mini is offering 4x superdrive as a built to order option. i got this drive lite-on 16x dvd+r drive from newegg. used http://www.patchburn.de/ to make it compatible with "i-apps"... installed it into my aging G4, so far it's working with itunes and iphoto(imove and idvd not tested yet), no complaints.
i must agree with you, the mini mac doesn't really occupy the same market as the xpc's, except for size.
last year there was an interesting statistic that sales of laptop computers were increasing more than expected, possibly due to the form factor issue( i don't remember the exact details, sorry).
considering that some components are not upgradable(i.e. video card), harddrive size is circa 2002(80 gb), or lack of end user upgradablity(airport/bluetooth), this fits right into the market for space consciense consumers, entry level users and switchers. this product will probably do really well in asia.
this might not replace one of your xpc's, but it could be an attractive option to some who may have considered an xpc for size and performance. i know that was one of my main considerations for the xpc, i can't fit another full size pc into my office!
1) it really is a silly thing to do 2) this isn't what i would call a deviation-it's more like exploitation 3) it's simply an act carried out to make money.
there isn't any real talent involved in renting your forehead as advertising space, is there? this isn't a cool deviation, like living off the grid, or making a jet engine out of a used car turbo, or something that took a little creativity, it's purely exploitation i.e. i have a really big dick, therefore i should get into porn. it doesn't matter that your not a good lover, or that you don't have any presentation skills, you big dick is your only qualifier... skill isn't necessarily involved, just an exploitation of one's physical body.
granted if you have a physical attribute that can be exploited to your own benefit thru the refinement of of an associated skill, this would be seen as a worthwhile endevor. like having perfect pitch, or an incredible sense of smell, or an athletic physique, these are attributes which need refinement in their use, otherwise they're worthless.
consider the size of the package, and the quality of the operating system, i think this is an absolute winner. i was actually consdering buying a xpc for my blender and povray work(openbsd), but this is a much better offering. $500 is not much, when you consider a bare-bones xpc is $300+, not including HD, MEM,graphics card... i gotta get one!
let's pool some community money to have "dumbass!" emblazoned on his forehead for 30 days...
talk about selling out, this totally lacks any self respect. i don't care how much money he ends up making, this will be the beginning of a very slippery slope as to how far he will go for a buck.
he might as well start giving blowjobs: at the very least it's more discrete.
a little of both, actually... i remember drinking pop from glass bottles. the returned bottles had to go thru some type of cleaning process before refilled. this had to cost labor+time=money for the manufacturer.
welding aluminum products requires inert gas(argon). the out gassing of vaporized aluminum is poisonous, and aluminum does burn under the right circumstances. pressure molding steel (bent/rolled edges) is easier because it doesn't crack as easily as aluminum. in fact steel can be manipulated in turn of the 20th century process. aluminum requires a little more current(and pricier) processes.
back to the xpc... i doubt that the change from aluminum to steel will affect the overall weight of the xpc. we're probably talking 3-6 oz. increase. i'll trade 6 oz. for a $100 any day.
actually, "new" aluminum is more expensive to process that steel. scrape aluminum, on the other hand, is very cheap in comparison, partly because of the cost involved in seperating the impurities prior to the smelting process.
yeah, steel is heavier, but it does have some advantages that aluminum lacks. it's easier to weld, it has magnetic properties, and it's more pliable than aluminum...
those are either very well crafted fakes, or they could be the real McCoy... however i am suspect of an apple product that has it's product name emblazed on it like in image #11 with such huge lettering... i don't recall apple ever having done this with it's other products. also, if it is real, would newbie4's homepage at mac.com still be up after 10k hits? me thinks apple will be taking this down soon...
for interfacing a commercial grade digital camera back to the mac for previewing, capturing, and "developing" captured images. it was basically an custom scsi card built specifically for that brand cameraback. it looked very much like the 2 slot solution from magma(posted elsewhere in this thread). the photographer who owned the unit chose this paticular model to hook into a powerbook via the pc-card slot for portability sake, versus going with the stright pci card in a standalone g4. he was going to various locations, so the portability of a laptop and a pci box seemed attractive. the problem is, with most of the work he was doing, and all the crap he was shleping around, he would have been better off with the g4 tower... more horsepower, more RAM, more disk space. he traded a lot for portability's sake(and wasn't too happy with the final results. it turned out to be barely adequate).
you don't really say what this mysterious pci extension box is for, other than the fact that it'll hook up to a laptop. try to be a little more descriptive in your needs assesment and application before asking next time... a more descriptive scenario/needs assesment might have produced some creative esponses from this audience. instead, your vague question only brings more questions to my mind...
