I do. I usually run my Athlon XP2000 at 100MHz FSB instead of the 133MHz it's rated for. Keeps the CPU at about 39C instead of almost 50C and it also keeps the room a lot cooler too:)
I think it'd be a pretty good idea if desktop computers supported a speedstep feature like laptops have... Or even better, being able to assign different performence levels to specific apps. The only thing I want full space-heater level peformence is when I'm running games, Divx encoding or Photoshop. I don't even notice the difference when just browsing the web, reading e-mail or chatting on AIM.
Man, I remember putting a SB16 into my 486 dx2 just to play doom.
Am I the only one that thinks the SB16 wasn't such a bad card? I don't mean the late-model single-chip crap ones, I mean the old first generation big ass ISA cards with the Creative/Panasonic (or SCSI if you were lucky) interface on them! I mean they have pretty decent audio quality, an actual 4 watt amplifier so you could use a cheap $10 pair of unamplifed speakers, or plug in your headphones and blast your brains around in your head. The bass, treble and volume settings were not controlled by a DSP mixer, so you had to actually exceed the onboard amplifier to cause distortion. The card had jumpers... None of this bullshit plug and play crap... You plugged it in and it fscking kept its IRQ, DMA and hex address settings. Perfect compatibility with old DOS games, Windows 3.1, OS/2, Linux, and hell even WinXP still!
I mean, seriously... Modern sound cards suck... All the outputs are line-level so if you plug in your headphones you can't hear shit, there's either NO DOS compatibility or drivers that don't work, crash your game, or use almost all of your conventional memory. The volume and tone levels are all digitally controlled inside the DSP... If you max out your EQ or volume and play a MP3 that's been normalized to 99% of the available dynamic range, the stupid DSP will do dynamic range compression on the output. And let's not forget hardware-based wave mixing. The SB16 didn't support it, so if you were listening to a MP3, there'd be no annoying sounds playing over it.
The only thing that sucks about the SB16 is lack of 48KHz playback support... But you know what? I am going to find a way to write my own realtime downsampling driver, I can't hear the difference between 48KHz and 44.1KHz anyway.
It's a shame the fastest motherboard I have that still has ISA is an Asus P2-99. But you know what? With a BIOS update and a slot 1 Tualatin adapter, I can upgrade it to 1.4GHz and still keep using my SB16. Muahahahahahahahah! SB16 forever!
A few years ago at a boat show I saw a product at one of the booths which looked like a translucent brown liquid, intended as an electronics waterproofing sealant. It was such a long time ago I don't remember the name of the product, but as a demonstration they had a portable B&W television submerged in the stuff and it was still operating fine.
One of my friends used to work at KFC and he had told me how nasty the old oil would get while it sat outside awaiting pickup for disposal. I guess the little leftover bits of chicken probably had something to do with it, but I'm assuming vegatable oil is a pretty friendly enviorment for bacteria to thrive in nonetheless.
Besides I just got finished telling the kid (13 year old son) that he could pick from GameCube or Playstation 2 but no X-Box was entering our home so I guess it's time for me to back that up.
Pardon me for meddling in the affairs of a parent. You are free to raise your child however you see fit, but at 13, he's only 5 years away from adulthood. Instead of forcing your purchasing morals on him, why not explain the situation to him why you choose not to support Microsoft and let him make his own decision to support your beliefs or form his own. At least show each other you can compromise.
I'm looking to get something that can play doom 3 well.
Karma be damned... Screw Doom 3.
I didn't like Doom 1, nor did I like Doom 2. My Athlon XP2000 is fast enough to convert DVDs to XviD in realtime and it creates a sauna effect in the room while doing so. In fact, I still keep my prior system (a PIII 850MHz) around for just about every other task since it gives off a LOT less heat. I'm not sure want to upgrade to anything that produces more heat just so I can play a game I won't even enjoy. I live in Florida and my electric bill is already insane.
Where was I? Oh yea, Doom 3... I don't want it. Now as long as Duke Nukem Forever doesn't use the Doom 3 engine, I'll be all set. THAT'S the game I'll install a bigger air conditioner for.
