True, NASA has a long history of being a money hog, but it wasn't an issue until they were proposed a budget that was outlandish for anything (The $400 Billion Mars budget proposed by Former President Bush). But the benefits that they have given our economy in the years that they have been around have been huge, not to mention the lift that they have given the research and scientific communities. Without them, there would be nothing like cell phones, satallite communications, large-scale stellar observation (think of the pictures of the hydrogen clouds that have been in every Sci-Fi movie since the Hubble ST took the picture).
Beyond that, the overall economic contribution that the space program contributes is not just in scientific advancement. People often overlook the fact that while NASA takes billions of dollars in tax revenue, they also provide thousands of jobs. Not just to astronaughts like the heroes (yes, heroes) we lost with the columbia, but people from console operators, to sysadmins, to ground keepers.
Nothing in the history of the US has been a symbol to peaceful cooperation like the space program has. At the height of the cold war, we were able to work with our biggest enemy on a joint Apollo-Soyuez (sp?) mission. It represents triumph and advancement against odds, from the story of Apollo 11 and 13, to the tragedies of Apollo 1 and Challenger. It's given kids something to dream about, and actually tells us more about the universe we live in.
The answer is not where it should go, but rather how it should go on. Personally, I would like to see some privatization in the Space Industry, because that would greatly lower the costs of development and space travel. We also need more exploration missions like the Galleleo and Pathfinder projects, which brought a great deal of positive public spotlight to NASA.
The Pathfinder mission showed that NASA could get something done using economic constraints. However, there is a legitimate need for money just to get some of the basic maintinence done (such as the housing facilities for our remaining shuttles). We need to press farther out than the distance that our shuttles and the space station hit.
As a personal recommendation, I'd like to suggest a little reading that I found years ago. The Case for Mars by Dr. Robert Zubrin is an excellent book that shows both the feasibility, need, and purpose on manned exploration beyond our local little planet. It shows, realistically, how we could get the project done without an outlandish budget. While the project talked about at the end is no longer around, the MarsDirect project still exists. http://www.nw.net/mars/ Give it a look.
Remember, NASA is not just about Space Shuttles, but also about exploration and education. Things like those great space picture backgrounds would not be possible without them.
All of the titles are associated with aliens in some way? Coincidence? I think not.
Using the best fuzzy logic that caffeene and sleep-deprivation can provide, I can prove this fact.
The DMCA is evil, and has long conspired against anyone actually enjoying their information. It's also meant to make more money, and since people will have to purchase the "non-defective" discs, or more than likely pay twice the DVD cost in handling costs for a replacement, it makes them more money. The MPAA/RIAA is the main driving force behind the the DMCA.
The government has supposedly been covering up the existance of aliens for decades, and usually does everything they can to make it fictional. They tend to distroy anything with truth in it.
The government passed the DMCA, and it prevents these Discs from being copied.
The movies are all about aliens, and the government hides things about aliens.
Therefore, the people at the RIAA/MPAA who back up the DMCA must be aliens.
It's not unusual to see a 3rd party transposition of english subtext when there has been voice-over work done on the film. The real key would be if there was an English track to English subs.
It's also not uncommon to do a translation of these that have english text, since it's easier to read fast and understand than it is to hear and comprehend a non-native language. You don't have dialect, accent and inflection on written text.
Given the autonomy that ILM has enjoyed when there hasn't been an army of Jar-Jar's to make, it's sad that now it will be under the arm of Lucas. Given his push to keep everything proprietary under tight control (THX, Laser Disc, etc.), this will probably affect the projects that they are able to do.
Sucks, because they've contributed to so many great projects out there, like several of the Star Trek movies. The same thing for LucasArts, I suppose.
The patent should never have been approved, since the actual DNA sequence is taken from a natural source, and beyond that, is the core for all genetic research. No cancer research center trying to eliminate the sequences for cancer risk should have to fill out patent permission paperwork.
It makes me wonder what other naturally occouring substances we could analyze and then later patent. The universities that have discovered the various sub-atomic particles don't hold any exclusive rights.
The whole idea behind it is money, or the rights to make anyone trying to do scientific research based on the genome give something up for the right to use the common human sequence.
It mentions in the article that Pixar was sold by Lucas to Apple. Funny, becuase I could have sworn they were small animation shorts, and then partnered with Disney to make Toy Story. I had never heard this part before.
I suppose the odd thing about this supposed marriage is that in their history, they've have typically stuck to PCs or Unix/Linux machines. Now I'll agree that most people see Sony as a big competitor to ILM, but I would say that there also needs to be Dreamworks Animation, and the company that has been producing LoTR.
