How often do you upgrade the motherboard and the RAM but keep the CPU...?
As new (faster) memory becomes available, they'll simply update the memory controller on the (new) CPUs (just as they updated the FSB from 100 to 133 to 166 to 200 to 266 and soon to 333 or 400).
RMN ~~~
Two most common haikus
on
Haiku vs Spam
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Will probably be:
millions satisfied, totally natural pill: enlarge your penis.
(it even has a "natural" theme... sorta) and
a special offer, a low interest mortgage. chance of a lifetime.
Just to elaborate on that, MPEG uses three frame types (I, P and B). There is actually another frame type but it's only used in MPEG-4, and not very often.
I-pictures (or I-frames) are similar to JPEG images (as described above).
The other types of pictures (B-pictures and P-pictures) use three steps of compression.
The first step is motion detectction. The compressor looks for blocks of the image that have moved and calculates a motion vector. This is where the MPEG compressors spend most of their time, and it's where good compressors stand apart from bad compressors.
The second step is simply subtracting the real (uncompressed) frame from the frame that was built by moving blocks from the other frame(s) around to match the new one as closely as possible. This is what old animation programs called "creating a delta frame". By itself, delta compression is only efficient if the image is still. Thanks to motion detection, delta can be very efficient even in moving images, as long as the movement is regular (ex., a camera pan).
The third step is compressing the resulting "delta" image. Areas that are continuous (ie, where the blocks haven't moved or have moved in a way that the motion search algorithm was able to match them perfectly to the other frames) will compress a lot, areas that have more information (ie, that moved in an unpredictable way or are completely new) will compress less. Again, this compression uses DCT.
The difference between B- and P-pictures is P-pictures can only be based on previous I- and P-pictures whereas B-pictures can be based on past or future I- and P-pictures. For this reason, the order of frames in the MPEG stream is sometimes not the order they'll play in. For example, consider this sequence of frames:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
And compress them like this:
1I 2B 3B 4P 5B 6B 7I
To be able to uncompress the B-pictures, the MPEG decoder must have all the frames they're based on in memory. So, in the MPEG file, the order of the frames actually looks like this:
1I 4P 2B 3B 7I 5B 6B
To make sure all the necessary frames are available, MPEG streams use something called GOPs (groups of pictures), that are loaded into the decoder's memory before the first frame of the GOP is shown.
B-pictures offer the best compression but they take longer to encode and, if long sequences are used, lower the overall quality. I-pictures are the least compressed, but give you the best quality if you don't limit the bitrate. If you do limit the bitrate, using only I-pictures will produce pretty poor quality, because every frame needs to be encoded from scratch, and the overall compression must increase to "fit" in your limited bitrate.
Usually the best quality is acheived by using 2, 3 or 4 P-pictures for each I-picture and 0, 1 or 2 B-pictures for each P-picture. But this really depends on the type of footage.
MPEG is a great format for distribution and streaming but not so good for editing, since even a simple cut will usually destroy a GOP a force a few frames to be recompressed (losing some quality in the process). If you edit in MPEG, you should use I-pictures only, and a very high bitrate.
Actually, this is off-topic, but I remember reading a list of "possible descriptions for a white sheet of paper" and one of them was "all the original ideas that IBM engineers have ever come up with". Which isn't entirely fair, of course.
Another description was "Microsoft's moral guidelines". Which is also not entirely fair. Microsoft does have one guideline concerning morals: "if you want to make it in this company, get rid of them".
RMN ~~~
Re:.NET regexps and Microsoft's documentation
on
Next Generation Regexp
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Microsoft's documentation reads like a novel compared to IBM's. The typical IBM manual has the following format:
PAGE 1:
[COMMAND1] is executed by typing the word [command1] followed by the argument string, followed by enter. The argument string consists of a sequence of non-whitespace characters separated by whitespace characters.
