I'd like to see them start shutting down major search engines. It would be nice if we could harness their power in such a way that we dont even need these sites any more. It would be just fine if you could just use a search engine such as google as a definitive search rather than going through your 5 or 6 favorite torrent sites to find that elusive file. That seems like the way forward to me. Whichever way , it seems to me that bittorrent's weak point is the requirement for these sites in the first place.
Point - Multiprocessing systems are the general direction computing is going in. The new Mac's use it (core duo) , the PC's Hyperthreaded dual core's. Xbox 360's and of Course the PS3.
That said - Asumming the 360 has "Symmetric" architecture and the PS3 "Assymetric" as the guy is implying.
Lets discover exactly what the difference is between the two.
My understanding is that Symmetric multiprocessing (Xbox 360) gives each processor identical levels of responsibility for processing tasks. For example - on a linux SMP system the kernel will try to balance processes equally across each processor. Only if an application process is specifically written to thread its own tasks across both processors will it be shared across them. This is why having a multiprocessor computer rarely makes much difference to a uniprocessor machine unless the game is specifically written to take advantage of a multiprocessing environment. Games like this are currently rare.
Taking a look at Asymettric procesing... (PS3) This allows us to give each processors specific tasks. For example we could dedicate 1 cell chip to running say the AI for a game, another for the Player physics and the rest for graphics and sound. This actually makes the design of the system considerably simpler and easier to abstract - although it could be argued that it reduces the overall performace of the system. Good job then that the PS3 has more than twice the amount of processors as the 360. However the same can be said for the PS3 as the 360 - Unless games are specifically written to take advantage of a multiprocessor environment there is little advantage in having them. Both consoles are going to require a new mindset and learning curve before either will reach their true potential. This has always been the case and so long as technology keeps changing will continue to do so.
I'd like to add to this that ID Software is not traditionally a Playstation development studio. There are only two releases I can think of - Quake 2 (PSX) and Quake 3 (PS2). They are traditionally a PC studio - and their experience of development therefore lies in this area. XBox 360 is designed with this in mind. It does stand to reason that Carmack's team would agree with this - simply because the Microsoft Development platform is what they have been doing for years. Id like to hear what a tradional Playstation dev studio says about the 360 as a development platform, or Nintendo for example.
Pick any console from any manufacturer. compare a launch title with another title on the same platform later in its lifecycle. In most cases there will be significant improvements this shows only that it takes time - (and library updates) to climb to the top.
Despite all of this I have to say that what matters most of all here is not how powerful one system or another is. What really matters are the games. At this moment in time I can't justify buying a new console just because it has better graphics or sound. Those things matter less and less as time goes by- The game plays the same no matter how many more polygons it is or isnt shifting. Lets be honest here - leaving visuals and sound out of the equation - what kinds of gameplay can be created now that could never have been done prior to these next generation machines? Perhaps the answer to that question can hinted at by looking at the kinds of tasks most suited to multiprocessing systems.
Personally i have found the jpg quality of gimp to be fine. As always its best to tweak the settings in the dialog to get the best results. I always make sure Subsampling is set to "1x1,1x1,1x1" and DCT Method set to floating point. Those will single handedly improve the jpg quaity. Then you can adjust other sliders and checkboxes together with the preview function to get the best results.
Quit the slashdot addiction and try Monster.com or Jobserve.com. Seriously though - perhaps it your time might be better spending it not posting comments on slashdot http://slashdot.org/~Lord_Dweomer (well over 3000 posts, not bad going mate)
. Instead switch your Slashdot time for job hunting time.
I can talk though im in a similar position;)
There's enough fuss here about the drink driving already. I dont know about you but after i've had a few I dont want my car pissed too!. Besides it brings new meaning to the term "On the Wagon"
If Microsoft's predictions are correct, this could pose a major threat to Sony's well-established PlayStation line of consoles.
I wonder what Sony's or Nintendo's predictions might be...
Most unbiased indications are saying that XBox 360 is not doing quite as well as they would have hoped, especially in Japan where the reception has been lukewarm at best. Couple that with the fairly unimpressive game line-up it's not going to take Nostradamus to see that were just going to have to see what happens in the forthcoming months.
