Useful? Fuck, I just want to play around with programming this stuff -- you can do some seriously cool shit with it. What do you think I am, some sort of lame-ass pimply gamer?
The thing is you can support most operations across pixel shader versions. However, PS 3.0 -- in addition to allowing longer programs -- is more efficient per operation.
This ends up opening the door up to even cooler effects that what you can get with PS 2.0. Plus, the upgrade path is much smoother than from 1.0 to 2.0, so I suspect we will start seeing them sooner than later.
Then again, I want to mess around with programming using 3.0, so that's definitely biasing my viewpoint:) The average user will be just as well off with the ATI. Hell, the average user will be just as well off with a two-year-old "legacy" card.
As much as I want to like this card, I fear that they've taken a wrong turn on the path they plan to persue.
As a 3D developer, one of the most exciting things that has come about recently is Shader Model 3.0. It allows you to get greater effects with less operations using some new developments. However, it requires a 32 bit precision. Read more about it here.
ATI has chosen to continue with it's 24-bit precision architecture. While fine for most applications, some of the exciting new developments require this newer spec technology. I'm sure that it will be interoperable, but all that speed may end up being wasted while computing certain operations.
I'm left wondering why I would buy a brand spankin' new card video card when it doesn't support the newest APIs all that well. Oh well, I guess I get to stick with nVidia...
Very interesting! I wonder if anyone's spotted a golden submarine around? It's probably some elaborate setup by Celine -- that old Hagbard is such a joker...
Does anyone know if they've found the red eye in the fnord pyramid?
Any sex is only between two consenting adults, and is IN NO WAY RELATED to the $0.99 song transaction. If the I and the Ben & Jerry Corperation do indeed engage in this sort of behavior, it is A PERSONAL MATTER BETWEEN BETWEEN US and NOT RELATED to the exchange of personal information for objects of value.
And anyway, it takes at least two songs -- one of which must be Marvin Gaye -- to get me.
Even if Google is a "cool" company, I'm not so sure that I really want to let them have rights to my private information as their licence can be interpreted to give them.
Remember, Netscape used to be "cool" too. And Caldera. And so on and so fourth...
Then again, maybe McNealey was right and privacy is dead. What a wonderful world.
Re:Famous misquote from the old Batman show
on
The State of OpenGL
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Robin: "Gosh, Batman. The nobility of the almost-human porpoise." Batman: "True, Robin. It was noble of that animal to hurl himself into the path of that final torpedo. He gave his life for ours."
It's time to get our asses to Mars. There is far too much to learn for us to just sit around and do nothing.
Especially considering some of this may be applicable to what will happen to our own planet in the future. We currently have seas. Mars used to. It'd be a good idea to figure out why they don't have them anymore.
Yeah, new trident missile submarines and fourth-generation stealth fighters are definitely necessary for that. Just like how it's necessary to destroy a house in order to get rid of a rodent.
Ah yes, the I've heard this one before. The Russians have superior technology, US killed MIR, yada yada yada. Bullshit.
I'm talking economics, bub. When you have people to feed and a country to rebuild, spaceflight is not necessarily the first thing on your mind.
Ok. So first of all, Soyuz is definitely more reliable. That I'll agree with. But it is in no way shape or form more capable. It's a three-person capsule (or, robotically, a limited cargo delivery vehicle). I'm hopeful that the six person soyuz will actually be seen through, but it will likely only be through external funding. For instance, last year, Russia had to petition other countries for money to continue funding Soyuz. And another.And more.
Russia's space program is less stable than the Soyuz launch record would indicate. How long they can keep it up, well, that's anybody's guess.
As far as MIR: granted, it was -- bar none -- the most successful space station ever. But these things have a half-life. The longest running Salut -- the previous generation Russian station -- was only in orbit for nine years. Mir, on the other hand, was up for fifteen years, and near the end there were some major problems. Fifteen years is a damn good run, but it was time for it to be retired. Law of diminishing returns and such. Especially considering there was a better option. And yes, I'm referring to the ISS.
There's definitely manpower in Russia. What I'm not so sure about is the money. And furthermore, why should we just give up on our own manned programs and rely on another nation for access to space? It is politically a very real possibility that the friends of today will be the enemies of tomorrow, whether through changes to the political structure in another country or the arrogant stance the US has been taking lately.
Bush's Moon/Mars plan isn't going quickly into space!
Wonderful. So the only US program towards a manned spacecraft is facing difficulties while we're trying to save the ISS and Hubble.
Did it ever occur to these politicians that we might need some way to actually deliver people to the ISS and service the Hubble? Furthermore, with Soyuz, there's no guarantees -- the Russians aren't exactly in the best shape in the world. I hate to rely on them... especially considering the lack of capacity/capability.
