I've been a contractor at a pharmacutical company for over 3 years now.
My company still offers: cell phones and blackberries to full-time employees (non-contractors). However, I'm pretty sure you're responsible for your bill (or only reponsible if you go over the amount), and you have to have to a good reason to have a blackberry (like, a server admin).
They used to offer ISDN lines, but I don't think they do that anymore (the old adopters are grandfathered in though). I do know that they don't pay for any of the current broadband offerings (cable, dsl, etc), otherwise I know a lot of people would try to get it.
For a server admin or webmaster, these things would be very important. But to an in-house developer or something along those lines, it's not necessary.
Snapstream has supposedly upgraded a lot lately, so you might want to give it a look. I only just adopted it a few months ago.
Yeh, the webpage server is great. You can configure Snapstream, pick shows to record, view the program guide, or even stream the recorded shows over the network.
I think a standalone media center is insane, and think a Tivo is a better solution for many reasons, most of which yuo stated. Heck, I'd even be OK with the lifetime subsription. While it would cost more, it would just make things easier, a "set it and forget it" type thing, where you don't have to worry about the incidental charges.
However, if you already have a PC, setting it up to record TV shows isn't that hard (and pretty cheap).
As I'm not into gaming so much lately, I bought a TV Tuner card and Snapstream. Now, my main desktop can record stuff for me, and I can burn it to DVD if I so desire. It took maybe 30 minutes and $120 for the software and hardware, and I can skip commercials, edit them out before archiving, burn them to CDs or DVDs, etc.
However, there's not way in hell I'd try to make a small PC to place in my entertainment center. It would be too costly and too time consuming. Not to mention the upkeep to make sure everything is running smoothly.
My main PC doubles as a DVR when I'm not using it. It's a breeze to setup (as simple as you could possibly get, actually), looks wonderful, and functions very well.
Granted, it requires some flavor of Windows (that can run.Net libraries), but it's still great. And they set it up that if the company ever goes under, you can point Snapstream to the same kind of data that Myth uses.
It's really a must-see-to-believe thing. I thought it was going to be some cheezy software, but it is really well put together.
However, I think a "Tivo" is a better solution. You don't have to sit there and configure stuff, update stuff, bla bla bla. It's relatively cheap (even with the lifetime subsription it's not that bad), and does everything you need (with the exception of burning the vids onto CD's or DVD's).
Your basic physics outline was very thoughtful and well organized. I applaud you.
However, one thing worth mentioning is that the movie makes it seem like his webbing is somewhat elastic in nature. Ie, moments after "solidifying" from flying out his wrists, the "webbing" seems to like to constrict a little, if not simply remain elastic to its original form.
Such examples include when he "catapults" himself to the bridge (SP 1) or Aunt May (SP 2).
The added elastic reaction of the "webbing" would increase the energy applied to his swings, particularly if I am correct that moments after "solidifying," the webbing tries to constrict to a more natural state. Such constricting would help propel him.
Then again, this is just my opinion after watching the movies.
I think had the movie been sort of a drama like that, it would have been better.
Like: Will S plays a psychologist (or whatever) and tries to determine how the robot committed a murder. At first, he thinks the robot is innocent / framed / programmed to kill, but slowly learns how "independent" the robots actually are. Maybe even the robots decide to dispath him before he lets the world know. I'd even be ok with a "robot conspiracy" or "uprising" so long as they were cerebral about it.
But the commercials and trailers make it look like it quickly turns into an action movie with very little drama or suspense.
I'd say the movie might have originally started (or at least was proposed as) one kind of movie, but the idiots in charge of the studios felt an action would be better.
Dell makes it pretty easy to swap out hard drives (at least, mine was back in the Celeron 466 days). On mine, it was just: 1. Remove a small screw 2. Pop out the drive 3. Put new drive in 4. Rescrew it.
However, not all notebooks are so modular. Some require dissasembling the case to get at the hard drive (though getting at the RAM is very easy). Some require you to remove the keyboard, some require splitting the case in half, etc.
However, even in those cases (no pun intended), it's not that bad so long as you know what you're doing. And, in my opinion, it's worth saving a computer (especially a laptop) if it just involved finding a new hard drive.
