Re:"Actively searching for new suppliers"?
on
iBox Episode 2
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Ok, whoa. Microsoft got fined billions because they were illegally forcing companies to sell Microsoft software with their hardware. All Apple is doing is preventing you from selling hardware to run their OS. No one says that you -have- to run Apple software, so you -have- to buy Apple hardware. If you don't want to use Apple, don't. It's that simple. Microsoft, on the other hand, got slammed because they wouldn't let other companies who were legally allowed to sell the hardware use another OS or sell it without an OS. -That's- illegal. Why should Apple be forced to create a competitor for a product that is already heavily competed against? Last I checked, every Windows machine on the market was in direct competition to Apple already.
Well, no it isn't a server architecture presently, but who's to say it couldn't be in the future? I'd personally like to see this work out for them. In theory, the processor will be plenty powerful for it. Who cares if they hacked on Altivec? I doubt anyone will argue that the Power architecture isn't powerful enough to be used in server applications, and Apple can certainly make administration painless and easy enough if they want to. I say give 'em a chance!
Much to the amusement of people who works in tech support. My university just dropped support for Windows 95 this year, but they still get -a lot- of calls about it. And this is from college students, many of whom are more tech savvy than the average population.
I dunno, as long as I don't block the fan vents, my powerbook doesn't get -that- hot. Sure, it's a bit on the warm side, but I've had it sitting on bare skin many times without being uncomfortable. The 1 GHz 15" didn't feel nearly as hot to me as an 867MHz 12", actually.
Did they actually release a 786? I was under the impression that the P4 was a big enough architectural leap to justify changing the x86 number. Surely it's not classified in the same category as the P3, is it?
I dunno, the early performance estimates I've heard for the 970 are pretty impressive. IBM has proven the technology with the Power4 architecture (yes, I know the 970 isn't the Power4, but still, they share much of the same logic circuits). I still have high hopes for this one. Remember, the 970 is not the G4, which they've admittedly had troubles with.
Somehow Hexium just doesn't have quite the same ring as Pentium, though...
I can see why they chose not to pursue that line. Pentium was a strong name, and it prevents them from confusing the users with a new prefix every time they upgrade. We'd be up to, what, Octium by now?
Not to mention that if the actual instructional capability is any indication, the 970 will still be faster than both of them per clock, which means that this should be a very competitive chip for them. Which is exactly what Apple needs right now to spurn people back into buying them. The iMac did well a few years ago, but it's slowly been dying out, so they really need something new and exciting to come along again.
Ok, the Opteron is fair, but even it has yet to hit the marketplace. The Itanium, however, is completely out of the league of desktop computing for most people, relegating it strictly to workstation and professional uses. Granted, Apple will put it first into its PowerMacs, which it claims are targeting professional audiences, but knowing Apple, it will trickle down to the rest of the market soon enough. When will Intel start pushing the Itanium as a desktop processor? Not anytime soon, I'll wager.
Besides, if we want to start talking about who got to 64-bit first, lets not forget all the unix workstation and server makers, like Sun and SGI. Last I checked, they went 64-bit WAY before AMD or Intel did, so does that make both of them obsolete? Somehow I doubt you'd agree with that.
I actually think the number/letter style of naming cars is more efficient for the consumer. The number generally corresponds to the size of the engine and the letter generally corresponds to the class of car, which I think makes more sense than some obscure name they came up with. I kinda wish more companies would go to using this convention, actually; it'd be much less confusing than trying to figure out which invented word is the name of a particular type of car.
No kidding! My university is using the same systems, and the web access portion of it is absolutely nightmarish to use if the prof requires that it be accessed frequently. The concept behind it is wonderful; who wouldn't want to have one easy, convenient place to find all their classes' online presence? The trouble is that the system is so lousy that none of the profs even use it, so it really ends up being worthless to the majority.
Also, hearing the security concerns about the cardreaders makes me think about all the trouble we've been having in my building (I work in one of the residence halls) with people getting access who shouldn't, and people who should have access being denied their entrance. Makes me really wonder about ever using my card for anything monetary....
