Actually, AS/400s don't even require that many people to maintain and/or run. We have two AS/400s set up where I work, and nobody has done anything with them other than enter records.
Hell, one time, a few years ago, a hard drive began to fail. This is the only problem we've ever had with them, but the best part was that nobody even knew about it until an IBM tech came to the office to fix it. No data was lost, and he didn't even need to take down the system.
What are these imbeciles thinking?
My friend Joe wrote about an experience he'd had doing tech support:
"Ya know, in the tech support business, he who answers the phone has the power. We wield the secrets of the servers and computers and you are at our whim. We are the Dark Overlords of the Network, you must pay homage and appease our sick desires or you will be left in the cold, cold space of non-connectivity..... or so I thought.
Joe: User Support Center, this is Joe, may I have your employee number please.
Customer: Yeah Joe, it's XXXX.
J: Charles XXXXXXXX?
C: That's me
J: Cool, what seems to be your problem, Charlie?
C: It's Charles, and the problem is I have no connectivity what so ever.
J: Ok, Charles, you're in charge, let's get you fixed.
C: What was that supposed to mean?
J: Huh? Oh never mind, what exactly is going on when you try to connect?
C: Absolutely nothing, it brings up the account window, but refuses to connect.
J: Yeah, ok, been surfing porn lately? Maybe changed some settings to get some Real Video downloads?
C: Excuse me?
J: Why? Did you fart? Ah, forget it. When was the last time you had connectivity?
C: Are you trying to be smart with me, son?
J: Um, no, dad, just trying to cut through some ice, and give the call a little 'loose feeling' so it's not so professional is all. I find I can work better with people that don't have a stick up their bum.
C: Commendable choice, but I want to keep this rather professional, I'm more accustomed to it if you don't mind. (his voice becomes a little tight)
J: Sure, whatever floats your boat. Now when was the last time you were connected?
C: Last night at the hotel, I had my secretary send out a batch of reports.
J: She was getting a little overtime at the No-Tell Motel, eh, Chuck?
C: That's it, what is your name?
J: Uh, I already told you, durr! It's Joe.
C: Ok Joe, do you have the Company's Network Hierarchy Status page?
J: Sure do, why do ya ask?
C: I want you to look up my name now!
J: Okies, I'm all over it like glaze on a donut...
(I open the ole webpage, type in the magic passwords, insert Chucks name... Searching, please wait....)
Results:
Name: Charles XXXXXXXX
Title: Executive Vice President XXXXXXX Technologies, Network Resources
Location: XXXXXXX Technologies Head Quarters, Santa Clara, CA
Status: You done Fucked up, Joe!
J: Well, Mr. XXXXXXX, I have the results back from the search sir, what exactly may I do for you?
C: You can start by packing up your desk, son, I don't think you'll be needing any personal items at the workplace for a while.
J: (GULP!)
C: Do we have a little more understanding as to the situation, Joe?
J: I believe I am in full understanding as to the situation at hand, sir, and may I compliment you on what a wonderful work environment you have created for all of us employees here at XXXXXXX Technologies?
C: That's not necessary.
J: Oh, but sir, it is. Why, just earlier this evening, me and my fellow employees, each of whom are very happy to be employees of this fine company, were commenting on how great this company has handled the recent bottom out of the technological market. Why, it would take a veritable genius, nay, economic god, to have protected the interest of not only his company, but of it's employees as well. We are all in your debt, kind and benevolent ruler of our lives.
C: Hehe, really, let's get back to the subject at hand.
J: I worship you sir.
C: Excuse me?
J: I keep a picture of you on my desk, you are an inspiration to all of us here in the User Support Center.
C: Fine, I'm not sure to believe you or not, but I'd like to get back to my problem.
J: Your problem is my problem sir. Let's fix this.
Contradictory to the big bang theory? I thought this was a part of it. Unless I either misunderstood this theory, or misunderstood the big bang theory, I always assumed that the big bang theory already said that everything blew out at some point, came back together, blew out, came back together, in an infinite loop. Am I missing something?