Yet, I've dated a lot, had a lot of girlfriends, and don't understand this geek steroetype BECAUSE NO ONE I HAVE MET HAS EVER BEEN ONE.
My God man, no wonder you've never met any stereotypical geeks! There're not going to be at places you MEET people! True geeks avoid social meeting places and if you approach them at work they just mumble something about staplers until you go away and leave them to their coding.
Want to find some REAL geeks? You need to stay IN more - go on IRC, start a blog. The geeks will come.
I actually own a '98 Tomos Targa moped. It's got a 49.9cc two-stroke engine, two speed automatic transmission, a top speed of 35MPH and gets 100 miles to the gallon. Of course, since most everyone else on the road is doing 50MPH in vehicles weighing over 3,000LBS, you can easily see why I rarely ride it.
Mopeds are amazingly simple and easy to work on, there's quite a few sites on the net where you can buy performence parts (real performence, not "riced out" fart pipes) and forums to discuss moped-related topics.
To me, this "breakthrough" just sounds like rediscovering old technology. The real reason mopeds never became really popular is because, let's face it, most people don't want to give up the safety of having a heavy steel frame around them. You also can't go sportin' your bling-bling on a moped - there's no trunk for subwoofers.
Highly efficient low-speed single passenger transportation has existed for as long as there have been gas guzzlers on the road. But until the roads are safe for low-speed single passenger vehicles, people will overwhelmingly choose to ride inside cars, SUVs, trucks and vans.
The constitution is in tatters and I think I'll just fly myself.
Let's see, guy arrested for selling modchips, cease and desist letters sent to sites distrobuting OpenOffice, Lexmark suing third party toner refillers and now this...
I really think it's time to rename "Your Rights Online" to "Another one Bites the Dust". My rights have all left.
It really freaks me out that if I want to get on an airplane, I'm assigned a risk factor based on who knows what kind of information. But if I wanted to buy a gun, I can just go down to Wal-Mart.
Of course, if I sold modchips or toner cartredges I refilled, or the RIAA happens to notice the MP3s on my server (never mind they're original songs I wrote), I'm a criminal. Let's just hope CAPPS II isn't tied into any kind of RIAA piracy database...
"We believe in customer choice," says Pradeep Jotwani, the senior vice-president who heads HP's lucrative imaging-supplies business. "If they want to buy from remanufacturers, that's fine. It's our job to make them not want to."
While I agree HP supplies are expensive, if you want to be able to crank up the quality and get a really good printout, authentic cartredges are the only way to go.
I've read the best way to keep costs down is to get a cheap printer that is really easy to refill and use it for your day-to-day printing. When you need high quality printouts with exact colors, dark blacks and no smearing, you use your better printer which has the expensive stuff.
I do agree HP's inks are something amazing... I printed a barcode on reflective tape with my HP printer and it didn't smear or run. Sure the ink is expensive, but HP does have the quality to back it up.
I don't see it being much use for copy protection as most is just bypassed by pirates by cracking the actual disc checks.
Most likely, the use relating to copy protection will be to eliminate the hassle of the end user having to connect to a clearinghouse to authorize software opon reinstallation.
For example, you'd install Windows XP and it would connect to Microsoft and burn your authorization code to the CD. If you gave away/copied the CD, it would say "Windows XP Licenced to Bob Pirate, code 4125-35221-53532-2312*, etc." On subsequent reinstalls, you wouldn't need to connect to activate the software.
Why are they screaming about P2P? What about radar detectors? Radar detectors are there to help drivers break laws--they have no other purpose. Breaking the speed-limit laws makes a driver much more likely to kill someone.
Radar detectors are illegal in some states. Just look them up in an online store/catalog that has a little asterik next to the shipping restrictions.
I wouldn't be surprised in this post-9/11, constant terrorst threat, war on everything world that more and more things that have substancial legal uses but are more commonly used for evil or breach of copyright/licence will be outlawed.
But at 171MB, I have a feeling somebody's in for a hefty bandwidth bill at the end of this month.