Search the internet for vacuum tubes. There's a huge movement in high-end audio back to using tubes, so a lot of places are selling new old stock tubes specifically for this purpose. BTW, another thing to think about is that if it has capacitors, some of them may be on the way out, which could also introduce a hum all the time.
If you're handy with a soldering iron, it might not be a bad idea to go through the entire thing and check all the parts to make sure none of them have gone bad. Older electronics tend to do that, especially when they are left sitting for long periods of time. A couple sites to check out would be here and here for vacuum tubes and other assorted old stereo equipment parts. Hope you can get it working, I think vintage stereo equipment is really neat (my speakers and amplifier both date to the mid-70s).
Eh, if they really wanted to stop that, they'd just threaten to shut down the people who run their connections maxed out all the time. Sorry to offend people with semi-legitamite reasons for their connections to be maxed out, but it seems to me that p2p is the most likely candidate. It's not that hard for them to include in the terms of service that this sort of behavior is unacceptable.
I can buy someone having their downloads maxed out for short bursts of time; that's what broadband is for, after all. I can also understand having both ways maxed out during bursts of time for something like gaming, but a lot of people leave those p2p programs downloading constantly and uploading to whoever wants their files. -That- is what the ISPs should be cracking down on, not someone sharing their connection between two or three computers so the kids in the family don't have to fight over the internet connection.
A quick scan of the low end servers on Sun's website reveals that they sell the Sun Fire 100, which uses the UltraSPARQ IIi. Certainly not high end equipment for Sun, but it's also not one of the super low end Blade machines.
Re:Great, more censorship
on
As the Spam Turns
·
· Score: 2, Informative
This isn't so much censorship as it is removing a source of unwanted, unsolicited mass mailings. In many states, this is illegal, especially when it comes to telephones. I personally really like the fact that this might possibly remove a source of spam from being able to deliver to my email account.
Besides, if they decide to take the initiative and prevent this sort of thing from happening, they can be reinstated. Sounds good to me.
Oh for god's sake. He's interested in learning to use a 3D package, NOT learning how to PROGRAM one. There's a huge difference between those two. Most people could care less about how to program their software packages, so long as they work. That sort of attitude is in no small part the type of mentality that keeps the open source concept from breaking out into the mainstream.
Yes, you're probably a troll, but I just think that was too silly to to leave alone.
I may be interpreting the original incorrectly, but it sounds like he may be doing this more for the learning experience and fun than anything else. Sure he does talk about eventually wanting it to be multi-platform, but that doesn't mean that it isn't just a learning project.
For someone who has used the various 3D programs and has a strong background in math, it actually sounds like a rather interesting project. I don't have anywbere near the knowledge necessary right now, but honestly, after a few years of looking into the material, it sounds like something that I would do just for the heck of it.
Then again, I tend to be interested in things that most people think are really weird, so I may not be the best judge on that sort of thing.
But in most *nixes, especially of the open source variety, all one would have to do essentially is change the variables a bit and recompile. Granted, it's somewhat more complicated an effort than just that, but you get the idea. This should be a much simpler problem to fix than the y2k bug that never really was a problem.
I suppose my point is that if we were able to survive the y2k bug without much of a real problem (sure some things were broken, but compared to what we were told was going to happen, it was really smooth), we ought to be able to do the same with *nix, only much easier.
See, I find all of this really strange, personally. My school (also to be left unnamed, though I rather like my school) uses Sun Blades in all of the CS labs and Linux boxes in my Electrical Engineering labs. Then again, we also have several sun boxes publically available in the library, so I suppose my school rather likes them. I've just grown so accustomed to seeing nearly everything in the university either running *nix for the users or at least running *nix on the servers (which I seem to have a knack for coming into contact with) that I assumed that it would be similar elsewhere. Oh well, live and learn I suppose.
Re:It may be the greatest, but I wouldn't know...
on
A Look at IRIX 6.5.17
·
· Score: 1
A CS department working on Windows? Wow, I figured they'd at least be x86 running linux. My school's CS dept. runs evertything out of Sun Solaris boxes, and the Computer Engineering people run everything out of x86s with Linux. It kinda seems to make sense to me to teach students to develop on *nix, considering that it is one of the strongest platforms for software development and has so many tools freely available.