Old laptops are great. It's helpful to have one lying around just-in-case, and they can make great servers (low power and quiet).
While I sort of miss the "scientist" edge of Spidey, I don't think the movie suffered. Personally, I think the webbing makes it more of a mutation.
The 2nd movie went through a lot of stuff; we even hear "Peter is brilliant, but lazy," and he grasps Ock's theories like they were the alphabet. Both Doc Ock and Doc Connors admit he's a genius.
However, I do miss him "running out of webbing" or "having to tweak the formula to stick to something slick or whatever." In what FEW comics I've read, and the various cartoon series I've vegged through, they were always prevalent.
I think if they touch on "Doc Connors = The Lizard" thing, we'll see the brainy side of Peter again, as he'll probably have to figure out a way to temporarily turn him human again.
Exec 1: Let's do something classic and cerebral: a Sci-Fi Drama! Me and 'my boys' have been brain storming, and we think we should revive something of Isaac Asimov. He wrote TONS of high stuff, and a lot of people know his name.
Exec 2: Hmm. Sounds neat. What classic stuff do we have to work with.
Exec 1: Well, he wrote many thought-provoking stories. For example, moral stories of robots and AI, and how they relate with humans and develop wills of their own. Most notably is a collection of stories in "I, Robot." We were thinking of something following his theme.
Exec 2: Sounds like "A.I." to me, and that movie stank! Ohh Ooh, how about this: Robots develop wills of their own, and run amok, killing humans everywhere. GREAT! It's SciFi AND Drama. And we'll call it "I, Robot."
Exec 1: Well, uhh...
Exec 2: We'll get some SciFi action actor to star, someone who's "hip." How about Will Smith, we'll even have him wear some cool sunglasses. The kids will eat it up.
Exec 1: Actually, that sounds kinda lame. It sound like a cheezy actio....
Exec 2: I can see it now. An army of robots with red eyes, climbing buildings like Spider-Man! It will make us a fortune. And anyone onboard will be FIRED.
Exec 2:...
Exec 1: Well?
Exec 1: Well, that sounds... great. I'll have my team re-write the script to your liking.
BestBuy is big on offering multiple rebates on items. What do you do then?
In many situations, their products that are really "marked down" offer a Manufacturer rebate and a BestBuy rebate. In this case, they don't require the UPC with the BB rebate.
IN the movie, they state they're like less than 25 lbs in the entire world, and Harry had to pull some strings to get that small of an amount for the first test.
When making the deal with Occ, he said he would "get" as much tritium as Occ needed.
Therefore, as soon as Occ left, Harry probably started calling people and buying amounts left-and-right. Then, he kept everything he procured in his safe so it would be available when Occ came back.
I applied for a job. It had everything I had been doing at work, with the exception that they wanted to start adopting.Net (I knew someone at the company who told me about the position).
The job posting said "MUST have at least 4 years of experience with.Net framework and C#".
Meanwhile,.Net was officially released maybe a year beforehand.
I have bought about 30 songs since iTunes started. They were all singles.
I usually only like 1-3 songs per CD. So, in reality, I'm spending.99 - 2.97 USD for the 1-3 songs I want, instead of 12 - 17 USD for the privelege of ripping those same 3 songs from a CD (assuming they're on the same CD).
Personally, I find the codec and bit rate fine, except for oldies. Some of those songs sound rather tinny. But more modern songs are good enough to warrant the.99 USD price tag.
It was a problem, and COULD have been serious had people not been working on it. I say serious only in situations where a more-legacy system was running something very volitle (maybe some nuke silos, waste disposal centers, etc). But it was HIGHLY overrated.
For 99.99999% of the systems out there, it was no big deal if the systems did go down, and most didn't
Hell, I was still working as a cashier back then, and our store's computer system went down (we were running off an old 386 system). It handled all of the registers.
I said "Fuck it" and went home. There was no way in hell I was going to look through a book of barcodes to find the prices of all of the items people were buying (I wasn't really supposed to work that day anyway). I talked to some friends later, and they said it sucked, because people were buying shit left and right because they thought Armaggedon was still possible.