The XBox 360 hype never seemed to pick up steam (at least in the UK) and now there are units on shelves that hype has largely subsided. At the moment the XBox360 is only competing with current hardware on shelve's, that includes its younger brother (Xbox), the PS2 and the gamecube. PS2 units sold is probably rapidly approaching 100 million units worldwide....
So until we see the other Next Gen consoles on shelve's this is just idle speculation.
You are posting this to the wrong place. This is a great idea and would make a fantastic addition to firefox other options. But you should really suggest this to the firefox team.
In my line of work, I spend time working with both Windows Stuff (Proprietary) and Linux stuff(Open Source). My experience is that when I have a problem, or a requirement to fulfil that is Linux based, there is a huge amount of resource available on the internet, forums, code-snippets , tools etc free and easily available. Whenever I have a windows problem I find that I invariably run into people trying to sell me stuff, components, plugin's licenses and little in the way of (free) help.
Im not sure whether "Community" is the best word to use, but I certainly find life on the open source side of the fence much friendlier and helpful and ethical than life on the other side of the fence.
As it happens, I'm planning a $500 investment in gaming hardware soon: a new mobo, CPU and graphics card. I'm confident that the results in 1600x1200 will look as nice as the PS3, and I won't be paying Sony to lock me out of using my hardware in the way that I see fit.
So, what ? Is this a Linux Rig your planning on building then? Presumably if you are so against lock-in you wont be considering Microsoft as the OS, or a hardware vendors selling graphics cards with proprietary drivers....
Is "True" AI , I have a degree in AI and I've never hear the term "True" AI. This is purely a name that has been pulled out of a hat. Having rtfa , and reading the description this sounds like nothing more than a fairly sophisticated expert system with some connectionist ideas thrown in.
Generally speaking there are two types of AI (GOFAI) "Good Old Fashioned AI" - That which deals with logic based reasoning, semantics and symbolic processing - Think ELIZA and ALICE or simple Chess programs all fit into this category.
The other school of AI - The Connectionist model deals with parallel processing models, neural networks, fuzzy logic and so forth.
It seems to me that GTX have basically used a blend of both these ideas to achieve this. Perhaps using expert system models to encapsulate the knowledge of a salesperson or customer service person. But using connectionist ideas to process speech and other fuzzy input data.
So while their product is quite an interesting one it is nothing new. I think that the term they may have been looking for is "Strong" AI whose aim is to produce machines with an intellectual ability indistinguishable from a human being. A laudable goal no doubt - We have the Turing test for these kinds of things. Question being -Do GTX have the confidence in their product to give it a try? As of today not a single machine has passed the Turing test.
Digital cinema will cut down on piracy and help the industry to increase its profits.
In absolutely all cases i can think of going to digital has actually made piracy not only easier but faster. Gone are the days where someone from the cutting room or the projector room would have to go through the lengthy process of transferring to a digicam or whatever. Now that the films will come pre-digitised, its just a matter of moving bits from one format to another.
The GTA series of games, while undoubtly breaking the mold and being a stunning example of how games should be. Lets not forget that open ended games have come and gone before. What is GTA if not Elite with cars?... Speaking of which - when is Braben going to make an announcement ( i hear they are recruiting again)
So how does the cost of a random piece of software relate to the level of expertise required to use it? On a more positive side if Microsoft believes this they wont be supplying free computers and software to developing countries. ( Which is probably a good thing in the long run)
Perhap's he's running Linux on a laptop with a crappy S3/Savage chip that has little or no 3D supported in drivers. (I know because I am using one right now)
Slashdot Mirror
no damn it, the poster is a linux guy mod it down because its windows shite.
Exactly - Im still waiting for a modification to bittorrent that utilises googles filetype feature.
...
eg
narnia filetype:torrent
I'd like to see them start shutting down major search engines. It would be nice if we could harness their power in such a way that we dont even need these sites any more. It would be just fine if you could just use a search engine such as google as a definitive search rather than going through your 5 or 6 favorite torrent sites to find that elusive file. That seems like the way forward to me. Whichever way , it seems to me that bittorrent's weak point is the requirement for these sites in the first place.
Nick
Point - Multiprocessing systems are the general direction computing is going in. The new Mac's use it (core duo) , the PC's Hyperthreaded dual core's. Xbox 360's and of Course the PS3.
That said - Asumming the 360 has "Symmetric" architecture and the PS3 "Assymetric" as the guy is implying.
