ADS Technologies PYRO 1394 DV 3-PORT PCI OHCI 400 M/S HOST CARD - $87.89
That probably doesn't include shipping.:)
Also, Asus makes a 1394-enabled motherboard (the P3B-1394, I believe it's called). Only 3 PCI slots, though. *sigh*
And what's with the article posting - Asus makes PC99 legacy-free motherboards? Uhh, I can't find any on their website. PC99 doesn't mean legacy-free, either, as you can still have serial, parallel, PS/2, and ISA on the motherboard. They're recommended to not, but that doesn't mean they can't. Maybe they've got a legacy-free board _coming_?
Mmm, okay, so what kind of image does that wind up with? 1 x 1 pixels, or what? It's obviously not a useful method of generating PNGs.:)
I must say, though, that if it's that easy to create such a small PNG, why can't GIMP or Photoshop come up with small PNGs? The need for something like pngcrush is rather embarrassing, I'd think...
It's good to think about the impact your industry has on society as a whole, but I think the big concern here seems to be rather ego-centric. I mean, c'mon, all the 'best' minds attacted to the computer industry? Yeah, right.
You know, those same minds that came up with the iMac, Windows, xf86config, & hardware designs that you need a set of tools to work on. Those people. Yep, they're sure the smartest people around!
Some of the smartest people I've ever met don't care about computers except for how they make other things easier for them - like any other tool.
The Internet is a communications & (now) transaction medium, nothing more. It's really a big pile of crap when you look at it a certain way - impressive only because of the sheer scope of how MUCH crap is there, and how varied & easy it is to ACCESS that crap. How many more pet web sites does the world need? (answer: as many pets as there are, and then we start on the fictional ones!)
The Internet, and computers in general, are tools. Rather like the telephone, it's causing a great deal of attention right now because it's just recently become mainstream. But, like the telephone, it's hardly the harbinger of doom, and is actually a great help to just about everyone in every field.
Those doctors & engineers Roblimo mentions can all do better at collaborating now because of the Internet. Who do you think the Internet was originally developed for, people with pets? I think not. (therefor I am not?)
The Internet has a long ways to go to get where it needs to be. It needs, as so many have said before me, to be more like a kitchen appliance. Unfortunately, before we can get to that point, computers themselves need to be that easy and reliable to use. Microsoft obviously won't get us there, though they sure seem to want to actually BE in our real kitchen appliances! Linux and other Open Source operating systems have the reliability down, but not the interface (don't get me wrong - MS & Apple don't have the right interfaces, either). But Linux has the mindshare and momentum now to take on all comers. Hopefully Linux will drag the other OSS operating systems into the daylight (kicking and screaming, no doubt, about being behind Linux in the spotlight), and we'll have freedom of choice, too.
Either way, it's good to have a selection of reliable tools.
So, to sum up, the hammer didn't end society - it made building easier. But then again, the hammer is a lot easier to use than the Internet.
I used to do software testing for Spry (makers of Internet in a Box - anyone remember that?) - when we started getting our machines in, I named the first test webserver 'Mars', and it stuck. So the big machine with lots of RAM & HD space became Jupiter, and so on. We had a little 386sx piece of junk for testing slow machines/connection - that became Pluto.
Well, one day we got a Packard Bell in - of course there was only one thing we could name it.
Okay, after learning of this 'ability', I did that today, then I checked my cookies.txt file - and it still has an ID number in it, it doesn't say optout like the website claims.
So, is this a special ID for 'opt out', or are they just lying about being able to opt out?
1) Their HTML rendering is quite lame. It doesn't render most simple HTML correctly, so things look 'weird' compared to Navigator/IE. If they can't even get that right, they've got no chance.
2) The interface to the program is, well, 'weird'. It's not intuitive; it's way too complex and hard to configure the way most people are used to browsers working (and yes, I realize some people may not like the way Navigator/IE work interface-wise, but that's what people are used to).
3) It costs money. Duh. Remember how Navigator started losing the browser war in the first place?