I ask them, 'What have you done last week?' They may say they wrote a paper on this or that. So I tell them, 'Oh, you wrote a paper, and you got an A? Would it bother you if somebody could just take that paper and get an A too? Would that bug you?
More like writing an A paper, and then having other people take that paper and read it.
"The integration of innovative features is a principal means by which both software and hardware products are improved, to the benefit of consumers."
This is why people who know anything about computers buy from HP and Compaq, right?
Integration means less options, and less options means that consumers are forced into making decisions that they might not necessarily want. While I readily admit that a small level of integration is necessary (who wants to start fusing their chipsets to their motherboards?), the extent that Microsoft takes it is abominable. Can anyone else forsee the day that you boot up your computer to Windows RG (Really Good edition), to only have one program on your system: Windows Internet, Media, Email, Solitaire, Finance, Document, Spreadsheet, Slideshow, and Calculator Explorer?
"I think this is proof against one of the arguments creationist wackos have been making for quite a long time"
Actually this does nothing of the sort.
I think it does. He's not saying it will prove or disprove creationism, but merely shatter a crutch that they rely on. I can't tell you how many countless arguments I've gotten into with creationists where they fall back on, "Well, we haven't figured out how to make amino acids. So nyeh."
Now, even though it is novel to see amino acids under such conditions, we should hasten before we leap to any conclusions related to life on Earth or other planets. Dust grains live a very harsh life, even in relatively cold, dense molecular clouds. And then every so often, a shock passes by and will tend to strip the grains of their mantles. Finally, if they survive all of that, they may eventually make their way into a protoplanetary nebula around a star, get smacked together to form protoplanets, and eventually planets like the Earth. It is most unlikely that volatile organic molecules would survive that process. On the other hand, they could be incorporated into comets in the outer reaches of stellar systems, and survive relatively intact, though again subject to the harsh conditions of space.
While the part about their harsh conditions is true, there is still an enormous chance for the survival of these dust grains. This is why meteors that strike the Earth contain a veritable wealth of amino acids. If what you said was correct, we would be hard-pressed to find anything in the chunks of space-rock.
Not only do the amino acids survive the rough conditions of space, but they also survive the harrowing trip through our atmosphere, which I think says something.
My god, what is it with you people? Every time science makes a step, you say you won't be impressed until we create our own little terrarium of Bernie Goetz's out of moldy potato chips.
What you neglect to realize is that we keep coming closer to discovering the beginnings of life every day.
First we think evolution may explain our development. Understandably, many people were questionable. Then we start figuring out how these leaps could have been made. Not good enough yet, so we explain, and demonstrate, how the leaps can be made on a macroscopic level (please refer to previous/. story). Still not good enough? Now we've managed to create amino acids from the same conditions the Earth was in while it was forming.
Can't you see that you're clinging to a defense that's being, not whittled away, but lopped off in huge blocks almost every month? Save yourself some goddamned face, already.
"Also, think about interstellar probes. If they made a small 500 kg interstellar probe, 1.5 kN would give them 3 m/s^2 acceleration. That's 94,608,000 m/s/y. That's.1c per year. relativistic affects aren't noticable until over.9 c, so you'd be at 0.9 times thespeed of light and accelerating after only 9 years. Of course, to communicate with Earth, you'd probably want t use infrared lasers or something to communicate with earth so that you get reasonable bandwidth after the dopler shirts up arround 0.98 c."
Don't forget that the speed of light is relative. It wouldn't be scaling up.1c every year, instead, it would be getting 1/10th of the way closer to c every year.
They aren't asking Microsoft to only offer a stripped-down version of Windows. Actually, I'm sure they'd be absolutely thrilled if the Windows installation asked if the customer wanted to install Internet Explorer, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Media Player, etc. This would keep them as options, instead of software which you have no choice but to waste hard disk space with, even if you aren't using it.
Lawyer: "Excuse me, ma'am, but have you ever received spam before?"
Woman: "Yes...I have to delete hundreds of messages a day!"
Lawyer: "She's biased! Throw her out!"