Lets discover exactly what the difference is between the two.
My understanding is that Symmetric multiprocessing (Xbox 360) gives each processor identical levels of responsibility for processing tasks. For example - on a linux SMP system the kernel will try to balance processes equally across each processor. Only if an application process is specifically written to thread its own tasks across both processors will it be shared across them. This is why having a multiprocessor computer rarely makes much difference to a uniprocessor machine unless the game is specifically written to take advantage of a multiprocessing environment. Games like this are currently rare.
Taking a look at Asymettric procesing... (PS3) This allows us to give each processors specific tasks. For example we could dedicate 1 cell chip to running say the AI for a game, another for the Player physics and the rest for graphics and sound. This actually makes the design of the system considerably simpler and easier to abstract - although it could be argued that it reduces the overall performace of the system. Good job then that the PS3 has more than twice the amount of processors as the 360. However the same can be said for the PS3 as the 360 - Unless games are specifically written to take advantage of a multiprocessor environment there is little advantage in having them. Both consoles are going to require a new mindset and learning curve before either will reach their true potential. This has always been the case and so long as technology keeps changing will continue to do so.
I'd like to add to this that ID Software is not traditionally a Playstation development studio. There are only two releases I can think of - Quake 2 (PSX) and Quake 3 (PS2). They are traditionally a PC studio - and their experience of development therefore lies in this area. XBox 360 is designed with this in mind. It does stand to reason that Carmack's team would agree with this - simply because the Microsoft Development platform is what they have been doing for years. Id like to hear what a tradional Playstation dev studio says about the 360 as a development platform, or Nintendo for example.
Pick any console from any manufacturer. compare a launch title with another title on the same platform later in its lifecycle. In most cases there will be significant improvements this shows only that it takes time - (and library updates) to climb to the top.
Despite all of this I have to say that what matters most of all here is not how powerful one system or another is. What really matters are the games. At this moment in time I can't justify buying a new console just because it has better graphics or sound. Those things matter less and less as time goes by- The game plays the same no matter how many more polygons it is or isnt shifting. Lets be honest here - leaving visuals and sound out of the equation - what kinds of gameplay can be created now that could never have been done prior to these next generation machines? Perhaps the answer to that question can hinted at by looking at the kinds of tasks most suited to multiprocessing systems.
Personally i have found the jpg quality of gimp to be fine.
...
As always its best to tweak the settings in the dialog to get the best results.
I always make sure Subsampling is set to "1x1,1x1,1x1" and DCT Method set
to floating point. Those will single handedly improve the jpg quaity. Then you can adjust
other sliders and checkboxes together with the preview function to get the best results.
Nick
Any relation to Sascha ? (Ali-G)
Nick...
Quit the slashdot addiction and try Monster.com or Jobserve.com. Seriously though - perhaps it your time might be better spending it not posting comments on slashdot http://slashdot.org/~Lord_Dweomer (well over 3000 posts, not bad going mate)
;)
. Instead switch your Slashdot time for job hunting time. I can talk though im in a similar position
There's enough fuss here about the drink driving already. I dont know about you but after i've had a few I dont want my car pissed too!. Besides it brings new meaning to the term "On the Wagon"
If Microsoft's predictions are correct, this could pose a major threat to Sony's well-established PlayStation line of consoles.
....
4 98&page=2
;)
...
I wonder what Sony's or Nintendo's predictions might be...
Most unbiased indications are saying that XBox 360 is not doing quite as well as they would have hoped, especially in Japan where the reception has been lukewarm at best. Couple that with the fairly unimpressive game line-up it's not going to take Nostradamus to see that were just going to have to see what happens in the forthcoming months.
The XBox 360 hype never seemed to pick up steam (at least in the UK) and now there are units on shelves that hype has largely subsided. At the moment the XBox360 is only competing with current hardware on shelve's, that includes its younger brother (Xbox), the PS2 and the gamecube. PS2 units sold is probably rapidly approaching 100 million units worldwide
So until we see the other Next Gen consoles on shelve's this is just idle speculation.
http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=8
I dont think XBox 360 is much of a threat to Sony, or Nintendo just yet
Nick
You are posting this to the wrong place. This is a great idea and would make a fantastic addition to firefox other options. But you should really suggest this to the firefox team.
t =Firefox&format=guided
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?produc
You can enter the feature in bugzilla as a "Wishlist" item. You never know they too might think this is a great idea.