[COMMAND2] is executed by typing the word [command2] followed by the argument string, followed by enter. The argument string consists of a sequence of non-whitespace characters separated by whitespace characters.
[COMMAND3] is executed by typing the word [command3] followed by the argument string, followed by enter. The argument string consists of a sequence of non-whitespace characters separated by whitespace characters.
PAGE 2:
THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
...and so on and so on.
Regarding this last IBM tradition (that others have tried to copy but few have truly mastered), the Spruce DVD Maestro manual has a page with the following text:
Do you prefer the freedom allowed by CG-only scenes or the challenge of mixing CG and live action in the same scene (regardless of whether it looks realistic or "in-your-face" CG)?
Have you ever used a Chieftec workstation case? You can reach just about every single component easily (boards, memory, CPUs, etc. - not that you'll want to replace those while it's on;-), even on large motherboards. The front panel also comes off, the disks use cages that snap into place and have a place to attach an 80 mm fan, and the external bays all use plastic rails (to avoid vibration). In all, it has 13 bays and is only a mid-tower. Also, doesn't use any screws (except for the cards). Pretty good, considering PC cases have to be designed to accomodate unknow peripherals. And looks pretty good, too.
Some branded PCs also come with pretty good cases, namely some Compaq workstations, but I'm allergic to Compaqs so I don't even like them when the case is closed...:-P
P.S. - Still waiting for the "flames", dear moderators...
> has a door that simply swings open after you > pull the latch, even while the system is running
I've read this on more than one post. Not exactly a unique feature, is it? I mean, don't all PCs continue to run normally when you open the case? Or, if they're running Windows ME, don't they continue to crash normally?:-)
And don't a lot of cases (Chieftec, etc.) open with a simple latch?
Personally I even find real Mac cases ugly, and this one is uglier.:-P
I really can't see how this article belongs in Slashdot. Are they going to mention every new PC case that hits the market? Or are these cases made / sold by some member of Slashdot's staff...?
This is nearly as bad as the article about adding a plexiglass bubble to your case, which apart from being terribly interesting (NOT), didn't have a single picture in focus.
I normally use the asterisk on the numeric keypad (between '/' and '-').
By the way, an interesting thing about Adobe Premiere: in version 4 you could use the '+' and '-' keys in the numpad to zoom in and out. Since version 5, these stopped working and you now have to use the '+' and '-' keys in the main keyboard. They call it progress...
Having used an Atari ST for a long time, I always found it a bit stupid that there aren't 'Help' and 'Undo' keys on PC keyboards. I thought it would be temporary, and they would eventually be added. Instead, what they did add were the (completely redundant and extremely annoying) Windows system keys (or 'winkeys', as some people call them).
At home I've been using the same keyboard for 15 years (a Cherry G81-1000, that looks and feels like the old IBM keyboards), so luckily I don't have to put up with those keys (when I have to use other keyboards I keep hitting them instead of Ctrl / Alt), but I still miss my 'Help' and 'Undo' keys from the ST.
Most programs now use F1 as the 'help' key. Doesn't make much sense but at least it's standard. Sort of. Some programs use Shift+F1 or Ctrl+F1. But 'undo' is nowhere near as standard. Some programs use Ctrl+Z, others use Alt+Backspace, and so on.
Personally I'd like to see dedicated keys for 'help' and 'undo', where repeatedly pressing Undo would do multiple levels of undo and pressing Alt+Undo would do a Redo (ie, undo the last undo).
What do you think? What keys should be added to (or removed from) PC keyboards?
I am not unhappy with the keyboard layout. QWERTY may slow down people typing in English (although that wasn't exactly its purpose) but works quite well for Portuguese (as I said, I'd only change a couple of letters).
What I am unhappy about is software that isn't designed or tested to work with different layouts (portuguese or other). Which can be easily solved by letting the user redefine the keyboard shortcuts, and letting people distribute adapted shortcut files.