I've found Diablo II to be quite addictive. I play it for a couple of months, drop it another couple, then pick it back up.
Unreal Tournament is fun as hell to play with friends, especially the CTF and Assault modes for it.
EverCrack consumed more of my time than any other game in history.
Final Fantasy X definately deserves a mention, as I spent hours trying to get every character incredibly powerful.
And finally, Grand Theft Auto 3 is just plain fun. Who wouldn't enjoy a game in which you can pick up whores, steal police cars, jump ramps, run jobs for the mob, etc?
...if I can find multiple things they got wrong on things I know about, then I seriously doubt they're getting the stuff right that I don't know about.
Mr. Carmack, cofounder and lead programmer at Id Software, is sticking to his own graphics technology. He is an absolute techno-purist who seeks to produce a common code that can run on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems--something he can't do with Microsoft's technology.
It's not his own graphics technology, it's OpenGL, which is used by many programmers around the globe. And he doesn't do it because he wants to have portable code. That's a part of it, sure, but he uses OpenGL mainly because it's easier to code, which means less development time and less debugging time. Also, it allows for greater flexibility. Not to mention, with Direct3D, can we say, "namespace pollution"? I thought so.
And by being such a purist, he delights hard-core gamers and graphics experts.
Oh yes, I get every id game simply because he "sticks to his own graphics technology". Did the author actually consider that he delights hard-core gamers simply because he creates realistic games that have fun gameplay and stunning visuals?
The new Doom likely will require a no less powerful chip than the soon-to-be-released Nvidia GeForce3.
Newly released about a year ago...
He told a faithful crowd that the new Doom will have images comprised of 250,000 polygons, compared with only 10,000 or so in Quake III. That's not far away from the 1.5 million- polygon characters in the animated film Shrek, which set a new standard for realism for computer-animated cartoon characters.
Notice he said "images comprised of 250,000 polygons", and "That's not far from the 1.5 million- polygon characters in...Shrek". This isn't like comparing apples to oranges, it's comparing apples to Mack trucks.
"Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said Afroze's claims about the company were 'bizarre and unsubstantiated and should be treated skeptically.'"
I can see it now: "Those are completely wild allegations! That was a Microsoft idea, not an al Qaida one!
"According to Desler, Microsoft has rigorous processes in place during the development of Windows to ensure the security and integrity of source code."...most of which involve asking programmers, "Are you SURE there aren't any bugs?"
Ah, thanks. From what I had heard, it was just a few commands entered into a computer. Still, when provisioning to their own servers, it's usually done the same day, and when it's to someone else it takes a week at max.
I also seem to remember something in their contract with BellSouth, or in the Georgia legislature, or somewhere, that they have one week to take action on requests by another provider.
We were perfectly satisfied with Mindspring, except for some odd reason, every 5 minutes, we would have a 30-second period of null activity. This started occuring a few weeks after we got their service. After a few months, our connection just died. After a week, BellSouth admitted to rerouting our lines to their servers instead of Mindspring's, claiming we had asked them to. We tried twice to have the lines rerouted to Mindspring, and each time, they rejected the request without notifying anyone.
Finally, we were able to talk to BellSouth's local VP. He told us it would take a week to stop it from pointing to their servers, and another to point it back to Mindspring. Now, we aren't stupid. We know that it's simply a keystroke or two they need to enter into their computer, but their almost refusal to change us back finally made us just give up and accept their service.
Oh, and while we didn't have service, I used a friend's BellSouth service, since I figured they owed me anyways for the hassle they were putting us through. I still had the odd 30-second null activity. Oddly enough, within five minutes of signing up with BellSouth service, this went away, and all that they had done was simply give us an account.
First of all, benchmarks don't really measure actual performance well.
With that out of the way, I can probably tell you that you won't be able to compare it to any GeForce card, even if there were benchmarks. The feature is supported in DirectX 8.1, which added features used by the ATI Radeon cards. Essentially, 8.1 is DirectRadeon and 8.0 is DirectGeForce, so just because the feature was added in 8.1 won't mean that the other card can support it.