But seriously, at least in the theaters by me, the handicap area is huge. They take out the right-half of 3 or 4 consecutive rows to allow room for the chairs.
So, sit in the back-most empty handicap row, put down the brakes, and you have the ultimate hidden camera. Its view would be completely unobstructed, and nobody would be the wiser.
There's a Mac version of UT2004, it came out almost immediately after the Windows version; maybe a day of 2 after.
But it's a seperate DVD that can be found for about $30. My brand-new Powerbook can't play it as well as my year-old Windows laptop, but it's playable. I haven't tried it on a Powermac (or iMac) though, so I can't comment on how it runs there. But it supposedly flies on the G5's (and dual G4's).
I own a Powerbook, but I use my PC for gaming. I only recently converted, so my PC is still modern enough to play any game very well. I make enough that I can support both platforms so long as I don't go for top-of-the-line components. I try to shop smart, and find good deals.
But I'd sort-of like to see Mac's get more gaming attention. Those G5's are sweet rigs, and are just screaming for more games to play.
Hopefully, the tides will turn for Macs and gaming.
I never said WE'RE a nation of puritans. Only that we're RUN BY puritans.
Abstinence-only teaching (God-forbid we mention condoms in school)
The new bill increasing the fines for showing too much cleavage on broadbast
God this, Lord that, now look at my golf swing.
Yes, our TV is bad, but you should go on a trip to somewhere across the Atlantic. If you think "Temptation Island" is bad, wait until you see some stuff there.
I merely saying that we're RUN by puritans. You even copy / pasted it correctly.
I'm neither prude nor pervert, but I think there's a HUGE friggin difference between a kid getting exposed to a bare breast, or hooked on cig's.
If a kid starts looking at porn, then no big deal. Some oter countries don't have the 18-yr-old limit on viewing porn and what-not. It's a cultural thing, and our country is basically run by a bunch of Puritans.
Ciggarettes, on the other hand, that's just plain evil; cartoon camels, etc. Getting kids hooked on something that is so well known to mess up your health is inexcusable.
Think what you want, but Cigarrets are bad enough, but getting kids hooked on it is wrong. I'd rather it was the Alcohol industry doing that; at least that's not as addicting.
While I agree that an SLI solution is over-the-top, and not really needed, saying that current GPU's are powerful enough to play any game is sort of near-sited.
Games are still becoming more and more advanced. Sure, right now, an ATI 9600 will give you great performance. But it won't be long until you have to start scaling back your details to play the game, even with an x800.
"Shadows" are becoming more and more of the "wow factor." Unfortunately, really good shadows take up a shit-load of power to render correctly. Thief III did a good job with them, but I remember reading somewhere that DOOM 3's shadows are a real hog. And lord knows what's next on the horizon, some other seemingly small feature that "adds to the game" (not really) but will require a lot of horsepower to run.
Games will continue to advance. People will create more robust engines that can do more and provide a more realistic experience, but GPU's will have to advance in-turn.
The SLI solution is sort of a stop-gap, a cop-out. It's "well,we COULD try developing a new GPU chipset that outperforms the old one by a lot. OR, we could just make a marginally better chipset and require that they buy 2 of them."
Fortunately, I didn't get suckered into buying the 2nd Voodoo2 card (1 was more than enough). But imagine how much money will come in if the SLI solution out-performs everything in the market by 70%. Even if only a fraction of the customers buy the second card, that will mean a nice amount of income for nVidia.
As mentioned a lot earlier, most of the customers will be "really hard-core gamers / nerds," or "rich kids" (color does not matter).
We signed up for the "Do Not Call" list as soon as it was available.
However, that apparently hasn't stopped the calls. While I wouldn't know (I don't get home until 6:30 to 7), my family says they apparently get them. According to them, they're not non-profit orgs or anything, they're "would you like x credit card" or something.
My family only brings up the "we're on the do not call list" like every-other time; causing the people the immediately hang up the phone.
I keep telling them, "find out who they are so you can report them," but they always forget.
Seriously, how hard is it to remove those phone numbers from your list? Like I said, we were one of the early adopters, so it's not like they don't know.
