I mainly listen to techno, but it's the techno that gets bundled with many popular games these days. For instance, I listen to the Unreal soundtrack a lot while coding. It's a very soothing, but upbeat techno mix.
I'm sure there are a lot of other games out there with similar soundtracks. Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid come to mind...
I submitted this to Slashdot as a story, but it was rejected, but it is quite relevant to this story:
The Ayn Rand Institute is a firm believer that the excercise of anti-trust law in the DoJ trial against Microsoft is immoral, and that "Bill Gates, no less than the poorest citizen, has the rights to his property and his pursuit of happiness."
Economist Richard Salsman (whom, I assume, represents the Institute), will be explaining the Institute's position with regard to Microsoft in a talk entitled "The Lynching of Microsoft" at Carnegie Mellon University (in Pittsburgh, PA) on October 21st at 8:00 PM in Wean Hall 7500.
Remember "The Corporation" from Alien? When I first saw the movie, I never thought that could happen. I mean, how could the rest of the population of the Earth be stupid enough to let a single company control everything?
Well, as we have it today, we seem to be ever more mirroring science fiction. For instance, let's look at some of the major industries which the human race finds invaluable today:
Telecommunications: This merger is representative of that. If I were to say name ten telecommunications companies, do you think the average person would be able to do so? (I don't want to count geeks here, because we are either in the telecom industry, or we are looking for the right telecom industry to give us net access)
Software: Yes, it is an essential facility today. "Productivity" would be nowhere but down the drains if software were not something on many people's work desks. And we all know which company controls a whole bunch of this market...
Entertainment: While there are some really really big companies here, such as Disney, Time-Warner, and network television, there isn't a 'one source' of entertainment yet. However, it seems inevitable as Disney wants to get into more markets beyond the realm of family & children's programming and Time-Warner wants to get away from the stock-action movie we see so often.
I'm no expert on the topic, but I'd say there's a lot of corporations that just want to grow bigger and bigger and make their name more and more well known. Luckily, there are no big companies that just produce high quality food and shelter.
For instance, imagine if there was a company that offered the following:
Food: The same food Mom used to make, only even better - and much cheaper too. Why can't this happen (yet)? There is no cheap way to mass produce food. Most food comes from growing livestock or fields upon fields of plants.
Water: It's all around us. All we have to do is go to the ocean and boil us up some fresh water. Albeit, this requires...
Fuel: Meaning, not gasoline, but we need fuel to cook up all that food... Yes, there is an automated way to do this and there are some big players in this market, but it is also a localized process - unlike software distribution and telecommunications service.
Shelter: Pop-A-House. Need I say more? (Well, okay.. if a company somehow figured out how to create a really liveable shelter really really fast, with most of the amenities people like, would there be a need besides the want of extravagance (sp?) to go to someone who designs and builds from scratch?)
Seriously, though, I'm not paranoid about the topic.. but it tickles me that we just kind of let this crap go by... Obviously, this deal might mean that Sprint raises rates. However, it's now harder to fight Sprint from doing this - they have something like 10 times more clout than they had before...
Well, whatever... I can't think of a good way to end this post, so I'll shut up now.
I would suspect Sega enabled this feature as a way to debug the Dreamcast - I would also suspect most other console manufacturers do the same, only with proprietary hardware interfaces.
But what really interests me in how well the Dreamcast pulls off this 'convergence' thing that big companies like Microsoft, Sun, and others have been harping about. I mean, last year, these two companies were saying "We're gonna make it easy for everyone to access and use the Internet! Just watch!"
Here we are a year later and out of nowhere comes Sega with this console that not only plays some really great games, but also connects to the Internet and enables you to browse the web. But what's so special about that - I can hook up my computer's G400 to a TV display, too. The really cool thing is the power of the Dreamcast is hidden from the user.
Many of us here complaints that computers are too hard to use - there's no simple way to operate a computer like a television (push a button, and you're there). (We all know we hate these comments, but almost have to admit it.) The good thing about Dreamcast is that any John Q. Gamer (even their parents) can use this thing - they don't have to be computer literate! On the other hand, there's enough power in the device that real computer hackers like us can go to the length of making interfaces to the device (provided there are external ports and such) to harness that power - and the fact of the matter is, we will if given the chance.
While I respect your post for the message it sends to the teenage kids & AC posters that have a disregard for respect, please don't knock Litestep.
