"most people on whirlpool, are IT managers and admins"
Oh please. Whilst I'm sure there are a lot of IT Managers and sysadmins on Whirlpool (I'm one of them), they're vastly outnumbered by kids and "enthusiast" internet users who's prime purpose on Whirlpool is to shop around for the most speed and monthly download capacity for their (parents) dollar.
"Vista is going to be a tough sell to the mainstream public."
The mainstream public aren't Microsoft's primary market. Nor, strangely enough, is the GUI the primary reason to upgrade to Vista. Don't believe me? Go read the Microsoft Security VP's interview here on Slashdot.
Microsoft's biggest market is the corporate market, on tier-1 OEM desktop PCs and laptops. The GUI is well down on the list of priorities for your friendly local CIO/CTO, who's much more interested in:
Vista has features included in it to address these concerns. The GUI's nice, sure, but it isn't the reason why the Top XYZ will upgrade their corporate networks to Vista.
If you have to lie to your SO to justify spending time doing something you enjoy, then you may have other problems that you need to sort out before you even start worrying about getting some game time in...
Now, I agree with this comment (there's no way that's a robot) - but it brings up the question - exactly what DOES constitute a robot?
A lot of us, I imagine, immediately think of devices such as the robot in "Lost in Space", or (those of us who are a bit older, or into movies) Klaatu (sp) from "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Industrial robots (such as those used to manufacture cars, or carry out extremely dangerous industrial procedures), or other devices, such as those used by the police to defuse bombs, etc are most certainly real "robots" - but what is it about those devices is it that makes them a robot?
Why is the photo that was supposedly leaked by someone there so obviously photochopped? Where's the official hype (surely they don't plan, officially, on releasing the product onto a totally unsuspecting market? They've officially told various people about their upcoming R300 product, why would they, officially, keep this so secret)? Where in ATi's lineup does this Radeon 8500 MAXX fit? Above the single GPU Radeon 8500, sure. But wouldn't it steal sales from their upcoming R300 based product (reportedly called the Radeon 9700)? Sure, a Radeon 8500 MAXX won't have DirectX 9 compliance, but there's no DirectX 9 games out yet, nor will there be any that *require* it (notice I didn't say can't take advantage of DirectX 9 features) for some time.
Yes, the geek in me thinks "Dual GPU Radeon card. Sweet!". But the realist in me thinks "Well, the ONLY "proof" of it we've seen are unconfirmed leaks, and a badly photochopped photo of a product that ATi already have in full production.
DAoC (Dark Age of Camelot, website here) was pretty bug-free when it was released.
In fact, I think they've introduced (and then had to fix) more bugs in patches than they've fixed bugs which existed in the first place (before patches). If that makes sense...
And not just because of it's heritage and geek appeal either.
The lead designer for SWG is Raph Koster. Most of you probably don't know who Raph Koster is - but you'd know (or at least know of) his work. Does Ultima Online ring any bells? Raph Koster was the lead developer for UO for quite some time - from it's introduction through until the introduction of the second expansion (and possibly a bit longer than that). UO was VERY popular - at least in part due to Raph's influence. He has shown an ability to work with a product which has a heritage (people have been playing Ultima since the days of the Apple ][e), and the ability to work with someone important to that heritage (Richard Garriott in the case of UO). So I can't see the heritage SWG inherits from the SW movies, or the involvement of George Lucas, being a problem to him at all as he goes about developing what should be another successful MMORPG.
All in all, I wish Raph, and the other developers, the best of luck, and I am definately looking forward to seeing how SWG goes once it's released. I may even play it!:)
My initial thought was of CounterStrike - a mod for Half-Life which is *plagued* by cheaters.
Such a good game, ruined by cheaters. While I guess catching people who are cheating in their CompSci degrees is rather more important, I'd have settled for wallhacks and headshot proxies being totally nullifed.
Ah well. Back to being shot in the head the second I walk around a corner. Gotta love getting 12-42 kills-deaths ratios, not because I suck that badly at CounterStrike, but because I refuse to cheat like the majority of players on public servers...
AMD came up with their PR numbers to show that Athlon XP's perfrom equivently to a higher rated PIV. Of course, once software is programmed to take advantage of the PIV's new architecture (rememebr when Pentium Pro's hit the scene?), I wonder if AMD will push those XP ratings down.
Officially, AMD's "PR" ratings aren't a direct comparison to the P4's performance/clock speed. Of course, we all know that's EXACTLY why AMD uses the "PR" ratings, but AMD can't officially announce "Look, we have to justify the performance of our processors by comparing them directly with our biggest competitor." The official word (I've seen the document on the AMD website, but a few quick searches didn't bring it back up again just then) is that the ratings are actually supposed to signify the advantage of the AthlonXP over the Thunderbird-cored Athlon - a Thunderbird Athlon would have to be running at 1800MHz to perform at the same level as an AthlonXP 1800+ (which has a clock speed of 1.53GHz).
