You don't need 3D acceleration to speed up normal window manager tasks; Window manager tasks (for virtually all current X11 window managers) don't require them. What you need is support for your card's 2D acceleration functions.
Using a common desktop environment like stock GNOME or KDE (or such mildly reworked as with Ubuntu), try running X in framebuffer mode without DRI enabled, then try running X with the correct hardware-specific driver selected, but DRI disabled. Finally, try running X with DRI enabled.
That'll give you a good idea which portions of your video card's hardware acceleration are required for your normal desktop use.
Putting multiport NICs on a PCI bus doesn't do well for bandwidth, either. His PCI bus runs at 32bits x 33MHz...that's only a gigabit of shared bandwidth. He should also remember that each packet is going to cross that bus twice...once on the way to the CPU, then again on the way back to the destination NIC.
I might want to add that if he goes the multiport NIC route, he's going to need a minimum of Gigabit Ethernet, for the autocrossover functionality. Otherwise, he'll have to wire up special patch cables.
BTW...anyone know where I can get old (10Mb/s is fine) multiport NICs for cheap? I'm actually working on a similar project. The reason I'm not looking for level 3 switch is because the thing needs to be maintainable by folks who don't know a whole lot about networking.
If you notice, many tags are directly derived from tags and cliches at fark.com. "itsatrap" comes from Admiral Ackbar's frequent appearance in photoshop contests. "asinine" and "spiffy" also hail from Fark.
*sits back and watches the epic duel between two ACs as they fling hot grits at each other, completely forgetting they don't look anything like Natalie Portman.*
Huh? Any online news media I've encountered gets money through advertisements and subscriptions. Slash, Ars Technica and Fark all have subscription models. Everyone else has ad-supported models.
(In case you didn't make the connection, if fewer people look at your website, fewer people still will click on your ads, leaving you with even more of a pittance of revenue.)
Eh? Since when were hobbyists a cash cow for Microsoft?
Sure, gamers almost invariably run Windows, but they're hugely outnumbered by the number of drones who by OEM machines from Dell, HP/Compaq and IBM every other Christmas.
I realize it's a lot of money. However, with the sheer number of lawsuits the RIAA has filed, someone has to be able to afford it. If the hired expert's results show the RIAA's expert lied, it's game over for the latter expert and any case his evidence is in.
I manage a student-run pc clinic. Earlier this year, we had a woman call us who wanted some forensic analysis of her hard drive done. The chief of our campus police was queried, and we were told in no uncertain terms that we were not to attempt forensic work, as the moment we touched the drive, any information on it would be unusable in court.
Of course, I wanted to know more, so I found out a few things about computer forensics as it applies to hard drives. First, every single step taken with the drive has to be documented, for review and potential dispute by experts hired by whoever would want to dispute the results. Second, merely mounting the hard disk may write data to it, making it useless as evidence. And there are other issues.
If the RIAA is being allowed to present their own analysis of the hard drive in the first place, they're being held to a very high standard when it comes to documenting not only the evidence they uncover, but what tools and procedures were used, who performed them, even who was in possession of the drive before it reached the lab.
If they're providing their own forensic evidence, that evidence can be put under very close scrutiny by any lawyer with the sense (and funds) to bring in an independent expert. And if even one of the defendants has an expensive enough lawyer who pulls in an expert who finds fault with the work of the RIAA's expert, RIAA's expert's work will come under fire in all of the cases.
In short, I expect the RIAA to behave itself. They won't fudge or falsify evidence; the stakes (the outcome of virtually every one of their civil infringement cases) are too damn high.
IT departments are there to help an organization to reach a goal. They're not there to be aided by that organization in reaching its own goals. Technology is a means, not an end.
The problem comes when authority figures fall victim to some marketer talking about a piece of technology as a cure-all, and fall in love with the concept of having said technology. Once they start pushing a technology as an end, they lose sight of other, better options.
Who decides what's offensive or adult in nature? Is guns.ru adult in nature? Are news reports about massacres in Darfur adult or offensive? What about websites reviewing video games?
Frankly, I don't like the idea of anyone controlling what my kids see but me. A human being can only recognize something once its been shown or described to them. If you prevent kids from seeing "bad" things, how can they know such things are bad?
One of the projects at GRC4 is to create a simple MMOFPS. Modifying the Quake engine to allow a map to force the client to connect to another server would be very, very simple.
I'm going to do the dozen or so lines of code changes required, and a couple other members are going to do the level design.
Slashdot Mirror
You don't need 3D acceleration to speed up normal window manager tasks; Window manager tasks (for virtually all current X11 window managers) don't require them. What you need is support for your card's 2D acceleration functions.
Using a common desktop environment like stock GNOME or KDE (or such mildly reworked as with Ubuntu), try running X in framebuffer mode without DRI enabled, then try running X with the correct hardware-specific driver selected, but DRI disabled. Finally, try running X with DRI enabled.