I'm a member of the Litestep devteam and can assure you that, while there are many script kiddies that use it because it makes their desktops look k001, I can assure you that there are many smart, great people who use litestep not only for the reason of having a good looking desktop, but because it is more functional that Windows Explorer.
Like I said, I respect your post and the message it sends, but don't label Windows software that is trying to make an alternative desktop for all the people who are stuck in a Windows world, but want a more functional and better looking shell, as software that is only used by script kiddies - that's just not true.
I'm a devteam member for the Litestep project. Litestep is a "shell" for Windows. This is basically like a window manager for X, but instead of its main focus being the drawing and interaction of windows on the screen, a shell's main purpose is to present the user with an interface to the programs on the computer (For instance, Windows Explorer is a shell that organizes programs through the Start Menu, desktop icons, and a taskbar).
Litestep offers a way to totally customize your desktop. The way Litestep works is everything is loaded as an external module (sort of like AfterStep) and given a configuration. Among the available modules is a Virtual Window Manager. It comes with the default Litestep configuration, and also comes with almost 100% of themes available for Litestep.
Also, Litestep is a GPLed program, and many modules for Litestep are available under the GPL as well. Many thememakers out there will also be honored if you use their theme, splicing it to your purposes.
For more information about Litestep, visit the following locations:
The ATI cards are fairly good for the task at hand, however, let me give you a warning: I basically have this type of setup in my computer, except it's an ATI All in Wonder Pro. It does everything that the 128GL does, except it doesn't have real time MPEG compression.
My problem? It conflicts with my DVD Decoder card! In essence, it makes my DVD Decoder (The Quadrant International CineMaster) almost useless. And this then means I can't use SP/DIF for audio output. Luckily, I don't have a reason to use SP/DIF yet, but hopefully will rsn:)
My vote would go for the new Voodoo3 3500 - it does excellent Video capture, and has everything you are looking for. Also, I know that there are OEMs that are bundling this card with DVD Decoders, so it probably doesn't conflict. Also, it has Voodoo2-SLI 3D performance, which is pretty good.
Take a look at Bingo the Clown - an animated short made just to showcase Maya's (Alias|Wavefront's modeller) new features. Quite a deranged little short, but well worth the bandwidth and time to watch it - especially for the lens reflections!
I wish I had the URL... if anyone knows it, post it! The last place I saw it, it was on Alias|Wavefront's site...
"Normal People" haven't heard of IRC. In all seriousness, the largest growing market of people coming "online" are people who want to know what this "world wide web" thing is all about. My father's been using what he calls the Internet for a couple years already, and he hasn't even heard of FTP, IRC, or a bunch of other stuff. And believe it or not, he's the "average user."
So, there ya go - IRC would solve the problem, it just hasn't been heard of.
This idea has been around for quite some time. Check out RoboCup for details.
What's really cool is that the Sony AIBOs were actually given their own league in this competition. They really can do more than just get up when they fall down.
Carnegie Mellon University has been winning most of these competitions in the past few years - check out the team's project leader's web page here.
I think we all want to nitpick the author of the article for assuming too much about RMS. I mean, basically, this guy must have thought "This Richard Stallman guy seems to be an important player in the Linux community, I'll go interview him."
What's wrong with that? To me, it's wrong to label RMS as a Linux guy. Remember, he didn't create the operating system - he created GNU, a set of utilities and programs that have the sole purpose of being free and portable (well, to most platforms...:)
However, I'm inclined to like this article for the same reason I hate it. Why? At the very least, it gives some good information to the non-open source community about RMS. Most people out there think of "These guys have something to do with Linux and it's main thing is that it's free." when they hear "Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman" on the television. This article at least makes the line between Linus and RMS a little more clear, but there is still a blurring which I wish would be set straight to the rest of the world for once.
This is an unmistakable case of hypocrisy. Microsoft does sell this product with the knowledge that it could be used in a malicious way. What stops one from using it? Bloat, obviously. Microsoft has most likely bloated SMS to the point that it can only be used efficiently on an Enterprise size network - which is what most of these tools is meant for.
Now, on the topic of my subject: What's in a name? SMS sounds official - and therefore (to the unknowing public) - it is. Now, think about the name "Back Orifice 2000". What does that say?
To anyone who has heard of Back Office, it immediately strikes a fear in an IS person: Back Orifice!? Sounds like a virus already, doesn't it? The 2000 immediately says that this software is geared toward Windows 2000 and the like.
Microsoft is using BO2K's name against it simply by including it in a sentence: "Back Orifice 2000 is a trojan horse."
