Also, alot of people are saying that average guy doesn't need to know the details to use his computer. That might be true, for minimal use. However, knowing what's going on will always let you do more, be more productive and (for me) enjoy doing it more. It's often better to know a bit too much than a bit too little.
Oh sorry I didn't explain b/c it wasn't important. I don't know why I mentioned it in the first place.:) MUN just stands for Memorial University of Newfoundland.
I have a GeForce 4 4600 128mb (the highest end card on the GF4 line) and the performance is excellent. If my card runs Doom 3 well, then I don't see myself upgrading for a while yet.
Nonetheless the review is interesting. What is even more interesting is that, as some people have already noted, Nvidia may be heading the way of 3dfx. Think about it harder for a minute. I am looking at the Unreal Tournament 2003 benchmarks and the Nvidia cards are slower by a SMALL margin.
A margin that small will not put them out of business, unless the gap grows larger in future cards.
On a side note I do not pay close attention to hardware companies. Do other video card companies even exist anymore? (S3, Matrox, whomever) Nvidia and ATI are the only ones I hear about nowadays.
I'm not a holy person who avoids knowing Windows. In fact, sometimes I wonder if open source will put people who write software for a living out of work.
An earlier reply said that CS majors are learning VB.NET in class, which is the exact opposite of my University.
Many of the interesting CS courses here are done as electives -- they save the core courses for unpopular stuff that few people would take if they didn't have to. They focus alot on concepts. Anyone is encouraged to learn more (such as.NET) on their own.
I agree with you that the parent post is not a troll... HOWEVER:
You say that CS students are learning VB.NET. I am a CS major at MUN and the VAST MAJORITY of labs at the university run on Linux. We have NO Microsoft-specific courses.
We actually had a Microsoft Canada representive come and give a presentation about.NET. It's obvious they are trying to get inside universities because those of us who had actually heard of.NET really had NO IDEA what it is. The Microsoft presentation was very poorly done.:)
I don't know about other universities but ours does NOT teach Visual Basic OR.NET etc. Some of the courses are very theoritical/mathematical. The introductory CS courses (CS1700) and the introductory programming course (CS2710) both use Java. And anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Java is more prepared to learn C++ than someone who knows Visual Basic.
The author poses the question of "Would you know what to do if you were left staring at lines of letters and numbers of HTML?" to which I (and most of Slashdot, I suspect) answered YES! Then I found out since my answer was yes, that I am in a minority! Awesome!
I am a Computer Science major at MUN and with the reduced spending and reduced high-tech jobs my greatest fear is that I will not get a job in a couple of years when I finish my degree. I, along with many other SlashDot readers, might become obsolete.
This article takes the opposite viewpoint -- it emphasizes how important computers and technology are to our future. I particularly liked the article telling us that everyone else is in a dark age.:) This is simply a case of somebody "telling me what I want to hear" and I love it!:)
I keep reading about the high 'cost of patching systems.' Ummm... in 1998 Microsoft launched Windows update. It detects what updates you don't have yet and then you can download them. And with Windows XP you can turn on automatic updates -- it downloads the updates for you and lets you know when they are ready to be installed. When you install them you can even click no to the restart your computer question and they will be fully installed the next time the computer restarts. Thus not being inconvient at all. Given, in a business situation, maybe it's only the admins that want to be patching systems, but they should still make use of Windows update. Automatic updating can even be set to auto install updates overnight!
The patch for MSBlast came out weeks before the worm came out -- the only reason ANYONE was affected by it was because they were too "lazy" to use AUTOMATIC updating.
If people do not want to patch there systems on time, then they should at least put up a firewall. If I remember correctly, anybody with a firewall was immune to the blaster worm.
This is the biggest load of horse-shit I have ever seen. There is one simple fact: Businesses fail sometime. Get the fuck over it.