consider what your environ will be: will you have access to a power outlet? will you ever need to change or replace pci cards? how much are replacement parts for the pci expansion box? are there software requirments for the host computer in order to use the expansion box? would a stand alone computer be a better choice? is this really a true need, or is it a status object? can the solution be reached another way?
in the final analysis, the fact is you'll need additional power for the expansion box, and the expansion box is bulky enough to require it's own transporting container, you're gonna be lugging this whole thing in something bigger that a laptop bag. it not like you'll be using you laptop with expansion box off of battery power. maybe a SFF computer and a 15" lcd display would be a better option.
i actually was "assigned" to supervise a death march project at my last employer. my "new" manager(6th one in one year) knew the project was going to be canned(didn't confirm the inevitable to me, even when confronted), and most of the people would be absorbed into other projects or simply layed off. why was it a doomed project? politics.
someone else in our organization (at another geographical location), happened to be better aligned with the top management group, and used this to their advantage to eliminate competing projects, or in some cases eliminate the internal competition and take the projects over as their own.
of course at the time i had no idea what i was getting into(or who my "competition" was). no matter what our team did to produce a superior product, our project was cancelled for reasons beyond our control. i ended up stressing out and nearly damaged my health and my relationship...
then i read a book call Death March: The Complete Software Developer's Guide to Surviving "Mission Impossible" Projects. i soon realized that we were set up as an ugly style project, doomed(in fact designed) to fail.
it's good to understand why projects fail, i have not yet RTFA, but i'm sure it will compliment some of the discussions/concepts in the death march book. good read.
i gotta agree with bikerguy99, apple wouldn't release something as anemic as the rumors states... yeah, apple released some real boners, but that was not a jobs run apple. jobs has a much higher standard when his name is associated with the product.
more than likely, if it is a headless media system, it will be pretty much locked up with no upgrades available, save maybe the memory...
here's my perdictions based on really vague info: 1) mac os is installed on a flash disk (no swap, all in ram) 2) the os has been trimmed down dramatically 3) only specific i-apps are included 4) network connectivity thru ethernet or wireless for viewing guide updates, which will be subscription based via dotmac
finally, g4 1.25 is alittle overkill for a media player, frankly. take a look at the existing dvd/dvd-hd/set top boxes out there... cheaper lower powered cpu's. os x has made some pretty big leaps in performance for the g3 processor, i wouldn't be surprised it the g3 crops up as an optimum media player cpu...
i alway thought the tokyo institue of technology should have t-shirts with TIT emblazed in big bold collegiate letters with one of those spikey circle thingies behind the lettering... their official logo/seal looks like the robot from castle in the sky.
why did the parent get scored 3 and insightful? i think the moderators have shit for brains, they're just didn't RTFA (comment, actually) before scoring.
folding cables, rounding cables, these are rarely more than visual aesthetic with very little physical performance. blah blah blah air flow blah blah the arguments are pretty thin... you want to really improve performance? buy quality components.
you all noticed kodawarisan is japanese, and fearlessly, he tore into his brand new imac g5, without a care for the warranty...
culturally, the japanese have a fetish for "brand new" things (a.k.a. atarashii), so breaking the "seal" on a new product, even if it voids the warranty, is not a threat. the worry is to be embarrassed by having old things, almost counter to american ideology that old/vintage is cool... to the japanese old/vintage is shameful and embarrassing, not to be flaunted at all.
kodawarisan will probably get new imac in the next 12 months.
horrible way to live? no it's not. expect the worst, but hope for the best. eventually you will die, so the reality is to live fully for today; tomorrow may never come.
i don't remember where, but i recall hearing the isreali mosad have trained their operatives in extreme survival, which included utilizing one's own urine to prevent deydration from causing other physical problems. the high sodium content in urine would end up causing your tongue to swell(aside from making you more thirsty), but it could be used in extreme conditions to "wet your whistle". so, no, don't drink it, just gargle with it.
i had a mishap in a bar back in my college days. i had an altercation, which resulted in a tearing of the retinal in one of my eyes... i ended up having laser surgery that essentially "spot welded" the retina around the tear, which would prevent the humorus vitae(eyeball juice) from lifting the retina away from the back of my eyeball, which would have caused permanent blindness...
the doctor had a wild looking prism which he affixed to my eye, using what felt like vasaline, as an indexing fluid between the prism and my cornea, essentially making the prism and my cornea a single optical element. he was able to look thru one portion of the prism for aiming purposes, and there was a window on the other side which was where the YAG (yitrium aluminum garnet) laser was introduced via a light guide.
