How do we know this is not just another marketing plot like Intel's statements that sockets were no longer able to advance and we are required to use slot packaging for CPUs?
Now, come on, be reasonable. These things always have a root cause. The whole reason for the back-side bus was because (since the 486) the front-side bus could no longer easily scale with processor speed, and cache tied to the front-side bus meant decreasing returns with each speed grade.
On-package cache was tried and deemed a failure with the Pentium Pro, and since they couldn't yet fit a sizeable L2 cache on-die, the slot was the logical progression. Even AMD released the first Athlons on slots, obviously because the transistor budget for on-die cache just wasn't there.
Sure, it was less than two years between the introduction of the Pentium II, and the introduction of the Mendocino Celeron, but Intel could not wait that long. If Intel had waited to release the Pentium II in socket format, AMD would have kicked their ass in Socket 7 for those 2 years. Instead, Intel left Socket 7 for the little guys, and made a killing in the process.
Right. You go and perfect a motion-blur trick for 3D hardware that doesn't devour memory like water, and actually looks good.
Have you seen accumulation buffer effects actually put to good use on the PC lately?
The other reason faster framerates rule the competitive gaming scene: the difference between 60 frames per second and 24 frames per second is an extra 25 miliseconds of delay between frame updates. For gamers who strive to optimize all paths of I/O, who complain about pings above 50 miliseconds, who go out and buy a fancy new USB mouse to get 125 Hz updates (8 miliseconds), 25 miliseconds added delay is unacceptable.
In fact the signal on such a wire will tend to hang around at about the level it was last driven for quite a while (the wire is a cap) untill it discharges or some other gate drives it.
This is one of the reasons why you terminate a bus with a resistor. One is preventing signal reflections ( matching the characteristic impedence of the cable ), and the other is preventing a floating state.
A floating state is a no-no in design simply because it can be prevented so easily.
Yuo nEd too LAREN ho tou wRit Pr0paR ENlash, yUo MASTAR OF TEH GRAVEY TRAINES. Teh mots compilcatde port fo teh spaekign of teh engalashe lanugaeg is too. Usign propar sentnace.
Photosensitive epilepsy is one of many rare dysfunctions of the human body that can cause incapacitation and death.
Much like other defects of the body, there are several things in this world that are readily accessible that could trigger a seizure from photosensitive epilepsy.
What do you want from the world? You CANNOT shield your child forever in this whizbang-electronic world from seizure-inducing situations. Eventually your child would have had a seizure despite your efforts, and even with your current knowledge he may very likely have more over the course of his life.
My sister almost died from an extreme allergic reaction when doctors treated her with penicillin as a child. She also discovered over the course of her life that she was allergic to several other things, but that initial experience facing death taught her caution and preparation. She has since been careful about using new drugs ( prescription or OTC ), and always carries an ephedrine shot with her.
Don't think of this as a bad thing; celebrate the fact that your son is alive. Just be thankful that you were there with your son, and were able to come to his aid.
Actually, it is the same thing. The Master Converter was just that - a cartridge pinout converter.
The Genesis contained a fully-functional Z80 processor and PSG capable of running Master System games. When a Master System cart was inserted, the 68000 main processor and the Yamaha FM synth chip sat idle. Much the same as the PS2's PSOne hardware, the Z80 played a supporting role in I/O and sound control while playing Genesis games.
Sega didn't want to ship all Genesis units with the converter because the cost would be too high...Nintendo came to a similar conclusion when they considered building NES compatibility into the SNES ( which was abandoned ).
The thing with the PS2 is, backward-compatible 5-inch optical formats have made hardware converters a thing of the past. Hardware compatibility is easy to add because your mass-produced DVD-ROM can already read CDs.
To put it in perspective on this discussion: the Genesis had easy backward-compatibility for those willing to pony up a small fee ( much like you had to pay extra for the remote to watch DVDs on the X-Box ). Still, even though it was cheap, the Master Converter didn't sell well. It's not as if there weren't some excellent games for the Master System, it's just that there wasn't a large enough library to justify the investment ( as say, compared to the NES library of the time ).