Regular people out there won't like to hear something called "Back Orifice" and most likely wouldn't use it just for the sake of the name. It's a shame that software's merits must be based upon names.
Heck, next thing you know is that the Vatican will be denouncing the use of the GIMP because it has homosexual connotations.
I'm a developer on an open source project. I've contributed very very little to the Linux open source community, but am an active developer on a Windows open source project to make Windows more customizable (kind of like X).
Does this qualify me? No, for some reason.
I just thought I'd ask: Who qualifies? Is it anyone who has written open source code? If that's the case, many many of us deserve a few shares.
To cut down on overtime costs, lobbyists for various industries have leaned on Congress during the six decades that the act has been in place. They have managed to create 20 pages of exemptions to the FSLA, including one -- added three years ago -- specifically aimed at tech workers. Section 13[a][17] denies overtime benefits to systems analysts, programmers, engineers or other "similarly skilled workers."
Was anyone else surprised when they saw this quote? I was never even aware of anything like this - who has the right to say that I don't have the ability to do work that would be best remunerated by overtime pay?
I remember a while back while we were all discussing the "To Union or Not To Union?" topic. Personally, I am against Unionization of any kind - it makes me look like I'm just a wage-slave (at least in my view). But in this case, I would have to say that a Union would have helped. A Union could have stayed abreast of something like this and possibly thwarted it.
I don't want to start a flame war about Unions and such, but in this case, it's almost positive that, at the very least, a large group petitioning senators or other politicians could have stopped this from happening?
The format in which DVDs are written is under a strict NDA. So strict that even companies that license it must pay for *each person* that is going to look at the format specifications.
Does this mean that Nathan has reverse engineered the format? Or does he actually have a license to the format specifications?
Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science is arguably the best computer science school in the country. No, I don't go there - I'm in their Engineering school attempting a double major:)
SCS does have classes that concentrate on game programming. However, if you really want to concentrate on game programming, you have to work your butt off to do it - User Interface, Art, Design, and history.
Though, SCS doesn't make it a "degree." The degree is *still* Computer Science. And even if you spend two semesters on game programming, you will come out no less a Computer Scientist from this school than if you specialized in Operating Systems or Graphics Software.
IMO, this announcement is just a way to get some publicity. Any respectable Computer Science school in the country most likely has at least two courses on games and game programming: one for the programming, another as a seminar course to discuss the history, user interface, etc.
There's no shame in majoring in Computer Science with a concentration in Game Programming, as long as you get the general education to back it up.
50 mW/cm^2 is an intensity: it measures power per unit area, as long as the mW == milliwatts.
However, what does this exactly mean? Usually intensity is measured in terms of distance from the source of the power. For instance, the intensity from a speaker is the amount of power output divided by the surface area of the sphere surrounding it at a certain radius.
In this case, does it mean that the bird can not take any more than 50 mW for every square centimeter on *its* body? Or is it that the intensity of the source at the present radius of the bird must be less than 50 mW/cm^2?
Does anyone else think that everyone out there *expecting* eBay to be available every second of every day is a bit extreme? I mean look at it this way: you can, most of the time, go on eBay, probably find something close to what you are looking for for about half the price of retail, and even order the damn thing straight to your door within a few days. And you bitch when the service burps?
It's really sickening to hear that people can't get a grip on how far technology has come, and expect it to be way farther than it is.
You all know that Bill Gates is the one who's gonna buy all three of these machines. Not for nostalgia or any such reverie, but because he needs to steal more technology from Apple:)
The next version of Windows will be "Windows Interactive" which requires the user to place the software on the harddrive manually.
3dfx just keeps limiting the availability of their own technology. Glide wrappers aren't made to cut into 3dfx's profits, but to enable other users to use the cool stuff glide has to offer, but using their own cards to do so.
I can understand that they want to push their own hardware, but in consequence, they are limiting the market acceptance of their own technology
My PC *is* my TV. It is also my VCR, my CD Player, my Video Game Console (thanks to UHLE and Bleem!), my Movie Theater - yes, I *do* do all these things on my computer.
It's a hell of a lot cheaper to get a big monitor, a good bit of hardware, and smash it all together with an amplifier and good speakers than it is to get a home theater system put together.
I watch everything from Anime to live action on my PC and I love it.
Slashdot Mirror
I mainly listen to techno, but it's the techno that gets bundled with many popular games these days. For instance, I listen to the Unreal soundtrack a lot while coding. It's a very soothing, but upbeat techno mix.