the entire procedure took about 2 hours, and consisted of approximately 250 spot welds. each laser suture was a blast of light measured in pico-seconds. the sutures are controlled in energy and time duration so the end result is that the retina is cauterized(welded) to the back of the eyeball. too much energy or too long of a time duration would cause the laser to just burn a hole thru the retina... even though my eye was desensitized with some kind of cocaine derivative(numbness and dialation), each suture felt like a quick tiny cigarette burn, followed by a flash of light. i recall this vividly, because i was completely conscience; i had to be in order to follow instructions(look left, look right, blah blah blah)... it was definitley bearable, but toward the end of the procedure, it had a cumulative effect which i can only describe as fingernails on a chalkborad, with one more finger added everytime a suture was applied. i just kept reminding myself "this too will pass, blindness won't..." that was eighteen years ago, and i still have sight in both eyes, and the last exam i had gave me a thumbs up, stiches in the eye are still holding. one side effect of the whole thing is that because if the cuaterizing actions, there was some miniscule scabbing which took place, which translates into increased "floaties" in the one eye.
a couple of years ago i accidentally scratched my cornea and ended up going to the eye infirmary at northwestern hospital because of a subsequent infection. i started rapping with a couple of the doctors and got into a conversation about contacts and radial keratotomy (rk, the precursor to lasik), mostly i was always interested because of my school study of optics and lasers, and my previous surgery. my doctor basically said there were reasons why he and the other doctors were still wearing glasses! the following is a synopsis of our conversation, as i recall...
contacts have a tendancy to scratch the cornea, which can lead to infection and scarring of the cornea. this reduces the overall flexibility of the cornea. the cornea needs to change shape during the focusing process, but if it becomes less flexible, your eye loses the ability to focus easily, hence the need to older folks to have bi-focals or even tri-focals. soft contacts will reduce the corneal scratching, but it has the side effect of reducing the amount of oxygen which can reach the cornea. in either case contact wearers eventually migrate back to eyeglasses. RK and lasik are essentially the same process - make a series of incisions in the cornea, either with a scalpel or an ablative(as in burning away) laser. the cornea heals from the incisions, the process the scarring of the incisions deforms the cornea into the desired shape, causing a correction in your vision. problem with this is that everyone scars differently based on genetic propensity, health factors, and age. the process is not perfect, and so the results are not always predictable. at best, you'll walk away with near perfect vision. at worst, you might not have made enough of a correction, or an over correction.
BOTTOMLINE: save your money, and don't fuck with your eyes. you want to blow some cash? get some cool frames and a dually water-cooled G-5 and 30" display! anyone know if the NOS peoples frames are still available?
all of you have very good perspective on this, thanks for all the excellent constructive responses! i usually am of the mind to give people the benefit of the doubt; i like to think that everyone(and this includes multi-people organizations) will do the right thing when given the chance... people usually only do bad things when they think they can get away without getting caught.
i remember when i first heard that caldera was purchasing SCO: i thought this is a good thing! a linux company now has control of the Unix rights and can really help the genreal cause by open sourcing some of the original unix code! oh well, guess i was too optimistic:-(
since darl and co. have been looking to make a buck on the legal stance of holding the Unix paperwork, i've always felt i was watching a benevolent group of adults (OSS, IBM, Novell and crew playing the role of parents, uncles, aunts) dealing with the misbehavior of an out-of-control kid (SCO) trying to bully the adopted, well behaved children(Linux/Torvards and company).
that SCO-kid is in for a spanking... by all the adults!
everytime SCO comes up with another hair-brained scheme to prove their position, it seems everyone in the community pitches in to prove them wrong. i'm not proposing this is a bad thing, but there may be some side effects of this process...
imagine this scenario: SCO doesn't have the staff to research every possible technical angle. they probably have limited their ability to hire (competant)contractors to do the technical research either(would you work freelance for them?). so... they whip their existing tech staff to find other possible threads of "truth/proof" to prove their prior ownership claims.
"don't worry if it isn't water-tight. we'll let IBM, groklaw, and the linux zealots figure it out for us. in the meantime, keep searching for possible angles no matter how slim. by the time they disprove one claim, we'll have another one waitng in the wings..."
i don't want to give them too much credit for thinking this way, but as a community, those who would like to prove SCO wrong seem to be doing all the hard work, and at an exceptional pace. it's also something of a military tactic to keep your enemy busy with inconsequential skrimishs, tiring out the enemy troops prior to the big surprise attack.
i don't agree with your internet download requirement idea...
i think you paint the GPL into a corner when you get too specific regarding,in this example, the transfer media/mechanism. kinda like the US constitution, there are certain areas of the GPL that are strict and specific, others areas that are left intentionally vague, so that it has the flexibility to stand the tests of time. perhaps a more useful(and interesting) ammendment to the GPL would be that all code be available NOT ONLY in a machine readable format, but one that does not require format translation: i.e. ISO Latin-1 or similarly compatible format versus text rastered or vectorizedinto a graphic file such as a tiff (this could loosely be considered "machine readable"), which would have to go thru an OCR process...
that being said, i do agree that most of the audience that might be interested in getting the sveasoft firmware or other source for that matter, are in the technically proficient group of people, and forcing a physical media shipment is not only a waste of time (both waiting for the disc AND burning it) and money (why not $5 via paypal? you might attract more downloads thru mini or micro payments).