Honestly I wish they had stuck with the Orbital Space Plane plan of attack, and started a new program towards Mars. It seems like this happens with every new concept at NASA. A program is started, it gets a decent way, and somebody decides it'd be better to do something different. We desperately need to stay the course with at least one program in five or so. How much money have we waisted already with this sort of abortion?
Furthermore, the "it costs too much" really pisses me off. NASA's FY04 budget was $15.5 billion. The increase in the Military budget -- not including the costs of our various wars around the world -- was $16.9 billion from FY03 to FY04. The overall military budget for FY04 was $399.1 billion. With wars included, it's even higher.
Should we turn a blind eye to this rampant military waste while putting NASA under a microscope?
I can't get all that emotional about Hubble. Yes, it sucks that we won't have a space telescope, but it sucks worse that we -- as in the US -- won't have manned access to space rather shortly unless we get our asses in gear on the next-gen STS.
The thing is, there's a much better replacement coming up. It's called the James Webb Space Telescope. It'll be put in an L2 orbit, and from what I can gather, will put Hubble to shame.
So yeah, between 2008 and 2011 there'll be a gap. But as far as saving Hubble, what can I say: satellites have an expected end of life. Hubble's been up there since 1990. Eighteen years is a damn good run.
The trilogy, featuring the classic franchise films "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi," will be released on three DVD discs, with a fourth disc likely to hold a newly made documentary about the "Star Wars" franchise and never-before-seen footage, among several other bonus materials, said Jim Ward, Lucasfilm's VP of marketing and distribution and the DVD trilogy's executive producer.
Slashdot Mirror
Useful? Fuck, I just want to play around with programming this stuff -- you can do some seriously cool shit with it. What do you think I am, some sort of lame-ass pimply gamer?
The thing is you can support most operations across pixel shader versions. However, PS 3.0 -- in addition to allowing longer programs -- is more efficient per operation.
:) The average user will be just as well off with the ATI. Hell, the average user will be just as well off with a two-year-old "legacy" card.
This ends up opening the door up to even cooler effects that what you can get with PS 2.0. Plus, the upgrade path is much smoother than from 1.0 to 2.0, so I suspect we will start seeing them sooner than later.
Then again, I want to mess around with programming using 3.0, so that's definitely biasing my viewpoint
As much as I want to like this card, I fear that they've taken a wrong turn on the path they plan to persue.
As a 3D developer, one of the most exciting things that has come about recently is Shader Model 3.0. It allows you to get greater effects with less operations using some new developments. However, it requires a 32 bit precision. Read more about it here.
ATI has chosen to continue with it's 24-bit precision architecture. While fine for most applications, some of the exciting new developments require this newer spec technology. I'm sure that it will be interoperable, but all that speed may end up being wasted while computing certain operations.
I'm left wondering why I would buy a brand spankin' new card video card when it doesn't support the newest APIs all that well. Oh well, I guess I get to stick with nVidia...
Very interesting! I wonder if anyone's spotted a golden submarine around? It's probably some elaborate setup by Celine -- that old Hagbard is such a joker...
Does anyone know if they've found the red eye in the fnord pyramid?
Any sex is only between two consenting adults, and is IN NO WAY RELATED to the $0.99 song transaction. If the I and the Ben & Jerry Corperation do indeed engage in this sort of behavior, it is A PERSONAL MATTER BETWEEN BETWEEN US and NOT RELATED to the exchange of personal information for objects of value.
And anyway, it takes at least two songs -- one of which must be Marvin Gaye -- to get me.
HTH HAND!
Indeed. My personal information costs $0.99...
To continue the information overload...
There's a GBA port of Elite available at http://www.geocities.com/quirky_2k1/. Pretty damn cool, especially if you have a flash rom card.
Even if Google is a "cool" company, I'm not so sure that I really want to let them have rights to my private information as their licence can be interpreted to give them.
Remember, Netscape used to be "cool" too. And Caldera. And so on and so fourth...
Then again, maybe McNealey was right and privacy is dead. What a wonderful world.
Robin: "Gosh, Batman. The nobility of the almost-human porpoise."
Batman: "True, Robin. It was noble of that animal to hurl himself into the path of that final torpedo. He gave his life for ours."
Even "The Decline and Fall of the Old Republic" would be a better title.
mod down parent pls thx? trool alert! 'anynomose cowerd' is a known trool!!
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. April 1st again. I'm going to go and cower under the covers until tomorrow...
It's time to get our asses to Mars. There is far too much to learn for us to just sit around and do nothing.
Especially considering some of this may be applicable to what will happen to our own planet in the future. We currently have seas. Mars used to. It'd be a good idea to figure out why they don't have them anymore.
For those of us who don't want to use Barnes and Nobel for ethical reasons, use this Amazon link:
The Zenit Angle
I'm amazed Slashdot doesn't add this by default.