As it is, the "PR" ratings have a lot of room anyway - an XP 2000+ still performs VERY well compared to a 2GHz P4 - so I don't think AMD will even feel the need to adjust their rating system.
That's all well and good, assuming that these people don't let their egos get in the way of their good judgement.
And let's be honest - while they may be coding gods, and extremely intelligent, they are only human. And humans don't like being wrong.
There is also the fact that in wanting to argue to support their own code, these *very* intelligent people may become blind to their own faults, or the faults of their work.
Infighting isn't necessarily good. It's certainly not good when it gets personal. Active discussion and intelligent, coherent arguments are fine, infighting which includes calling each other names, rather than focusing on the problems/issues at hand, is not.
Also, when you look at non-open OS development, you have to remember that just because we, as users, don't see arguments/discussions about the best/easiest/most effective way to do something doesn't mean that those arguments/discussions don't occur. Or that non-open OS developers aren't also intelligent people who are also trying to find the best way to tackle a problem/issue...
The problem with cane toads, is that they can't and don't fly.
Cane beetles (also introduced to Australia) do fly. So the cane toads are pretty useless at killing them.
Instead, they breed enmasse, and are then consumed by both native animals and pets. Cane toads being poisonous, this tends to end the lives of said native animals and pets - the pets are an individual loss and can be coped with, but the native animals dying by eating cane toads is actually threatening the existance of some native species - fresh water crocodiles for example.
Solid-state Peltier-effect coolers are much more promising. They actually refrigerate, they have no moving parts, and they don't make noise.
Except that they don't work if they're not themselves cooled. So you're still stuck with using alternative heat removal techniques anyway. Which generally comes down to water cooling (messy and expensive), or very good air cooling (we're back to being noisy again). And if your ancilliary cooling fails, your peltier becomes a *really* good insulator. Meaning you end up with a fried CPU.
Due to the laws of physics, you also have to remove more heat from the hot side of a peltier than it removes from your CPU.
And the clamping pressure requires by a peltier to function at it's most efficient is significantly greater than the recommended maximum clamping pressure on the top of either AMD or Intel processors.
Then there are also problems with condensation. Which is bad when mixed with computer components.
Peltiers aren't sounding so crash hot all of a sudden, are they...:(
...and being prosecuted under the DMCA all for the sake of a few extra MHz.
Um, please DO tell me you're kidding.
What I, or anyone else, chooses to do with my processor after I buy it is MY business. We're not talking about art, or artistic license here, but a consumer electronics product.
The only time it becomes illegal is if, through the process of overclocking, I damage the CPU, and then try to claim warranty - that's fraud. Otherwise, if I want to run my 1GHz Athlon @ 1.5GHz, there's no-one who has the right to stop me.
And why always complain about CPU fan noise? Doesn't the fans in the power supply make more noise, anyway?
It sounds like you haven't actually HEARD the sound of a 60mm 7,000rpm Delta Black Label fan.
Imagine a hair dryer. On it's fastest setting. Sitting inside your PC.
That's the sound one of those fans makes. It takes a LOT of effort for a 60mm fan to move 38cfm in a free-air environment - then add to the fact that you're trying to push that airflow through a heatsink, which creates even MORE noise, and your fan gets louder again. It's not unusual to hear of HSF units with Delta Black Label fans rated at 48dBA. And that doesn't take into account the fact that the noise is very high pitched as well. It makes your PC sound like a jet plane readying itself for takeoff. It can *really* get on your nerves. Trust me.
Power supply fans tend to be pretty damned quiet in comparison. Especially when Panaflo fans (or similar) are used - they're known for being quiet.
Slashdot Mirror
"most people on whirlpool, are IT managers and admins"
Oh please. Whilst I'm sure there are a lot of IT Managers and sysadmins on Whirlpool (I'm one of them), they're vastly outnumbered by kids and "enthusiast" internet users who's prime purpose on Whirlpool is to shop around for the most speed and monthly download capacity for their (parents) dollar.
http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=4895 87
"Vista is going to be a tough sell to the mainstream public."
The mainstream public aren't Microsoft's primary market. Nor, strangely enough, is the GUI the primary reason to upgrade to Vista. Don't believe me? Go read the Microsoft Security VP's interview here on Slashdot.