IANAL, but from what i can tell, svea seems to be in compliance with the GPL. if you don't like his offering, it is you choice to go elsewhere (freedom goes both ways). you can always boycott it or trashtalk both developer and code until he changes his policy, or wait 'til someone else comes along with a similar offering... consequently, if you choose to buy his disk(and subscription) and re-distribute is (as-is or modified) he can't do jack (except slap your wrist by kicking you out of his club).
is the only choice for reliability, performance and cost effectiveness. yeah, you can build one for much cheaper using ATA/serial ATA, but for longevity and reliability, SCSI is still the best bet.
look for mylex raid controllers, or if your looking on ebay, consider CMD (5000 series or greater) as a fall back option. i don't recommend chapprel.
if you're gonna do it on the cheap consider the firewire raid solutions from wiebetech or granite digital.
you're right, i don't work with maya,but i do work in a company that utilizes maya and max, so my exposure to it isn't completely uneducated... i also don't disagree with you that storyboarding and planning aren't important. if ideas aren't sketched out and some type of planning work done ahead of time, it's easy to get lost in the process. i've witnessed under-planned projects start to waiver in its original goal because the artist started getting too involved in the journey and start to lose sight of the destination.
like i said, maya and max provide a very strong UI to give the artist immediate feedback in the modeling process, something you don't get in pov. when you're in a creative roll, you don't need to wonder how to operate the tool, you want to just start using it (somewhat) intuitively. but i think the comparison between maya and pov is apples and oranges...
but back to my original query, since you seem to be an educated maya user, whats your opinion of blender and it's capabilities, in comparison to maya or max? i think this is more interesting than the maya vs pov discussion...
it's interesting to see comments that pit povray against these other applications which are really intended to put a great amount of creative control at the hands of the user...
there are some fundamental differences between povray vs maya/max/etc which aren't so apparent but important to distinguish the applications.
pov models and renders objects based on the mathematical description of the surface. maya/max on the other hand models objects based on triangulating the surface. while it seems esoteric, it is a fundamental difference which really puts these applications into two different classes. try modeling a quaternion fractalor other mathematical shape/function in maya... additionally the complex and random model generation that pov has(onyale's pipe macro, chris colfax macros) is not something easily created with these other apps.
maya and max on the other hand have a strong UI to help put a layer between the user and the code itself. there's no way you could do the type of modeling in pov that you could in maya. pov is very methodical; plan out the image, heavy previsualization, utilization of macros and includes to manage the items you previously created. maya provides immediate feedback as items are created, providing a more fine art approach of creation, kinda like working with clay as opposed to architecting a building.
comparing these applications (pov/max/maya) is like comparing a car to a plane... they are both used for transportation, but the mechanisms to implement the main function is vastly different(it's not the best analogy, take it with a grain of salt)...
perhaps a more productive discussion would be to have some kind of shootout between maya, max, and blender.
i have a friend who runs a coffe shop. she wanted for a long time to get into wireless(a lot of her customers were asking) but kept putting it off til a starbucks moved into the neighborhood. she started getting solicited from t-mobile to set up a hot spot, but they were asking some pretty steep layout...
long story short, we ended up with a pretty sweet setup both for her and her customers, and she's super competative with the starbucks, net access price-wise.
my return? free coffee, net access and the appreciation of a friend, not to mention putting the squeeze on corporate coffee shops with no soul;-)
being in the prepress industry, i see more and more traditional printing going the way of xerography. of the competitors in the field, xerox probably has the best system with the docutech series... you may want to consider kinko's which is an authorized user/vendor of the docutech system.
on a side note, if the professors are utilizing a lot of additional material which includes might include3 handwritten information, you might consider getting encouraging them to transcribe that material(hopefully your not the TA that has to do the transcription) into a digital for, be it text or WORD. this'll difinitely help in reducing the size of your files.
also consider looking into adobe's pdf service, if you're overwhelmed with just orginizing the material itself. probably not so kosher to suggest ity on/. but it could be something the school already has an agreement with adobe(taking into account the units of acrobat the school itself might be using). i know it's not rolling your own, but sometimes using an "out of the box" solution to get thing up and running so you can explore other solutions has it's merit as well...