This leads us to a precarious position, because nobody has ever attempted this before. Sure, Sony had success with backward-compatibility, but Sony also had over 50% market share with the PSX, which made their available library much more valuable a selling point.
The Master Converter was a failure, but would it have been a success if it were FREE? Would complete access to the existing game library of a not-so-successful console really be a selling point?
We don't know because it's never really been attempted. And no, we cannot count the ATARI 7800 ( had 2600 compatibility out-of-the-box ), as it was doomed from the start by a 3-year delay.
You'd need to build a custom cartridge, and fit the kernel in under 8k. You'd also have to attach some I/O device to the cart, or hack it through the controller port.
Other than that, you just have to figure out how to run an IP stack in 128 bytes of ram:P
I work at a major defense contractor, and despite the fact that over half of the floor space in the entire installation is unclassified, you cannot bring cameras on site. Camera phones are also not allowed.
I guess companies consier the cameras a liability for both the closed areas, and the proprietary stuff accessible in the open areas.
Thankfully, thir policy on cell phones puts the trust in the employees. You can carry one on-site and use it in any open area. Closed areas have mixed policies: some allow you to carry them in, turned off, while others require you to leave them at the door.
The question, of course, is this: what happens when you cannot buy a phone without a camera? Suddenly you have two very sane policies in conflict with each other. In a case of conflict, the conservative always wins, so once all phones have cameras, we won't be able to carry them.
And don't say it will never happen. Most new "features" pushed by more than one manufacturer usually end up becoming standard. The camera will almost certainly become a standard part of the cell phone once video-capable cameras become affordable, and 3G is released. Video is THE key selling point of 3G for the general populace.
This is not really an issue in a clocked system, all you have to be sure of is that your clock is slower than your slowest setup time.
That said, a jump from positive to negative voltage could increase the delay, which means slower clocked logic.
Could anyone realy identify a useful aspect of this kind of logic? I mean, MAYBE you could get faster branch handling with an if...else...unknown three-way branch instead of the traditional if...else, but would the extra complexity be worth it?
Nope. The Pentium II on 100MHz bus was launched with 350 and 400MHz versions, but was soon followed up by a 450MHz chip.
As for my WORST equipped tech job, back in 2000 I was doing application development in a summer internship using Access Basic 2.0 ( 16-bit ). The target market was schools, so our minimum target platform was a 386 or 486 running Windows 3.x.
This was not unrealistic, and our software was definitely useable on those platforms. But I couldn't believe the development platform they gave me: Some crappy 4-year old P90 laptop with 16MB ram running Win95. I mean, there's a huge difference between being in touch with your minimum target platform, and having to DEVELOP with your minimum target platform.
Now my idea for the next series is sure to succeed. Forget the federation, I want to see the crazy adventures of six 'buddies' (3 male, 3 female), who are in no way associated with the federation, and their only association with earth is that they are human. They have hilarious situations brought about by miscommunications, misplaced affections, and misguided sexual adventures.
For those of you who weren't paying attention, he just described Friends "in space".
Not that this post wasn't perfectly serious, Star Trek borrows liberally from pop culture. B&B fully admit the most successful Trek creation in the last decade ( Star Trek 8 ) was just Die Hard in space.
Wish I had some mod points, the funny is indeed present.
And I suppose you'd be upset if I told you that the first generation of AGP 4x graphics cards were similarly hindered.
Back in 1999, AGP 4x was all the rage, but the most popular Intel motherboard chipset ( 440BX ) only supported AGP 2x. Same goes for the first Athlon chipset, the 750 "Irongate". Nobody complained, because the people who bothered to educate themselves knew there was no reasonable alternative, and the people who didn't bother didn't give a rat's ass.
What I find surprising is that ATI has actually released another model number for the AGP 8x part. In '99, official AGP 4x support was quietly added to the TNT2, Rage 128 and the G400 line after initial release. But then again, Nvidia did the same model number increase with their 4000 series upgrade to AGP 8x, so you can hardly fault them.
The point is, manufacturers always deal to the least common denominator. If you're going to be uneducated in your purchases, then you deserve what you get.