The portuguese layout is absolutely fine. I can type easily in all major languages. Stuff like Ñ, ö, Ý, û, etc., that don't even exist in Portuguese are very easy to type using the portuguese layout. The most common symbols are also in the right spots, so you don't have to keep pressing shift to get them. Unlike some "hacks" that existed about 15 years ago, the current standard Portuguese layout (based on QWERTY) is very good.
The "problem" is not the layout. The problem is programs designed for a specific layout that don't let you redefine your keys, and programs that simply don't support accented latin characters like 'é', 'ô', 'ã', etc., which are used by a lot of latin-based languages. Why should a keyboard be "compatible" with the american standard, when the americans write using latin characters...? Or, conversely, why should american keyboards look like, say, polish keyboards when they don't use any of those symbols? The computer should adapt to the user, not the other way around.
[tease]
Just because English is such a primitive language doesn't mean everybody else should be forced to put up with its limitations.;-)
All these layouts and evaluations are based on a) american keyboard layouts and b) the English language.
Even the regular QWERTY layout has some differences in other languages (ex, the 'Ç' in portuguese keyboards, the 'Ñ' in spanish keyboards, etc.), and the letter frequency is completely different. Most languages don't use the 'W' at all, and very rarely use the 'K'.
Most languages also have some specific 2-letter sequences that don't appear in other languages. In English you have 'th' and 'wh', for example. In Italian you have 'gl' and 'gn', in Spanish you have 'll', in Portuguese you have 'lh' and 'nh', etc.. These can make a big difference to the "perfect layout".
There are also some ridiculous mistakes such as the official french keyboard (which is AZERTY, and not QWERTY, BTW) not having the capital letter 'Ç', meaning you can't type 'Ça va?' (a very common sentence, meaning 'How are you doing?'). In the portuguese layout, the 'Ç' is a separate key, so you can use it to type 'ç' or 'Ç' (with shift). When I was working in Paris a couple of years ago I often wished I had my portuguese keyboard, not only because I'm used to QWERTY and kept making mistakes on their AZERTY keyboards, but also because it's actually easier to type in French with a portuguese keyboard.
Personally, I'm quite happy with the QWERTY layout; I would only change a couple of letters.
But I do wish people who write software would realise not everyone in the world uses the same keyboard layout they do, and that in other countries the same signs are often in different keys, making some key combinations impossible (ex., in the portuguese keyboard. the signs '[' and ']' are typed by pressing AltGr+8 and AltGr+9, or Ctrl+Alt+8 and Ctrl+Alt+9. So, when a program assigns some function to the combination Alt+[, it usually won't work on portuguese keyboards). Even worse are the programs (games, especially) that read they key's position instead of the character. So I press '' and get '=', I press '\' and get '~', I try to type 'ã' and get '\a', so on.
[sarcasm]
And of course, no keyboard is complete without the Windows "system keys"...
Slashdot Mirror
How often do you upgrade the motherboard and the RAM but keep the CPU...?
As new (faster) memory becomes available, they'll simply update the memory controller on the (new) CPUs (just as they updated the FSB from 100 to 133 to 166 to 200 to 266 and soon to 333 or 400).
RMN
~~~
Will probably be:
millions satisfied,
totally natural pill:
enlarge your penis.
(it even has a "natural" theme... sorta) and
a special offer,
a low interest mortgage.
chance of a lifetime.
RMN
~~~
Yes, but then they'd be paying attention to them. Tricky, see?
Al Capone was arrested for tax evasion. I suspect that if Bin Laden is ever caught, it'll be for downloading MP3s.
RMN
~~~
Well, statistics show that if the FBI is watching you, there's a good chance you are at least not a terrorist. ;-)
RMN
~~~
...watches "Click Online" on the BBC. That will shut up a lot of people who say they are completely clueless. :-)
RMN
~~~
...Microcosmos.
RMN
~~~
They'd be able to track you down in the middle of Antarctica.