Slashdot Mirror
mini is offering 4x superdrive as a built to order option.
i got this drive lite-on 16x dvd+r drive from newegg. used http://www.patchburn.de/ to make it compatible with "i-apps"... installed it into my aging G4, so far it's working with itunes and iphoto(imove and idvd not tested yet), no complaints.
i must agree with you, the mini mac doesn't really occupy the same market as the xpc's, except for size.
last year there was an interesting statistic that sales of laptop computers were increasing more than expected, possibly due to the form factor issue( i don't remember the exact details, sorry).
considering that some components are not upgradable(i.e. video card), harddrive size is circa 2002(80 gb), or lack of end user upgradablity(airport/bluetooth), this fits right into the market for space consciense consumers, entry level users and switchers. this product will probably do really well in asia.
this might not replace one of your xpc's, but it could be an attractive option to some who may have considered an xpc for size and performance. i know that was one of my main considerations for the xpc, i can't fit another full size pc into my office!
1) it really is a silly thing to do
2) this isn't what i would call a deviation-it's more like exploitation
3) it's simply an act carried out to make money.
there isn't any real talent involved in renting your forehead as advertising space, is there? this isn't a cool deviation, like living off the grid, or making a jet engine out of a used car turbo, or something that took a little creativity, it's purely exploitation i.e. i have a really big dick, therefore i should get into porn. it doesn't matter that your not a good lover, or that you don't have any presentation skills, you big dick is your only qualifier... skill isn't necessarily involved, just an exploitation of one's physical body.
granted if you have a physical attribute that can be exploited to your own benefit thru the refinement of of an associated skill, this would be seen as a worthwhile endevor. like having perfect pitch, or an incredible sense of smell, or an athletic physique, these are attributes which need refinement in their use, otherwise they're worthless.
consider the size of the package, and the quality of the operating system, i think this is an absolute winner. i was actually consdering buying a xpc for my blender and povray work(openbsd), but this is a much better offering. $500 is not much, when you consider a bare-bones xpc is $300+, not including HD, MEM,graphics card... i gotta get one!
let's pool some community money to have "dumbass!" emblazoned on his forehead for 30 days...
talk about selling out, this totally lacks any self respect. i don't care how much money he ends up making, this will be the beginning of a very slippery slope as to how far he will go for a buck.
he might as well start giving blowjobs: at the very least it's more discrete.
a little of both, actually...
i remember drinking pop from glass bottles. the returned bottles had to go thru some type of cleaning process before refilled. this had to cost labor+time=money for the manufacturer.
welding aluminum products requires inert gas(argon). the out gassing of vaporized aluminum is poisonous, and aluminum does burn under the right circumstances. pressure molding steel (bent/rolled edges) is easier because it doesn't crack as easily as aluminum. in fact steel can be manipulated in turn of the 20th century process. aluminum requires a little more current(and pricier) processes.
back to the xpc... i doubt that the change from aluminum to steel will affect the overall weight of the xpc. we're probably talking 3-6 oz. increase. i'll trade 6 oz. for a $100 any day.
actually, "new" aluminum is more expensive to process that steel. scrape aluminum, on the other hand, is very cheap in comparison, partly because of the cost involved in seperating the impurities prior to the smelting process.
yeah, steel is heavier, but it does have some advantages that aluminum lacks. it's easier to weld, it has magnetic properties, and it's more pliable than aluminum...
those are either very well crafted fakes, or they could be the real McCoy... however i am suspect of an apple product that has it's product name emblazed on it like in image #11 with such huge lettering... i don't recall apple ever having done this with it's other products. also, if it is real, would newbie4's homepage at mac.com still be up after 10k hits? me thinks apple will be taking this down soon...
for interfacing a commercial grade digital camera back to the mac for previewing, capturing, and "developing" captured images. it was basically an custom scsi card built specifically for that brand cameraback. it looked very much like the 2 slot solution from magma(posted elsewhere in this thread). the photographer who owned the unit chose this paticular model to hook into a powerbook via the pc-card slot for portability sake, versus going with the stright pci card in a standalone g4. he was going to various locations, so the portability of a laptop and a pci box seemed attractive. the problem is, with most of the work he was doing, and all the crap he was shleping around, he would have been better off with the g4 tower... more horsepower, more RAM, more disk space. he traded a lot for portability's sake(and wasn't too happy with the final results. it turned out to be barely adequate).
you don't really say what this mysterious pci extension box is for, other than the fact that it'll hook up to a laptop. try to be a little more descriptive in your needs assesment and application before asking next time... a more descriptive scenario/needs assesment might have produced some creative esponses from this audience. instead, your vague question only brings more questions to my mind...