When you develop a mod and give it away for free, you're not making any money, so you usually don't have to license anything trademarked that you depict in your game. Hence the use of real names in the mod version.
But the retail version has always had those fake names to avoid licensing fees.
This is not necessarily a good idea. Case in point:
In 1993 my junior high got a "great idea" ( read: they got a great deal from TI ), and loaned scientific calculators to every student.
However, these were TI's ugly blue colored scientific calculators with limited funtionality ( compared to your average $20 Casio those days ), and they had a solar cell that was VERY suscpetible to breaking (ie: drop it on the floor, it cracked ). Even with the plastic cover on, a book dropped on top could mean a cracked cell.
The worst part: in order to simplify return of the calculators at the end of the year, EVERY student had to take one. And the worst part was the replacement price was $30, quite a bit higher than the average scientific calculator you could buy in the store.
I ended up keeping it safe at home, so did a lot of people. As for the people who used them, many broke them more than once over the course of the year.
It's not a bad idea in concept, but bad execution could sour the deal.
Because the rated wattage is actually combined ( this is for +12v, -12v, +5v, -5v, +3.3v, -3.3v... ).
The way current systems are designed, the bulk of the power is drawn off the +12v rail. This is why AMD requires a 300w PS, because they cannot guarantee what proportion of the total advertised power is available on the +12v rail.
Take a look at the power supplies most mainstream PCs ship with, they're usually well under 300 watts rating, because the manufacturer knows the system and can cut it closer.
As for maximum power usage, you will probably see that when playing a 3D game, since both the power used by the processor AND the video card roughly doubles ( compared to say, viewing a webpage, which uses 2D hardware only, and leaves you with mostly idle cycles ).
Do you understand the concept of a switching power supply?
You're running what are essentially 4 250- to 300-watt heaters in a small room
A switching power supply responds to loads. It will not provide its maximum rated power unless you load it that heavily.
Your typical PC ( PS, motherboard, processor, ram, video, a card or two, and a couple drives ) these days actually uses ~100w while idiling, and around 150w under extreme load. This would include losses due to power supply inefficiency.
there is also a large amount of it coming from your power supply
The switching power supply itself is quite efficient, compared to a linear regulator. Yes, the power supply has some loss due to efficiency in the conversion, but it's actually quite low, around %10-30 worst case. The transformer is also pertty high efficiency.
Quite a bit of heat is generated.
Yeah, you bet. You think that's something, you should see how much power your monitor sucks up, even if it is an LCD.
Agreed, this is something that has bothered the hell out of me since online sales began to take off.
Who has so magically determined that pricing should be by-track, and that every track costs the same?
Why should I pay a buck for a 1:24 Less Than Jake song when I can get a 2:16 Green Day song, a 4 minute Live song, a 7 minute Metallica song, a 16 minute movement of Shostakovitch, or an 18 minute NOFX saga for the same price?
This is why I like the album as a medium, aside from the ability for artists to create an experience much greater than a single. With an album, all artists are given an even starting position, up to 74 minutes to be exact. What they do with those 74 minutes is entirely up to them, so long as the result is worthy of the asking price.
My daily caffeine intake was about 500mg, or the equivalant of about 6-8 cups of coffee.
I've heard that your intake levels when you quit will determine the length of your withdrawl, so yours may be shorter or longer duration.
But what I don't agree with are the many suggestions in this topic to cut it out of your life slowly. That's what I was experiencing before I went cold turkey, because I had to stop ingesting the stuff every evening so I could sleep. It's very painful to come home with a migraine every evening due to withdrawl, and wake up feeling like shit. Just take the pain for a few days, and get over it completely.
For years I had migraines which I eventually attributed to caffeine withdrawl. Sure, I could stave them off by taking more, but that would burn me out during the workday, and I would get a migraine every other night anyway.
So last July 4th weekend I decided I wasn't going to take this shit, that I had a life to live. I stopped all caffeine intake Wednesday night, and went through a painful Thursday. Friday was a continuous migraine. Saturday and Sunday were better, the funny thing is I actually got a final relapse migraine Monday night.