With the low scores everyone is posting, I'm concerned for my safety. If I run this benchmark on a system that's too slow for it, will it get a negative 3DMark score, or will it cause a total protonic reversal of the space-time continuium and destroy the entire universe? Or does my Radeon 8500 only possess enough processing power to cause destruction limited to my neighborhood? Oh well, I hope the answer wasn't in that clickwrap licence I just said OK to.
If I still had my mod points, that'd get a +1, Funny.
Come on, it **is** funny....
And such an early post too. You'd think by now the Slashdot editors would write a script to check for dupes, spelling errors and mentioning of "holes". I mean come on... Any article with "hole" in the title HAS to have a goatse comment modded up to +5 funny.
What has this world come to?
Re:Am I the only geek who HATES Nethack?
on
Nethack 3.4.1 Released
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· Score: 1, Insightful
But yeah, the hardness of the game is the only thing that really disappoints me. But then again, few games manage to inspire feelings of GREAT accomplishments even on The Most Stupid Death Ever.
Back in the day... (*looks at calendar*) Okay, it wasn't that long ago... I started out playing adventure games like the Leisure Suit larry series by Sierra. I realize adventure games (collect items, solve puzzles) aren't the same thing as RPG (kill monsters, get XP), but the thing that really frustrated me about the Sierra games was the incredibly stupid deaths...
Let's see, I am play Leisure Suit larry, let's cross the road to see what's on the other side... "SPLAT! Oops, that street is really dangerous! Load a savegame or restart?" Uggh. There goes all my fun.
I didn't really think adventure games were something I could really get into until I started playing ones like the Monkey Island series, The Neverhood, and Willy Beamish (which admittedly you could die in, but it rarely happened). I thought it was really funny when playing Lucasarts's Monkey Island how they poked fun at Sierra by having the character fall off the ledge and then bringing up a parody of the infamous Sierra "You fscked up" screen.
It just amazes me that a game like Nethack even needs to have character death at all. It seems like the game is large and complicated enough to pose a challenge without having your character die suddenly.
Part of your argument is contradictory - you say users don't need all the speed they have and then say they won't move to a 64-bit chip because it will be slower (which I don't think is necessarily the case even when running 32-bit apps.)
What I meant was that it's going to be difficult for Intel to convince the buying public they need a new top-end priced 64-bit CPU that runs EXISTING 32-bit apps more slowly, when they're having enough trouble as it is convincing people to buy their current 32-bit top-end CPUs as it is. It's like the Pentium Pro problem all over again.
Also the user of the 64-bit chip won't get an error message saying that a different processor is required.
What I meant was if Intel releases a 64-bit chip, they're essencially taking aim at slaughtering their biggest cash cow - midrange and lower-end machines. You can always run current software more slowly on lower end hardware... But an error message saying a 64-bit processor is required really puts a damper on that.
As for the rest of us that don't *need* it - once the capability exists it is possible that someone will find a use for it that we will "need" (or just want really badly).
They're having enough trouble selling top end 32-bit hardware based upon the benefits of higher performence. It's going to be really difficult convincing consumers they should go with a CPU that is going to run existing applications slower.
It's a tough pill to swallow that I need to make the move to 64-bit when I'm able to run current applications on current low-end hardware. There's a lot to be said for tolerating slow performence vs an error message that says a different processor type is required.
Apple for instance is not only trying to dominate the professional film/video market they are trying, with some success, to *create* a consumer video market.
Will this be the next big thing though? While I agree video editing can never have enough processing power and RAM behind it, it's not an application for the mainstream. I personally haven't even touched a camcorder in over a year. While it's a great selling point for Apple (who have a strong following by artists), for the mainstream PC buyer, it's just another extra feature.
I am in no hurry to be the proud owner of a whole bunch of PCs that can no longer run apps based on a requirement of 64-bit code.
Before you reply with a bunch of other reasons why my PCs are becoming more obsolete with each passing day anyway, think back to the transition between the 286 and 386. The 386 could run everything a 286 could run and it performed much better. Due to the performence benefit, most applications that couldn't be run on a 286 wouldn't have run well on a anyway.
The transition to 64-bit on the desktop isn't going to be the same. While 640k may not be enough for everybody, 4GB is certainly enough for web browsing, wordprocessing and basic photo manipulation. I'd hate to see the horribly inefficient code that requires more than 4GB of RAM for such simple tasks.