N.
In my line of work, I spend time working with both Windows Stuff (Proprietary) and Linux stuff(Open Source). My experience is that when I have a problem, or a requirement to fulfil that is Linux based, there is a huge amount of resource available on the internet, forums, code-snippets , tools etc free and easily available. Whenever I have a windows problem I find that I invariably run into people trying to sell me stuff, components, plugin's licenses and little in the way of (free) help.
Im not sure whether "Community" is the best word to use, but I certainly find life on the open source side of the fence much friendlier and helpful and ethical than life on the other side of the fence.
exactly ... took the words straight from my fingertips. sorry i have no mod points atm.
nick..
As it happens, I'm planning a $500 investment in gaming hardware soon: a new mobo, CPU and graphics card. I'm confident that the results in 1600x1200 will look as nice as the PS3, and I won't be paying Sony to lock me out of using my hardware in the way that I see fit.
So, what ? Is this a Linux Rig your planning on building then? Presumably if you are so against lock-in you wont be considering Microsoft as the OS, or a hardware vendors selling graphics cards with proprietary drivers....
Man you must be really rich. I can only affor 64mb sticks.
lol, i think you've found the only possible reason that Microsoft might even consider releasing the source code to IE.
What about Dodo ? .....
oh no! hang on - thats a really bad idea!
Nick...
Its about time our space-ships looked like the ones in the movies.
_ Star_Destroyer
This one bears more than a passing resemblance to the star destroyer!
http://starwars.wikicities.com/wiki/Venator-class
nick...
Hmmm ... ...
Why on earth did you want to leave the job then?
Nick
Is "True" AI , I have a degree in AI and I've never hear the term "True" AI. This is purely a name that has been pulled out of a hat. Having rtfa , and reading the description this sounds like nothing more than a fairly sophisticated expert system with some connectionist ideas thrown in.
f erence%20Articles/what_is_AI/What%20is%20AI02.html
e b/
...
Generally speaking there are two types of AI (GOFAI) "Good Old Fashioned AI" - That which deals with logic based reasoning, semantics and symbolic processing - Think ELIZA and ALICE or simple Chess programs all fit into this category.
The other school of AI - The Connectionist model deals with parallel processing models, neural networks, fuzzy logic and so forth.
It seems to me that GTX have basically used a blend of both these ideas to achieve this. Perhaps using expert system models to encapsulate the knowledge of a salesperson or customer service person. But using connectionist ideas to process speech and other fuzzy input data.
So while their product is quite an interesting one it is nothing new. I think that the term they may have been looking for is "Strong" AI whose aim is to produce machines with an intellectual ability indistinguishable from a human being. A laudable goal no doubt - We have the Turing test for these kinds of things. Question being -Do GTX have the confidence in their product to give it a try? As of today not a single machine has passed the Turing test.
Interesting links
http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/Re
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_Test
http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~lboloni/Programming/GofaiW
Nick
In any case, I'd rather have bill gates selling a famous videogame console rather than forcing a crappy operating system down our throats.
Just what operating system do you think will be making the XBOX 360 tick?
Enable encryption on the access point and then make the encryption key publically available.
Digital cinema will cut down on piracy and help the industry to increase its profits.
In absolutely all cases i can think of going to digital has actually made piracy not only easier but faster. Gone are the days where someone from the cutting room or the projector room would have to go through the lengthy process of transferring to a digicam or whatever. Now that the films will come pre-digitised, its just a matter of moving bits from one format to another.
The GTA series of games, while undoubtly breaking the mold and being a stunning example of how games should be. Lets not forget that open ended games have come and gone before. What is GTA if not Elite with cars? ... Speaking of which - when is Braben going to make an announcement ( i hear they are recruiting again)
...
Nick
That OpenBSD is "ready for the desktop" ?
So how does the cost of a random piece of software relate to the level of expertise required to use it? On a more positive side if Microsoft believes this they wont be supplying free computers and software to developing countries. ( Which is probably a good thing in the long run)
Perhap's he's running Linux on a laptop with a crappy S3/Savage chip that has little or no 3D supported in drivers. (I know because I am using one right now)