Actually, Rogue Squadron and Rogue Leader were both good. So were Dark Forces, Jedi Knight and Jedi Knight II (though a good portion of the game was done by Raven, and not LucasArts).
The Starfleet Command series hasn't been that bad, and neither was the Elite Force game for the ST series.
Could have something to do with it being real news, and not rumor from a friend.
If I was to guess, I'd say it was because they were affected by it, and someone keyed someone in to it. My coworkers and I noticed it all night at work, and actually had people calling in to tech support about it.
I mean, after all, we can help fix that one webpage that said user goes to...
The vast majority of Gamers use Windows because it has better graphics drivers, better hardware support and its easier to install and set games up.
They use Windows because they don't have much choice, not necissarily because of a better driver base. Most Windows drivers are updated more frequently, but that's because of the distribution of the market.
What is true is that DirectX is the API of choice for game makers, but for a reason. The development of higher level graphics processes and Shader development for the OpenGL 2.0 specification has been rather slow, and no where near the specification and performance of DX. But that is changing slowly.
Linux is just easier to use on the graphics front, with display properties tweaking and things like NView and the ATi Control Panel, but given time, you'll see similar functions appear in Linux (if they're not already there).
And the reason is for making conversions? Money. Linux is also a desktop OS, for most of the people that read here, for example. Those people like to play games too (or so I'd assume), and would purchase games they can play. More people playing the game on different OS's, especially for a user-content driven game like Neverwinter Nights is a good thing.
And the speed thing is debateable. The actual Graphics Driver speed that is gained by running Windows can be offset by the efficient memory utilization and processing streamlining of Linux. I'd be willing to bet that the low-end specs for NWN would be a lot more friendly on a Linux Box than a Windows box, if for nothing else other than the ability to strip what's running in the background.
As a Windows user, I can't wait for the Linux Client to come out for NWN. I want the added people out there, scripting modules, writing content and playing the game. God knows I'm sick of a bunch of little 733T hacker brats on there. Some games are fun, but I've been waiting for the chance to go up against some other people. Hopefully that isn't flameworthy, but if you've played it online, you know what I mean.
This game is the one that will actually get Linux Gaming off the ground. It removes the need for an emulator or middle-run to get it working, and is one of the biggest games in recent memory. If we saw some of the other big guns, like Blizzard and EA doing this, there would be a lot more solid development on the gaming front.
Since Bioware already will have the linux base installed, and the NWN engine is the core of their future RPG games, this looks well for the Linux community. Now if only they would start releasing the stuff out of box like this...
However, I'm more than willing to respond, being a chatty bastard and all.
Well, I came to the decision because it's about what I like, and not about what is "better." It's just an opinion.
I run Windows XP at home. I've run SuSE, Mandrake, RedHat, Corel, and Debian before, and there are things that I really like about Linux. The availability of applications and extensions is nice, and things like GLTron had me in there quite a bit.
What I use my computer for the most is Word Processing, Digital Art, and Playing Games. My program of choice for digital art is Bryce 5 from Corel. I was waiting, when they had a Linux Distro, for a port, but they dropped linux and a port never came. There is no comparable application in Linux for it, for either ease of use or interaction. Blender is great, if you've got a lifetime to devote to using it, but I do not. I've been using Bryce for years, and have not found a program I like more than it.
I also prefer Photoshop over Gimp, but that is mostly personal preference as well. I don't run a server, I don't have any use for distributed security models, and I don't do anything that would require any of the other features of Linux. As a programmer, I have never truly meshed with the Open Source Model, though I do see the benefit of it. That mostly comes from the almost religious air that it gets, and that nothing about software makes it so it should be free. If some people decide to do that, more power to them. I've shared code before, and that's okay.
I also play games, and WineX is not the answer. Porting is all well and good, when it works, and like it or not, DirectX is a nice API. OpenGL was great, but the lack of industry support has crippled it, and the 2.0 itteration of the technology has not yet convinced me that it is the better model. It was better, until about DX7. If Microsoft made the smart move, and opened the source of that completely so it could be ported to linux, along with Media Player, I would be very close to switching.
The word processing thing is also a big deal, because I do a lot of creative writing. I have been using word forever, and have never liked what StarOffice or OpenOffice have offered. Clippy is annoying, but a lot of other features in MS Office are useful. Outlook is my mail program of choice, and I have used others. What I would like from linux is the Window Manager format, since the ability to customize an interface based on need without cracking the shell is nice.
