you do something in Windows Explorer that blocks (spin up a CD drive) and everything else (the "desktop", task bar, etc) all become unresponsive...
Yes, this is MAJORLY bad. I've had whole machines become totally unusable (mouse moves, that's about it) simply because of a dirty CD put in the drive, or a buggy drive (perhaps the mechanism is loose, etc). Windows wants to down the entire machine to devote all computational power to waiting for the CD drive! Linux is not off entirely scot-free, but it's definitely better at handling this situation, IMHO.
There must be a way of reducing the priority on these actions?
I got nothing, but then I gave nothing either, so I'm not out of pocket!;-) Haha, no, really, I don't celebrate Christmas, and the whole materialistic circle jerk. Give and receive things all AROUND the year, not just at one predefined time. That way your whole year will be better, instead of having to binge on getting crap in late December.
It's hardly a big deal, MySQL's data storage method is separate enough from the server that if it fried, I could have had it back on a stable MySQL within a couple of minutes. And considering I did it at 3am on a server that serves less than 10GB a month, no biggie;-)
You might be a database expert, but some of us are better at server administration and recovery than you might think;-)
I've been using MySQL 4.1 on a live server (with customers) for two or three months now. I basically wanted subqueries at the time, and so I just upgraded the box with disregard for everyone else;-) Luckily everything worked great! There's a little quirk with Unicode if you play with the character type settings on certain fields (as long as you stay away from Unicode you'll be more than okay). I also occasionally have the server die when given certain lengthy queries, but it comes straight back, and gets on with things.
So, no, it's hardly Oracle, but even MySQL's alpha stuff seems to be reasonably usable, as long as you aren't doing anything too serious. And, as any database expert will tell you, you probably aren't going to be using MySQL for anything that serious anyway. Nice work MySQL.. I'll spare my users from an immediate upgrade to MySQL 5 however.. for now!!
That's such a simple idea that I'm not sure why I didn't think of it. I have a big old empty server case, I could easily load it up with junk. Good thinking batman:-)
I use Linux, and I develop on Linux, but being locked in the world of servers and system administration, I find it hard to keep up with all the latest app, GUI, and tool developments going on with Linux.
This timeline is great for the past, but since it's Christmas day and all, I figured it wouldn't be too bad if I could ask some Linux developers to post here about what they've got coming up in 2004.
For example, are you working on sub-pixel font rendering in X.. got a totally unique productivity tool ready to come out in 2004.. or..? What great new steps forward can I expect to see in terms of what you're developing, next year?
Instead of hoarding and facing this problem, you should have done something about it a long time ago. I upgrade all the time, but when I do, I always find someone to sell the old parts to, or can put them in a machine I'm building that someone buys from me on the cheap (this is how I seem to upgrade my CDRW about a billion times a year). But you need to get rid of old parts before they become old, otherwise you end up with the problem you're in now.
If you sell the parts while someone still really wants them, and will pay good money, then you remove the whole problem of disposal. (Well, technically you push it on to someone else, but that's just as good) So next time you upgrade, go out and get those benjamins! It helps you rationalize the upgrade if you can get 50% of your costs back too;-)
Hmm, let's say a maximum of $15 for a set of 8 NiMH. My 8 way charger uses 9W, and takes 10 hours to charge. Assume 13.5 cents per KW/h (that's what it is here for me in the boonies). So we have 0.009W * 10 = 0.09W * 13.5 cents = 1.215 cents to charge 8 NiMH batteries. Assume 500 charges, for an electricity charge of $6.07, add to $15 for my set of NiMH, for a total of $21.07.
And that INCLUDES power, whereas the iPod thing doesn't. Either way, NiMH's and a charger come out at less than half than anything you can do with the iPod.
I'd probably get an iPod if it could take AA's. I mean, it might add another centimeter to the height of it, boo hoo. At least I'd be able to carry four sets of AA's with me, and get four times the playing time when I'm out travelling, instead of lug around a power adapter/charger with me.
This story reminds me of what I hear many smokers say when they're challenged over smoking. They say that there has never been any proof that smoking causes lung cancer, just that it's circumstantial. When A happens, then B happens, this doesn't mean that A caused B. If B happens after A in 95% of cases, that's not proof, and merely circumstantial (although compelling).
So, has there ever been a true proof that smoking causes lung cancer? It sounds, on the surface, as dubious as the fact that 'pollution causes global warming'.. where's the non-circumcised proof? when Frodo dies at the end.