What the gov needs to do is monitor the telemarketers' outgoing calls, and compare them to the do not call list. That'll stop them. Otherwise, they know most people are too lazy to report them.
Well, TNG had Riker. How many times did Riker atleast start flirting with the "female alien of the week"?
Riker has: - Irish housewife that was living like it was 1784 (she showed off her ankles to him). - An asexual alien (their species don't have sexes) A drug pettler that tricked him into helping take over Enterprise. Deanne Troi God knows how many in Reiza. And that's just from reruns I've seen this month.
Meanwhile, in Enterprise, we have Tucker. Even Scott Bakula had to comment and laugh about that in an interview.
Tucker has: - Gotten knocked-up by an alien chick. - Accidentally seduced a hot princess. - T'Pol - Grown attached to a trisexual alien used only for procreation. - I think a couple others.
Sorry, Intel, but you're keeping us from overclocking chips when you yourself have created some of the most inefficient (in terms of optimal performance and energy/heat useage) microprocessor of anyone this decade?
Excuse me? But if you're going to make rediculous statements like that, take a course in history.
Back in the AMD T-Bird day's, those things ran HOT AS SH!T, even with a premium 3rd-party heatsink. Meanwhile, Intel's equivalent CPU (though more expenisve) ran a hell of a lot cooler with a generic heatsink.
From what I hear now, the playing field is more level (a friend even told me AMD is actually cooler than Intel now).
But it wasn't that long ago that AMD was a joke in terms of thermal performance, as they used to run hot as hell, and only somewhat recently started to include thermal control into their chips.
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I've been a contractor at a pharmacutical company for over 3 years now.
My company still offers: cell phones and blackberries to full-time employees (non-contractors). However, I'm pretty sure you're responsible for your bill (or only reponsible if you go over the amount), and you have to have to a good reason to have a blackberry (like, a server admin).
They used to offer ISDN lines, but I don't think they do that anymore (the old adopters are grandfathered in though). I do know that they don't pay for any of the current broadband offerings (cable, dsl, etc), otherwise I know a lot of people would try to get it.
For a server admin or webmaster, these things would be very important. But to an in-house developer or something along those lines, it's not necessary.
Snapstream has supposedly upgraded a lot lately, so you might want to give it a look. I only just adopted it a few months ago.
Yeh, the webpage server is great. You can configure Snapstream, pick shows to record, view the program guide, or even stream the recorded shows over the network.
I think a standalone media center is insane, and think a Tivo is a better solution for many reasons, most of which yuo stated. Heck, I'd even be OK with the lifetime subsription. While it would cost more, it would just make things easier, a "set it and forget it" type thing, where you don't have to worry about the incidental charges.
However, if you already have a PC, setting it up to record TV shows isn't that hard (and pretty cheap).
As I'm not into gaming so much lately, I bought a TV Tuner card and Snapstream. Now, my main desktop can record stuff for me, and I can burn it to DVD if I so desire. It took maybe 30 minutes and $120 for the software and hardware, and I can skip commercials, edit them out before archiving, burn them to CDs or DVDs, etc.
However, there's not way in hell I'd try to make a small PC to place in my entertainment center. It would be too costly and too time consuming. Not to mention the upkeep to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Throw "SnapStream" into there as well.
.Net libraries), but it's still great. And they set it up that if the company ever goes under, you can point Snapstream to the same kind of data that Myth uses.
While not free, it's pretty cheap ($30 USD).
My main PC doubles as a DVR when I'm not using it. It's a breeze to setup (as simple as you could possibly get, actually), looks wonderful, and functions very well.
Granted, it requires some flavor of Windows (that can run
It's really a must-see-to-believe thing. I thought it was going to be some cheezy software, but it is really well put together.
However, I think a "Tivo" is a better solution. You don't have to sit there and configure stuff, update stuff, bla bla bla. It's relatively cheap (even with the lifetime subsription it's not that bad), and does everything you need (with the exception of burning the vids onto CD's or DVD's).
Your basic physics outline was very thoughtful and well organized. I applaud you.