And lastly, c'mon, the name of the thing! The only thing worse than Opera is Country & Western!;)
I've been thinking about doing this (I think it'd be a GREAT way to learn more about Linux!). One thing I oughta warn you, if you're sticking with the stable kernel tree - 2.2.12 won't compile with gcc 2.95 according to the notes - you gotta use 2.7.2.
Anyway, about your own linux - do you have any advice on what to install and what order? I'll likely be waiting for Linux 2.4 & XFree86 v4 before I try doing mine, but I've got a lotta research to do first!
Re:But NumLock needs to be off for the arrow keys
on
Changing the Keyboard
·
· Score: 1
That would be assuming it's OFF to begin with, which everyone knows is WRONG!:)
If it's 'just' the renderer, does that mean it's ONLY good for renderfarms? Or is this the whole Maya 2 Complete package, meaning you don't need anything else? I'm suspicious because of the price - Maya 2 normally goes for around $7500, doesn't it, with other versions going up around $16k...
Just rent the things. The local rental store has DVDs here. And they generally won't degrade with usage, either, other than by bad handling. Much better than tapes!
These cases look like dull rip-offs of the Apple iMac & G3 cases. I don't even much like the looks of the new Apple cases (and they're hardly all _that_ original looking - they look like they came straight out of an Anime movie). The great design that is present in the new G3 box is how dead-simple it is to open them up and work on them - THAT is truly innovative. And it's quite obvious that they did _no_ usability testing on that new hockey puck they call a mouse. And the keyboard feels pretty flimsy, too.
All in all, I'd rather have the same easy-to- work-on case, but in flat black.
And why doesn't anyone make a really _nice_ black monitor (or mouse)?! Good black keyboards can be found, and there are some okay black cases, but good black monitors seems to be completely non-existent!
I can't help but think the first manufacturers who start making _good_ black equipment are gonna make a killing...
1) Make the banner ad load from slashdot.org - that stupid adfu.blockstackers.com thing is so slow to load!
2) Ability to turn off left navigation left, bottom navigation list independently. Also the ability to do the no-graphic layout but keep the boxes on the right. And when you do the no graphic layout, remember you *can* still use background table cell colours - there's no need for it to be completely devoid of colour!
3) When clicking on a story, be able to have it automatically pop up into a new window, or each story pop up into a separate window - check out the settings options at http://www.newshub.com to see what that's like - quite nice! Though I'd like the option to pop them up into browsers in the background.
4) 'Killfile' - ability to ignore comments by individual users. Super low priority, though.
5) Ability to turn off search box, and the quote at the bottom of the page (individually).
6) Have poll show up on the right only if you've not voted in it!
7) Very important - some of us prefer to use the 'older stuff' page as our home slashdot page - it'd be great to have the new features available there, too! Or a version of the 'search page' that is just designed like that, but not designed for searching - ie: just the titles, poster, time, and # of replies.
8) And how about configurable date formats?
Go to a bookstore and see for yourself! - Agreed!
on
Learning Perl/Tk
·
· Score: 1
I very much agree with the suggestion to go to the store and check them out in person. Everyone learns a little bit differently than the person next to them, and that's the only way to be sure...other than nuking the site from orbit, of course!:)
Tip #1: Avoid 'Learning Perl' by O'Reilly!
on
Learning Perl/Tk
·
· Score: 1
It's garbage. A coworker of mine seems to agree - after both of us trying to find out even the most basic information about Perl the other day, we both independently wound up at bookstores that evening looking for something better. I came up with:
Perl by Example by Ellie Quigley and Perl Power! (can't remember author)
Both are quite nice - and you'll _really_ want Perl by Example - Perl is so obtuse at times that you'll need the line by line examples to figure somethings out. How 'Learning Perl' ever came to be respected, I'll never know - unless it's because the authors are influential, which is a ridiculous way to evaluate a book, IMO.