Black and White is open ended, the objective is not made clear, and the methods you use to get to the unknown objective are also not clear. This makes it abstract, IMHO.
SimCity 4 has no goal in particular except 'build a successful city', and most of the theories behind doing this are rather obscure and you need to be an abstract thinker to work some of them out (unless you want to cheat with the strategy guide:-)). Simcity 3000/2000/et al, no, they're probably not that abstract at all.
Now... how exactly are you going to get on the net? Satellite? Pigeon?
where did it say he needed net access? It's hardly a prerequisite anyway. I managed to get through the whole of the 80's with a computer without any network connection at all;-) (Then again, I didn't have a mouse either.. scary!)
I can't believe a fucking troll has a 4, Insightful moderation that's lasting so long. Bravo, Sir!
Perhaps you should open your eyes and notice that not all of us sign up to your conformist 'everyone must be in a couple' bullshit;-) If the guy wants to use his freakin computer while he's taking a sabbatical in the boonies, big freakin deal!
I can't think of any recent game that got as much publicity as Tetris, a game which comfortably falls into this category. There were stories saying how Tetris would make your children smarter, and how some people were playing Tetris 20 hours a day.
I attended 'Game-On', an exhibition devoted to the history of computer games, in London (it's now in The Netherlands) about a year ago and watched some of their 'games related features' in the AV room. One of them had some professor claiming to know why people played Tetris so much, and why it was so addictive.
Supposedly, certain people are conquerors, and others are solvers. The solvers like to solve puzzles and produce order from chaos. Their challenge is to get things running smoothly. These sorts of people like Tetris, SimCity, Black & White, and those sorts of ultra abstract games (Black & White being an extreme example of a recent abstract game).
The conquerors prefer to create chaos, explore, or achieve goals by using power. These are your Quake 3, and RPG players.
So, any new abstract games would need to recognise these personalities. For example, there's probably not much of a market for an abstract beat-em-up (although Grand Theft Auto was surprisingly popular for all its freeform ways). Likewise, there's probably not much of a market for an adventure driven puzzle game (Bomberman is a solid exception here).
Anyway, I have no idea what I'm going on about now, so I'll stop there without making any conclusion at all.
When I'm at the airport stuck in limbo, I just pull out the charger and plug in. Suprise electrical outlets are all over the place. And I can plug my iPod into my laptop and charge it while working.
You're not meant to though. The amount of 'actually for public use' power sockets all over the place is very low. Jacking into the sockets meant for the cleaning staff is do-able, but not 'the way'. Either way, this is why I don't travel with a laptop/notebook. The battery times are abysmal.
Can I turn the argument around and say that the definition of a practical music lover is someone who doesn't own an iPod?
Isn't it quite possible that there are music lovers who decide based on set of criteria that the iPod is the best device for them? If so, are they trendy?
My definition of 'music lover' is different to yours. In my opinion, a music lover who's out of the house for more than 8 hours a shot would require more than eight hours' battery time on a portable music device.
Sure, you can still be a music lover with your iPod, at home, but music lovers on the move either have to put up with only having eight hours of music (i.e. 'teh sux') from their iPod, or go get something with a decent battery life.
I could suck up 8 hours of iPod time in a single journey with ease. Therefore, it's not good for me. Sure, it's great for those people who 'commute' an hour a day to work, as they can charge it every few days, but it's not great for everyone (nothing is).
Face it, the iPod is totally let down by its battery. 500 cycles? That sucks! My NiMH cellphone can do far more (and it's at about 500 now, I've had it four years, still holds as much charge as it ever did).
And 8 hours battery time on a charge? When I flew to LA I got up at 5.30am and was out of the door, with CD player, at 6am. Got to the airport at 8am, flight left at midday. Flight then took 10.5 hours, and then had to wait an hour at LAX. An iPod would have barely lasted until I GOT ON THE FLIGHT. It's ridiculous. Carrying a stack of CDs is hardly fun, but even Minidisc players or portable MP3 CD players can get 40 hours or so battery time. And you can always carry spare batteries to use!
I think most of the people who buy iPods are either part-time music listeners (no problem with that) or dumb style-schmucks. It's not a viable purchase for those of us who can't recharge at every single place we go.
Thankfully Apple is clearly targeting the iPod at the trendy people, so those of us music lovers with more practical needs can stick with our MP3 CD players and still have music going half way across the Atlantic.