consider what your environ will be: will you have access to a power outlet? will you ever need to change or replace pci cards? how much are replacement parts for the pci expansion box? are there software requirments for the host computer in order to use the expansion box? would a stand alone computer be a better choice? is this really a true need, or is it a status object? can the solution be reached another way?
in the final analysis, the fact is you'll need additional power for the expansion box, and the expansion box is bulky enough to require it's own transporting container, you're gonna be lugging this whole thing in something bigger that a laptop bag. it not like you'll be using you laptop with expansion box off of battery power. maybe a SFF computer and a 15" lcd display would be a better option.
i actually was "assigned" to supervise a death march project at my last employer. my "new" manager(6th one in one year) knew the project was going to be canned(didn't confirm the inevitable to me, even when confronted), and most of the people would be absorbed into other projects or simply layed off. why was it a doomed project? politics.
someone else in our organization (at another geographical location), happened to be better aligned with the top management group, and used this to their advantage to eliminate competing projects, or in some cases eliminate the internal competition and take the projects over as their own.
of course at the time i had no idea what i was getting into(or who my "competition" was). no matter what our team did to produce a superior product, our project was cancelled for reasons beyond our control. i ended up stressing out and nearly damaged my health and my relationship...
then i read a book call Death March: The Complete Software Developer's Guide to Surviving "Mission Impossible" Projects. i soon realized that we were set up as an ugly style project, doomed(in fact designed) to fail.
it's good to understand why projects fail, i have not yet RTFA, but i'm sure it will compliment some of the discussions/concepts in the death march book. good read.
i gotta agree with bikerguy99, apple wouldn't release something as anemic as the rumors states... yeah, apple released some real boners, but that was not a jobs run apple. jobs has a much higher standard when his name is associated with the product.
more than likely, if it is a headless media system, it will be pretty much locked up with no upgrades available, save maybe the memory...
here's my perdictions based on really vague info:
1) mac os is installed on a flash disk (no swap, all in ram)
2) the os has been trimmed down dramatically
3) only specific i-apps are included
4) network connectivity thru ethernet or wireless for viewing guide updates, which will be subscription based via dotmac
finally, g4 1.25 is alittle overkill for a media player, frankly. take a look at the existing dvd/dvd-hd/set top boxes out there... cheaper lower powered cpu's. os x has made some pretty big leaps in performance for the g3 processor, i wouldn't be surprised it the g3 crops up as an optimum media player cpu...
i alway thought the tokyo institue of technology should have t-shirts with TIT emblazed in big bold collegiate letters with one of those spikey circle thingies behind the lettering... their official logo/seal looks like the robot from castle in the sky.
why did the parent get scored 3 and insightful? i think the moderators have shit for brains, they're just didn't RTFA (comment, actually) before scoring.
folding cables, rounding cables, these are rarely more than visual aesthetic with very little physical performance. blah blah blah air flow blah blah the arguments are pretty thin... you want to really improve performance? buy quality components.
you all noticed kodawarisan is japanese, and fearlessly, he tore into his brand new imac g5, without a care for the warranty...
culturally, the japanese have a fetish for "brand new" things (a.k.a. atarashii), so breaking the "seal" on a new product, even if it voids the warranty, is not a threat. the worry is to be embarrassed by having old things, almost counter to american ideology that old/vintage is cool... to the japanese old/vintage is shameful and embarrassing, not to be flaunted at all.
kodawarisan will probably get new imac in the next 12 months.
horrible way to live?
no it's not.
expect the worst, but hope for the best. eventually you will die, so the reality is to live fully for today; tomorrow may never come.
i don't remember where, but i recall hearing the isreali mosad have trained their operatives in extreme survival, which included utilizing one's own urine to prevent deydration from causing other physical problems. the high sodium content in urine would end up causing your tongue to swell(aside from making you more thirsty), but it could be used in extreme conditions to "wet your whistle". so, no, don't drink it, just gargle with it.
i had a mishap in a bar back in my college days. i had an altercation, which resulted in a tearing of the retinal in one of my eyes... i ended up having laser surgery that essentially "spot welded" the retina around the tear, which would prevent the humorus vitae(eyeball juice) from lifting the retina away from the back of my eyeball, which would have caused permanent blindness...
the doctor had a wild looking prism which he affixed to my eye, using what felt like vasaline, as an indexing fluid between the prism and my cornea, essentially making the prism and my cornea a single optical element. he was able to look thru one portion of the prism for aiming purposes, and there was a window on the other side which was where the YAG (yitrium aluminum garnet) laser was introduced via a light guide.