Microsoft's biggest market is the corporate market, on tier-1 OEM desktop PCs and laptops. The GUI is well down on the list of priorities for your friendly local CIO/CTO, who's much more interested in:
* Security.
* Functionality.
* Supportability.
* TCO.
Vista has features included in it to address these concerns. The GUI's nice, sure, but it isn't the reason why the Top XYZ will upgrade their corporate networks to Vista.
"You will know when it's time to turn the page when you hear the calliopie (sp) play like this. Let's begin now."
It certainly was from Dumbo (I had the book & record version). The three crows that feature throughout the story sang that song.
Of course, Shrek was NOT done by Disney - in fact, it was full of thinly veiled barbs AT Disney...
Of course, the US was never a British penal colony either.
:/
How quickly we forget...
Most of this stuff is lying.
If you have to lie to your SO to justify spending time doing something you enjoy, then you may have other problems that you need to sort out before you even start worrying about getting some game time in...
Ah, you're right.
:/
It seems that I'm SO old that my memory is already failing me.
At all of 27...
And, perhaps just as importantly, what about this ironing "device" excludes it from being a robot?
I wonder how many people actually know what Cherry 2000 was.
At least if this ironing shirt malfunctions, your shirt's the only thing that's gonna be blown (up)...
Now, I agree with this comment (there's no way that's a robot) - but it brings up the question - exactly what DOES constitute a robot?
A lot of us, I imagine, immediately think of devices such as the robot in "Lost in Space", or (those of us who are a bit older, or into movies) Klaatu (sp) from "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Industrial robots (such as those used to manufacture cars, or carry out extremely dangerous industrial procedures), or other devices, such as those used by the police to defuse bombs, etc are most certainly real "robots" - but what is it about those devices is it that makes them a robot?
Those are the words of the person who submitted the story, not the ./ staffer who posted it... :)
Why is the photo that was supposedly leaked by someone there so obviously photochopped? Where's the official hype (surely they don't plan, officially, on releasing the product onto a totally unsuspecting market? They've officially told various people about their upcoming R300 product, why would they, officially, keep this so secret)? Where in ATi's lineup does this Radeon 8500 MAXX fit? Above the single GPU Radeon 8500, sure. But wouldn't it steal sales from their upcoming R300 based product (reportedly called the Radeon 9700)? Sure, a Radeon 8500 MAXX won't have DirectX 9 compliance, but there's no DirectX 9 games out yet, nor will there be any that *require* it (notice I didn't say can't take advantage of DirectX 9 features) for some time.
Yes, the geek in me thinks "Dual GPU Radeon card. Sweet!". But the realist in me thinks "Well, the ONLY "proof" of it we've seen are unconfirmed leaks, and a badly photochopped photo of a product that ATi already have in full production.
Ahuh. I'll believe it when I see it, in person.
Hmmm.
You don't by chance work for Intel, do you? Or perhaps used to, around the time when the first Pentium processors came out?
2+2=5 for suitably large values of 2 and all?
Yes.
And the Simpsons is based on real life events too. Anything that happens on the Simpsons, can and does happen in RealLife.
[/SARCASM]
Whales != Sharks...
DAoC (Dark Age of Camelot, website here) was pretty bug-free when it was released.
In fact, I think they've introduced (and then had to fix) more bugs in patches than they've fixed bugs which existed in the first place (before patches). If that makes sense...
And not just because of it's heritage and geek appeal either.
:)
The lead designer for SWG is Raph Koster. Most of you probably don't know who Raph Koster is - but you'd know (or at least know of) his work. Does Ultima Online ring any bells? Raph Koster was the lead developer for UO for quite some time - from it's introduction through until the introduction of the second expansion (and possibly a bit longer than that). UO was VERY popular - at least in part due to Raph's influence. He has shown an ability to work with a product which has a heritage (people have been playing Ultima since the days of the Apple ][e), and the ability to work with someone important to that heritage (Richard Garriott in the case of UO). So I can't see the heritage SWG inherits from the SW movies, or the involvement of George Lucas, being a problem to him at all as he goes about developing what should be another successful MMORPG.
All in all, I wish Raph, and the other developers, the best of luck, and I am definately looking forward to seeing how SWG goes once it's released. I may even play it!
My initial thought was of CounterStrike - a mod for Half-Life which is *plagued* by cheaters.
Such a good game, ruined by cheaters. While I guess catching people who are cheating in their CompSci degrees is rather more important, I'd have settled for wallhacks and headshot proxies being totally nullifed.
Ah well. Back to being shot in the head the second I walk around a corner. Gotta love getting 12-42 kills-deaths ratios, not because I suck that badly at CounterStrike, but because I refuse to cheat like the majority of players on public servers...