Realistically, the force that will cause 64-bit to be a requirement on the desktop will be the version of Windows that no longer runs on 32-bit hardware. Windows XP's minimum requirements are:
PC with 300 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233-MHz minimum required;* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features) 1.5 gigabyte (GB) of available hard disk space.*
If you look at the current system requirements compared to the current top end PC hardware, it's easy to see why Intel wants to hold off on production of 64-bit processors targeted for the desktop market.
If you look at the majority of songs on P2P networks, and even the way they're organized - it's clear to see it's much easier to download individual songs rather than whole albums. Trying to download an entire an album, while it can be done, is rather difficult. Varying bitrates/encoder quality can ruin the continuity of the album. If the album has no silence between tracks, reassembling the album from MP3s usually results in audio dropouts between tracks.
If anything, P2P is an excellent promotional tool for the sales of albums, or at least you would think it would be. On the other hand, it can be used to reveal turkey albums that are mostly filler, while allowing you to get the hit songs that you just wanted. In a way, what the recording industry is discovering is that their cream of the crop songs that they pick for promotional use are what are most sought-after on P2P networks. It's a lot like having a sporting event that people just want to watch for the commercials. Except in this case, the sporting event is what the recording industry is trying to get you to buy.
The recording industry has no one to blame but their own short-sightedness for their lack of sales. If they had realized that their most valuable product is actually their distillation of songs from various artists, they'd allow you to build your own compilation CDs from a comprehensive catalog of artists for a per-track fee, rather than trying to milk an outdated distribution method for all it's worth.
Re:DVD-A and SACD aren't much better anyway
on
The Future of the CD
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· Score: 2, Insightful
So you've proven you're an audiophile.
Realize though, that the MASS MARKET is willing to listen to music on stereo systems that have cheap paper-cone "full range" speakers and shiny metal discs and plastic baffles for aesthetics instead of actual frequency range enhancement. Until more people have systems that exceed the capabilities of the current format (CDs), the difference between higher quality formats will literally go unheard.
It is quite possible that most people have a limit to the amount of realism they want out of their audio. Sure it's nice to have a system with the frequency response to produce bass that can vibrate the walls to high frequencies that make the dog yelp. A system that is able to produce the dynamic range from a nearly inaudible whisper to a roaring jet engine.
What's the downside? Most people find large volume fluctuations to be annoying. For every person that raves about the amazing dynamic range of DVD audio, there's another that wishes he could hear the dialog better without making the explosions and gunfire scare his neighbors. Great bass can be enjoyable, but most of the time you don't want to watch the water in your glass recreate the scene from Jurassic Park. And for your dog's sake, you don't want the treble turned up to her threshold of pain.
If you live alone and don't have neighbors, you probably can't understand why that would be a problem. If you live in a family, an apartment, or any other situation where you'd be disturbing someone else, you can understand where too much dynamic range and bass can be a problem.
To get to the point, most people realize that a uber-stereo is overkill.
Sure it's anecdotal, but at my home the vast majority of the time the 5.1 surround sound system is turned off and the audio is provided by the TV. Better bass and treble plus more dynamic range, not to mention more speakers really just equals more sound to carry throughout the house and disturb everyone who ISN'T watching TV.
Re:HDTV is useless for me
on
HDTV via GNU Radio
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· Score: 2, Informative
Can you imagine how long it would take to compress a 2-pass 1280x1024 2-hour movie into an xvid/ogg file?
I'd be more interested in how long it takes to downsample to a lower resolution before compressing it with XviD... Most of the DVD rips^H^H^H^H backups I do are downsampled a bit to sacrifice resolution for clarity.
HDTV at HDTV resolutions does look incredible, but I'm willing to tolerate lower resolution captures. If you consider how bad VHS is compared to a clean NTSC resolution stream (such as from a progressive scan DVD player), it's obvious the general public is willing to accept a recording solution that capures less than the broadcast resolution.
Slashdot Mirror
...Just the thing for running the latest vaporware release!
I want to play Duke Nukem Forever, but I think I'd have to be the one frozen if that's ever going to happen.
underclock.