But Tuesday I felt great. And I have continued feeling great for 6 months. No more headaches, not a single migraine in these last 6 months.
The best thing about no caffeine is I don't feel burned out anymore, I have energy to work all day. You don't know how much energy you can have without caffeine because you're caught in the cycle.
As for consumption, yes I still consume a little caffeine here and there. Chocolate and the occasional caffinated soda are fine, even decaf coffee. You just have to keep it reasonable to avoid the cycle.
If you want out, all it takes is a little willpower. I would suggest LOTS of water and asprin as well the first week.
I'm only replying because this is a terrible mix of crappy assumptions.
And, as far as the hardware thing - I'm running with a Radeon 9000, P4 2.6c, and 512MB DDR400. It buckles under the pressure of games like Max Payne 2, Midnight Club, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic unless I cut the quality down.
Just because you may have bought the card recently doesn't mean anything. The 9000 Pro is based on 8500 technology, which is over 2 years old.
The worst part: the 9000 Pro is actually significantly slower than the 8500 in games that utilize complex multitexturing or heavy use of shaders. Don't blame the PC platform for bringing you down, this is your fault for purchasing without any research whatsoever.
If money was truely an object, you could have avoided the $100 Intel P4 markup and purchased an Althon XP 2400. That's $100 more you could have piped into a video card, if you had been so moved.
Halo on the Xbox looks and plays great. No sacrifice in quality.
The graphics engine inside is actually less powerful than your Radeon 9000 Pro. The reason the Xbox performs well is because companies can optimize for the hardware, and they also render at a MUCH lower resolution. Yeah, that's right, try you Xbox at 1080i and tell me it's still a performance hog.
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How do we know this is not just another marketing plot like Intel's statements that sockets were no longer able to advance and we are required to use slot packaging for CPUs?
Now, come on, be reasonable. These things always have a root cause. The whole reason for the back-side bus was because (since the 486) the front-side bus could no longer easily scale with processor speed, and cache tied to the front-side bus meant decreasing returns with each speed grade.
On-package cache was tried and deemed a failure with the Pentium Pro, and since they couldn't yet fit a sizeable L2 cache on-die, the slot was the logical progression. Even AMD released the first Athlons on slots, obviously because the transistor budget for on-die cache just wasn't there.
Sure, it was less than two years between the introduction of the Pentium II, and the introduction of the Mendocino Celeron, but Intel could not wait that long. If Intel had waited to release the Pentium II in socket format, AMD would have kicked their ass in Socket 7 for those 2 years. Instead, Intel left Socket 7 for the little guys, and made a killing in the process.
Right. You go and perfect a motion-blur trick for 3D hardware that doesn't devour memory like water, and actually looks good.
Have you seen accumulation buffer effects actually put to good use on the PC lately?
The other reason faster framerates rule the competitive gaming scene: the difference between 60 frames per second and 24 frames per second is an extra 25 miliseconds of delay between frame updates. For gamers who strive to optimize all paths of I/O, who complain about pings above 50 miliseconds, who go out and buy a fancy new USB mouse to get 125 Hz updates (8 miliseconds), 25 miliseconds added delay is unacceptable.
In fact the signal on such a wire will tend to hang around at about the level it was last driven for quite a while (the wire is a cap) untill it discharges or some other gate drives it.
This is one of the reasons why you terminate a bus with a resistor. One is preventing signal reflections ( matching the characteristic impedence of the cable ), and the other is preventing a floating state.
A floating state is a no-no in design simply because it can be prevented so easily.
Yuo nEd too LAREN ho tou wRit Pr0paR ENlash, yUo MASTAR OF TEH GRAVEY TRAINES. Teh mots compilcatde port fo teh spaekign of teh engalashe lanugaeg is too. Usign propar sentnace.
Structurae!!!!111
Photosensitive epilepsy is one of many rare dysfunctions of the human body that can cause incapacitation and death.
Much like other defects of the body, there are several things in this world that are readily accessible that could trigger a seizure from photosensitive epilepsy.