Anyway - my 2 cents' worth. Good luck!
well - so much for non-Intel processors at VA!
on
VA Going Bigtime
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· Score: 1
That AMD K7 looks like it'll be quite the nice CPU, but I'm thinking it looks rather doubtful as to whether someone will be able to get a K7-based machine from VAResearch...unfortunate, as their machines are already quite pricey. Sticking with Intel isn't likely to change that much.
Okay, so this begs the question - is it possible to run a mix of Gnome apps & KDE apps on a machine without problems? Is it possible (and if so, how undesirable?) to run both Gnome _and_ KDE? Are the designs of Gnome & KDE opposed so much that an eventual merging of the two is impossible? The GTK vs QT debate is one thing - sure, one could pick one (GTK, obviously, as it's GPL), but what about the other design aspects of Gnome & KDE? I agree that competition is good - but it _can_ hurt when you've gotta choose between Gnome apps and KDE apps!
I recall from the first article that the specint and specfp were both significantly higher than the clockrating would indicate. Perhaps that's where that 3x comes in?
Either way, if the thing is real, some US company would make an enormous amount of money by buying up the rights to manufacture it. AMD, maybe?:)
Slashdot Mirror
According to killerapp.com:
:)
ADS Technologies PYRO 1394 DV 3-PORT PCI OHCI 400 M/S HOST CARD - $87.89
That probably doesn't include shipping.
Also, Asus makes a 1394-enabled motherboard (the
P3B-1394, I believe it's called). Only 3 PCI slots, though. *sigh*
And what's with the article posting - Asus makes PC99 legacy-free motherboards? Uhh, I can't find any on their website. PC99 doesn't mean legacy-free, either, as you can still have serial, parallel, PS/2, and ISA on the motherboard. They're recommended to not, but that doesn't mean they can't. Maybe they've got a legacy-free board _coming_?
Mmm, okay, so what kind of image does that wind up with? 1 x 1 pixels, or what? It's obviously not a useful method of generating PNGs. :)
I must say, though, that if it's that easy to create such a small PNG, why can't GIMP or Photoshop come up with small PNGs? The need for something like pngcrush is rather embarrassing, I'd think...
Do you know of any programs that can create a 67 byte PNG? Does the GIMP? I've not been able to get anything under 100bytes (or even 100bytes)...
The GIFs you've been converting to PNG, then, must have had 'lots' (relatively) of colours, then.
Try this: 10 x 10 pixel image, 2 colours, non-interlaced, then strip it down and save it as a GIF.
Do the same with a PNG. Then use pngcrush on it to make it as small as possible.
red-white.gif (2 colours in palette): 45 bytes
red-white.png (2 colours saved by PS): 182 bytes
red-white2.png (2 colours, by pngcrush: 144 bytes
For ultra-small graphics, PNG is not anywhere near as small byte-size as GIF.
It's good to think about the impact your industry has on society as a whole, but I think the big concern here seems to be rather ego-centric. I mean, c'mon, all the 'best' minds attacted to the computer industry? Yeah, right.
You know, those same minds that came up with the iMac, Windows, xf86config, & hardware designs that you need a set of tools to work on. Those people. Yep, they're sure the smartest people around!
Some of the smartest people I've ever met don't care about computers except for how they make other things easier for them - like any other tool.
The Internet is a communications & (now) transaction medium, nothing more. It's really a big pile of crap when you look at it a certain way - impressive only because of the sheer scope of how MUCH crap is there, and how varied & easy it is to ACCESS that crap. How many more pet web sites does the world need? (answer: as many pets as there are, and then we start on the fictional ones!)
The Internet, and computers in general, are tools. Rather like the telephone, it's causing a great deal of attention right now because it's just recently become mainstream. But, like the telephone, it's hardly the harbinger of doom, and is actually a great help to just about everyone in every field.
Those doctors & engineers Roblimo mentions can all do better at collaborating now because of the Internet. Who do you think the Internet was originally developed for, people with pets? I think not. (therefor I am not?)