However, one thing worth mentioning is that the movie makes it seem like his webbing is somewhat elastic in nature. Ie, moments after "solidifying" from flying out his wrists, the "webbing" seems to like to constrict a little, if not simply remain elastic to its original form.
Such examples include when he "catapults" himself to the bridge (SP 1) or Aunt May (SP 2).
The added elastic reaction of the "webbing" would increase the energy applied to his swings, particularly if I am correct that moments after "solidifying," the webbing tries to constrict to a more natural state. Such constricting would help propel him.
Then again, this is just my opinion after watching the movies.
True.
I think had the movie been sort of a drama like that, it would have been better.
Like:
Will S plays a psychologist (or whatever) and tries to determine how the robot committed a murder. At first, he thinks the robot is innocent / framed / programmed to kill, but slowly learns how "independent" the robots actually are. Maybe even the robots decide to dispath him before he lets the world know. I'd even be ok with a "robot conspiracy" or "uprising" so long as they were cerebral about it.
But the commercials and trailers make it look like it quickly turns into an action movie with very little drama or suspense.
I'd say the movie might have originally started (or at least was proposed as) one kind of movie, but the idiots in charge of the studios felt an action would be better.
Dell makes it pretty easy to swap out hard drives (at least, mine was back in the Celeron 466 days). On mine, it was just:
1. Remove a small screw
2. Pop out the drive
3. Put new drive in
4. Rescrew it.
However, not all notebooks are so modular. Some require dissasembling the case to get at the hard drive (though getting at the RAM is very easy). Some require you to remove the keyboard, some require splitting the case in half, etc.
However, even in those cases (no pun intended), it's not that bad so long as you know what you're doing. And, in my opinion, it's worth saving a computer (especially a laptop) if it just involved finding a new hard drive.
Old laptops are great. It's helpful to have one lying around just-in-case, and they can make great servers (low power and quiet).
While I sort of miss the "scientist" edge of Spidey, I don't think the movie suffered. Personally, I think the webbing makes it more of a mutation.
The 2nd movie went through a lot of stuff; we even hear "Peter is brilliant, but lazy," and he grasps Ock's theories like they were the alphabet. Both Doc Ock and Doc Connors admit he's a genius.
However, I do miss him "running out of webbing" or "having to tweak the formula to stick to something slick or whatever." In what FEW comics I've read, and the various cartoon series I've vegged through, they were always prevalent.
I think if they touch on "Doc Connors = The Lizard" thing, we'll see the brainy side of Peter again, as he'll probably have to figure out a way to temporarily turn him human again.
Because there'd be no way to prove it.
1. Person buys item with cash. Item has mutiple rebates.
2. Person sends out rebates that do not require a UPC. He photocopies his receipt, as stated in BB's rebate forms.
3. Person returns item, and gets cash back. Make up a BS story about ir being broken.
4. Person gets rebate in mail a few weeks later.
5. Person now has more money than when he started out with.
I think it was more along the lines of:
...
Exec 1: Let's do something classic and cerebral: a Sci-Fi Drama! Me and 'my boys' have been brain storming, and we think we should revive something of Isaac Asimov. He wrote TONS of high stuff, and a lot of people know his name.
Exec 2: Hmm. Sounds neat. What classic stuff do we have to work with.
Exec 1: Well, he wrote many thought-provoking stories. For example, moral stories of robots and AI, and how they relate with humans and develop wills of their own. Most notably is a collection of stories in "I, Robot." We were thinking of something following his theme.
Exec 2: Sounds like "A.I." to me, and that movie stank! Ohh Ooh, how about this: Robots develop wills of their own, and run amok, killing humans everywhere. GREAT! It's SciFi AND Drama. And we'll call it "I, Robot."
Exec 1: Well, uhh...
Exec 2: We'll get some SciFi action actor to star, someone who's "hip." How about Will Smith, we'll even have him wear some cool sunglasses. The kids will eat it up.
Exec 1: Actually, that sounds kinda lame. It sound like a cheezy actio....
Exec 2: I can see it now. An army of robots with red eyes, climbing buildings like Spider-Man! It will make us a fortune. And anyone onboard will be FIRED.
Exec 2:
Exec 1: Well?