The argument of Linux being more stable than Windows is dependant entirely on the conditions the two systems operating under. Most people like to think it's the fault of the OS when it's in fact crappy hardware, or crappy software. Windows didn't break, KaZaA/AOL/PC Friendly/Norton etc. did. Sure, things like Me sucked, but I never ran it. I ran 98 for a year-and-a-half without lockup or crash issues. I was not running a server, so uptime was not an issue. I switched to 2000 when I upgraded my system, and had lockup issues. It was an error with the KT133 chipset on my Athlon board, and never a problem with the OS. Incedently, Windows delt with it better than Linux, which would lock whenever the 3D modes of the video card were accessed. It helped me diagnose the problem, since it was something on the AGPSet, but beyond that, Linux wasn't much use to me.
Since then, I could count on one hand the number of times I've had an error in XP that wasn't caused by me. Linux and I had issues with my Radeon and support for OpenGL, which were later fixed, but was still shaky in most apps. I could run similar things in Windows, and didn't have to worry about it.
And that's what it comes down to. I've tried Linux, in depth, so it's not a matter of me being an uneducated Windows user. I just happen to know what I like, and stick with it. Will I try Linux again? Most likely. But for now, I like XP more.
Sorry, I guess I just hate the P2P policy of packaging garbage with their clients that much.
I wonder about the practical application of this beyond just using someone else's work. They take news from other sites and distribute it to anyone on their paid subscription list. Sounds like easy money. Using P2P wouldn't surplant the law, just make it hard to determine what was being read.
At some point, though, wouldn't they need some sort of Meta engine that pulled the information from the target news sites and then distributed it across the P2P network? Their email system got busted, but at some point, someone has to get news from site A to network B.
If they rely on external sources, I would think that the actual validity of the news that was posted. We could end up with the "if I heard it must be true" attitude of some sites *cough*Reg*cough*, or we could get things that are so slanted by opinion it would make/. look unbiased on Microsoft articles. I'd think that some actual news would get out, but if Newsbooster is the one that decides who gets linked and what gets linked, than the distribution method would make little difference (at least from a legal view).
Mandrake was the perfect desktop solution to compete with Windows, at least for most business users. It had good out-of-box hardware support and a variety of applications. It never made it into the hardcore users segments, but was never really meant to.
It's sad that they may go under because people aren't willing to give them the investment chances that were blown on all sorts of computer companies which amounted to nothing. I'd love to see this go full community, because someone will eventually see the potential
After checking out their list, there are only two test machines running strictly Linux. At least of the non-clustered setups. Beyond that, they are all Win 2k Data Center,.NET Server, IBM AIX and Unix. The ones that are running are running Red Hat Advanced Server, and it does not specify if they are optimized.
Beyond that, they are not using a unified standard as their monitoring system. All of the Win machines use Com+ and the non-win use a variety.
They also say that most of the best Price/Performance machines are running Windows 2000 Server, or.NET server (betas?). Most Linux admins would argue this, especially given the news article on/. last week that said it is cheaper to run. I wonder how accurate their measures are based on the monitoring tools.
I'm just curious what they are quantifying performance against. Everything here seemed to be strictly on the Network side of things. Are they trying to increase the actual Kernal processing of the individual threads for the network applications (File Serving, DB, and Webserving), or are they just measuring the eff. for the processing of data packets for the services.
It sounds interesting, but it looks like the tuning is done specifically on the IBM platform, which makes me wonder. Linux already blows and MS product away for these applications, so I'm curious what they are comparing the results to. Did they just take an arbitrary point (processor load) for specific applications, or are they creating a specialized measurement (like SysMarks in Windows) that is only valid in their test suite.
Anyway, it should be interesting to see where it ends up, eventually.
I'm surprised that they didn't bring up how rampant TV-show trading had become on the internet. Simpsons is probably the hottest ticket out there, and Futurama is a distance behind that.
Nice to see him giving the whole "region free" thing a nice kick. He's an actual major voice in entertainment, so it'd just be wonderful if he wasn't pro-MPAA. Since I already have the Simpsons Boxed sets, I'd like to see the rest go "any region"
Generally get an informative and direct error message, though it really depends on what you're setting out to break.
Installing nVidia drivers and ATi display drivers were what had me pulling out hairs. It wasn't until recently that nVidia made it easier.
As for the errors in windows, it really just depends on the error or the OS. Yes, 98/Me gave you a "Something Broke" kind of response. 2000 Got a little better with "Something Else Broke Like This" and XP says, "This Broke, This is Why, Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie."
When I was trying to track down why every time I booted into Gnome on Redhat 6.2 my screen adjusted itself 3 inches to the right, I got to play scavenger hunt. In Mandrake, it had the habit of forgetting my root password every few mintues as SU in the same config app, but if I went to another app, it worked just fine.