I'm sure there are a lot of other games out there with similar soundtracks. Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid come to mind...
The Ayn Rand Institute is a firm believer that the excercise of anti-trust law in the DoJ trial against Microsoft is immoral, and that "Bill Gates, no less than the poorest citizen, has the rights to his property and his pursuit of happiness."
Economist Richard Salsman (whom, I assume, represents the Institute), will be explaining the Institute's position with regard to Microsoft in a talk entitled "The Lynching of Microsoft" at Carnegie Mellon University (in Pittsburgh, PA) on October 21st at 8:00 PM in Wean Hall 7500.
Well, I have two questions, but one more important than the other:
1. Who's the best at id? What kind of frag counts can one expect to see in a 20 minute deathmatch among id programmers?
2. What does it take to get to id? I mean, what skills are a *must* to make it to id as a programmer?
Remember "The Corporation" from Alien? When I first saw the movie, I never thought that could happen. I mean, how could the rest of the population of the Earth be stupid enough to let a single company control everything?
Well, as we have it today, we seem to be ever more mirroring science fiction. For instance, let's look at some of the major industries which the human race finds invaluable today:
Telecommunications: This merger is representative of that. If I were to say name ten telecommunications companies, do you think the average person would be able to do so? (I don't want to count geeks here, because we are either in the telecom industry, or we are looking for the right telecom industry to give us net access)
Software: Yes, it is an essential facility today. "Productivity" would be nowhere but down the drains if software were not something on many people's work desks. And we all know which company controls a whole bunch of this market...
Entertainment: While there are some really really big companies here, such as Disney, Time-Warner, and network television, there isn't a 'one source' of entertainment yet. However, it seems inevitable as Disney wants to get into more markets beyond the realm of family & children's programming and Time-Warner wants to get away from the stock-action movie we see so often.
I'm no expert on the topic, but I'd say there's a lot of corporations that just want to grow bigger and bigger and make their name more and more well known. Luckily, there are no big companies that just produce high quality food and shelter.
For instance, imagine if there was a company that offered the following:
Food: The same food Mom used to make, only even better - and much cheaper too. Why can't this happen (yet)? There is no cheap way to mass produce food. Most food comes from growing livestock or fields upon fields of plants.
Water: It's all around us. All we have to do is go to the ocean and boil us up some fresh water. Albeit, this requires...
Fuel: Meaning, not gasoline, but we need fuel to cook up all that food... Yes, there is an automated way to do this and there are some big players in this market, but it is also a localized process - unlike software distribution and telecommunications service.
Shelter: Pop-A-House. Need I say more? (Well, okay.. if a company somehow figured out how to create a really liveable shelter really really fast, with most of the amenities people like, would there be a need besides the want of extravagance (sp?) to go to someone who designs and builds from scratch?)
Seriously, though, I'm not paranoid about the topic.. but it tickles me that we just kind of let this crap go by... Obviously, this deal might mean that Sprint raises rates. However, it's now harder to fight Sprint from doing this - they have something like 10 times more clout than they had before...
Well, whatever... I can't think of a good way to end this post, so I'll shut up now.
- Shaheen
I mean, just look at the bags under the eyes of this guy. They must have had a lot of Penguin Mints to get those ungodly things....
Someone, quick! Get over to NSI and take over microsoft.com!!
This is the chance we've all been waiting for! As soon as one of us Linux zealots owns microsoft.com, we can point it to linux.com!
Just a thought to make world domination more feasible.
- Shaheen
I would suspect Sega enabled this feature as a way to debug the Dreamcast - I would also suspect most other console manufacturers do the same, only with proprietary hardware interfaces.
But what really interests me in how well the Dreamcast pulls off this 'convergence' thing that big companies like Microsoft, Sun, and others have been harping about. I mean, last year, these two companies were saying "We're gonna make it easy for everyone to access and use the Internet! Just watch!"
Here we are a year later and out of nowhere comes Sega with this console that not only plays some really great games, but also connects to the Internet and enables you to browse the web. But what's so special about that - I can hook up my computer's G400 to a TV display, too. The really cool thing is the power of the Dreamcast is hidden from the user.