The Internet has a long ways to go to get where it needs to be. It needs, as so many have said before me, to be more like a kitchen appliance. Unfortunately, before we can get to that point, computers themselves need to be that easy and reliable to use. Microsoft obviously won't get us there, though they sure seem to want to actually BE in our real kitchen appliances! Linux and other Open Source operating systems have the reliability down, but not the interface (don't get me wrong - MS & Apple don't have the right interfaces, either). But Linux has the mindshare and momentum now to take on all comers. Hopefully Linux will drag the other OSS operating systems into the daylight (kicking and screaming, no doubt, about being behind Linux in the spotlight), and we'll have freedom of choice, too.
Either way, it's good to have a selection of reliable tools.
So, to sum up, the hammer didn't end society - it made building easier. But then again, the hammer is a lot easier to use than the Internet.
I used to do software testing for Spry (makers of Internet in a Box - anyone remember that?) - when we started getting our machines in, I named the first test webserver 'Mars', and it stuck. So the big machine with lots of RAM & HD space became Jupiter, and so on. We had a little 386sx piece of junk for testing slow machines/connection - that became Pluto.
Well, one day we got a Packard Bell in - of course there was only one thing we could name it.
Wait for it...
You got it: Uranus.
Okay, after learning of this 'ability', I did that today, then I checked my cookies.txt file - and it still has an ID number in it, it doesn't say optout like the website claims.
So, is this a special ID for 'opt out', or are they just lying about being able to opt out?
Okay, here we go:
Socket 7/Super 7: Pentium, Pentium MMX, AMD K6, K6-2, K6-III (Super 7 is a Socket 7 w/ 100MHz FSB)
Socket 8: Pentium Pro
Slot 1: Pentium II/III, some Celerons
Slot 2: Pentium Xeon?
Slot A: AMD K7/Athlon - Slot A is mechnically but not electrically compatible with Slot 1.
Socket 370 - Designed by IBM - used by Intel for some Celerons & Pentium IIIs. The future for Intel - Slot 1 goes bye-bye over the next few years.
I don't know about the proprietary nature (or lack thereof) of Slot A, sorry.
Why?
;)
1) Their HTML rendering is quite lame. It doesn't render most simple HTML correctly, so things look 'weird' compared to Navigator/IE. If they can't even get that right, they've got no chance.
2) The interface to the program is, well, 'weird'. It's not intuitive; it's way too complex and hard to configure the way most people are used to browsers working (and yes, I realize some people may not like the way Navigator/IE work interface-wise, but that's what people are used to).
3) It costs money. Duh. Remember how Navigator started losing the browser war in the first place?
And lastly, c'mon, the name of the thing! The only thing worse than Opera is Country & Western!
If you read their service agreement, you'll notice this little gem as part of section B. REGISTRATION:
"You hereby grant NSI the right to disclose to
third parties such Account Information."
Gah! Okay, so what this means is, if you log into that account, you agree to let them release all your information to be spammed into oblivion.
Nice.
I've been thinking about doing this (I think it'd be a GREAT way to learn more about Linux!). One
thing I oughta warn you, if you're sticking with the stable kernel tree - 2.2.12 won't compile with gcc 2.95 according to the notes - you gotta use 2.7.2.
Anyway, about your own linux - do you have any advice on what to install and what order? I'll likely be waiting for Linux 2.4 & XFree86 v4 before I try doing mine, but I've got a lotta research to do first!
That would be assuming it's OFF to begin with, which everyone knows is WRONG! :)
If it's 'just' the renderer, does that mean it's
ONLY good for renderfarms? Or is this the whole
Maya 2 Complete package, meaning you don't need anything else? I'm suspicious because of the price - Maya 2 normally goes for around $7500, doesn't it, with other versions going up around $16k...
Just rent the things. The local rental store has DVDs here. And they generally won't degrade with usage, either, other than by bad handling. Much better than tapes!
I'm definitely ready for DVD...
If they claim all the rights, then I guess they're claiming to have all the responsibility for anything posted there, too, eh? Somehow I doubt it.