It's simple, really. I sit here almost every day reading through posts on Slashdot and am often absolutely amazed with the solutions that are proposed. Even a simple glance at this thread can tell you that there are thousands of geeks who have incredible ideas that they are willing to share for the benefit of all.
If it were considered a necessity to consult with people who are highly involved in communities being affected by pending legislation, things would be a lot better off. Most of the comments already posted have been clear, concise, well thought-out, and are easily understood. If legislators gave priority to these types people, such as business owners, the Slashdot community (I wish), sysadmins, and security consultants, instead of giving everyone an equal say in such matters, or even just a recommendation from a single advisor advisor on the matter, legislation like the DMCA never would have been passed.
Now don't get me wrong; I'm a die-hard Libertarian. I think everyone should get an equal say in every matter, but let me use a simple analogy. Who would you trust to defend you in court? A team of diversely-minded career lawyers, specializing in your type of case, or a few close friends (one each being an actor, a gourmet chef, and a carpenter), your next-door neighbor (an interior decorator), your old college roommate (a neurosurgeon) and a man you picked up on the side of the street wielding a sign that reads, "Will work for food"?
Unfortunately one of the large problems with the Xbox is that since it's architecture and SDK are so resemblant of that of a computer, almost every game will have a PC port. To be honest, Halo seemed fun, but I'd much rather play it on my PC and keyboard at 1024x768 than on a TV at 640x480 with an uncomfortable controller that has too many hard-to-reach buttons and analog joysticks.
I haven't checked, but I'm willing to bet there's probably even emulation software out there already for it.
Oh, and I like taking my consoles to other friends' houses. I doubt I'd ever be doing that with a hugeass console that's hard drive can fuck up if I jar it slightly.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, AS/400s don't even require that many people to maintain and/or run. We have two AS/400s set up where I work, and nobody has done anything with them other than enter records. Hell, one time, a few years ago, a hard drive began to fail. This is the only problem we've ever had with them, but the best part was that nobody even knew about it until an IBM tech came to the office to fix it. No data was lost, and he didn't even need to take down the system. What are these imbeciles thinking?
My friend Joe wrote about an experience he'd had doing tech support:
"Ya know, in the tech support business, he who answers the phone has the power. We wield the secrets of the servers and computers and you are at our whim. We are the Dark Overlords of the Network, you must pay homage and appease our sick desires or you will be left in the cold, cold space of non-connectivity..... or so I thought.
Joe: User Support Center, this is Joe, may I have your employee number please.
Customer: Yeah Joe, it's XXXX.
J: Charles XXXXXXXX?
C: That's me
J: Cool, what seems to be your problem, Charlie?
C: It's Charles, and the problem is I have no connectivity what so ever.
J: Ok, Charles, you're in charge, let's get you fixed.
C: What was that supposed to mean?
J: Huh? Oh never mind, what exactly is going on when you try to connect?
C: Absolutely nothing, it brings up the account window, but refuses to connect.
J: Yeah, ok, been surfing porn lately? Maybe changed some settings to get some Real Video downloads?
C: Excuse me?
J: Why? Did you fart? Ah, forget it. When was the last time you had connectivity?
C: Are you trying to be smart with me, son?
J: Um, no, dad, just trying to cut through some ice, and give the call a little 'loose feeling' so it's not so professional is all. I find I can work better with people that don't have a stick up their bum.
C: Commendable choice, but I want to keep this rather professional, I'm more accustomed to it if you don't mind. (his voice becomes a little tight) J: Sure, whatever floats your boat. Now when was the last time you were connected?
C: Last night at the hotel, I had my secretary send out a batch of reports.
J: She was getting a little overtime at the No-Tell Motel, eh, Chuck?
C: That's it, what is your name?
J: Uh, I already told you, durr! It's Joe.
C: Ok Joe, do you have the Company's Network Hierarchy Status page?
J: Sure do, why do ya ask?
C: I want you to look up my name now!
J: Okies, I'm all over it like glaze on a donut...