:)
I do. I usually run my Athlon XP2000 at 100MHz FSB instead of the 133MHz it's rated for. Keeps the CPU at about 39C instead of almost 50C and it also keeps the room a lot cooler too
I think it'd be a pretty good idea if desktop computers supported a speedstep feature like laptops have... Or even better, being able to assign different performence levels to specific apps. The only thing I want full space-heater level peformence is when I'm running games, Divx encoding or Photoshop. I don't even notice the difference when just browsing the web, reading e-mail or chatting on AIM.
Man, I remember putting a SB16 into my 486 dx2 just to play doom.
Am I the only one that thinks the SB16 wasn't such a bad card? I don't mean the late-model single-chip crap ones, I mean the old first generation big ass ISA cards with the Creative/Panasonic (or SCSI if you were lucky) interface on them! I mean they have pretty decent audio quality, an actual 4 watt amplifier so you could use a cheap $10 pair of unamplifed speakers, or plug in your headphones and blast your brains around in your head. The bass, treble and volume settings were not controlled by a DSP mixer, so you had to actually exceed the onboard amplifier to cause distortion. The card had jumpers... None of this bullshit plug and play crap... You plugged it in and it fscking kept its IRQ, DMA and hex address settings. Perfect compatibility with old DOS games, Windows 3.1, OS/2, Linux, and hell even WinXP still!
I mean, seriously... Modern sound cards suck... All the outputs are line-level so if you plug in your headphones you can't hear shit, there's either NO DOS compatibility or drivers that don't work, crash your game, or use almost all of your conventional memory. The volume and tone levels are all digitally controlled inside the DSP... If you max out your EQ or volume and play a MP3 that's been normalized to 99% of the available dynamic range, the stupid DSP will do dynamic range compression on the output. And let's not forget hardware-based wave mixing. The SB16 didn't support it, so if you were listening to a MP3, there'd be no annoying sounds playing over it.
The only thing that sucks about the SB16 is lack of 48KHz playback support... But you know what? I am going to find a way to write my own realtime downsampling driver, I can't hear the difference between 48KHz and 44.1KHz anyway.
It's a shame the fastest motherboard I have that still has ISA is an Asus P2-99. But you know what? With a BIOS update and a slot 1 Tualatin adapter, I can upgrade it to 1.4GHz and still keep using my SB16. Muahahahahahahahah! SB16 forever!
A few years ago at a boat show I saw a product at one of the booths which looked like a translucent brown liquid, intended as an electronics waterproofing sealant. It was such a long time ago I don't remember the name of the product, but as a demonstration they had a portable B&W television submerged in the stuff and it was still operating fine.
One of my friends used to work at KFC and he had told me how nasty the old oil would get while it sat outside awaiting pickup for disposal. I guess the little leftover bits of chicken probably had something to do with it, but I'm assuming vegatable oil is a pretty friendly enviorment for bacteria to thrive in nonetheless.
Besides I just got finished telling the kid (13 year old son) that he could pick from GameCube or Playstation 2 but no X-Box was entering our home so I guess it's time for me to back that up.
Pardon me for meddling in the affairs of a parent. You are free to raise your child however you see fit, but at 13, he's only 5 years away from adulthood. Instead of forcing your purchasing morals on him, why not explain the situation to him why you choose not to support Microsoft and let him make his own decision to support your beliefs or form his own. At least show each other you can compromise.
I'm looking to get something that can play doom 3 well.
Karma be damned... Screw Doom 3.
I didn't like Doom 1, nor did I like Doom 2. My Athlon XP2000 is fast enough to convert DVDs to XviD in realtime and it creates a sauna effect in the room while doing so. In fact, I still keep my prior system (a PIII 850MHz) around for just about every other task since it gives off a LOT less heat. I'm not sure want to upgrade to anything that produces more heat just so I can play a game I won't even enjoy. I live in Florida and my electric bill is already insane.
Where was I? Oh yea, Doom 3... I don't want it. Now as long as Duke Nukem Forever doesn't use the Doom 3 engine, I'll be all set. THAT'S the game I'll install a bigger air conditioner for.