And DLL hell went away nicely with the NT line, at least it did until someone messes something up. I'd blame external software more often than anything else in Windows for hosing DLLs.
And as for what is there left to break? There's always stuff to break. a # here and a / there can do just amazing things to Linux. Kind of like getting in the Windows Registry and adding L's to Hex Keys.
A) ROM stands for Read-Only Memory. Guess what CD-ROM stands for? But I'm sure we all know what you meant
I know what ROM stands for. That's not what I'm arguing here. A ROM on a CD was an image of a CDFS directory structure. A cartrige ROM is a single package, like a cab or RPM file. The operating system sees a single file, and the emulator runs it. On the disc, it sees the disc as an actual FS, so it sees a bunch of files that have a read-only attribute for them.
I never cared enough about the DC to look into it's process, just noticed it had WindowsCE on the cover.
And the last comment just agreed with what I said...
Yeah, it's that low. They actually make less from Universities and NPOs. The actual cost is based on shipped units, but it is the overall license that's paid for shipping the OS. Since the OEM absorbes the support, CD printing, and distribution of the product, all Microsoft provides is the product. And actually, they provide license numbers and COAs for them as well.
The retail cost for an XP upgrade is there because of the support that is offered for the product. It is really bad software, I know, I own a copy of the retail version. However, mine was free, compliments MS.
My company has thought about using Linux before, but actually, they get a big price incentive to ship Windows. That's the contract with Microsoft. It's not about force, but for price. It's no different than with any other manufacturing company, really.
As for the technology, as soon as you start to limit choice, you run into problems. Yes, eventually there will be a distro that supports a lot more, but that is off the horizon right now. Providing that list would be great, if people would read it before they bought stuff. I get at least one call a night on someone trying to install said hardware/software without checking requirements. Like people installing AOL 8.0 on a PII-266 with 32 megs of RAM. Or those people running 2000 or XP with 64 megs of RAM. Or just about anything else.
And yes, printed manuals are inclduded, but they are not the end all. MS has acutally done some good work in their "Help & Support Center" in XP, and the manual is just a window dressing. If something similar was in Linux, that would be great, but they would need to bring in something completely new to get it done. Man files are not the answer, neither are user forums, and neither are the existing documentation to most programs. At least not to most Open Source projects that people would need. I'd love to say they were, but I have not seen it yet.
Tech Support is the hardest part, and the biggest drain to a computer's cost. It's what you don't get on those cheap "best buy" PCs. But most people don't know it's there. It's hard enough to get someone to put in a CD, getting them to remember their Root password would be a new chore. Knowing what breaks will never work, because all of my experience with Linux has taught me that anything can break, but it doesn't like to tell you. At least Windows whines like a little girl.
Microsoft doesn't support their OEM products. If you purchase a system with an OEM version of windows, then they tell you to the manufacturer, OEM, etc.
And most companies don't hire a few MCSEs, they hire people that can talk on the phones. I'm not an MCSE, though my company is paying me to become one (so I can get a better job), but not because of my job.
And with most OS products, it's honestly not the OS that breaks the OS, but something else that does it. Kazaa, AOL, etc. The problem is that people want those programs.
The GameCube and GBA are quality products. The piracy that's seen has absolutely nothing to do with the product being good or not. I'll asume that you haven't played the GC or GBA, otherwise you would have been impressed with the systems, especially based on the size of the system. Star Wars: Rogue Leader, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Resident Evil 1 & 0, Eternal Darkness and a host of all other games were not only a great game to play, but also graphically stunning.
The piracy in China is like nothing else. You see those products all over Europe, and elsewhere even. More movies, CDs, and books are ripped off there than the legitimate copies are sold.
The largest N64 Roms were still less than 64megs, and they were also for an existing piece of Hardware that was needed (Doctor V64). The "emulators" of the time could maybe, just maybe, get off a frame every 10 minutes.
Gamecube titles hover around 600megs-1.2gigs, and are using all of the normal Nintendo compressed texture and caching techniques. They are a non-standard disc. Beyond that, disc based media doesn't use a ROM image, like older cartrages did. They use a separate file system, and need some sort of loading system (Windows CE on the Dreamcast, 2k on the X-BOX) to play games. The Cube is no different.
Slashdot Mirror
True, NASA has a long history of being a money hog, but it wasn't an issue until they were proposed a budget that was outlandish for anything (The $400 Billion Mars budget proposed by Former President Bush). But the benefits that they have given our economy in the years that they have been around have been huge, not to mention the lift that they have given the research and scientific communities. Without them, there would be nothing like cell phones, satallite communications, large-scale stellar observation (think of the pictures of the hydrogen clouds that have been in every Sci-Fi movie since the Hubble ST took the picture).