I don't know that I consider artwork to really be too much time on someone's hands any more than I do the fact that I wipe all the OS's off my computer every couple months just because I get bored with my install and want to try something different.
Sure, by installing different OS's, I'm learning a heck of a lot about computers (even if it is taking valuable time away from my engineering classes), but on the other hand, I bet these guys learned a heck of a lot by doing that, too.
To each his own, I say. If that sort of this is what makes 'em happy who cares if anyone else finds it interesting. Besides, I must admit that some of what I heard was pretty cool, even if it was coming out of a cell phone ringer, which I usually consider the most annoying thing on the planet.
The difference, of course, being that Nvidia had actually produced something by this time. Sure, it wasn't a voodoo killer at first, but who cares, they had made a product, which is vastly more than can be said about bitboys so far.
Ever study Communism? Real Communism, not the stuff Stalin and others have put into action. Real communism is based on people sharing resources so that all benefit. This is a far cry from requiring violence. Have all the attempts thus far been violent? Absolutely not! How about the countries (Like say, oh, the United States that you seem to think is so bloody perfect) have communist parties?
The US very definitely has one, and it puts someone into the Presidential election every time it comes up. They won't get elected because they are far too extreme for the average voter to support, but nevertheless, they are attempting to change the government. Doesn't sound too violent to me, and actually seems to embody the "American Way" pretty well.
Eh, there's a fine line between crackpot and genius, if you ask me. There have been a lot of people through the years who were by all rights geniuses but considered nuts. So Telsa had a few bad ideas... so what? He also pioneered the technology that allows modern long distance power transmission (AC, even though it is admittedly far more dangerous that DC). That alone puts him into the genius category as far as I'm concerned, even if he did have some nutty other projects.
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, whoa. Microsoft got fined billions because they were illegally forcing companies to sell Microsoft software with their hardware. All Apple is doing is preventing you from selling hardware to run their OS. No one says that you -have- to run Apple software, so you -have- to buy Apple hardware. If you don't want to use Apple, don't. It's that simple. Microsoft, on the other hand, got slammed because they wouldn't let other companies who were legally allowed to sell the hardware use another OS or sell it without an OS. -That's- illegal. Why should Apple be forced to create a competitor for a product that is already heavily competed against? Last I checked, every Windows machine on the market was in direct competition to Apple already.
Well, no it isn't a server architecture presently, but who's to say it couldn't be in the future? I'd personally like to see this work out for them. In theory, the processor will be plenty powerful for it. Who cares if they hacked on Altivec? I doubt anyone will argue that the Power architecture isn't powerful enough to be used in server applications, and Apple can certainly make administration painless and easy enough if they want to. I say give 'em a chance!
Much to the amusement of people who works in tech support. My university just dropped support for Windows 95 this year, but they still get -a lot- of calls about it. And this is from college students, many of whom are more tech savvy than the average population.
I dunno, as long as I don't block the fan vents, my powerbook doesn't get -that- hot. Sure, it's a bit on the warm side, but I've had it sitting on bare skin many times without being uncomfortable. The 1 GHz 15" didn't feel nearly as hot to me as an 867MHz 12", actually.
Did they actually release a 786? I was under the impression that the P4 was a big enough architectural leap to justify changing the x86 number. Surely it's not classified in the same category as the P3, is it?
I dunno, the early performance estimates I've heard for the 970 are pretty impressive. IBM has proven the technology with the Power4 architecture (yes, I know the 970 isn't the Power4, but still, they share much of the same logic circuits). I still have high hopes for this one. Remember, the 970 is not the G4, which they've admittedly had troubles with.
Somehow Hexium just doesn't have quite the same ring as Pentium, though...
I can see why they chose not to pursue that line. Pentium was a strong name, and it prevents them from confusing the users with a new prefix every time they upgrade. We'd be up to, what, Octium by now?