That'll give you a good idea which portions of your video card's hardware acceleration are required for your normal desktop use.
Hey, there's some good stuff in Redmond.
(Mods, click link before modding Troll.)
Thanks for the info. And the civil tone.
Mod Parent Informative.
My interest in the PS3 just rose a couple notches up to "Maybe with my next Job" from "Like I'd ever have enough money."
Putting multiport NICs on a PCI bus doesn't do well for bandwidth, either. His PCI bus runs at 32bits x 33MHz...that's only a gigabit of shared bandwidth. He should also remember that each packet is going to cross that bus twice...once on the way to the CPU, then again on the way back to the destination NIC.
I might want to add that if he goes the multiport NIC route, he's going to need a minimum of Gigabit Ethernet, for the autocrossover functionality. Otherwise, he'll have to wire up special patch cables.
BTW...anyone know where I can get old (10Mb/s is fine) multiport NICs for cheap? I'm actually working on a similar project. The reason I'm not looking for level 3 switch is because the thing needs to be maintainable by folks who don't know a whole lot about networking.
Time for Microsoft to apply for patents on anything and everything described by these protocols...Otherwise, they're up a creek.
If you notice, many tags are directly derived from tags and cliches at fark.com. "itsatrap" comes from Admiral Ackbar's frequent appearance in photoshop contests. "asinine" and "spiffy" also hail from Fark.
If you surf from work, your username is only a screenshot away.
If you don't, then good for you, and your employer has no business snooping, anyway.
Behold! Your first Slashdot Post. And what four mods thought this was Funny?
All it takes is $5 for a four-month subscription.
*sits back and watches the epic duel between two ACs as they fling hot grits at each other, completely forgetting they don't look anything like Natalie Portman.*
79%...78%...77%...76%...
Huh? Any online news media I've encountered gets money through advertisements and subscriptions. Slash, Ars Technica and Fark all have subscription models. Everyone else has ad-supported models.
(In case you didn't make the connection, if fewer people look at your website, fewer people still will click on your ads, leaving you with even more of a pittance of revenue.)
Eh? Since when were hobbyists a cash cow for Microsoft?
Sure, gamers almost invariably run Windows, but they're hugely outnumbered by the number of drones who by OEM machines from Dell, HP/Compaq and IBM every other Christmas.
I thought the bsd-games packages was in portage, by nature of its very origin...
Complain to Taco, not me. :)
Read this. It's been the explanation used for Coral Cache and Mirrordot.
They're quite clearly underlords.
I realize it's a lot of money. However, with the sheer number of lawsuits the RIAA has filed, someone has to be able to afford it. If the hired expert's results show the RIAA's expert lied, it's game over for the latter expert and any case his evidence is in.
I manage a student-run pc clinic. Earlier this year, we had a woman call us who wanted some forensic analysis of her hard drive done. The chief of our campus police was queried, and we were told in no uncertain terms that we were not to attempt forensic work, as the moment we touched the drive, any information on it would be unusable in court.
Of course, I wanted to know more, so I found out a few things about computer forensics as it applies to hard drives. First, every single step taken with the drive has to be documented, for review and potential dispute by experts hired by whoever would want to dispute the results. Second, merely mounting the hard disk may write data to it, making it useless as evidence. And there are other issues.
If the RIAA is being allowed to present their own analysis of the hard drive in the first place, they're being held to a very high standard when it comes to documenting not only the evidence they uncover, but what tools and procedures were used, who performed them, even who was in possession of the drive before it reached the lab.
If they're providing their own forensic evidence, that evidence can be put under very close scrutiny by any lawyer with the sense (and funds) to bring in an independent expert. And if even one of the defendants has an expensive enough lawyer who pulls in an expert who finds fault with the work of the RIAA's expert, RIAA's expert's work will come under fire in all of the cases.
In short, I expect the RIAA to behave itself. They won't fudge or falsify evidence; the stakes (the outcome of virtually every one of their civil infringement cases) are too damn high.
IT departments are there to help an organization to reach a goal. They're not there to be aided by that organization in reaching its own goals. Technology is a means, not an end.
The problem comes when authority figures fall victim to some marketer talking about a piece of technology as a cure-all, and fall in love with the concept of having said technology. Once they start pushing a technology as an end, they lose sight of other, better options.
Combining the power output of to AC voltage sources isn't cheap.
Who decides what's offensive or adult in nature? Is guns.ru adult in nature? Are news reports about massacres in Darfur adult or offensive? What about websites reviewing video games?
Frankly, I don't like the idea of anyone controlling what my kids see but me. A human being can only recognize something once its been shown or described to them. If you prevent kids from seeing "bad" things, how can they know such things are bad?
That's an excellent point!
We need diets to reduce the number of handles available!
One of the projects at GRC4 is to create a simple MMOFPS. Modifying the Quake engine to allow a map to force the client to connect to another server would be very, very simple.
I'm going to do the dozen or so lines of code changes required, and a couple other members are going to do the level design.