the entire procedure took about 2 hours, and consisted of approximately 250 spot welds. each laser suture was a blast of light measured in pico-seconds. the sutures are controlled in energy and time duration so the end result is that the retina is cauterized(welded) to the back of the eyeball. too much energy or too long of a time duration would cause the laser to just burn a hole thru the retina... even though my eye was desensitized with some kind of cocaine derivative(numbness and dialation), each suture felt like a quick tiny cigarette burn, followed by a flash of light. i recall this vividly, because i was completely conscience; i had to be in order to follow instructions(look left, look right, blah blah blah)... it was definitley bearable, but toward the end of the procedure, it had a cumulative effect which i can only describe as fingernails on a chalkborad, with one more finger added everytime a suture was applied. i just kept reminding myself "this too will pass, blindness won't..." that was eighteen years ago, and i still have sight in both eyes, and the last exam i had gave me a thumbs up, stiches in the eye are still holding. one side effect of the whole thing is that because if the cuaterizing actions, there was some miniscule scabbing which took place, which translates into increased "floaties" in the one eye.
a couple of years ago i accidentally scratched my cornea and ended up going to the eye infirmary at northwestern hospital because of a subsequent infection. i started rapping with a couple of the doctors and got into a conversation about contacts and radial keratotomy (rk, the precursor to lasik), mostly i was always interested because of my school study of optics and lasers, and my previous surgery. my doctor basically said there were reasons why he and the other doctors were still wearing glasses! the following is a synopsis of our conversation, as i recall...
contacts have a tendancy to scratch the cornea, which can lead to infection and scarring of the cornea. this reduces the overall flexibility of the cornea. the cornea needs to change shape during the focusing process, but if it becomes less flexible, your eye loses the ability to focus easily, hence the need to older folks to have bi-focals or even tri-focals. soft contacts will reduce the corneal scratching, but it has the side effect of reducing the amount of oxygen which can reach the cornea. in either case contact wearers eventually migrate back to eyeglasses. RK and lasik are essentially the same process - make a series of incisions in the cornea, either with a scalpel or an ablative(as in burning away) laser. the cornea heals from the incisions, the process the scarring of the incisions deforms the cornea into the desired shape, causing a correction in your vision. problem with this is that everyone scars differently based on genetic propensity, health factors, and age. the process is not perfect, and so the results are not always predictable. at best, you'll walk away with near perfect vision. at worst, you might not have made enough of a correction, or an over correction.
BOTTOMLINE:
save your money, and don't fuck with your eyes. you want to blow some cash? get some cool frames and a dually water-cooled G-5 and 30" display! anyone know if the NOS peoples frames are still available?
all of you have very good perspective on this, thanks for all the excellent constructive responses! i usually am of the mind to give people the benefit of the doubt; i like to think that everyone(and this includes multi-people organizations) will do the right thing when given the chance... people usually only do bad things when they think they can get away without getting caught.
:-(
i remember when i first heard that caldera was purchasing SCO: i thought this is a good thing! a linux company now has control of the Unix rights and can really help the genreal cause by open sourcing some of the original unix code! oh well, guess i was too optimistic
since darl and co. have been looking to make a buck on the legal stance of holding the Unix paperwork, i've always felt i was watching a benevolent group of adults (OSS, IBM, Novell and crew playing the role of parents, uncles, aunts) dealing with the misbehavior of an out-of-control kid (SCO) trying to bully the adopted, well behaved children(Linux/Torvards and company).
that SCO-kid is in for a spanking... by all the adults!
everytime SCO comes up with another hair-brained scheme to prove their position, it seems everyone in the community pitches in to prove them wrong. i'm not proposing this is a bad thing, but there may be some side effects of this process...
imagine this scenario: SCO doesn't have the staff to research every possible technical angle. they probably have limited their ability to hire (competant)contractors to do the technical research either(would you work freelance for them?). so... they whip their existing tech staff to find other possible threads of "truth/proof" to prove their prior ownership claims.
"don't worry if it isn't water-tight. we'll let IBM, groklaw, and the linux zealots figure it out for us. in the meantime, keep searching for possible angles no matter how slim. by the time they disprove one claim, we'll have another one waitng in the wings..."
i don't want to give them too much credit for thinking this way, but as a community, those who would like to prove SCO wrong seem to be doing all the hard work, and at an exceptional pace. it's also something of a military tactic to keep your enemy busy with inconsequential skrimishs, tiring out the enemy troops prior to the big surprise attack.
just my $.02
i don't agree with your internet download requirement idea...
i think you paint the GPL into a corner when you get too specific regarding,in this example, the transfer media/mechanism. kinda like the US constitution, there are certain areas of the GPL that are strict and specific, others areas that are left intentionally vague, so that it has the flexibility to stand the tests of time. perhaps a more useful(and interesting) ammendment to the GPL would be that all code be available NOT ONLY in a machine readable format, but one that does not require format translation: i.e. ISO Latin-1 or similarly compatible format versus text rastered or vectorizedinto a graphic file such as a tiff (this could loosely be considered "machine readable"), which would have to go thru an OCR process...
that being said, i do agree that most of the audience that might be interested in getting the sveasoft firmware or other source for that matter, are in the technically proficient group of people, and forcing a physical media shipment is not only a waste of time (both waiting for the disc AND burning it) and money (why not $5 via paypal? you might attract more downloads thru mini or micro payments).