This article is trying to teach us the persistance and hard work will never pay off. What, are you a bunch of communist IDIOTS? Just look at Blizzard Entertainment, for example. It says right on their job requirements page "Able to work long hours when necessary". People at Blizzard work hard and get the job done. They are one of the most successful gaming companies in the world.
I don't give a damn about the arcade owners! It is the users I am concerned about. In the past I have spent a great deal of time in arcades, and loved every minute of it. The government does not control us... its our life... they shouldn't be able to tell us that we can't do something we enjoy without a very, very good reason.
The ban is focused on battling gambling and addiction, but includes legal non-gambling game arcades? What a load of crap. Everywhere else has managed to put restrictions on gambling without having to close down video game arcades.
Some children are willing to steal from their parents? Well that is the parents responsibility to disipline their child properly.
This may even have a subtle effect on their economy. Hey, an arcade is a tax-paying business, isn't it?
Personally, I downhill ski. Alot. And I thought this was a very impressive story. One of the primary reasons I read SlashDot is because its different. What's wrong with a "different" story every now and then?
Upon rethinking my statement, I have to agree with you. However, you can twist this the other way around. Many people buy cards as singles. If there were more good cards in booster packs, etc., people might buy more of them.
Personally, I don't like foils. However, they are great traders. (I got 2x Force of Will for a Foil Hunting Moa!)
This kind of thing is not uncommon in several scaled-down forms. For example a local ISP here is offering an ASDL connection. In their FAQ it says, "Will Unix/Linux/OS/2 etc. work with this?" Their answer is, "Perhaps, but we don't support it you are on your own." Upon trying to call their tech. support they assume you are a dumbass. "Would you be able to tell me the IP for your DNS server?" they ask if you are having troubles connecting and say install their software and it should be configured automatically. I tell them I'm using Linux and they tell me "Oh sorry, we can't support that." They virtually hang up...
I play Magic (Funny how nobody under 14 seems to play Magic around here), and spend lots of money on cards. But most of them are crap. They make a new set: probably only 1/3 of the cards are tournament viable. If 2/3 were tournament viable everyone wouldn't need to keep buying packs. We could buy less packs and we'd have good cards. Trade to get others.
Now, I know I'm talking about Magic, and Pokemon is the game in question, and, despite what anybody thinks, the games are HUGELY different, but I'm positive that there are as many crap cards in Pokemon as there are in Magic.
Plus if all cards were equally as common the game(s) would be boring! You don't see makers of baseball cards getting sued? Do you?
I tried to overclock my AMD 400. It didn't boot to Windows. Not once. I tried booting to Linux! It worked, it didn't crash, and it worked THE FIRST TIME! I don't know what I did, but ever since I did upgrade to a 400 Windows locks up every time I turn on the computer. I pound reset, then it works fine. But Linux just doesn't do this. And Linux's "kill" command works far better than pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL in Win 98.
I'm tired of hearing people complain that Linux is too difficult to learn! I mean, COME ON! I'm just 15 years old and a few months ago I downloaded and installed Debian and got it running, got X working, Netscape, Quake, learned Emacs, and the basics of copying files, editing.conf files, etc. Then I was told Debian is ADVANCED! Sure I had to re-compile the Kernel a dozen times to get sound and stuff working, but I sure learned alot more than I would in Windows!
I can also remember reading another Linux article where the author said he started getting confused about having to create partitions and wondering, "Why do I have to do this?". These people with their pre-installed Windows don't realize if you ever get a new hard drive you (probably) have/want to partition it and then install Windows.
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Malus, I notice things like that too.
Also, alot of people are saying that average guy doesn't need to know the details to use his computer. That might be true, for minimal use. However, knowing what's going on will always let you do more, be more productive and (for me) enjoy doing it more. It's often better to know a bit too much than a bit too little.
Wow you are correct. I didn't know about that. Has the 4800 always been around?
Oh sorry I didn't explain b/c it wasn't important. I don't know why I mentioned it in the first place. :) MUN just stands for Memorial University of Newfoundland.