Beyond that, the overall economic contribution that the space program contributes is not just in scientific advancement. People often overlook the fact that while NASA takes billions of dollars in tax revenue, they also provide thousands of jobs. Not just to astronaughts like the heroes (yes, heroes) we lost with the columbia, but people from console operators, to sysadmins, to ground keepers.
Nothing in the history of the US has been a symbol to peaceful cooperation like the space program has. At the height of the cold war, we were able to work with our biggest enemy on a joint Apollo-Soyuez (sp?) mission. It represents triumph and advancement against odds, from the story of Apollo 11 and 13, to the tragedies of Apollo 1 and Challenger. It's given kids something to dream about, and actually tells us more about the universe we live in.
The answer is not where it should go, but rather how it should go on. Personally, I would like to see some privatization in the Space Industry, because that would greatly lower the costs of development and space travel. We also need more exploration missions like the Galleleo and Pathfinder projects, which brought a great deal of positive public spotlight to NASA.
The Pathfinder mission showed that NASA could get something done using economic constraints. However, there is a legitimate need for money just to get some of the basic maintinence done (such as the housing facilities for our remaining shuttles). We need to press farther out than the distance that our shuttles and the space station hit.
As a personal recommendation, I'd like to suggest a little reading that I found years ago. The Case for Mars by Dr. Robert Zubrin is an excellent book that shows both the feasibility, need, and purpose on manned exploration beyond our local little planet. It shows, realistically, how we could get the project done without an outlandish budget. While the project talked about at the end is no longer around, the MarsDirect project still exists. http://www.nw.net/mars/ Give it a look.
Remember, NASA is not just about Space Shuttles, but also about exploration and education. Things like those great space picture backgrounds would not be possible without them.
[Sarcasm]
All of the titles are associated with aliens in some way? Coincidence? I think not.
Using the best fuzzy logic that caffeene and sleep-deprivation can provide, I can prove this fact.
The DMCA is evil, and has long conspired against anyone actually enjoying their information. It's also meant to make more money, and since people will have to purchase the "non-defective" discs, or more than likely pay twice the DVD cost in handling costs for a replacement, it makes them more money. The MPAA/RIAA is the main driving force behind the the DMCA.
The government has supposedly been covering up the existance of aliens for decades, and usually does everything they can to make it fictional. They tend to distroy anything with truth in it.
The government passed the DMCA, and it prevents these Discs from being copied.
The movies are all about aliens, and the government hides things about aliens.
Therefore, the people at the RIAA/MPAA who back up the DMCA must be aliens.
And that makes aliens evil.
[End Sarcasam]
It's not unusual to see a 3rd party transposition of english subtext when there has been voice-over work done on the film. The real key would be if there was an English track to English subs.
It's also not uncommon to do a translation of these that have english text, since it's easier to read fast and understand than it is to hear and comprehend a non-native language. You don't have dialect, accent and inflection on written text.
Given the autonomy that ILM has enjoyed when there hasn't been an army of Jar-Jar's to make, it's sad that now it will be under the arm of Lucas. Given his push to keep everything proprietary under tight control (THX, Laser Disc, etc.), this will probably affect the projects that they are able to do.
Sucks, because they've contributed to so many great projects out there, like several of the Star Trek movies. The same thing for LucasArts, I suppose.
The patent should never have been approved, since the actual DNA sequence is taken from a natural source, and beyond that, is the core for all genetic research. No cancer research center trying to eliminate the sequences for cancer risk should have to fill out patent permission paperwork.
It makes me wonder what other naturally occouring substances we could analyze and then later patent. The universities that have discovered the various sub-atomic particles don't hold any exclusive rights.
The whole idea behind it is money, or the rights to make anyone trying to do scientific research based on the genome give something up for the right to use the common human sequence.
Steve Jobs is Apple. And I was just curious about the relationship, since I am a big fan of Pixar and have never seen any thing referencing this.
And I think that Steve typically crucifies anyone working for him that is not using an Apple Computer.
(Sorry about the repost, missed Submit and hit post anan... didn't pay attention)
It mentions in the article that Pixar was sold by Lucas to Apple. Funny, becuase I could have sworn they were small animation shorts, and then partnered with Disney to make Toy Story. I had never heard this part before.
I suppose the odd thing about this supposed marriage is that in their history, they've have typically stuck to PCs or Unix/Linux machines. Now I'll agree that most people see Sony as a big competitor to ILM, but I would say that there also needs to be Dreamworks Animation, and the company that has been producing LoTR.