I am surprised, though, that they sell more tickets than Hollywood does. The net gross is nowhere near as LA.....
Perhaps that's because the developing world doesn't get ripped off for TEN DOLLARS or more to watch a fucking ninety minute movie.
Most of us work jobs that pay a livable salary per year. Well, that's how they look at musicians, actors, etc.. they're all just doing a job, and not creaming off $20 million a picture.. this means ticket prices are lower and everyone can go enjoy the flick.
The rocket launcher and barrel explosion noises from Doom 1 are used in the first track on CD 2 of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins. Haven't played it for some time, but I used to love hearing that.
I see LOTR mentioned in several posts. LOTR came out MANY MANY years ago. It can't be a 'best book of 2003' as it's not 'of 2003'. This would be like calling Casablanca the movie of the year.
The Matrox Parhelia
on
The Return of S3
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Perhaps someone with some real knowledge could fill me in here.. but does anyone else remember Matrox 'coming back' less than a year ago with the Matrox Parhelia? This S3 return sounds like it could be the same, unless they make good on their promise of lower prices (and considering the price you can get a GeForce 4 MX for now.. it's a hard fight).
It seems the Parhelia was a card that was priced at more than most nVidia cards, yet provided no-where near the performance.. yet people still bought them. Why? I remember seeing the benchmarks and the Parhelia was absolutely shocking. Supposedly the only great thing was the FSAA quality but... you don't buy a card just for that, shurely?
So, what was so great about Matrox coming back with the Parhelia? I must have missed the point.
About five seconds set up time, judging by the quality. Really.. it's shocking. I hope they develop on this. Even that Microsoft Music Maker thing that could make personalised music back in the 90's was better:-(
There's a project which is 'kinda' doing stuff like this. It was started by one of the GNOME/Ximian heavies, Nat Friedman. It's called Dashboard and development is currently going on at a frantic pace.
Slashdot Mirror
you do something in Windows Explorer that blocks (spin up a CD drive) and everything else (the "desktop", task bar, etc) all become unresponsive...
Yes, this is MAJORLY bad. I've had whole machines become totally unusable (mouse moves, that's about it) simply because of a dirty CD put in the drive, or a buggy drive (perhaps the mechanism is loose, etc). Windows wants to down the entire machine to devote all computational power to waiting for the CD drive! Linux is not off entirely scot-free, but it's definitely better at handling this situation, IMHO.
There must be a way of reducing the priority on these actions?
I got nothing, but then I gave nothing either, so I'm not out of pocket! ;-) Haha, no, really, I don't celebrate Christmas, and the whole materialistic circle jerk. Give and receive things all AROUND the year, not just at one predefined time. That way your whole year will be better, instead of having to binge on getting crap in late December.
It's hardly a big deal, MySQL's data storage method is separate enough from the server that if it fried, I could have had it back on a stable MySQL within a couple of minutes. And considering I did it at 3am on a server that serves less than 10GB a month, no biggie ;-)
;-)
You might be a database expert, but some of us are better at server administration and recovery than you might think
I've been using MySQL 4.1 on a live server (with customers) for two or three months now. I basically wanted subqueries at the time, and so I just upgraded the box with disregard for everyone else ;-) Luckily everything worked great! There's a little quirk with Unicode if you play with the character type settings on certain fields (as long as you stay away from Unicode you'll be more than okay). I also occasionally have the server die when given certain lengthy queries, but it comes straight back, and gets on with things.
So, no, it's hardly Oracle, but even MySQL's alpha stuff seems to be reasonably usable, as long as you aren't doing anything too serious. And, as any database expert will tell you, you probably aren't going to be using MySQL for anything that serious anyway. Nice work MySQL.. I'll spare my users from an immediate upgrade to MySQL 5 however.. for now!!
That's such a simple idea that I'm not sure why I didn't think of it. I have a big old empty server case, I could easily load it up with junk. Good thinking batman :-)
I use Linux, and I develop on Linux, but being locked in the world of servers and system administration, I find it hard to keep up with all the latest app, GUI, and tool developments going on with Linux.
This timeline is great for the past, but since it's Christmas day and all, I figured it wouldn't be too bad if I could ask some Linux developers to post here about what they've got coming up in 2004.
