just to find the perfect balance of window size, far more than my dual monitor set up at home. Also, it's great to leave some 'desktop hogs' such as chat windows, the Google desktop, the task bar, and other items which would grab the entire vertical or horizontal axis, in the 'secondary window'.
I have a widescreen at home, and use dual monitors at work, so I know exactly where you're coming from.
The issues you bring up are window management problems. They're things that should be solved in software, rather than requiring you to spend good money to reconfigure your hardware. Optimally, switch to linux and configure the window manager's behavior until you're happy, possibly start off with a tiling window manager like ratpoison or something.
Also, widescreen threw me for a bit of a loop... webpages aren't designed to be viewed at 1920 pixels wide, and aren't designed for 16:9 / 16:10, and some of them end up being much harder to read than you'd think they would. I end up wanting software to "halve" the monitor so it acts like a left and a right half. So if you're really really stuck on using hardware to solve the window manager issues, I'd suggest not getting a widescreen.
Also, widescreen really is the future: if you have a 50" widescreen monitor, and you sit a foot or two away from it, you don't need two of them. A widescreen monitor is shaped to fill your perhipheral vision well. We just need window managers to catch up now (especially Windows, if that's something we'll be forced to use at work).
I think both DVD (ntsc) and 720p are 29.97 fps (with the 3:2 pulldown stuff).
Also, I don't know if I can find the bitrates, but I'd be willing to bet that HD-DVD and Blu-ray allow for a higher bitrate than DTV/sat/cable, so it will look a little better than HDTV owners are using to seeing from broadcast TV.
DVD's are not high-def. Granted, DVD's look good, but they're not high-def. Here's the number of pixels per field for each type of media:
DVD (ntsc): 172,800 pixels (widescreen or not, it's always the same)
720p: 921,600 pixels
1080i: 1,036,800 pixels
1080p (though this is rarely supported in next-gen disc formats): 2,073,600 pixels
So that's at least a 5-fold increase in number of pixels per field. If you compare a DVD to a Blu-ray or HD-DVD of the same movie side by side, on a TV that can at least display 720p, you're absolutely going to be able to see a noticable difference.
Don't tell anybody, but I think my dentistry professor killed Kennedy. Shhh!
*gasp* People say crazy things on the internet. And most people ignore them. But for some reason, when people who are are higher on the foodchain find out, they tend to think that the whole world is reading all the crazy rants out on the internet, and that somehow the crazy people on the internet must be stopped. Get a clue.
It goes both ways. Any wiki whose contents is licensed under the GFDL can be copy-n-pasted en masse to Wikipedia. And with interwiki links, wikis can be interlinked, so a specific wiki could, say, only copy out just the startrek stuff, and link back to the real-world wiki only when necessary. GFDL, it's great thing.
A lot of people who are not-so-important like to get their kicks by putting down others. Not to say that corporations are remotely perfect, but once internet posters get going, they have a tendency to go overboard.
"Unfortunatly they keep tripping over there own feet.", I mean, c'mon, how can that not be parodied? That was a perfect setup.
Sucks to be in Microsoft hardware right about now, thought they would have learned their lesson five fucken' years ago.
That the japanese market is extremely insular? You really can't compare incumbent Japanese companies to outside companies, and try to draw straightforward conclusions, because Japanese consumers in many markets prefer Japanese brands.
Nooooo, I don't think that's remotely right. This isn't news to most people, but CPUs have hit a brick wall around 3 - 3.5GHz, for both laptops and desktops. AMD/Intel haven't and won't be releasing a 4GHz chip anytime soon. The only way to get processing now (for the CPU itself) is to make your software run on multiple CPUs, and keep adding more and more CPUs. Thus, we have a 3-CPU XBox 360 and a 7-CPU PS3 (and a 2-CPU Revolution, probably).
If you want to play an FPS on a console, play it on an XBox 360. 1) the online part of the 360 is something that won't be available until the Playstation 4 (I'm serious: the 360's centralized online setup is so good that it's something that Sony will eventually realize it's a must-have... though like Nintendo did on the Gamecube, Sony and many others haven't realized how good it is yet), 2) 360's peer-ranking (trueskill matchmaking) means that in online play, not only are people encouraged to not be mean, sometimes they're even encouraged to actually show good sportmanship (eg. in racing games, when overtaking in a corner, sometimes people will let you know they're passing).