What do you want from the world? You CANNOT shield your child forever in this whizbang-electronic world from seizure-inducing situations. Eventually your child would have had a seizure despite your efforts, and even with your current knowledge he may very likely have more over the course of his life.
My sister almost died from an extreme allergic reaction when doctors treated her with penicillin as a child. She also discovered over the course of her life that she was allergic to several other things, but that initial experience facing death taught her caution and preparation. She has since been careful about using new drugs ( prescription or OTC ), and always carries an ephedrine shot with her.
Don't think of this as a bad thing; celebrate the fact that your son is alive. Just be thankful that you were there with your son, and were able to come to his aid.
Actually, it is the same thing. The Master Converter was just that - a cartridge pinout converter.
The Genesis contained a fully-functional Z80 processor and PSG capable of running Master System games. When a Master System cart was inserted, the 68000 main processor and the Yamaha FM synth chip sat idle. Much the same as the PS2's PSOne hardware, the Z80 played a supporting role in I/O and sound control while playing Genesis games.
Sega didn't want to ship all Genesis units with the converter because the cost would be too high...Nintendo came to a similar conclusion when they considered building NES compatibility into the SNES ( which was abandoned ).
The thing with the PS2 is, backward-compatible 5-inch optical formats have made hardware converters a thing of the past. Hardware compatibility is easy to add because your mass-produced DVD-ROM can already read CDs.
To put it in perspective on this discussion: the Genesis had easy backward-compatibility for those willing to pony up a small fee ( much like you had to pay extra for the remote to watch DVDs on the X-Box ). Still, even though it was cheap, the Master Converter didn't sell well. It's not as if there weren't some excellent games for the Master System, it's just that there wasn't a large enough library to justify the investment ( as say, compared to the NES library of the time ).
This leads us to a precarious position, because nobody has ever attempted this before. Sure, Sony had success with backward-compatibility, but Sony also had over 50% market share with the PSX, which made their available library much more valuable a selling point.
The Master Converter was a failure, but would it have been a success if it were FREE? Would complete access to the existing game library of a not-so-successful console really be a selling point?
We don't know because it's never really been attempted. And no, we cannot count the ATARI 7800 ( had 2600 compatibility out-of-the-box ), as it was doomed from the start by a 3-year delay.
Now if they get an atari 2600.. I'd be impressed.
:P
For the hell of it, let's see...
You'd need to build a custom cartridge, and fit the kernel in under 8k. You'd also have to attach some I/O device to the cart, or hack it through the controller port.
Other than that, you just have to figure out how to run an IP stack in 128 bytes of ram
I work at a major defense contractor, and despite the fact that over half of the floor space in the entire installation is unclassified, you cannot bring cameras on site. Camera phones are also not allowed.
I guess companies consier the cameras a liability for both the closed areas, and the proprietary stuff accessible in the open areas.
Thankfully, thir policy on cell phones puts the trust in the employees. You can carry one on-site and use it in any open area. Closed areas have mixed policies: some allow you to carry them in, turned off, while others require you to leave them at the door.
The question, of course, is this: what happens when you cannot buy a phone without a camera? Suddenly you have two very sane policies in conflict with each other. In a case of conflict, the conservative always wins, so once all phones have cameras, we won't be able to carry them.
And don't say it will never happen. Most new "features" pushed by more than one manufacturer usually end up becoming standard. The camera will almost certainly become a standard part of the cell phone once video-capable cameras become affordable, and 3G is released. Video is THE key selling point of 3G for the general populace.
This is not really an issue in a clocked system, all you have to be sure of is that your clock is slower than your slowest setup time.
That said, a jump from positive to negative voltage could increase the delay, which means slower clocked logic.
Could anyone realy identify a useful aspect of this kind of logic? I mean, MAYBE you could get faster branch handling with an if...else...unknown three-way branch instead of the traditional if...else, but would the extra complexity be worth it?
I believe you can pay $20 for a Nintendo Power subscription and select it as your free gift. I was actually thinking about doing this...
I'm not saying you're missing it, I'm saying Mars is missing it.
There are no direct indications that Mars has much in the way of nitrates, and you're certainly not going to find much in the air.
What are you going to do, haul it over there in tankers?