Many of us here complaints that computers are too hard to use - there's no simple way to operate a computer like a television (push a button, and you're there). (We all know we hate these comments, but almost have to admit it.) The good thing about Dreamcast is that any John Q. Gamer (even their parents) can use this thing - they don't have to be computer literate! On the other hand, there's enough power in the device that real computer hackers like us can go to the length of making interfaces to the device (provided there are external ports and such) to harness that power - and the fact of the matter is, we will if given the chance.
- Shaheen
While I respect your post for the message it sends to the teenage kids & AC posters that have a disregard for respect, please don't knock Litestep.
I'm a member of the Litestep devteam and can assure you that, while there are many script kiddies that use it because it makes their desktops look k001, I can assure you that there are many smart, great people who use litestep not only for the reason of having a good looking desktop, but because it is more functional that Windows Explorer.
Like I said, I respect your post and the message it sends, but don't label Windows software that is trying to make an alternative desktop for all the people who are stuck in a Windows world, but want a more functional and better looking shell, as software that is only used by script kiddies - that's just not true.
I'm a devteam member for the Litestep project. Litestep is a "shell" for Windows. This is basically like a window manager for X, but instead of its main focus being the drawing and interaction of windows on the screen, a shell's main purpose is to present the user with an interface to the programs on the computer (For instance, Windows Explorer is a shell that organizes programs through the Start Menu, desktop icons, and a taskbar).
Litestep offers a way to totally customize your desktop. The way Litestep works is everything is loaded as an external module (sort of like AfterStep) and given a configuration. Among the available modules is a Virtual Window Manager. It comes with the default Litestep configuration, and also comes with almost 100% of themes available for Litestep.
Also, Litestep is a GPLed program, and many modules for Litestep are available under the GPL as well. Many thememakers out there will also be honored if you use their theme, splicing it to your purposes.
For more information about Litestep, visit the following locations:
The ATI cards are fairly good for the task at hand, however, let me give you a warning: I basically have this type of setup in my computer, except it's an ATI All in Wonder Pro. It does everything that the 128GL does, except it doesn't have real time MPEG compression.
:)
My problem? It conflicts with my DVD Decoder card! In essence, it makes my DVD Decoder (The Quadrant International CineMaster) almost useless. And this then means I can't use SP/DIF for audio output. Luckily, I don't have a reason to use SP/DIF yet, but hopefully will rsn
My vote would go for the new Voodoo3 3500 - it does excellent Video capture, and has everything you are looking for. Also, I know that there are OEMs that are bundling this card with DVD Decoders, so it probably doesn't conflict. Also, it has Voodoo2-SLI 3D performance, which is pretty good.
Take a look at Bingo the Clown - an animated short made just to showcase Maya's (Alias|Wavefront's modeller) new features. Quite a deranged little short, but well worth the bandwidth and time to watch it - especially for the lens reflections!
I wish I had the URL... if anyone knows it, post it! The last place I saw it, it was on Alias|Wavefront's site...
"Normal People" haven't heard of IRC. In all seriousness, the largest growing market of people coming "online" are people who want to know what this "world wide web" thing is all about. My father's been using what he calls the Internet for a couple years already, and he hasn't even heard of FTP, IRC, or a bunch of other stuff. And believe it or not, he's the "average user."
So, there ya go - IRC would solve the problem, it just hasn't been heard of.
What's really cool is that the Sony AIBOs were actually given their own league in this competition. They really can do more than just get up when they fall down.
Carnegie Mellon University has been winning most of these competitions in the past few years - check out the team's project leader's web page here.
Bahahaha... I laugh at my own stupidity. Article headline: "Interview with Alan Cox". My stupid brain reads: "Interview with Richard Stallman".
Go figure.
I think we all want to nitpick the author of the article for assuming too much about RMS. I mean, basically, this guy must have thought "This Richard Stallman guy seems to be an important player in the Linux community, I'll go interview him."
:)
What's wrong with that? To me, it's wrong to label RMS as a Linux guy. Remember, he didn't create the operating system - he created GNU, a set of utilities and programs that have the sole purpose of being free and portable (well, to most platforms...
However, I'm inclined to like this article for the same reason I hate it. Why? At the very least, it gives some good information to the non-open source community about RMS. Most people out there think of "These guys have something to do with Linux and it's main thing is that it's free." when they hear "Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman" on the television. This article at least makes the line between Linus and RMS a little more clear, but there is still a blurring which I wish would be set straight to the rest of the world for once.
This is an unmistakable case of hypocrisy. Microsoft does sell this product with the knowledge that it could be used in a malicious way. What stops one from using it? Bloat, obviously. Microsoft has most likely bloated SMS to the point that it can only be used efficiently on an Enterprise size network - which is what most of these tools is meant for.