When is that game coming out anyway?
Yet, I've dated a lot, had a lot of girlfriends, and don't understand this geek steroetype BECAUSE NO ONE I HAVE MET HAS EVER BEEN ONE.
My God man, no wonder you've never met any stereotypical geeks! There're not going to be at places you MEET people! True geeks avoid social meeting places and if you approach them at work they just mumble something about staplers until you go away and leave them to their coding.
Want to find some REAL geeks? You need to stay IN more - go on IRC, start a blog. The geeks will come.
I actually own a '98 Tomos Targa moped. It's got a 49.9cc two-stroke engine, two speed automatic transmission, a top speed of 35MPH and gets 100 miles to the gallon. Of course, since most everyone else on the road is doing 50MPH in vehicles weighing over 3,000LBS, you can easily see why I rarely ride it.
Mopeds are amazingly simple and easy to work on, there's quite a few sites on the net where you can buy performence parts (real performence, not "riced out" fart pipes) and forums to discuss moped-related topics.
To me, this "breakthrough" just sounds like rediscovering old technology. The real reason mopeds never became really popular is because, let's face it, most people don't want to give up the safety of having a heavy steel frame around them. You also can't go sportin' your bling-bling on a moped - there's no trunk for subwoofers.
Highly efficient low-speed single passenger transportation has existed for as long as there have been gas guzzlers on the road. But until the roads are safe for low-speed single passenger vehicles, people will overwhelmingly choose to ride inside cars, SUVs, trucks and vans.
With all the, ahem, interesting stuff I have downloaded off P2P, I think it's best to keep my mouth shut.
Sure they have been price fixing, but I haven't been playing fair either. I call it even.
Will it lead the way to the return of an integer to represent your karma?
The constitution is in tatters and I think I'll just fly myself.
Let's see, guy arrested for selling modchips, cease and desist letters sent to sites distrobuting OpenOffice, Lexmark suing third party toner refillers and now this...
I really think it's time to rename "Your Rights Online" to "Another one Bites the Dust". My rights have all left.
It really freaks me out that if I want to get on an airplane, I'm assigned a risk factor based on who knows what kind of information. But if I wanted to buy a gun, I can just go down to Wal-Mart.
Of course, if I sold modchips or toner cartredges I refilled, or the RIAA happens to notice the MP3s on my server (never mind they're original songs I wrote), I'm a criminal. Let's just hope CAPPS II isn't tied into any kind of RIAA piracy database...
"We believe in customer choice," says Pradeep Jotwani, the senior vice-president who heads HP's lucrative imaging-supplies business. "If they want to buy from remanufacturers, that's fine. It's our job to make them not want to."
While I agree HP supplies are expensive, if you want to be able to crank up the quality and get a really good printout, authentic cartredges are the only way to go.
I've read the best way to keep costs down is to get a cheap printer that is really easy to refill and use it for your day-to-day printing. When you need high quality printouts with exact colors, dark blacks and no smearing, you use your better printer which has the expensive stuff.
I do agree HP's inks are something amazing... I printed a barcode on reflective tape with my HP printer and it didn't smear or run. Sure the ink is expensive, but HP does have the quality to back it up.
Sheesh... Without any way to freeze the water, here in Florida it'll just be a glorified sprinkler. I already have enough of those.
I don't see it being much use for copy protection as most is just bypassed by pirates by cracking the actual disc checks.
Most likely, the use relating to copy protection will be to eliminate the hassle of the end user having to connect to a clearinghouse to authorize software opon reinstallation.
For example, you'd install Windows XP and it would connect to Microsoft and burn your authorization code to the CD. If you gave away/copied the CD, it would say "Windows XP Licenced to Bob Pirate, code 4125-35221-53532-2312*, etc." On subsequent reinstalls, you wouldn't need to connect to activate the software.
Why are they screaming about P2P? What about radar detectors? Radar detectors are there to help drivers break laws--they have no other purpose. Breaking the speed-limit laws makes a driver much more likely to kill someone.
Radar detectors are illegal in some states. Just look them up in an online store/catalog that has a little asterik next to the shipping restrictions.