These cases look like dull rip-offs of the Apple
iMac & G3 cases. I don't even much like the looks
of the new Apple cases (and they're hardly all
_that_ original looking - they look like they
came straight out of an Anime movie). The great
design that is present in the new G3 box is how
dead-simple it is to open them up and work on
them - THAT is truly innovative. And it's quite
obvious that they did _no_ usability testing on
that new hockey puck they call a mouse. And the
keyboard feels pretty flimsy, too.
All in all, I'd rather have the same easy-to-
work-on case, but in flat black.
And why doesn't anyone make a really _nice_
black monitor (or mouse)?! Good black keyboards
can be found, and there are some okay black
cases, but good black monitors seems to be
completely non-existent!
I can't help but think the first manufacturers
who start making _good_ black equipment are
gonna make a killing...
I can't believe that - that's so lame! How are
those of us with 7 arms supposed to use all our
mice simultanously!
Linux is falling so far behind...
_grin_
That's a great idea. But then after you've seen the stats for awhile, I think it'd be great to have a link on the box to 'Turn off until new poll'.
I wonder if Rob is reading this stuff...
I also just realized - the date format I see is thus: Wednesday March 17, @07:48
I'd rather see:
1999-03-17 07:48pm
Or whatever. Maybe a way to make your own date/time format - that'd rock.
1) Make the banner ad load from slashdot.org -
that stupid adfu.blockstackers.com thing is so slow to load!
2) Ability to turn off left navigation left,
bottom navigation list independently. Also the
ability to do the no-graphic layout but keep
the boxes on the right. And when you do the no
graphic layout, remember you *can* still use
background table cell colours - there's no need
for it to be completely devoid of colour!
3) When clicking on a story, be able to have it
automatically pop up into a new window, or each
story pop up into a separate window - check out
the settings options at http://www.newshub.com to see what that's like - quite nice! Though I'd like the option to pop them up into browsers in the background.
4) 'Killfile' - ability to ignore comments by individual users. Super low priority, though.
5) Ability to turn off search box, and the quote at the bottom of the page (individually).
6) Have poll show up on the right only if you've not voted in it!
7) Very important - some of us prefer to use the 'older stuff' page as our home slashdot page - it'd be great to have the new features available there, too! Or a version of the 'search page' that is just designed like that, but not designed for searching - ie: just the titles, poster, time, and # of replies.
8) And how about configurable date formats?
I very much agree with the suggestion to go to :)
the store and check them out in person. Everyone
learns a little bit differently than the person
next to them, and that's the only way to be
sure...other than nuking the site from orbit,
of course!
It's garbage. A coworker of mine seems to agree - after both of us trying to find out even the most basic information about Perl the other day, we both independently wound up at bookstores that evening looking for something better. I came up with:
Perl by Example by Ellie Quigley
and
Perl Power! (can't remember author)
Both are quite nice - and you'll _really_ want Perl by Example - Perl is so obtuse at times that you'll need the line by line examples to figure somethings out. How 'Learning Perl' ever came to be respected, I'll never know - unless it's because the authors are influential, which is a ridiculous way to evaluate a book, IMO.
Anyway - my 2 cents' worth. Good luck!
That AMD K7 looks like it'll be quite the nice CPU, but I'm thinking it looks rather doubtful as to whether someone will be able to get a K7-based machine from VAResearch...unfortunate, as their machines are already quite pricey. Sticking with Intel isn't likely to change that much.
Okay, so this begs the question - is it possible to run a mix of Gnome apps & KDE apps on a machine without problems? Is it possible (and if so, how undesirable?) to run both Gnome _and_ KDE? Are the designs of Gnome & KDE opposed so much that an eventual merging of the two is impossible? The GTK vs QT debate is one thing - sure, one could pick one (GTK, obviously, as it's GPL), but what about the other design aspects of Gnome & KDE? I agree that competition is good - but it _can_ hurt when you've gotta choose between Gnome apps and KDE apps!
I recall from the first article that the specint
:)
and specfp were both significantly higher than the clockrating would indicate. Perhaps that's where that 3x comes in?
Either way, if the thing is real, some US company would make an enormous amount of money by buying up the rights to manufacture it. AMD, maybe?