Exec 1: Well, that sounds... great. I'll have my team re-write the script to your liking.
BUT!!!
BestBuy is big on offering multiple rebates on items. What do you do then?
In many situations, their products that are really "marked down" offer a Manufacturer rebate and a BestBuy rebate. In this case, they don't require the UPC with the BB rebate.
IN the movie, they state they're like less than 25 lbs in the entire world, and Harry had to pull some strings to get that small of an amount for the first test.
When making the deal with Occ, he said he would "get" as much tritium as Occ needed.
Therefore, as soon as Occ left, Harry probably started calling people and buying amounts left-and-right. Then, he kept everything he procured in his safe so it would be available when Occ came back.
I'm pretty sure (like 90%) that even in the early / original comics, he was using devices on his wrists.
However, in the comics (and cartoons), the devices were covered by his uniform.
In that 1970's (or whenever) live-action show, they had Spidey were devices outside his costume (on his wrist and waste).
Similar thing happened wiht me.
.Net (I knew someone at the company who told me about the position).
.Net framework and C#".
.Net was officially released maybe a year beforehand.
I applied for a job. It had everything I had been doing at work, with the exception that they wanted to start adopting
The job posting said "MUST have at least 4 years of experience with
Meanwhile,
HR is really stupid.
Sure, if you want a whole CD.
.99 - 2.97 USD for the 1-3 songs I want, instead of 12 - 17 USD for the privelege of ripping those same 3 songs from a CD (assuming they're on the same CD).
.99 USD price tag.
I have bought about 30 songs since iTunes started. They were all singles.
I usually only like 1-3 songs per CD. So, in reality, I'm spending
Personally, I find the codec and bit rate fine, except for oldies. Some of those songs sound rather tinny. But more modern songs are good enough to warrant the
You realize the "non-java" edition is just the download package, right?
If you have a JRE installed on your machine, Opera still uses java.
The "java version" just comes with its own JRE for the install process.
But I'm glad I'm not alone in my usage of Opera.
Depends how you "word it."
It was a problem, and COULD have been serious had people not been working on it. I say serious only in situations where a more-legacy system was running something very volitle (maybe some nuke silos, waste disposal centers, etc). But it was HIGHLY overrated.
For 99.99999% of the systems out there, it was no big deal if the systems did go down, and most didn't
Hell, I was still working as a cashier back then, and our store's computer system went down (we were running off an old 386 system). It handled all of the registers.
I said "Fuck it" and went home. There was no way in hell I was going to look through a book of barcodes to find the prices of all of the items people were buying (I wasn't really supposed to work that day anyway). I talked to some friends later, and they said it sucked, because people were buying shit left and right because they thought Armaggedon was still possible.
I laughed, and quit shortly thereafter.
LOL.
But seriously, at least in the theaters by me, the handicap area is huge. They take out the right-half of 3 or 4 consecutive rows to allow room for the chairs.
So, sit in the back-most empty handicap row, put down the brakes, and you have the ultimate hidden camera. Its view would be completely unobstructed, and nobody would be the wiser.
There's a Mac version of UT2004, it came out almost immediately after the Windows version; maybe a day of 2 after.
But it's a seperate DVD that can be found for about $30. My brand-new Powerbook can't play it as well as my year-old Windows laptop, but it's playable. I haven't tried it on a Powermac (or iMac) though, so I can't comment on how it runs there. But it supposedly flies on the G5's (and dual G4's).
I own a Powerbook, but I use my PC for gaming. I only recently converted, so my PC is still modern enough to play any game very well. I make enough that I can support both platforms so long as I don't go for top-of-the-line components. I try to shop smart, and find good deals.
But I'd sort-of like to see Mac's get more gaming attention. Those G5's are sweet rigs, and are just screaming for more games to play.
Hopefully, the tides will turn for Macs and gaming.
Yes, our TV is bad, but you should go on a trip to somewhere across the Atlantic. If you think "Temptation Island" is bad, wait until you see some stuff there.
I merely saying that we're RUN by puritans. You even copy / pasted it correctly.
I don't cosider that loony.