I wouldn't be surprised in this post-9/11, constant terrorst threat, war on everything world that more and more things that have substancial legal uses but are more commonly used for evil or breach of copyright/licence will be outlawed.
It sure puts a damper on my patriotism.
But at 171MB, I have a feeling somebody's in for a hefty bandwidth bill at the end of this month.
With the low scores everyone is posting, I'm concerned for my safety. If I run this benchmark on a system that's too slow for it, will it get a negative 3DMark score, or will it cause a total protonic reversal of the space-time continuium and destroy the entire universe? Or does my Radeon 8500 only possess enough processing power to cause destruction limited to my neighborhood? Oh well, I hope the answer wasn't in that clickwrap licence I just said OK to.
If I still had my mod points, that'd get a +1, Funny.
Come on, it **is** funny....
And such an early post too. You'd think by now the Slashdot editors would write a script to check for dupes, spelling errors and mentioning of "holes". I mean come on... Any article with "hole" in the title HAS to have a goatse comment modded up to +5 funny.
What has this world come to?
But yeah, the hardness of the game is the only thing that really disappoints me. But then again, few games manage to inspire feelings of GREAT accomplishments even on The Most Stupid Death Ever.
Back in the day... (*looks at calendar*) Okay, it wasn't that long ago... I started out playing adventure games like the Leisure Suit larry series by Sierra. I realize adventure games (collect items, solve puzzles) aren't the same thing as RPG (kill monsters, get XP), but the thing that really frustrated me about the Sierra games was the incredibly stupid deaths...
Let's see, I am play Leisure Suit larry, let's cross the road to see what's on the other side... "SPLAT! Oops, that street is really dangerous! Load a savegame or restart?" Uggh. There goes all my fun.
I didn't really think adventure games were something I could really get into until I started playing ones like the Monkey Island series, The Neverhood, and Willy Beamish (which admittedly you could die in, but it rarely happened). I thought it was really funny when playing Lucasarts's Monkey Island how they poked fun at Sierra by having the character fall off the ledge and then bringing up a parody of the infamous Sierra "You fscked up" screen.
It just amazes me that a game like Nethack even needs to have character death at all. It seems like the game is large and complicated enough to pose a challenge without having your character die suddenly.
Part of your argument is contradictory - you say users don't need all the speed they have and then say they won't move to a 64-bit chip because it will be slower (which I don't think is necessarily the case even when running 32-bit apps.)
What I meant was that it's going to be difficult for Intel to convince the buying public they need a new top-end priced 64-bit CPU that runs EXISTING 32-bit apps more slowly, when they're having enough trouble as it is convincing people to buy their current 32-bit top-end CPUs as it is. It's like the Pentium Pro problem all over again.
Also the user of the 64-bit chip won't get an error message saying that a different processor is required.
What I meant was if Intel releases a 64-bit chip, they're essencially taking aim at slaughtering their biggest cash cow - midrange and lower-end machines. You can always run current software more slowly on lower end hardware... But an error message saying a 64-bit processor is required really puts a damper on that.
As for the rest of us that don't *need* it - once the capability exists it is possible that someone will find a use for it that we will "need" (or just want really badly).
They're having enough trouble selling top end 32-bit hardware based upon the benefits of higher performence. It's going to be really difficult convincing consumers they should go with a CPU that is going to run existing applications slower.
It's a tough pill to swallow that I need to make the move to 64-bit when I'm able to run current applications on current low-end hardware. There's a lot to be said for tolerating slow performence vs an error message that says a different processor type is required.
Apple for instance is not only trying to dominate the professional film/video market they are trying, with some success, to *create* a consumer video market.
Will this be the next big thing though? While I agree video editing can never have enough processing power and RAM behind it, it's not an application for the mainstream. I personally haven't even touched a camcorder in over a year. While it's a great selling point for Apple (who have a strong following by artists), for the mainstream PC buyer, it's just another extra feature.
Before you reply with a bunch of other reasons why my PCs are becoming more obsolete with each passing day anyway, think back to the transition between the 286 and 386. The 386 could run everything a 286 could run and it performed much better. Due to the performence benefit, most applications that couldn't be run on a 286 wouldn't have run well on a anyway.