For example, are you working on sub-pixel font rendering in X.. got a totally unique productivity tool ready to come out in 2004.. or..? What great new steps forward can I expect to see in terms of what you're developing, next year?
Your suggestion just passes the problem onto someone else.
And what's wrong with the good old American way!?
Instead of hoarding and facing this problem, you should have done something about it a long time ago. I upgrade all the time, but when I do, I always find someone to sell the old parts to, or can put them in a machine I'm building that someone buys from me on the cheap (this is how I seem to upgrade my CDRW about a billion times a year). But you need to get rid of old parts before they become old, otherwise you end up with the problem you're in now.
;-)
If you sell the parts while someone still really wants them, and will pay good money, then you remove the whole problem of disposal. (Well, technically you push it on to someone else, but that's just as good) So next time you upgrade, go out and get those benjamins! It helps you rationalize the upgrade if you can get 50% of your costs back too
We are only accessing FAT32 file systems, not using them.
I'll remember that one when the RIAA come around. "I'm only accessing thousands of MP3s, not using them, so I'm off totally scot-free!"
Hmm, let's say a maximum of $15 for a set of 8 NiMH. My 8 way charger uses 9W, and takes 10 hours to charge. Assume 13.5 cents per KW/h (that's what it is here for me in the boonies). So we have 0.009W * 10 = 0.09W * 13.5 cents = 1.215 cents to charge 8 NiMH batteries. Assume 500 charges, for an electricity charge of $6.07, add to $15 for my set of NiMH, for a total of $21.07.
And that INCLUDES power, whereas the iPod thing doesn't. Either way, NiMH's and a charger come out at less than half than anything you can do with the iPod.
I'd probably get an iPod if it could take AA's. I mean, it might add another centimeter to the height of it, boo hoo. At least I'd be able to carry four sets of AA's with me, and get four times the playing time when I'm out travelling, instead of lug around a power adapter/charger with me.
This story reminds me of what I hear many smokers say when they're challenged over smoking. They say that there has never been any proof that smoking causes lung cancer, just that it's circumstantial. When A happens, then B happens, this doesn't mean that A caused B. If B happens after A in 95% of cases, that's not proof, and merely circumstantial (although compelling).
So, has there ever been a true proof that smoking causes lung cancer? It sounds, on the surface, as dubious as the fact that 'pollution causes global warming'.. where's the non-circumcised proof? when Frodo dies at the end.
Black and White is open ended, the objective is not made clear, and the methods you use to get to the unknown objective are also not clear. This makes it abstract, IMHO.
:-)). Simcity 3000/2000/et al, no, they're probably not that abstract at all.
SimCity 4 has no goal in particular except 'build a successful city', and most of the theories behind doing this are rather obscure and you need to be an abstract thinker to work some of them out (unless you want to cheat with the strategy guide
Now... how exactly are you going to get on the net? Satellite? Pigeon?
;-) (Then again, I didn't have a mouse either.. scary!)
where did it say he needed net access? It's hardly a prerequisite anyway. I managed to get through the whole of the 80's with a computer without any network connection at all
A friendless geek wouldn't be out of the house for more than 8 hours though ;-)
I can't believe a fucking troll has a 4, Insightful moderation that's lasting so long. Bravo, Sir!
;-) If the guy wants to use his freakin computer while he's taking a sabbatical in the boonies, big freakin deal!
Perhaps you should open your eyes and notice that not all of us sign up to your conformist 'everyone must be in a couple' bullshit
(And fishing is boring as hell anyway)
I can't think of any recent game that got as much publicity as Tetris, a game which comfortably falls into this category. There were stories saying how Tetris would make your children smarter, and how some people were playing Tetris 20 hours a day.
I attended 'Game-On', an exhibition devoted to the history of computer games, in London (it's now in The Netherlands) about a year ago and watched some of their 'games related features' in the AV room. One of them had some professor claiming to know why people played Tetris so much, and why it was so addictive.
Supposedly, certain people are conquerors, and others are solvers. The solvers like to solve puzzles and produce order from chaos. Their challenge is to get things running smoothly. These sorts of people like Tetris, SimCity, Black & White, and those sorts of ultra abstract games (Black & White being an extreme example of a recent abstract game).
The conquerors prefer to create chaos, explore, or achieve goals by using power. These are your Quake 3, and RPG players.