I'm neither prude nor pervert, but I think there's a HUGE friggin difference between a kid getting exposed to a bare breast, or hooked on cig's.
If a kid starts looking at porn, then no big deal. Some oter countries don't have the 18-yr-old limit on viewing porn and what-not. It's a cultural thing, and our country is basically run by a bunch of Puritans.
Ciggarettes, on the other hand, that's just plain evil; cartoon camels, etc. Getting kids hooked on something that is so well known to mess up your health is inexcusable.
Think what you want, but Cigarrets are bad enough, but getting kids hooked on it is wrong. I'd rather it was the Alcohol industry doing that; at least that's not as addicting.
While I agree that an SLI solution is over-the-top, and not really needed, saying that current GPU's are powerful enough to play any game is sort of near-sited.
Games are still becoming more and more advanced. Sure, right now, an ATI 9600 will give you great performance. But it won't be long until you have to start scaling back your details to play the game, even with an x800.
"Shadows" are becoming more and more of the "wow factor." Unfortunately, really good shadows take up a shit-load of power to render correctly. Thief III did a good job with them, but I remember reading somewhere that DOOM 3's shadows are a real hog. And lord knows what's next on the horizon, some other seemingly small feature that "adds to the game" (not really) but will require a lot of horsepower to run.
Games will continue to advance. People will create more robust engines that can do more and provide a more realistic experience, but GPU's will have to advance in-turn.
The SLI solution is sort of a stop-gap, a cop-out. It's "well,we COULD try developing a new GPU chipset that outperforms the old one by a lot. OR, we could just make a marginally better chipset and require that they buy 2 of them."
Fortunately, I didn't get suckered into buying the 2nd Voodoo2 card (1 was more than enough). But imagine how much money will come in if the SLI solution out-performs everything in the market by 70%. Even if only a fraction of the customers buy the second card, that will mean a nice amount of income for nVidia.
As mentioned a lot earlier, most of the customers will be "really hard-core gamers / nerds," or "rich kids" (color does not matter).
We signed up for the "Do Not Call" list as soon as it was available.
However, that apparently hasn't stopped the calls. While I wouldn't know (I don't get home until 6:30 to 7), my family says they apparently get them. According to them, they're not non-profit orgs or anything, they're "would you like x credit card" or something.
My family only brings up the "we're on the do not call list" like every-other time; causing the people the immediately hang up the phone.
I keep telling them, "find out who they are so you can report them," but they always forget.
Seriously, how hard is it to remove those phone numbers from your list? Like I said, we were one of the early adopters, so it's not like they don't know.
What the gov needs to do is monitor the telemarketers' outgoing calls, and compare them to the do not call list. That'll stop them. Otherwise, they know most people are too lazy to report them.
Well, TNG had Riker. How many times did Riker atleast start flirting with the "female alien of the week"?
Riker has:
- Irish housewife that was living like it was 1784 (she showed off her ankles to him).
- An asexual alien (their species don't have sexes)
A drug pettler that tricked him into helping take over Enterprise.
Deanne Troi
God knows how many in Reiza.
And that's just from reruns I've seen this month.
Meanwhile, in Enterprise, we have Tucker. Even Scott Bakula had to comment and laugh about that in an interview.
Tucker has:
- Gotten knocked-up by an alien chick.
- Accidentally seduced a hot princess.
- T'Pol
- Grown attached to a trisexual alien used only for procreation.
- I think a couple others.
Sorry, Intel, but you're keeping us from overclocking chips when you yourself have created some of the most inefficient (in terms of optimal performance and energy/heat useage) microprocessor of anyone this decade?
Excuse me? But if you're going to make rediculous statements like that, take a course in history.
Back in the AMD T-Bird day's, those things ran HOT AS SH!T, even with a premium 3rd-party heatsink. Meanwhile, Intel's equivalent CPU (though more expenisve) ran a hell of a lot cooler with a generic heatsink.
From what I hear now, the playing field is more level (a friend even told me AMD is actually cooler than Intel now).
But it wasn't that long ago that AMD was a joke in terms of thermal performance, as they used to run hot as hell, and only somewhat recently started to include thermal control into their chips.