Actually, Rogue Squadron and Rogue Leader were both good. So were Dark Forces, Jedi Knight and Jedi Knight II (though a good portion of the game was done by Raven, and not LucasArts).
The Starfleet Command series hasn't been that bad, and neither was the Elite Force game for the ST series.
Could have something to do with it being real news, and not rumor from a friend.
If I was to guess, I'd say it was because they were affected by it, and someone keyed someone in to it. My coworkers and I noticed it all night at work, and actually had people calling in to tech support about it.
I mean, after all, we can help fix that one webpage that said user goes to...
For now, but it will be a matter of the awareness out there. Half of the content can be done in game, through DM'ing and the such.
And if there are enough people that demand it, there will be a Linux Mod for the toolset. That's what got the client in the first place, isn't it?
The vast majority of Gamers use Windows because it has better graphics drivers, better hardware support and its easier to install and set games up.
They use Windows because they don't have much choice, not necissarily because of a better driver base. Most Windows drivers are updated more frequently, but that's because of the distribution of the market.
What is true is that DirectX is the API of choice for game makers, but for a reason. The development of higher level graphics processes and Shader development for the OpenGL 2.0 specification has been rather slow, and no where near the specification and performance of DX. But that is changing slowly.
Linux is just easier to use on the graphics front, with display properties tweaking and things like NView and the ATi Control Panel, but given time, you'll see similar functions appear in Linux (if they're not already there).
And the reason is for making conversions? Money. Linux is also a desktop OS, for most of the people that read here, for example. Those people like to play games too (or so I'd assume), and would purchase games they can play. More people playing the game on different OS's, especially for a user-content driven game like Neverwinter Nights is a good thing.
And the speed thing is debateable. The actual Graphics Driver speed that is gained by running Windows can be offset by the efficient memory utilization and processing streamlining of Linux. I'd be willing to bet that the low-end specs for NWN would be a lot more friendly on a Linux Box than a Windows box, if for nothing else other than the ability to strip what's running in the background.
As a Windows user, I can't wait for the Linux Client to come out for NWN. I want the added people out there, scripting modules, writing content and playing the game. God knows I'm sick of a bunch of little 733T hacker brats on there. Some games are fun, but I've been waiting for the chance to go up against some other people. Hopefully that isn't flameworthy, but if you've played it online, you know what I mean.
This game is the one that will actually get Linux Gaming off the ground. It removes the need for an emulator or middle-run to get it working, and is one of the biggest games in recent memory. If we saw some of the other big guns, like Blizzard and EA doing this, there would be a lot more solid development on the gaming front.
Since Bioware already will have the linux base installed, and the NWN engine is the core of their future RPG games, this looks well for the Linux community. Now if only they would start releasing the stuff out of box like this...
I'm responding to comments on my Sig line?
However, I'm more than willing to respond, being a chatty bastard and all.
Well, I came to the decision because it's about what I like, and not about what is "better." It's just an opinion.
I run Windows XP at home. I've run SuSE, Mandrake, RedHat, Corel, and Debian before, and there are things that I really like about Linux. The availability of applications and extensions is nice, and things like GLTron had me in there quite a bit.
What I use my computer for the most is Word Processing, Digital Art, and Playing Games. My program of choice for digital art is Bryce 5 from Corel. I was waiting, when they had a Linux Distro, for a port, but they dropped linux and a port never came. There is no comparable application in Linux for it, for either ease of use or interaction. Blender is great, if you've got a lifetime to devote to using it, but I do not. I've been using Bryce for years, and have not found a program I like more than it.
I also prefer Photoshop over Gimp, but that is mostly personal preference as well. I don't run a server, I don't have any use for distributed security models, and I don't do anything that would require any of the other features of Linux. As a programmer, I have never truly meshed with the Open Source Model, though I do see the benefit of it. That mostly comes from the almost religious air that it gets, and that nothing about software makes it so it should be free. If some people decide to do that, more power to them. I've shared code before, and that's okay.
I also play games, and WineX is not the answer. Porting is all well and good, when it works, and like it or not, DirectX is a nice API. OpenGL was great, but the lack of industry support has crippled it, and the 2.0 itteration of the technology has not yet convinced me that it is the better model. It was better, until about DX7. If Microsoft made the smart move, and opened the source of that completely so it could be ported to linux, along with Media Player, I would be very close to switching.
The word processing thing is also a big deal, because I do a lot of creative writing. I have been using word forever, and have never liked what StarOffice or OpenOffice have offered. Clippy is annoying, but a lot of other features in MS Office are useful. Outlook is my mail program of choice, and I have used others. What I would like from linux is the Window Manager format, since the ability to customize an interface based on need without cracking the shell is nice.