So what do you think I'm missing here?
Nitrogen.
Do you want to go see a movie?
Nope. The Pentium II on 100MHz bus was launched with 350 and 400MHz versions, but was soon followed up by a 450MHz chip.
As for my WORST equipped tech job, back in 2000 I was doing application development in a summer internship using Access Basic 2.0 ( 16-bit ). The target market was schools, so our minimum target platform was a 386 or 486 running Windows 3.x.
This was not unrealistic, and our software was definitely useable on those platforms. But I couldn't believe the development platform they gave me: Some crappy 4-year old P90 laptop with 16MB ram running Win95. I mean, there's a huge difference between being in touch with your minimum target platform, and having to DEVELOP with your minimum target platform.
Now my idea for the next series is sure to succeed. Forget the federation, I want to see the crazy adventures of six 'buddies' (3 male, 3 female), who are in no way associated with the federation, and their only association with earth is that they are human. They have hilarious situations brought about by miscommunications, misplaced affections, and misguided sexual adventures.
For those of you who weren't paying attention, he just described Friends "in space".
Not that this post wasn't perfectly serious, Star Trek borrows liberally from pop culture. B&B fully admit the most successful Trek creation in the last decade ( Star Trek 8 ) was just Die Hard in space.
Wish I had some mod points, the funny is indeed present.
And I suppose you'd be upset if I told you that the first generation of AGP 4x graphics cards were similarly hindered.
Back in 1999, AGP 4x was all the rage, but the most popular Intel motherboard chipset ( 440BX ) only supported AGP 2x. Same goes for the first Athlon chipset, the 750 "Irongate". Nobody complained, because the people who bothered to educate themselves knew there was no reasonable alternative, and the people who didn't bother didn't give a rat's ass.
What I find surprising is that ATI has actually released another model number for the AGP 8x part. In '99, official AGP 4x support was quietly added to the TNT2, Rage 128 and the G400 line after initial release. But then again, Nvidia did the same model number increase with their 4000 series upgrade to AGP 8x, so you can hardly fault them.
The point is, manufacturers always deal to the least common denominator. If you're going to be uneducated in your purchases, then you deserve what you get.
This is because CS 1.6 is the retail package.
When you develop a mod and give it away for free, you're not making any money, so you usually don't have to license anything trademarked that you depict in your game. Hence the use of real names in the mod version.
But the retail version has always had those fake names to avoid licensing fees.
This is not necessarily a good idea. Case in point:
In 1993 my junior high got a "great idea" ( read: they got a great deal from TI ), and loaned scientific calculators to every student.
However, these were TI's ugly blue colored scientific calculators with limited funtionality ( compared to your average $20 Casio those days ), and they had a solar cell that was VERY suscpetible to breaking (ie: drop it on the floor, it cracked ). Even with the plastic cover on, a book dropped on top could mean a cracked cell.
The worst part: in order to simplify return of the calculators at the end of the year, EVERY student had to take one. And the worst part was the replacement price was $30, quite a bit higher than the average scientific calculator you could buy in the store.
I ended up keeping it safe at home, so did a lot of people. As for the people who used them, many broke them more than once over the course of the year.
It's not a bad idea in concept, but bad execution could sour the deal.
Because the rated wattage is actually combined ( this is for +12v, -12v, +5v, -5v, +3.3v, -3.3v... ).
The way current systems are designed, the bulk of the power is drawn off the +12v rail. This is why AMD requires a 300w PS, because they cannot guarantee what proportion of the total advertised power is available on the +12v rail.
Take a look at the power supplies most mainstream PCs ship with, they're usually well under 300 watts rating, because the manufacturer knows the system and can cut it closer.
As for maximum power usage, you will probably see that when playing a 3D game, since both the power used by the processor AND the video card roughly doubles ( compared to say, viewing a webpage, which uses 2D hardware only, and leaves you with mostly idle cycles ).
Do you understand the concept of a switching power supply?
You're running what are essentially 4 250- to 300-watt heaters in a small room
A switching power supply responds to loads. It will not provide its maximum rated power unless you load it that heavily.