Yes, marketplace is evil in that it can nickel-and-dime you to death, and to some extent is following the ring-tone model that is obviously evil.
But in other ways, the Xbox 360 arcade part of it is a very, very good thing. If you like arcade games, it might be nice to have things be revamped in high-def with a wireless controller. But more importantly, for the first time, it provides smaller companies an outlet to console gaming. Previously, only well-funded companies that could afford to spend the time to develop a well-polished large game worth $50 could jump into the console arena. Now companies can develop content that gets downloaded straight to customers pretty quickly, without having to wait for the retail distribution.
Yeah, this part of console gaming is sort of like PC gaming, but again, it can be very nice to plop down on the sofa with a wireless controller and play a game on your big high-def screen.
I was hearing that only 3 - 5% of people were having problems, so you should be able to find tons of people who report having no problems (eg. I'm one of them, mine is on a solid non-carpeted surface, having no problems).
You can set up a completely separate passport account for your XBox if you want. Also, AFAIK, you had to do this with your original XBox as well. Also, it has other side benefits, like allowing you to post on online forums with your gametag, and being able to show off your gamercard to others. This really isn't any different than how it is in the WoW forums, where you post with your in-game handle and stats.
I think it's fantastic in a way. Just in a way. I'm all for freedom of speech.
The libertarian argument doesn't work when they're a natural monopoly. Google proved that the "you must pay large sums of money to reach any eyeballs" model just isn't appropriate for the internet. The reason the last-mile ISP's are even thinking about doing this is because they own the last mile of copper, which is a large barrier to entry to the market, which means that they see very little competition.
Basically, put these things in places people would always slow down anyway (eg. off-ramps), and it's a win-win. Free energy production for the city, and reduced wear on brake pads for the citizens.
1080i isn't total rubbish. HDNet does a lot of quality work, they always transmit their films in the original aspect ratio, for instance, and they transmit in 1080i, and their stuff looks great.
But yes, HD-newbies may not initially realize that 720p and 1080i should co-exist as equals... high-quality sports games are usually transmitted in 720p, for instance.
So generations overlap, film at 11. Despite the huge take-up of DVDs, they just stopped selling VCR tapes like... last year, right?
HD movies are already being transmitted on cable and satellite channels... if people want to keep HD movies around, their only (legal) option is to keep them on a PVR's hard drive. Are HDTV owners satisfied with that? No.
Much like Slashdot sprouted a whole cottage industry of airmchair lawyers, Wikipedia will spawn a cottage industry of armchair copyeditors, who just learned how to do it a couple months ago. Geeks are flexible and will adapt.
New users who find that there's a clear need for their skills have a higher tendency to stay. So, as Wikipedia's writing style gets worse and worse over time, people who already are skilled at copyediting from their real life will stay at a higher rate compared to people who show up to copy entries off of Sourceforge or enter info about the latest scifi episode.
Yes, writing by committee is not so good, but Wikipedia's immediacy and breadth compensate for that quite a bit. The problem is that Wikipedia's current copyediting is below-par even for writing-by-committee.
Slashdot Mirror
The issues you bring up are window management problems. They're things that should be solved in software, rather than requiring you to spend good money to reconfigure your hardware. Optimally, switch to linux and configure the window manager's behavior until you're happy, possibly start off with a tiling window manager like ratpoison or something.
Also, widescreen threw me for a bit of a loop... webpages aren't designed to be viewed at 1920 pixels wide, and aren't designed for 16:9 / 16:10, and some of them end up being much harder to read than you'd think they would. I end up wanting software to "halve" the monitor so it acts like a left and a right half. So if you're really really stuck on using hardware to solve the window manager issues, I'd suggest not getting a widescreen.
Also, widescreen really is the future: if you have a 50" widescreen monitor, and you sit a foot or two away from it, you don't need two of them. A widescreen monitor is shaped to fill your perhipheral vision well. We just need window managers to catch up now (especially Windows, if that's something we'll be forced to use at work).
Also, I don't know if I can find the bitrates, but I'd be willing to bet that HD-DVD and Blu-ray allow for a higher bitrate than DTV/sat/cable, so it will look a little better than HDTV owners are using to seeing from broadcast TV.