RMN
~~~
I'm sorry if this has been said before, but I couldn't find it:
Why didn't they also try playing the original, uncompressed music, to see how high it scored...?
RMN
~~~
Let's call the mother's age M and the child's age C (in years).
:)
We know that:
M = C + 21
and
M + 6 = (C + 6) * 5
So solving the system we get:
M + 6 = 5C + 30
21 + C + 6 = 5C + 30
C + 27 = 5C + 30
C - 5C = 30 - 27
-4C = 3
C = -3/4
1/4 of a year is 3 months. 3/4 is 9 months. If the child is -9 months old, that means he or she will be born in 9 months, so has just been conceived.
The father isn't necessarily on top of the mother (fertilisation can happen up to 2 days after sex), but he's probably still around.
He may be trying to hold up his pants while running from her father.
Actually there would be another possible "smart" answer if the mother was a few years younger: the father is probably in jail.
RMN
~~~
Just to elaborate on that, MPEG uses three frame types (I, P and B). There is actually another frame type but it's only used in MPEG-4, and not very often.
I-pictures (or I-frames) are similar to JPEG images (as described above).
The other types of pictures (B-pictures and P-pictures) use three steps of compression.
The first step is motion detectction. The compressor looks for blocks of the image that have moved and calculates a motion vector. This is where the MPEG compressors spend most of their time, and it's where good compressors stand apart from bad compressors.
The second step is simply subtracting the real (uncompressed) frame from the frame that was built by moving blocks from the other frame(s) around to match the new one as closely as possible. This is what old animation programs called "creating a delta frame". By itself, delta compression is only efficient if the image is still. Thanks to motion detection, delta can be very efficient even in moving images, as long as the movement is regular (ex., a camera pan).
The third step is compressing the resulting "delta" image. Areas that are continuous (ie, where the blocks haven't moved or have moved in a way that the motion search algorithm was able to match them perfectly to the other frames) will compress a lot, areas that have more information (ie, that moved in an unpredictable way or are completely new) will compress less. Again, this compression uses DCT.
The difference between B- and P-pictures is P-pictures can only be based on previous I- and P-pictures whereas B-pictures can be based on past or future I- and P-pictures. For this reason, the order of frames in the MPEG stream is sometimes not the order they'll play in. For example, consider this sequence of frames:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
And compress them like this:
1I 2B 3B 4P 5B 6B 7I
To be able to uncompress the B-pictures, the MPEG decoder must have all the frames they're based on in memory. So, in the MPEG file, the order of the frames actually looks like this:
1I 4P 2B 3B 7I 5B 6B
To make sure all the necessary frames are available, MPEG streams use something called GOPs (groups of pictures), that are loaded into the decoder's memory before the first frame of the GOP is shown.
B-pictures offer the best compression but they take longer to encode and, if long sequences are used, lower the overall quality. I-pictures are the least compressed, but give you the best quality if you don't limit the bitrate. If you do limit the bitrate, using only I-pictures will produce pretty poor quality, because every frame needs to be encoded from scratch, and the overall compression must increase to "fit" in your limited bitrate.
Usually the best quality is acheived by using 2, 3 or 4 P-pictures for each I-picture and 0, 1 or 2 B-pictures for each P-picture. But this really depends on the type of footage.
MPEG is a great format for distribution and streaming but not so good for editing, since even a simple cut will usually destroy a GOP a force a few frames to be recompressed (losing some quality in the process). If you edit in MPEG, you should use I-pictures only, and a very high bitrate.
RMN
~~~
Actually, this is off-topic, but I remember reading a list of "possible descriptions for a white sheet of paper" and one of them was "all the original ideas that IBM engineers have ever come up with". Which isn't entirely fair, of course.
Another description was "Microsoft's moral guidelines". Which is also not entirely fair. Microsoft does have one guideline concerning morals: "if you want to make it in this company, get rid of them".
RMN
~~~
Microsoft's documentation reads like a novel compared to IBM's. The typical IBM manual has the following format:
...and so on and so on.