So, any new abstract games would need to recognise these personalities. For example, there's probably not much of a market for an abstract beat-em-up (although Grand Theft Auto was surprisingly popular for all its freeform ways). Likewise, there's probably not much of a market for an adventure driven puzzle game (Bomberman is a solid exception here).
Anyway, I have no idea what I'm going on about now, so I'll stop there without making any conclusion at all.
When I'm at the airport stuck in limbo, I just pull out the charger and plug in. Suprise electrical outlets are all over the place. And I can plug my iPod into my laptop and charge it while working.
You're not meant to though. The amount of 'actually for public use' power sockets all over the place is very low. Jacking into the sockets meant for the cleaning staff is do-able, but not 'the way'. Either way, this is why I don't travel with a laptop/notebook. The battery times are abysmal.
Can I turn the argument around and say that the definition of a practical music lover is someone who doesn't own an iPod?
Isn't it quite possible that there are music lovers who decide based on set of criteria that the iPod is the best device for them? If so, are they trendy?
My definition of 'music lover' is different to yours. In my opinion, a music lover who's out of the house for more than 8 hours a shot would require more than eight hours' battery time on a portable music device.
Sure, you can still be a music lover with your iPod, at home, but music lovers on the move either have to put up with only having eight hours of music (i.e. 'teh sux') from their iPod, or go get something with a decent battery life.
I could suck up 8 hours of iPod time in a single journey with ease. Therefore, it's not good for me. Sure, it's great for those people who 'commute' an hour a day to work, as they can charge it every few days, but it's not great for everyone (nothing is).
Face it, the iPod is totally let down by its battery. 500 cycles? That sucks! My NiMH cellphone can do far more (and it's at about 500 now, I've had it four years, still holds as much charge as it ever did).
And 8 hours battery time on a charge? When I flew to LA I got up at 5.30am and was out of the door, with CD player, at 6am. Got to the airport at 8am, flight left at midday. Flight then took 10.5 hours, and then had to wait an hour at LAX. An iPod would have barely lasted until I GOT ON THE FLIGHT. It's ridiculous. Carrying a stack of CDs is hardly fun, but even Minidisc players or portable MP3 CD players can get 40 hours or so battery time. And you can always carry spare batteries to use!
I think most of the people who buy iPods are either part-time music listeners (no problem with that) or dumb style-schmucks. It's not a viable purchase for those of us who can't recharge at every single place we go.
Thankfully Apple is clearly targeting the iPod at the trendy people, so those of us music lovers with more practical needs can stick with our MP3 CD players and still have music going half way across the Atlantic.
I am surprised, though, that they sell more tickets than Hollywood does. The net gross is nowhere near as LA.....
Perhaps that's because the developing world doesn't get ripped off for TEN DOLLARS or more to watch a fucking ninety minute movie.
Most of us work jobs that pay a livable salary per year. Well, that's how they look at musicians, actors, etc.. they're all just doing a job, and not creaming off $20 million a picture.. this means ticket prices are lower and everyone can go enjoy the flick.
The rocket launcher and barrel explosion noises from Doom 1 are used in the first track on CD 2 of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins. Haven't played it for some time, but I used to love hearing that.
Whooooooosh....boom!
I see LOTR mentioned in several posts. LOTR came out MANY MANY years ago. It can't be a 'best book of 2003' as it's not 'of 2003'. This would be like calling Casablanca the movie of the year.
Perhaps someone with some real knowledge could fill me in here.. but does anyone else remember Matrox 'coming back' less than a year ago with the Matrox Parhelia? This S3 return sounds like it could be the same, unless they make good on their promise of lower prices (and considering the price you can get a GeForce 4 MX for now.. it's a hard fight).
It seems the Parhelia was a card that was priced at more than most nVidia cards, yet provided no-where near the performance.. yet people still bought them. Why? I remember seeing the benchmarks and the Parhelia was absolutely shocking. Supposedly the only great thing was the FSAA quality but... you don't buy a card just for that, shurely?
So, what was so great about Matrox coming back with the Parhelia? I must have missed the point.
You expect to have twenty generations of descendents by 2034? Ooh ooh I got it! You're from Alabama, right?
About five seconds set up time, judging by the quality. Really.. it's shocking. I hope they develop on this. Even that Microsoft Music Maker thing that could make personalised music back in the 90's was better :-(
There's a project which is 'kinda' doing stuff like this. It was started by one of the GNOME/Ximian heavies, Nat Friedman. It's called Dashboard and development is currently going on at a frantic pace.