I have a GeForce 4 4600 128mb (the highest end card on the GF4 line) and the performance is excellent. If my card runs Doom 3 well, then I don't see myself upgrading for a while yet.
Nonetheless the review is interesting. What is even more interesting is that, as some people have already noted, Nvidia may be heading the way of 3dfx. Think about it harder for a minute. I am looking at the Unreal Tournament 2003 benchmarks and the Nvidia cards are slower by a SMALL margin.
A margin that small will not put them out of business, unless the gap grows larger in future cards.
On a side note I do not pay close attention to hardware companies. Do other video card companies even exist anymore? (S3, Matrox, whomever) Nvidia and ATI are the only ones I hear about nowadays.
I'm not a holy person who avoids knowing Windows. In fact, sometimes I wonder if open source will put people who write software for a living out of work.
.NET) on their own.
An earlier reply said that CS majors are learning VB.NET in class, which is the exact opposite of my University.
Many of the interesting CS courses here are done as electives -- they save the core courses for unpopular stuff that few people would take if they didn't have to. They focus alot on concepts. Anyone is encouraged to learn more (such as
I agree with you that the parent post is not a troll... HOWEVER:
.NET. It's obvious they are trying to get inside universities because those of us who had actually heard of .NET really had NO IDEA what it is. The Microsoft presentation was very poorly done. :)
.NET etc. Some of the courses are very theoritical/mathematical. The introductory CS courses (CS1700) and the introductory programming course (CS2710) both use Java. And anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Java is more prepared to learn C++ than someone who knows Visual Basic.
You say that CS students are learning VB.NET. I am a CS major at MUN and the VAST MAJORITY of labs at the university run on Linux. We have NO Microsoft-specific courses.
We actually had a Microsoft Canada representive come and give a presentation about
I don't know about other universities but ours does NOT teach Visual Basic OR
The author poses the question of "Would you know what to do if you were left staring at lines of letters and numbers of HTML?" to which I (and most of Slashdot, I suspect) answered YES! Then I found out since my answer was yes, that I am in a minority! Awesome!
:) This is simply a case of somebody "telling me what I want to hear" and I love it! :)
I am a Computer Science major at MUN and with the reduced spending and reduced high-tech jobs my greatest fear is that I will not get a job in a couple of years when I finish my degree. I, along with many other SlashDot readers, might become obsolete.
This article takes the opposite viewpoint -- it emphasizes how important computers and technology are to our future. I particularly liked the article telling us that everyone else is in a dark age.
You make excellent points.
However, how often do Microsoft patches break third-party software? This is a serious question, because I have no idea. Is it a common occurance?
I would have suspected that Microsoft tests their own patches comprehensivly before releasing them so they would be ready for immediate deployment.
I keep reading about the high 'cost of patching systems.' Ummm... in 1998 Microsoft launched Windows update. It detects what updates you don't have yet and then you can download them. And with Windows XP you can turn on automatic updates -- it downloads the updates for you and lets you know when they are ready to be installed. When you install them you can even click no to the restart your computer question and they will be fully installed the next time the computer restarts. Thus not being inconvient at all. Given, in a business situation, maybe it's only the admins that want to be patching systems, but they should still make use of Windows update. Automatic updating can even be set to auto install updates overnight!
The patch for MSBlast came out weeks before the worm came out -- the only reason ANYONE was affected by it was because they were too "lazy" to use AUTOMATIC updating.
If people do not want to patch there systems on time, then they should at least put up a firewall. If I remember correctly, anybody with a firewall was immune to the blaster worm.
I think we should be very skeptical about a sustainable, long-term high-tech upturn.
Is it Mandrake specifically or any GNU/Linux distribution that damages these drives?
This is the biggest load of horse-shit I have ever seen. There is one simple fact: Businesses fail sometime. Get the fuck over it.