PAGE 1:
[COMMAND1] is executed by typing the word [command1] followed by the argument string, followed by enter. The argument string consists of a sequence of non-whitespace characters separated by whitespace characters.
[COMMAND2] is executed by typing the word [command2] followed by the argument string, followed by enter. The argument string consists of a sequence of non-whitespace characters separated by whitespace characters.
[COMMAND3] is executed by typing the word [command3] followed by the argument string, followed by enter. The argument string consists of a sequence of non-whitespace characters separated by whitespace characters.
PAGE 2:
THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Regarding this last IBM tradition (that others have tried to copy but few have truly mastered), the Spruce DVD Maestro manual has a page with the following text:
Blank page.
(mostly)
RMN
~~~
As a complement to Mr Guy's question (above):
Do you prefer the freedom allowed by CG-only scenes or the challenge of mixing CG and live action in the same scene (regardless of whether it looks realistic or "in-your-face" CG)?
RMN
~~~
Sorry, that's centimeters, not inches, which is of course even better.
Depends what you're measuring.
RMN
~~~
The day they let me buy a Lamborghini with Slashdot mod points I'll start to care about them. :-)
RMN
~~~
Looks basically the same but includes a wallhack that shows you the next 5 pieces and an aimbot that automaticlly picks the best place to drop them.
RMN
~~~
Have you ever used a Chieftec workstation case? You can reach just about every single component easily (boards, memory, CPUs, etc. - not that you'll want to replace those while it's on ;-), even on large motherboards. The front panel also comes off, the disks use cages that snap into place and have a place to attach an 80 mm fan, and the external bays all use plastic rails (to avoid vibration). In all, it has 13 bays and is only a mid-tower. Also, doesn't use any screws (except for the cards). Pretty good, considering PC cases have to be designed to accomodate unknow peripherals. And looks pretty good, too.
:-P
Some branded PCs also come with pretty good cases, namely some Compaq workstations, but I'm allergic to Compaqs so I don't even like them when the case is closed...
P.S. - Still waiting for the "flames", dear moderators...
RMN
~~~
> has a door that simply swings open after you
:-)
:-P
> pull the latch, even while the system is running
I've read this on more than one post. Not exactly a unique feature, is it? I mean, don't all PCs continue to run normally when you open the case? Or, if they're running Windows ME, don't they continue to crash normally?
And don't a lot of cases (Chieftec, etc.) open with a simple latch?
Personally I even find real Mac cases ugly, and this one is uglier.
I really can't see how this article belongs in Slashdot. Are they going to mention every new PC case that hits the market? Or are these cases made / sold by some member of Slashdot's staff...?
This is nearly as bad as the article about adding a plexiglass bubble to your case, which apart from being terribly interesting (NOT), didn't have a single picture in focus.
RMN
~~~
If you want a case that would go well with your stereo / VCR / TV, check out this one:
ATC600
RMN
~~~
I normally use the asterisk on the numeric keypad (between '/' and '-').
By the way, an interesting thing about Adobe Premiere: in version 4 you could use the '+' and '-' keys in the numpad to zoom in and out. Since version 5, these stopped working and you now have to use the '+' and '-' keys in the main keyboard. They call it progress...
RMN
~~~
Having used an Atari ST for a long time, I always found it a bit stupid that there aren't 'Help' and 'Undo' keys on PC keyboards. I thought it would be temporary, and they would eventually be added. Instead, what they did add were the (completely redundant and extremely annoying) Windows system keys (or 'winkeys', as some people call them).
At home I've been using the same keyboard for 15 years (a Cherry G81-1000, that looks and feels like the old IBM keyboards), so luckily I don't have to put up with those keys (when I have to use other keyboards I keep hitting them instead of Ctrl / Alt), but I still miss my 'Help' and 'Undo' keys from the ST.