So that's at least a 5-fold increase in number of pixels per field. If you compare a DVD to a Blu-ray or HD-DVD of the same movie side by side, on a TV that can at least display 720p, you're absolutely going to be able to see a noticable difference.
(funny, I was just reading that before coming to slashdot... even better is the semi-related water rocket page.... awesome stuff)
*gasp* People say crazy things on the internet. And most people ignore them. But for some reason, when people who are are higher on the foodchain find out, they tend to think that the whole world is reading all the crazy rants out on the internet, and that somehow the crazy people on the internet must be stopped. Get a clue.
It goes both ways. Any wiki whose contents is licensed under the GFDL can be copy-n-pasted en masse to Wikipedia. And with interwiki links, wikis can be interlinked, so a specific wiki could, say, only copy out just the startrek stuff, and link back to the real-world wiki only when necessary. GFDL, it's great thing.
Their not the only ones tripping over they're own feat.
Someone set us up the 360? For great justice.
Nooooo, I don't think that's remotely right. This isn't news to most people, but CPUs have hit a brick wall around 3 - 3.5GHz, for both laptops and desktops. AMD/Intel haven't and won't be releasing a 4GHz chip anytime soon. The only way to get processing now (for the CPU itself) is to make your software run on multiple CPUs, and keep adding more and more CPUs. Thus, we have a 3-CPU XBox 360 and a 7-CPU PS3 (and a 2-CPU Revolution, probably).
If you want to play an FPS on a console, play it on an XBox 360. 1) the online part of the 360 is something that won't be available until the Playstation 4 (I'm serious: the 360's centralized online setup is so good that it's something that Sony will eventually realize it's a must-have... though like Nintendo did on the Gamecube, Sony and many others haven't realized how good it is yet), 2) 360's peer-ranking (trueskill matchmaking) means that in online play, not only are people encouraged to not be mean, sometimes they're even encouraged to actually show good sportmanship (eg. in racing games, when overtaking in a corner, sometimes people will let you know they're passing).
Digital cameras? Scanners? Fax machines?
But in other ways, the Xbox 360 arcade part of it is a very, very good thing. If you like arcade games, it might be nice to have things be revamped in high-def with a wireless controller. But more importantly, for the first time, it provides smaller companies an outlet to console gaming. Previously, only well-funded companies that could afford to spend the time to develop a well-polished large game worth $50 could jump into the console arena. Now companies can develop content that gets downloaded straight to customers pretty quickly, without having to wait for the retail distribution.
Yeah, this part of console gaming is sort of like PC gaming, but again, it can be very nice to plop down on the sofa with a wireless controller and play a game on your big high-def screen.
I was hearing that only 3 - 5% of people were having problems, so you should be able to find tons of people who report having no problems (eg. I'm one of them, mine is on a solid non-carpeted surface, having no problems).
You can set up a completely separate passport account for your XBox if you want. Also, AFAIK, you had to do this with your original XBox as well. Also, it has other side benefits, like allowing you to post on online forums with your gametag, and being able to show off your gamercard to others. This really isn't any different than how it is in the WoW forums, where you post with your in-game handle and stats.
Holy cow, that's very convenient indeed. Though, most likely this will only make IT firewall admins scowl even more at the mention of SSH forwarding.
On the other hand, if TCP-over-TCP is your only option (eg. due to the lame firewall my employer set up), then SSH is a great option.
But what does that have to do with increasing security again?
Yeah, kind of a silly article. Even before reading the comments, it's clear that 98% of them will be about MAME.
Basically, put these things in places people would always slow down anyway (eg. off-ramps), and it's a win-win. Free energy production for the city, and reduced wear on brake pads for the citizens.
But yes, HD-newbies may not initially realize that 720p and 1080i should co-exist as equals... high-quality sports games are usually transmitted in 720p, for instance.
* VHS tapes
HD movies are already being transmitted on cable and satellite channels... if people want to keep HD movies around, their only (legal) option is to keep them on a PVR's hard drive. Are HDTV owners satisfied with that? No.
Yes, writing by committee is not so good, but Wikipedia's immediacy and breadth compensate for that quite a bit. The problem is that Wikipedia's current copyediting is below-par even for writing-by-committee.