This article is trying to teach us the persistance and hard work will never pay off. What, are you a bunch of communist IDIOTS? Just look at Blizzard Entertainment, for example. It says right on their job requirements page "Able to work long hours when necessary". People at Blizzard work hard and get the job done. They are one of the most successful gaming companies in the world.
You anti-capitalistic wackos are morons.
LOL. Good point. I don't really like conspiracy theories though. :)
I don't give a damn about the arcade owners! It is the users I am concerned about. In the past I have spent a great deal of time in arcades, and loved every minute of it. The government does not control us... its our life... they shouldn't be able to tell us that we can't do something we enjoy without a very, very good reason.
The ban is focused on battling gambling and addiction, but includes legal non-gambling game arcades? What a load of crap. Everywhere else has managed to put restrictions on gambling without having to close down video game arcades.
Some children are willing to steal from their parents? Well that is the parents responsibility to disipline their child properly.
This may even have a subtle effect on their economy. Hey, an arcade is a tax-paying business, isn't it?
Actually, I love hearing CmdrTaco talk :)
Give him a break. This is an interesting story.
Personally, I downhill ski. Alot. And I thought this was a very impressive story. One of the primary reasons I read SlashDot is because its different. What's wrong with a "different" story every now and then?
Yeah will listen Jackass... nevermind
Upon rethinking my statement, I have to agree with you. However, you can twist this the other way around. Many people buy cards as singles. If there were more good cards in booster packs, etc., people might buy more of them.
Personally, I don't like foils. However, they are great traders. (I got 2x Force of Will for a Foil Hunting Moa!)
Noticed I said "Started" not "the one and only man". Perhaps I should have changed started to "was a big help in".
This kind of thing is not uncommon in several scaled-down forms. For example a local ISP here is offering an ASDL connection. In their FAQ it says, "Will Unix/Linux/OS/2 etc. work with this?" Their answer is, "Perhaps, but we don't support it you are on your own." Upon trying to call their tech. support they assume you are a dumbass. "Would you be able to tell me the IP for your DNS server?" they ask if you are having troubles connecting and say install their software and it should be configured automatically. I tell them I'm using Linux and they tell me "Oh sorry, we can't support that." They virtually hang up...
Hopefully he can go down in history as the man who started the revolution that brang down Microsoft and revolutionarized the computer industry!
Make less crap cards.
I play Magic (Funny how nobody under 14 seems to play Magic around here), and spend lots of money on cards. But most of them are crap. They make a new set: probably only 1/3 of the cards are tournament viable. If 2/3 were tournament viable everyone wouldn't need to keep buying packs. We could buy less packs and we'd have good cards. Trade to get others.
Now, I know I'm talking about Magic, and Pokemon is the game in question, and, despite what anybody thinks, the games are HUGELY different, but I'm positive that there are as many crap cards in Pokemon as there are in Magic.
Plus if all cards were equally as common the game(s) would be boring! You don't see makers of baseball cards getting sued? Do you?
I tried to overclock my AMD 400. It didn't boot to Windows. Not once. I tried booting to Linux! It worked, it didn't crash, and it worked THE FIRST TIME! I don't know what I did, but ever since I did upgrade to a 400 Windows locks up every time I turn on the computer. I pound reset, then it works fine. But Linux just doesn't do this. And Linux's "kill" command works far better than pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL in Win 98.
I'm tired of hearing people complain that Linux is too difficult to learn! I mean, COME ON! I'm just 15 years old and a few months ago I downloaded and installed Debian and got it running, got X working, Netscape, Quake, learned Emacs, and the basics of copying files, editing .conf files, etc. Then I was told Debian is ADVANCED! Sure I had to re-compile the Kernel a dozen times to get sound and stuff working, but I sure learned alot more than I would in Windows!
I can also remember reading another Linux article where the author said he started getting confused about having to create partitions and wondering, "Why do I have to do this?". These people with their pre-installed Windows don't realize if you ever get a new hard drive you (probably) have/want to partition it and then install Windows.