Most programs now use F1 as the 'help' key. Doesn't make much sense but at least it's standard. Sort of. Some programs use Shift+F1 or Ctrl+F1. But 'undo' is nowhere near as standard. Some programs use Ctrl+Z, others use Alt+Backspace, and so on.
Personally I'd like to see dedicated keys for 'help' and 'undo', where repeatedly pressing Undo would do multiple levels of undo and pressing Alt+Undo would do a Redo (ie, undo the last undo).
What do you think? What keys should be added to (or removed from) PC keyboards?
RMN
~~~
I am not unhappy with the keyboard layout. QWERTY may slow down people typing in English (although that wasn't exactly its purpose) but works quite well for Portuguese (as I said, I'd only change a couple of letters).
What I am unhappy about is software that isn't designed or tested to work with different layouts (portuguese or other). Which can be easily solved by letting the user redefine the keyboard shortcuts, and letting people distribute adapted shortcut files.
RMN
~~~
...but, judging from that title, also doesn't know how to use commas. :-)
RMN
~~~
The portuguese layout is absolutely fine. I can type easily in all major languages. Stuff like Ñ, ö, Ý, û, etc., that don't even exist in Portuguese are very easy to type using the portuguese layout. The most common symbols are also in the right spots, so you don't have to keep pressing shift to get them. Unlike some "hacks" that existed about 15 years ago, the current standard Portuguese layout (based on QWERTY) is very good.
;-)
The "problem" is not the layout. The problem is programs designed for a specific layout that don't let you redefine your keys, and programs that simply don't support accented latin characters like 'é', 'ô', 'ã', etc., which are used by a lot of latin-based languages. Why should a keyboard be "compatible" with the american standard, when the americans write using latin characters...? Or, conversely, why should american keyboards look like, say, polish keyboards when they don't use any of those symbols? The computer should adapt to the user, not the other way around.
[tease]
Just because English is such a primitive language doesn't mean everybody else should be forced to put up with its limitations.
[/tease]
RMN
~~~
All these layouts and evaluations are based on a) american keyboard layouts and b) the English language.
Even the regular QWERTY layout has some differences in other languages (ex, the 'Ç' in portuguese keyboards, the 'Ñ' in spanish keyboards, etc.), and the letter frequency is completely different. Most languages don't use the 'W' at all, and very rarely use the 'K'.
Most languages also have some specific 2-letter sequences that don't appear in other languages. In English you have 'th' and 'wh', for example. In Italian you have 'gl' and 'gn', in Spanish you have 'll', in Portuguese you have 'lh' and 'nh', etc.. These can make a big difference to the "perfect layout".
There are also some ridiculous mistakes such as the official french keyboard (which is AZERTY, and not QWERTY, BTW) not having the capital letter 'Ç', meaning you can't type 'Ça va?' (a very common sentence, meaning 'How are you doing?'). In the portuguese layout, the 'Ç' is a separate key, so you can use it to type 'ç' or 'Ç' (with shift). When I was working in Paris a couple of years ago I often wished I had my portuguese keyboard, not only because I'm used to QWERTY and kept making mistakes on their AZERTY keyboards, but also because it's actually easier to type in French with a portuguese keyboard.
Personally, I'm quite happy with the QWERTY layout; I would only change a couple of letters.
But I do wish people who write software would realise not everyone in the world uses the same keyboard layout they do, and that in other countries the same signs are often in different keys, making some key combinations impossible (ex., in the portuguese keyboard. the signs '[' and ']' are typed by pressing AltGr+8 and AltGr+9, or Ctrl+Alt+8 and Ctrl+Alt+9. So, when a program assigns some function to the combination Alt+[, it usually won't work on portuguese keyboards). Even worse are the programs (games, especially) that read they key's position instead of the character. So I press '' and get '=', I press '\' and get '~', I try to type 'ã' and get '\a', so on.
[sarcasm]
And of course, no keyboard is complete without the Windows "system keys"...
[/sarcasm]
RMN
~~~