The argument of Linux being more stable than Windows is dependant entirely on the conditions the two systems operating under. Most people like to think it's the fault of the OS when it's in fact crappy hardware, or crappy software. Windows didn't break, KaZaA/AOL/PC Friendly/Norton etc. did. Sure, things like Me sucked, but I never ran it. I ran 98 for a year-and-a-half without lockup or crash issues. I was not running a server, so uptime was not an issue. I switched to 2000 when I upgraded my system, and had lockup issues. It was an error with the KT133 chipset on my Athlon board, and never a problem with the OS. Incedently, Windows delt with it better than Linux, which would lock whenever the 3D modes of the video card were accessed. It helped me diagnose the problem, since it was something on the AGPSet, but beyond that, Linux wasn't much use to me.
Since then, I could count on one hand the number of times I've had an error in XP that wasn't caused by me. Linux and I had issues with my Radeon and support for OpenGL, which were later fixed, but was still shaky in most apps. I could run similar things in Windows, and didn't have to worry about it.
And that's what it comes down to. I've tried Linux, in depth, so it's not a matter of me being an uneducated Windows user. I just happen to know what I like, and stick with it. Will I try Linux again? Most likely. But for now, I like XP more.
Sorry, I guess I just hate the P2P policy of packaging garbage with their clients that much.
/. look unbiased on Microsoft articles. I'd think that some actual news would get out, but if Newsbooster is the one that decides who gets linked and what gets linked, than the distribution method would make little difference (at least from a legal view).
I wonder about the practical application of this beyond just using someone else's work. They take news from other sites and distribute it to anyone on their paid subscription list. Sounds like easy money. Using P2P wouldn't surplant the law, just make it hard to determine what was being read.
At some point, though, wouldn't they need some sort of Meta engine that pulled the information from the target news sites and then distributed it across the P2P network? Their email system got busted, but at some point, someone has to get news from site A to network B.
If they rely on external sources, I would think that the actual validity of the news that was posted. We could end up with the "if I heard it must be true" attitude of some sites *cough*Reg*cough*, or we could get things that are so slanted by opinion it would make
Mandrake was the perfect desktop solution to compete with Windows, at least for most business users. It had good out-of-box hardware support and a variety of applications. It never made it into the hardcore users segments, but was never really meant to.
It's sad that they may go under because people aren't willing to give them the investment chances that were blown on all sorts of computer companies which amounted to nothing. I'd love to see this go full community, because someone will eventually see the potential
After checking out their list, there are only two test machines running strictly Linux. At least of the non-clustered setups. Beyond that, they are all Win 2k Data Center, .NET Server, IBM AIX and Unix. The ones that are running are running Red Hat Advanced Server, and it does not specify if they are optimized.
.NET server (betas?). Most Linux admins would argue this, especially given the news article on /. last week that said it is cheaper to run. I wonder how accurate their measures are based on the monitoring tools.
Beyond that, they are not using a unified standard as their monitoring system. All of the Win machines use Com+ and the non-win use a variety.
They also say that most of the best Price/Performance machines are running Windows 2000 Server, or
I'm just curious what they are quantifying performance against. Everything here seemed to be strictly on the Network side of things. Are they trying to increase the actual Kernal processing of the individual threads for the network applications (File Serving, DB, and Webserving), or are they just measuring the eff. for the processing of data packets for the services.
It sounds interesting, but it looks like the tuning is done specifically on the IBM platform, which makes me wonder. Linux already blows and MS product away for these applications, so I'm curious what they are comparing the results to. Did they just take an arbitrary point (processor load) for specific applications, or are they creating a specialized measurement (like SysMarks in Windows) that is only valid in their test suite.
Anyway, it should be interesting to see where it ends up, eventually.
I'm surprised that they didn't bring up how rampant TV-show trading had become on the internet. Simpsons is probably the hottest ticket out there, and Futurama is a distance behind that.
Nice to see him giving the whole "region free" thing a nice kick. He's an actual major voice in entertainment, so it'd just be wonderful if he wasn't pro-MPAA. Since I already have the Simpsons Boxed sets, I'd like to see the rest go "any region"
Generally get an informative and direct error message, though it really depends on what you're setting out to break.
Installing nVidia drivers and ATi display drivers were what had me pulling out hairs. It wasn't until recently that nVidia made it easier.
As for the errors in windows, it really just depends on the error or the OS. Yes, 98/Me gave you a "Something Broke" kind of response. 2000 Got a little better with "Something Else Broke Like This" and XP says, "This Broke, This is Why, Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie Owie."
