. I'm still using it as an occasional reference years after university.
This was going to be my suggestion - go to a used bookstore or university bookstore and buy textbooks instead of most of the things being suggested here. Sure "Brief History in Time" is interesting, but there isn't much in the way of detail.... it's lots of handwaving but very slim on actual facts and concrete concepts. It's the stuff of magazine articles but not something to really LEARN from.
Go find a textbook - they are meant to teach. And you can find used ones generally very cheap.
I'm sure i'll get flamed to a crisp, but what the hey......
In my first job outside of school i was working for a consulting firm where we did a lot of work for the government (setting up networks, computer security, etc etc etc)
After that experience I would say that I will never EVER work for the government myself, nor will I ever have much respect for those that work in government.
Some reasons:
-well, it was the government. Slow moving people mired in burocracy.
-minimal accountability. The amount of $$$$ that was being spent on stupid stuff, plus the amount of $$$ being wasted by incompetance was just sickening.
-institutational paralysis. Try to get anybody to make a freaking decision? Forget it - we're gonna need three comittees and a dozen meetings to make the most trivial decision. I think this is part of the government mentality - it's part of the job security.
That being said, there are good people working in the government. But i'll never go anywhere near that sector again. My self respect couldn't take it.
>>What good is it to have all that hardware if
>>you're not going to actually take advantage of >>it by making it more realistic?!
Why? Whats the point in trying to produce an exact copy of reality? If thats what they wanted they could just go out and shoot some REAL plates with a real camera and it would be cheaper and faster than all this CGI nonsense....
I guess you think Monet and Van Gough were terrible painters because they weren't 'realistic'?
>>So it seems, according to these figures, that a >>frame should take about 3 minutes 15 seconds,
:)
>>give or take, depending how you alter my
>>assumptions. But 80 HOURS per frame is so absurd!
Life is absurd
I didn't say 80 hours for ALL frames, but they did peak at 80 hours on some frames. Get the ToyStoryII DVD and listen to the directors commentary track. They state it quite clearly.
>>It looks realistic where as all the Pixar stuff looks like a cartoon.
And? Thats an artistic decision by Pixar. The same software that renders the 'cartoons' like ToyStory and Monsters Inc is also doing the goblins in Lord of the Rings, the dragons in Reign of Fire, Jurassic Park I/II/III, Perl Harbor, Men in Black, etc etc etc. And probably every other effects movie you've seen in the last 15 years. I can go on all day. Pixar is deliberately going for a non-realistic look.
>>First off, movies are raytraced and even on
>>their machine clusters take on the order of
>>minutes per frame to render.
Wrong and wrong. Most movies are NOT raytraced. Most movies and movie effects are rendered with PRMan (probalby >90%) and PRMan most certainly does not raytrace.
'minutes per frame'. The guys running the renderfarms WISHED. ToyStoryII had frames up to 80 HOURS per frame. The only people doing minutes per frame are doing low quality, low res stuff for weekly TV.
>>But as far as i can understand from the >>article, they still are'nt raytracing the
>>light. Which is oftenly used in movies etc. for
>>über precise ligting effects.
Nonsense. 95% of movies and movie effects are rendered with PRman which doesn't do raytracing at all.
>>a PowerPC is a mac that can run some x86
>>applications and hardware right?
wrong.
>>Sounds like you need an iMac...
Really? An imac is easly to move around without all that other crap? Last time i checked it was just a regular PC but had the monitor stuck onto the case.
Don't get me wrong, i think the iMac is a sweet piece of engineering and a nice computer, but it doesn't fit the need that I have. Moving it around would still be a PITA. How would i use an iMac in bed?? I think that round base would keep tipping over and bonking me on the head with the screen
Now if you had said TiBook maybe i would have agreed with you Now if apple would only put more than one damn mouse button i may take it seriously.....