AMD came up with their PR numbers to show that Athlon XP's perfrom equivently to a higher rated PIV. Of course, once software is programmed to take advantage of the PIV's new architecture (rememebr when Pentium Pro's hit the scene?), I wonder if AMD will push those XP ratings down.
Officially, AMD's "PR" ratings aren't a direct comparison to the P4's performance/clock speed. Of course, we all know that's EXACTLY why AMD uses the "PR" ratings, but AMD can't officially announce "Look, we have to justify the performance of our processors by comparing them directly with our biggest competitor." The official word (I've seen the document on the AMD website, but a few quick searches didn't bring it back up again just then) is that the ratings are actually supposed to signify the advantage of the AthlonXP over the Thunderbird-cored Athlon - a Thunderbird Athlon would have to be running at 1800MHz to perform at the same level as an AthlonXP 1800+ (which has a clock speed of 1.53GHz).
As it is, the "PR" ratings have a lot of room anyway - an XP 2000+ still performs VERY well compared to a 2GHz P4 - so I don't think AMD will even feel the need to adjust their rating system.
That's all well and good, assuming that these people don't let their egos get in the way of their good judgement.
And let's be honest - while they may be coding gods, and extremely intelligent, they are only human. And humans don't like being wrong.
There is also the fact that in wanting to argue to support their own code, these *very* intelligent people may become blind to their own faults, or the faults of their work.
Infighting isn't necessarily good. It's certainly not good when it gets personal. Active discussion and intelligent, coherent arguments are fine, infighting which includes calling each other names, rather than focusing on the problems/issues at hand, is not.
Also, when you look at non-open OS development, you have to remember that just because we, as users, don't see arguments/discussions about the best/easiest/most effective way to do something doesn't mean that those arguments/discussions don't occur. Or that non-open OS developers aren't also intelligent people who are also trying to find the best way to tackle a problem/issue...
Could milions of trolls and Nimda spreaders be taken off line?
:)
What, AOL are being closed down too?
The problem with cane toads, is that they can't and don't fly.
Cane beetles (also introduced to Australia) do fly. So the cane toads are pretty useless at killing them.
Instead, they breed enmasse, and are then consumed by both native animals and pets. Cane toads being poisonous, this tends to end the lives of said native animals and pets - the pets are an individual loss and can be coped with, but the native animals dying by eating cane toads is actually threatening the existance of some native species - fresh water crocodiles for example.
Solid-state Peltier-effect coolers are much more promising. They actually refrigerate, they have no moving parts, and they don't make noise.
:(
Except that they don't work if they're not themselves cooled. So you're still stuck with using alternative heat removal techniques anyway. Which generally comes down to water cooling (messy and expensive), or very good air cooling (we're back to being noisy again). And if your ancilliary cooling fails, your peltier becomes a *really* good insulator. Meaning you end up with a fried CPU.
Due to the laws of physics, you also have to remove more heat from the hot side of a peltier than it removes from your CPU.
And the clamping pressure requires by a peltier to function at it's most efficient is significantly greater than the recommended maximum clamping pressure on the top of either AMD or Intel processors.
Then there are also problems with condensation. Which is bad when mixed with computer components.
Peltiers aren't sounding so crash hot all of a sudden, are they...
...and being prosecuted under the DMCA all for the sake of a few extra MHz.
Um, please DO tell me you're kidding.
What I, or anyone else, chooses to do with my processor after I buy it is MY business. We're not talking about art, or artistic license here, but a consumer electronics product.
The only time it becomes illegal is if, through the process of overclocking, I damage the CPU, and then try to claim warranty - that's fraud. Otherwise, if I want to run my 1GHz Athlon @ 1.5GHz, there's no-one who has the right to stop me.
And why always complain about CPU fan noise? Doesn't the fans in the power supply make more noise, anyway?
It sounds like you haven't actually HEARD the sound of a 60mm 7,000rpm Delta Black Label fan.
Imagine a hair dryer. On it's fastest setting. Sitting inside your PC.
That's the sound one of those fans makes. It takes a LOT of effort for a 60mm fan to move 38cfm in a free-air environment - then add to the fact that you're trying to push that airflow through a heatsink, which creates even MORE noise, and your fan gets louder again. It's not unusual to hear of HSF units with Delta Black Label fans rated at 48dBA. And that doesn't take into account the fact that the noise is very high pitched as well. It makes your PC sound like a jet plane readying itself for takeoff. It can *really* get on your nerves. Trust me.
Power supply fans tend to be pretty damned quiet in comparison. Especially when Panaflo fans (or similar) are used - they're known for being quiet.