Now, on the topic of my subject: What's in a name? SMS sounds official - and therefore (to the unknowing public) - it is. Now, think about the name "Back Orifice 2000". What does that say?
To anyone who has heard of Back Office, it immediately strikes a fear in an IS person: Back Orifice!? Sounds like a virus already, doesn't it? The 2000 immediately says that this software is geared toward Windows 2000 and the like.
Microsoft is using BO2K's name against it simply by including it in a sentence: "Back Orifice 2000 is a trojan horse."
Regular people out there won't like to hear something called "Back Orifice" and most likely wouldn't use it just for the sake of the name. It's a shame that software's merits must be based upon names.
Heck, next thing you know is that the Vatican will be denouncing the use of the GIMP because it has homosexual connotations.
I'm a developer on an open source project. I've contributed very very little to the Linux open source community, but am an active developer on a Windows open source project to make Windows more customizable (kind of like X).
Does this qualify me? No, for some reason.
I just thought I'd ask: Who qualifies? Is it anyone who has written open source code? If that's the case, many many of us deserve a few shares.
I remember a while back while we were all discussing the "To Union or Not To Union?" topic. Personally, I am against Unionization of any kind - it makes me look like I'm just a wage-slave (at least in my view). But in this case, I would have to say that a Union would have helped. A Union could have stayed abreast of something like this and possibly thwarted it.
I don't want to start a flame war about Unions and such, but in this case, it's almost positive that, at the very least, a large group petitioning senators or other politicians could have stopped this from happening?
- Shaheen Gandhi
The format in which DVDs are written is under a strict NDA. So strict that even companies that license it must pay for *each person* that is going to look at the format specifications.
Does this mean that Nathan has reverse engineered the format? Or does he actually have a license to the format specifications?
Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science is arguably the best computer science school in the country. No, I don't go there - I'm in their Engineering school attempting a double major :)
SCS does have classes that concentrate on game programming. However, if you really want to concentrate on game programming, you have to work your butt off to do it - User Interface, Art, Design, and history.
Though, SCS doesn't make it a "degree." The degree is *still* Computer Science. And even if you spend two semesters on game programming, you will come out no less a Computer Scientist from this school than if you specialized in Operating Systems or Graphics Software.
IMO, this announcement is just a way to get some publicity. Any respectable Computer Science school in the country most likely has at least two courses on games and game programming: one for the programming, another as a seminar course to discuss the history, user interface, etc.
There's no shame in majoring in Computer Science with a concentration in Game Programming, as long as you get the general education to back it up.
50 mW/cm^2 is an intensity: it measures power per unit area, as long as the mW == milliwatts.
However, what does this exactly mean? Usually intensity is measured in terms of distance from the source of the power. For instance, the intensity from a speaker is the amount of power output divided by the surface area of the sphere surrounding it at a certain radius.
In this case, does it mean that the bird can not take any more than 50 mW for every square centimeter on *its* body? Or is it that the intensity of the source at the present radius of the bird must be less than 50 mW/cm^2?
Does anyone else think that everyone out there *expecting* eBay to be available every second of every day is a bit extreme? I mean look at it this way: you can, most of the time, go on eBay, probably find something close to what you are looking for for about half the price of retail, and even order the damn thing straight to your door within a few days. And you bitch when the service burps?
It's really sickening to hear that people can't get a grip on how far technology has come, and expect it to be way farther than it is.
You all know that Bill Gates is the one who's gonna buy all three of these machines. Not for nostalgia or any such reverie, but because he needs to steal more technology from Apple :)
The next version of Windows will be "Windows Interactive" which requires the user to place the software on the harddrive manually.
3dfx just keeps limiting the availability of their own technology. Glide wrappers aren't made to cut into 3dfx's profits, but to enable other users to use the cool stuff glide has to offer, but using their own cards to do so.
I can understand that they want to push their own hardware, but in consequence, they are limiting the market acceptance of their own technology
My PC *is* my TV. It is also my VCR, my CD Player, my Video Game Console (thanks to UHLE and Bleem!), my Movie Theater - yes, I *do* do all these things on my computer.
It's a hell of a lot cheaper to get a big monitor, a good bit of hardware, and smash it all together with an amplifier and good speakers than it is to get a home theater system put together.
I watch everything from Anime to live action on my PC and I love it.