When I was trying to track down why every time I booted into Gnome on Redhat 6.2 my screen adjusted itself 3 inches to the right, I got to play scavenger hunt. In Mandrake, it had the habit of forgetting my root password every few mintues as SU in the same config app, but if I went to another app, it worked just fine.
And DLL hell went away nicely with the NT line, at least it did until someone messes something up. I'd blame external software more often than anything else in Windows for hosing DLLs.
And as for what is there left to break? There's always stuff to break. a # here and a / there can do just amazing things to Linux. Kind of like getting in the Windows Registry and adding L's to Hex Keys.
A) ROM stands for Read-Only Memory. Guess what CD-ROM stands for? But I'm sure we all know what you meant
I know what ROM stands for. That's not what I'm arguing here. A ROM on a CD was an image of a CDFS directory structure. A cartrige ROM is a single package, like a cab or RPM file. The operating system sees a single file, and the emulator runs it. On the disc, it sees the disc as an actual FS, so it sees a bunch of files that have a read-only attribute for them.
I never cared enough about the DC to look into it's process, just noticed it had WindowsCE on the cover.
And the last comment just agreed with what I said...
Yeah, it's that low. They actually make less from Universities and NPOs. The actual cost is based on shipped units, but it is the overall license that's paid for shipping the OS. Since the OEM absorbes the support, CD printing, and distribution of the product, all Microsoft provides is the product. And actually, they provide license numbers and COAs for them as well.
The retail cost for an XP upgrade is there because of the support that is offered for the product. It is really bad software, I know, I own a copy of the retail version. However, mine was free, compliments MS.
My company has thought about using Linux before, but actually, they get a big price incentive to ship Windows. That's the contract with Microsoft. It's not about force, but for price. It's no different than with any other manufacturing company, really.
As for the technology, as soon as you start to limit choice, you run into problems. Yes, eventually there will be a distro that supports a lot more, but that is off the horizon right now. Providing that list would be great, if people would read it before they bought stuff. I get at least one call a night on someone trying to install said hardware/software without checking requirements. Like people installing AOL 8.0 on a PII-266 with 32 megs of RAM. Or those people running 2000 or XP with 64 megs of RAM. Or just about anything else.
And yes, printed manuals are inclduded, but they are not the end all. MS has acutally done some good work in their "Help & Support Center" in XP, and the manual is just a window dressing. If something similar was in Linux, that would be great, but they would need to bring in something completely new to get it done. Man files are not the answer, neither are user forums, and neither are the existing documentation to most programs. At least not to most Open Source projects that people would need. I'd love to say they were, but I have not seen it yet.
Tech Support is the hardest part, and the biggest drain to a computer's cost. It's what you don't get on those cheap "best buy" PCs. But most people don't know it's there. It's hard enough to get someone to put in a CD, getting them to remember their Root password would be a new chore. Knowing what breaks will never work, because all of my experience with Linux has taught me that anything can break, but it doesn't like to tell you. At least Windows whines like a little girl.
Microsoft doesn't support their OEM products. If you purchase a system with an OEM version of windows, then they tell you to the manufacturer, OEM, etc.
And most companies don't hire a few MCSEs, they hire people that can talk on the phones. I'm not an MCSE, though my company is paying me to become one (so I can get a better job), but not because of my job.
And with most OS products, it's honestly not the OS that breaks the OS, but something else that does it. Kazaa, AOL, etc. The problem is that people want those programs.
I think it had something do do with time. It just may have been.
And perhaps most of the people you talk to have to play a woman angle, but some of us actually talk to real women.
The GameCube and GBA are quality products. The piracy that's seen has absolutely nothing to do with the product being good or not. I'll asume that you haven't played the GC or GBA, otherwise you would have been impressed with the systems, especially based on the size of the system. Star Wars: Rogue Leader, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Resident Evil 1 & 0, Eternal Darkness and a host of all other games were not only a great game to play, but also graphically stunning.
The piracy in China is like nothing else. You see those products all over Europe, and elsewhere even. More movies, CDs, and books are ripped off there than the legitimate copies are sold.
The largest N64 Roms were still less than 64megs, and they were also for an existing piece of Hardware that was needed (Doctor V64). The "emulators" of the time could maybe, just maybe, get off a frame every 10 minutes.
Gamecube titles hover around 600megs-1.2gigs, and are using all of the normal Nintendo compressed texture and caching techniques. They are a non-standard disc. Beyond that, disc based media doesn't use a ROM image, like older cartrages did. They use a separate file system, and need some sort of loading system (Windows CE on the Dreamcast, 2k on the X-BOX) to play games. The Cube is no different.