IANAL, but from what i can tell, svea seems to be in compliance with the GPL. if you don't like his offering, it is you choice to go elsewhere (freedom goes both ways). you can always boycott it or trashtalk both developer and code until he changes his policy, or wait 'til someone else comes along with a similar offering... consequently, if you choose to buy his disk(and subscription) and re-distribute is (as-is or modified) he can't do jack (except slap your wrist by kicking you out of his club).
is the only choice for reliability, performance and cost effectiveness. yeah, you can build one for much cheaper using ATA/serial ATA, but for longevity and reliability, SCSI is still the best bet.
look for mylex raid controllers, or if your looking on ebay, consider CMD (5000 series or greater) as a fall back option. i don't recommend chapprel.
if you're gonna do it on the cheap consider the firewire raid solutions from wiebetech or granite digital.
you're right, i don't work with maya,but i do work in a company that utilizes maya and max, so my exposure to it isn't completely uneducated... i also don't disagree with you that storyboarding and planning aren't important. if ideas aren't sketched out and some type of planning work done ahead of time, it's easy to get lost in the process. i've witnessed under-planned projects start to waiver in its original goal because the artist started getting too involved in the journey and start to lose sight of the destination.
like i said, maya and max provide a very strong UI to give the artist immediate feedback in the modeling process, something you don't get in pov. when you're in a creative roll, you don't need to wonder how to operate the tool, you want to just start using it (somewhat) intuitively. but i think the comparison between maya and pov is apples and oranges...
but back to my original query, since you seem to be an educated maya user, whats your opinion of blender and it's capabilities, in comparison to maya or max? i think this is more interesting than the maya vs pov discussion...
it's interesting to see comments that pit povray against these other applications which are really intended to put a great amount of creative control at the hands of the user...
there are some fundamental differences between povray vs maya/max/etc which aren't so apparent but important to distinguish the applications.
pov models and renders objects based on the mathematical description of the surface. maya/max on the other hand models objects based on triangulating the surface. while it seems esoteric, it is a fundamental difference which really puts these applications into two different classes. try modeling a quaternion fractalor other mathematical shape/function in maya... additionally the complex and random model generation that pov has(onyale's pipe macro, chris colfax macros) is not something easily created with these other apps.
maya and max on the other hand have a strong UI to help put a layer between the user and the code itself. there's no way you could do the type of modeling in pov that you could in maya. pov is very methodical; plan out the image, heavy previsualization, utilization of macros and includes to manage the items you previously created. maya provides immediate feedback as items are created, providing a more fine art approach of creation, kinda like working with clay as opposed to architecting a building.
comparing these applications (pov/max/maya) is like comparing a car to a plane... they are both used for transportation, but the mechanisms to implement the main function is vastly different(it's not the best analogy, take it with a grain of salt)...
perhaps a more productive discussion would be to have some kind of shootout between maya, max, and blender.
i have a friend who runs a coffe shop. she wanted for a long time to get into wireless(a lot of her customers were asking) but kept putting it off til a starbucks moved into the neighborhood. she started getting solicited from t-mobile to set up a hot spot, but they were asking some pretty steep layout...
long story short, we ended up with a pretty sweet setup both for her and her customers, and she's super competative with the starbucks, net access price-wise.
my return? free coffee, net access and the appreciation of a friend, not to mention putting the squeeze on corporate coffee shops with no soul;-)
on a side note, if the professors are utilizing a lot of additional material which includes might include3 handwritten information, you might consider getting encouraging them to transcribe that material(hopefully your not the TA that has to do the transcription) into a digital for, be it text or WORD. this'll difinitely help in reducing the size of your files.
also consider looking into adobe's pdf service, if you're overwhelmed with just orginizing the material itself. probably not so kosher to suggest ity on /. but it could be something the school already has an agreement with adobe(taking into account the units of acrobat the school itself might be using). i know it's not rolling your own, but sometimes using an "out of the box" solution to get thing up and running so you can explore other solutions has it's merit as well...