(I open the ole webpage, type in the magic passwords, insert Chucks name... Searching, please wait....)
Results:
Name: Charles XXXXXXXX
Title: Executive Vice President XXXXXXX Technologies, Network Resources
Location: XXXXXXX Technologies Head Quarters, Santa Clara, CA
Status: You done Fucked up, Joe!
J: Well, Mr. XXXXXXX, I have the results back from the search sir, what exactly may I do for you?
C: You can start by packing up your desk, son, I don't think you'll be needing any personal items at the workplace for a while.
J: (GULP!)
C: Do we have a little more understanding as to the situation, Joe?
J: I believe I am in full understanding as to the situation at hand, sir, and may I compliment you on what a wonderful work environment you have created for all of us employees here at XXXXXXX Technologies?
C: That's not necessary.
J: Oh, but sir, it is. Why, just earlier this evening, me and my fellow employees, each of whom are very happy to be employees of this fine company, were commenting on how great this company has handled the recent bottom out of the technological market. Why, it would take a veritable genius, nay, economic god, to have protected the interest of not only his company, but of it's employees as well. We are all in your debt, kind and benevolent ruler of our lives.
C: Hehe, really, let's get back to the subject at hand.
J: I worship you sir.
C: Excuse me?
J: I keep a picture of you on my desk, you are an inspiration to all of us here in the User Support Center.
C: Fine, I'm not sure to believe you or not, but I'd like to get back to my problem.
J: Your problem is my problem sir. Let's fix this.
End Result? I was pwned!"
Contradictory to the big bang theory? I thought this was a part of it. Unless I either misunderstood this theory, or misunderstood the big bang theory, I always assumed that the big bang theory already said that everything blew out at some point, came back together, blew out, came back together, in an infinite loop. Am I missing something?
I ask them, 'What have you done last week?' They may say they wrote a paper on this or that. So I tell them, 'Oh, you wrote a paper, and you got an A? Would it bother you if somebody could just take that paper and get an A too? Would that bug you? More like writing an A paper, and then having other people take that paper and read it.
"The integration of innovative features is a principal means by which both software and hardware products are improved, to the benefit of consumers."
This is why people who know anything about computers buy from HP and Compaq, right?
Integration means less options, and less options means that consumers are forced into making decisions that they might not necessarily want. While I readily admit that a small level of integration is necessary (who wants to start fusing their chipsets to their motherboards?), the extent that Microsoft takes it is abominable. Can anyone else forsee the day that you boot up your computer to Windows RG (Really Good edition), to only have one program on your system: Windows Internet, Media, Email, Solitaire, Finance, Document, Spreadsheet, Slideshow, and Calculator Explorer?
Prefix: I am not a Creationist.
"I think this is proof against one of the arguments creationist wackos have been making for quite a long time"
Actually this does nothing of the sort.
I think it does. He's not saying it will prove or disprove creationism, but merely shatter a crutch that they rely on. I can't tell you how many countless arguments I've gotten into with creationists where they fall back on, "Well, we haven't figured out how to make amino acids. So nyeh."
Now, even though it is novel to see amino acids under such conditions, we should hasten before we leap to any conclusions related to life on Earth or other planets. Dust grains live a very harsh life, even in relatively cold, dense molecular clouds. And then every so often, a shock passes by and will tend to strip the grains of their mantles. Finally, if they survive all of that, they may eventually make their way into a protoplanetary nebula around a star, get smacked together to form protoplanets, and eventually planets like the Earth. It is most unlikely that volatile organic molecules would survive that process. On the other hand, they could be incorporated into comets in the outer reaches of stellar systems, and survive relatively intact, though again subject to the harsh conditions of space.
While the part about their harsh conditions is true, there is still an enormous chance for the survival of these dust grains. This is why meteors that strike the Earth contain a veritable wealth of amino acids. If what you said was correct, we would be hard-pressed to find anything in the chunks of space-rock.
Not only do the amino acids survive the rough conditions of space, but they also survive the harrowing trip through our atmosphere, which I think says something.