"Every time I look at the X window system, it's so fucking stupid; and part of me feels responsible for the worst parts of it."
"The color model and the fonts is aggressively stupid. It works, but oh my god. It's awful."
--James Gosling, X Architect
You're cute. Can I touch your fuzzy spot?
the world's largest spam musubi
Did anyone else read that as "the world's largest spam mueslix"?
Mmm... nothing like the taste of mechanically separated meat product in your breakfast cereal.
"In 1994, Linux was mostly a toy OS. Really not much of anything more than a bootloader. A shell of an operating system."
"Ten years later... well, it's basically the same thing, but it's been ported to every damn computer out there!"
Right. We need to spend more than the next twenty nations combined.
We need to spend more than we have in over fifty years to Fight Terror, a nebulous proposition at best.
We need to spend money on programs that should have died with the Cold War... and to fight who? Terrorists with a decentralized power structure?
Yeah, new trident missile submarines and fourth-generation stealth fighters are definitely necessary for that. Just like how it's necessary to destroy a house in order to get rid of a rodent.
Ah yes, the I've heard this one before. The Russians have superior technology, US killed MIR, yada yada yada. Bullshit.
I'm talking economics, bub. When you have people to feed and a country to rebuild, spaceflight is not necessarily the first thing on your mind.
Ok. So first of all, Soyuz is definitely more reliable. That I'll agree with. But it is in no way shape or form more capable. It's a three-person capsule (or, robotically, a limited cargo delivery vehicle). I'm hopeful that the six person soyuz will actually be seen through, but it will likely only be through external funding. For instance, last year, Russia had to petition other countries for money to continue funding Soyuz. And another. And more.
Russia's space program is less stable than the Soyuz launch record would indicate. How long they can keep it up, well, that's anybody's guess.
As far as MIR: granted, it was -- bar none -- the most successful space station ever. But these things have a half-life. The longest running Salut -- the previous generation Russian station -- was only in orbit for nine years. Mir, on the other hand, was up for fifteen years, and near the end there were some major problems. Fifteen years is a damn good run, but it was time for it to be retired. Law of diminishing returns and such. Especially considering there was a better option. And yes, I'm referring to the ISS.
There's definitely manpower in Russia. What I'm not so sure about is the money. And furthermore, why should we just give up on our own manned programs and rely on another nation for access to space? It is politically a very real possibility that the friends of today will be the enemies of tomorrow, whether through changes to the political structure in another country or the arrogant stance the US has been taking lately.
Bush's Moon/Mars plan isn't going quickly into space!
Wonderful. So the only US program towards a manned spacecraft is facing difficulties while we're trying to save the ISS and Hubble.
Did it ever occur to these politicians that we might need some way to actually deliver people to the ISS and service the Hubble? Furthermore, with Soyuz, there's no guarantees -- the Russians aren't exactly in the best shape in the world. I hate to rely on them... especially considering the lack of capacity/capability.
Honestly I wish they had stuck with the Orbital Space Plane plan of attack, and started a new program towards Mars. It seems like this happens with every new concept at NASA. A program is started, it gets a decent way, and somebody decides it'd be better to do something different. We desperately need to stay the course with at least one program in five or so. How much money have we waisted already with this sort of abortion?
Furthermore, the "it costs too much" really pisses me off. NASA's FY04 budget was $15.5 billion. The increase in the Military budget -- not including the costs of our various wars around the world -- was $16.9 billion from FY03 to FY04. The overall military budget for FY04 was $399.1 billion. With wars included, it's even higher.
Should we turn a blind eye to this rampant military waste while putting NASA under a microscope?
In the long run, what's more important?
Fuckin' a. Sometimes I hate being human.
I can't get all that emotional about Hubble. Yes, it sucks that we won't have a space telescope, but it sucks worse that we -- as in the US -- won't have manned access to space rather shortly unless we get our asses in gear on the next-gen STS.
The thing is, there's a much better replacement coming up. It's called the James Webb Space Telescope. It'll be put in an L2 orbit, and from what I can gather, will put Hubble to shame.
So yeah, between 2008 and 2011 there'll be a gap. But as far as saving Hubble, what can I say: satellites have an expected end of life. Hubble's been up there since 1990. Eighteen years is a damn good run.
Truly.
The trilogy, featuring the classic franchise films "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi," will be released on three DVD discs, with a fourth disc likely to hold a newly made documentary about the "Star Wars" franchise and never-before-seen footage, among several other bonus materials, said Jim Ward, Lucasfilm's VP of marketing and distribution and the DVD trilogy's executive producer.
Oh please let the bonus materials be a digitally restored copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special!
Imagine the marketing possibilities! You could promote the touching "Life Day" celebration! Multicultural wookie Goodness!
If you haven't seen it, go here. You really need to.
Have a Very Wookie Christmas! I know if I get this I will!