Your typical PC ( PS, motherboard, processor, ram, video, a card or two, and a couple drives ) these days actually uses ~100w while idiling, and around 150w under extreme load. This would include losses due to power supply inefficiency.
there is also a large amount of it coming from your power supply
The switching power supply itself is quite efficient, compared to a linear regulator. Yes, the power supply has some loss due to efficiency in the conversion, but it's actually quite low, around %10-30 worst case. The transformer is also pertty high efficiency.
Quite a bit of heat is generated.
Yeah, you bet. You think that's something, you should see how much power your monitor sucks up, even if it is an LCD.
Agreed, this is something that has bothered the hell out of me since online sales began to take off.
Who has so magically determined that pricing should be by-track, and that every track costs the same?
Why should I pay a buck for a 1:24 Less Than Jake song when I can get a 2:16 Green Day song, a 4 minute Live song, a 7 minute Metallica song, a 16 minute movement of Shostakovitch, or an 18 minute NOFX saga for the same price?
This is why I like the album as a medium, aside from the ability for artists to create an experience much greater than a single. With an album, all artists are given an even starting position, up to 74 minutes to be exact. What they do with those 74 minutes is entirely up to them, so long as the result is worthy of the asking price.
My daily caffeine intake was about 500mg, or the equivalant of about 6-8 cups of coffee.
I've heard that your intake levels when you quit will determine the length of your withdrawl, so yours may be shorter or longer duration.
But what I don't agree with are the many suggestions in this topic to cut it out of your life slowly. That's what I was experiencing before I went cold turkey, because I had to stop ingesting the stuff every evening so I could sleep. It's very painful to come home with a migraine every evening due to withdrawl, and wake up feeling like shit. Just take the pain for a few days, and get over it completely.
QUIT COLD TURKEY. I AM NOT KIDDING.
For years I had migraines which I eventually attributed to caffeine withdrawl. Sure, I could stave them off by taking more, but that would burn me out during the workday, and I would get a migraine every other night anyway.
So last July 4th weekend I decided I wasn't going to take this shit, that I had a life to live. I stopped all caffeine intake Wednesday night, and went through a painful Thursday. Friday was a continuous migraine. Saturday and Sunday were better, the funny thing is I actually got a final relapse migraine Monday night.
But Tuesday I felt great. And I have continued feeling great for 6 months. No more headaches, not a single migraine in these last 6 months.
The best thing about no caffeine is I don't feel burned out anymore, I have energy to work all day. You don't know how much energy you can have without caffeine because you're caught in the cycle.
As for consumption, yes I still consume a little caffeine here and there. Chocolate and the occasional caffinated soda are fine, even decaf coffee. You just have to keep it reasonable to avoid the cycle.
If you want out, all it takes is a little willpower. I would suggest LOTS of water and asprin as well the first week.
I'm only replying because this is a terrible mix of crappy assumptions.
And, as far as the hardware thing - I'm running with a Radeon 9000, P4 2.6c, and 512MB DDR400. It buckles under the pressure of games like Max Payne 2, Midnight Club, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic unless I cut the quality down.
Just because you may have bought the card recently doesn't mean anything. The 9000 Pro is based on 8500 technology, which is over 2 years old.
The worst part: the 9000 Pro is actually significantly slower than the 8500 in games that utilize complex multitexturing or heavy use of shaders. Don't blame the PC platform for bringing you down, this is your fault for purchasing without any research whatsoever.
If money was truely an object, you could have avoided the $100 Intel P4 markup and purchased an Althon XP 2400. That's $100 more you could have piped into a video card, if you had been so moved.
Halo on the Xbox looks and plays great. No sacrifice in quality.
The graphics engine inside is actually less powerful than your Radeon 9000 Pro. The reason the Xbox performs well is because companies can optimize for the hardware, and they also render at a MUCH lower resolution. Yeah, that's right, try you Xbox at 1080i and tell me it's still a performance hog.
That's probably the best analogy you can make, given the circumstances.
Basically, it's just straight guys acting gay. The clothing is a little louder than preppy, and instead of acting like an asshole, you act all bubbly.