My god, what is it with you people? Every time science makes a step, you say you won't be impressed until we create our own little terrarium of Bernie Goetz's out of moldy potato chips.
/. story). Still not good enough? Now we've managed to create amino acids from the same conditions the Earth was in while it was forming.
What you neglect to realize is that we keep coming closer to discovering the beginnings of life every day.
First we think evolution may explain our development. Understandably, many people were questionable. Then we start figuring out how these leaps could have been made. Not good enough yet, so we explain, and demonstrate, how the leaps can be made on a macroscopic level (please refer to previous
Can't you see that you're clinging to a defense that's being, not whittled away, but lopped off in huge blocks almost every month? Save yourself some goddamned face, already.
"Also, think about interstellar probes. If they made a small 500 kg interstellar probe, 1.5 kN would give them 3 m/s^2 acceleration. That's 94,608,000 m/s/y. That's .1c per year. relativistic affects aren't noticable until over .9 c, so you'd be at 0.9 times thespeed of light and accelerating after only 9 years. Of course, to communicate with Earth, you'd probably want t use infrared lasers or something to communicate with earth so that you get reasonable bandwidth after the dopler shirts up arround 0.98 c."
.1c every year, instead, it would be getting 1/10th of the way closer to c every year.
Don't forget that the speed of light is relative. It wouldn't be scaling up
...it just took a bit of courage.
Now what would take balls would be to post the location, date, and time of the wedding on Slashdot.
Eeep! Eeeep! Stupid HTML tags =\ /sigh
They aren't asking Microsoft to only offer a stripped-down version of Windows. Actually, I'm sure they'd be absolutely thrilled if the Windows installation asked if the customer wanted to install Internet Explorer, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Media Player, etc. This would keep them as options, instead of software which you have no choice but to waste hard disk space with, even if you aren't using it.
You sure it wasn't like that in the first place?
Remind me never to post immediately after waking up, next time. Damn HTML tags...
Lawyer: "Excuse me, ma'am, but have you ever received spam before?" Woman: "Yes...I have to delete hundreds of messages a day!" Lawyer: "She's biased! Throw her out!"
I've found Diablo II to be quite addictive. I play it for a couple of months, drop it another couple, then pick it back up. Unreal Tournament is fun as hell to play with friends, especially the CTF and Assault modes for it. EverCrack consumed more of my time than any other game in history. Final Fantasy X definately deserves a mention, as I spent hours trying to get every character incredibly powerful. And finally, Grand Theft Auto 3 is just plain fun. Who wouldn't enjoy a game in which you can pick up whores, steal police cars, jump ramps, run jobs for the mob, etc?
...if I can find multiple things they got wrong on things I know about, then I seriously doubt they're getting the stuff right that I don't know about.
Mr. Carmack, cofounder and lead programmer at Id Software, is sticking to his own graphics technology. He is an absolute techno-purist who seeks to produce a common code that can run on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems--something he can't do with Microsoft's technology.
It's not his own graphics technology, it's OpenGL, which is used by many programmers around the globe. And he doesn't do it because he wants to have portable code. That's a part of it, sure, but he uses OpenGL mainly because it's easier to code, which means less development time and less debugging time. Also, it allows for greater flexibility. Not to mention, with Direct3D, can we say, "namespace pollution"? I thought so.
And by being such a purist, he delights hard-core gamers and graphics experts.
Oh yes, I get every id game simply because he "sticks to his own graphics technology". Did the author actually consider that he delights hard-core gamers simply because he creates realistic games that have fun gameplay and stunning visuals?
The new Doom likely will require a no less powerful chip than the soon-to-be-released Nvidia GeForce3.
Newly released about a year ago...
He told a faithful crowd that the new Doom will have images comprised of 250,000 polygons, compared with only 10,000 or so in Quake III. That's not far away from the 1.5 million- polygon characters in the animated film Shrek, which set a new standard for realism for computer-animated cartoon characters.
Notice he said "images comprised of 250,000 polygons", and "That's not far from the 1.5 million- polygon characters in...Shrek". This isn't like comparing apples to oranges, it's comparing apples to Mack trucks.
"Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said Afroze's claims about the company were 'bizarre and unsubstantiated and should be treated skeptically.'" I can see it now: "Those are completely wild allegations! That was a Microsoft idea, not an al Qaida one! "According to Desler, Microsoft has rigorous processes in place during the development of Windows to ensure the security and integrity of source code." ...most of which involve asking programmers, "Are you SURE there aren't any bugs?"
Ah, thanks. From what I had heard, it was just a few commands entered into a computer. Still, when provisioning to their own servers, it's usually done the same day, and when it's to someone else it takes a week at max. I also seem to remember something in their contract with BellSouth, or in the Georgia legislature, or somewhere, that they have one week to take action on requests by another provider.
But not for phone...for internet.
We were perfectly satisfied with Mindspring, except for some odd reason, every 5 minutes, we would have a 30-second period of null activity. This started occuring a few weeks after we got their service. After a few months, our connection just died. After a week, BellSouth admitted to rerouting our lines to their servers instead of Mindspring's, claiming we had asked them to. We tried twice to have the lines rerouted to Mindspring, and each time, they rejected the request without notifying anyone.
Finally, we were able to talk to BellSouth's local VP. He told us it would take a week to stop it from pointing to their servers, and another to point it back to Mindspring. Now, we aren't stupid. We know that it's simply a keystroke or two they need to enter into their computer, but their almost refusal to change us back finally made us just give up and accept their service.
Oh, and while we didn't have service, I used a friend's BellSouth service, since I figured they owed me anyways for the hassle they were putting us through. I still had the odd 30-second null activity. Oddly enough, within five minutes of signing up with BellSouth service, this went away, and all that they had done was simply give us an account.
Oddly enough, a DSL ad popped up while I was reading this =p
First of all, benchmarks don't really measure actual performance well. With that out of the way, I can probably tell you that you won't be able to compare it to any GeForce card, even if there were benchmarks. The feature is supported in DirectX 8.1, which added features used by the ATI Radeon cards. Essentially, 8.1 is DirectRadeon and 8.0 is DirectGeForce, so just because the feature was added in 8.1 won't mean that the other card can support it.
It's simple, really. I sit here almost every day reading through posts on Slashdot and am often absolutely amazed with the solutions that are proposed. Even a simple glance at this thread can tell you that there are thousands of geeks who have incredible ideas that they are willing to share for the benefit of all.
If it were considered a necessity to consult with people who are highly involved in communities being affected by pending legislation, things would be a lot better off. Most of the comments already posted have been clear, concise, well thought-out, and are easily understood. If legislators gave priority to these types people, such as business owners, the Slashdot community (I wish), sysadmins, and security consultants, instead of giving everyone an equal say in such matters, or even just a recommendation from a single advisor advisor on the matter, legislation like the DMCA never would have been passed.
Now don't get me wrong; I'm a die-hard Libertarian. I think everyone should get an equal say in every matter, but let me use a simple analogy. Who would you trust to defend you in court? A team of diversely-minded career lawyers, specializing in your type of case, or a few close friends (one each being an actor, a gourmet chef, and a carpenter), your next-door neighbor (an interior decorator), your old college roommate (a neurosurgeon) and a man you picked up on the side of the street wielding a sign that reads, "Will work for food"?
Unfortunately one of the large problems with the Xbox is that since it's architecture and SDK are so resemblant of that of a computer, almost every game will have a PC port. To be honest, Halo seemed fun, but I'd much rather play it on my PC and keyboard at 1024x768 than on a TV at 640x480 with an uncomfortable controller that has too many hard-to-reach buttons and analog joysticks.
I haven't checked, but I'm willing to bet there's probably even emulation software out there already for it.
Oh, and I like taking my consoles to other friends' houses. I doubt I'd ever be doing that with a hugeass console that's hard drive can fuck up if I jar it slightly.
To get any sort of formatting in the /. forums, you have to use HTML tags.
You're going to need to do an <a href="link goes here, use quotes">title of link</a> to use hypertext.