The transition to 64-bit on the desktop isn't going to be the same. While 640k may not be enough for everybody, 4GB is certainly enough for web browsing, wordprocessing and basic photo manipulation. I'd hate to see the horribly inefficient code that requires more than 4GB of RAM for such simple tasks.
Realistically, the force that will cause 64-bit to be a requirement on the desktop will be the version of Windows that no longer runs on 32-bit hardware. Windows XP's minimum requirements are:
If you look at the current system requirements compared to the current top end PC hardware, it's easy to see why Intel wants to hold off on production of 64-bit processors targeted for the desktop market.
If you look at the majority of songs on P2P networks, and even the way they're organized - it's clear to see it's much easier to download individual songs rather than whole albums. Trying to download an entire an album, while it can be done, is rather difficult. Varying bitrates/encoder quality can ruin the continuity of the album. If the album has no silence between tracks, reassembling the album from MP3s usually results in audio dropouts between tracks.
If anything, P2P is an excellent promotional tool for the sales of albums, or at least you would think it would be. On the other hand, it can be used to reveal turkey albums that are mostly filler, while allowing you to get the hit songs that you just wanted. In a way, what the recording industry is discovering is that their cream of the crop songs that they pick for promotional use are what are most sought-after on P2P networks. It's a lot like having a sporting event that people just want to watch for the commercials. Except in this case, the sporting event is what the recording industry is trying to get you to buy.
The recording industry has no one to blame but their own short-sightedness for their lack of sales. If they had realized that their most valuable product is actually their distillation of songs from various artists, they'd allow you to build your own compilation CDs from a comprehensive catalog of artists for a per-track fee, rather than trying to milk an outdated distribution method for all it's worth.
So you've proven you're an audiophile.
Realize though, that the MASS MARKET is willing to listen to music on stereo systems that have cheap paper-cone "full range" speakers and shiny metal discs and plastic baffles for aesthetics instead of actual frequency range enhancement. Until more people have systems that exceed the capabilities of the current format (CDs), the difference between higher quality formats will literally go unheard.
It is quite possible that most people have a limit to the amount of realism they want out of their audio. Sure it's nice to have a system with the frequency response to produce bass that can vibrate the walls to high frequencies that make the dog yelp. A system that is able to produce the dynamic range from a nearly inaudible whisper to a roaring jet engine.
What's the downside? Most people find large volume fluctuations to be annoying. For every person that raves about the amazing dynamic range of DVD audio, there's another that wishes he could hear the dialog better without making the explosions and gunfire scare his neighbors. Great bass can be enjoyable, but most of the time you don't want to watch the water in your glass recreate the scene from Jurassic Park. And for your dog's sake, you don't want the treble turned up to her threshold of pain.
If you live alone and don't have neighbors, you probably can't understand why that would be a problem. If you live in a family, an apartment, or any other situation where you'd be disturbing someone else, you can understand where too much dynamic range and bass can be a problem.
To get to the point, most people realize that a uber-stereo is overkill.
Sure it's anecdotal, but at my home the vast majority of the time the 5.1 surround sound system is turned off and the audio is provided by the TV. Better bass and treble plus more dynamic range, not to mention more speakers really just equals more sound to carry throughout the house and disturb everyone who ISN'T watching TV.
Can you imagine how long it would take to compress a 2-pass 1280x1024 2-hour movie into an xvid/ogg file?
I'd be more interested in how long it takes to downsample to a lower resolution before compressing it with XviD... Most of the DVD rips^H^H^H^H backups I do are downsampled a bit to sacrifice resolution for clarity.
HDTV at HDTV resolutions does look incredible, but I'm willing to tolerate lower resolution captures. If you consider how bad VHS is compared to a clean NTSC resolution stream (such as from a progressive scan DVD player), it's obvious the general public is willing to accept a recording solution that capures less than the broadcast resolution.
I saw the headline and thought this was going to be about a more reliable hard drive, something I'd gladly pay more money for.
But no, it's just a high performence drive built with the same quality control as WDs cheaper drives. How... nice.
Oh well, guess RAID really isn't a luxury anymore.