Not to mention that if the actual instructional capability is any indication, the 970 will still be faster than both of them per clock, which means that this should be a very competitive chip for them. Which is exactly what Apple needs right now to spurn people back into buying them. The iMac did well a few years ago, but it's slowly been dying out, so they really need something new and exciting to come along again.
Ok, the Opteron is fair, but even it has yet to hit the marketplace. The Itanium, however, is completely out of the league of desktop computing for most people, relegating it strictly to workstation and professional uses. Granted, Apple will put it first into its PowerMacs, which it claims are targeting professional audiences, but knowing Apple, it will trickle down to the rest of the market soon enough. When will Intel start pushing the Itanium as a desktop processor? Not anytime soon, I'll wager.
Besides, if we want to start talking about who got to 64-bit first, lets not forget all the unix workstation and server makers, like Sun and SGI. Last I checked, they went 64-bit WAY before AMD or Intel did, so does that make both of them obsolete? Somehow I doubt you'd agree with that.
I actually think the number/letter style of naming cars is more efficient for the consumer. The number generally corresponds to the size of the engine and the letter generally corresponds to the class of car, which I think makes more sense than some obscure name they came up with. I kinda wish more companies would go to using this convention, actually; it'd be much less confusing than trying to figure out which invented word is the name of a particular type of car.
No kidding! My university is using the same systems, and the web access portion of it is absolutely nightmarish to use if the prof requires that it be accessed frequently. The concept behind it is wonderful; who wouldn't want to have one easy, convenient place to find all their classes' online presence? The trouble is that the system is so lousy that none of the profs even use it, so it really ends up being worthless to the majority.
Also, hearing the security concerns about the cardreaders makes me think about all the trouble we've been having in my building (I work in one of the residence halls) with people getting access who shouldn't, and people who should have access being denied their entrance. Makes me really wonder about ever using my card for anything monetary....
Search the internet for vacuum tubes. There's a huge movement in high-end audio back to using tubes, so a lot of places are selling new old stock tubes specifically for this purpose. BTW, another thing to think about is that if it has capacitors, some of them may be on the way out, which could also introduce a hum all the time.
If you're handy with a soldering iron, it might not be a bad idea to go through the entire thing and check all the parts to make sure none of them have gone bad. Older electronics tend to do that, especially when they are left sitting for long periods of time. A couple sites to check out would be here and here for vacuum tubes and other assorted old stereo equipment parts. Hope you can get it working, I think vintage stereo equipment is really neat (my speakers and amplifier both date to the mid-70s).
Eh, if they really wanted to stop that, they'd just threaten to shut down the people who run their connections maxed out all the time. Sorry to offend people with semi-legitamite reasons for their connections to be maxed out, but it seems to me that p2p is the most likely candidate. It's not that hard for them to include in the terms of service that this sort of behavior is unacceptable.
I can buy someone having their downloads maxed out for short bursts of time; that's what broadband is for, after all. I can also understand having both ways maxed out during bursts of time for something like gaming, but a lot of people leave those p2p programs downloading constantly and uploading to whoever wants their files. -That- is what the ISPs should be cracking down on, not someone sharing their connection between two or three computers so the kids in the family don't have to fight over the internet connection.
A quick scan of the low end servers on Sun's website reveals that they sell the Sun Fire 100, which uses the UltraSPARQ IIi. Certainly not high end equipment for Sun, but it's also not one of the super low end Blade machines.
This isn't so much censorship as it is removing a source of unwanted, unsolicited mass mailings. In many states, this is illegal, especially when it comes to telephones. I personally really like the fact that this might possibly remove a source of spam from being able to deliver to my email account.
Besides, if they decide to take the initiative and prevent this sort of thing from happening, they can be reinstated. Sounds good to me.
Oh for god's sake. He's interested in learning to use a 3D package, NOT learning how to PROGRAM one. There's a huge difference between those two. Most people could care less about how to program their software packages, so long as they work. That sort of attitude is in no small part the type of mentality that keeps the open source concept from breaking out into the mainstream.
Yes, you're probably a troll, but I just think that was too silly to to leave alone.
"Yoho it's hot, the sun is not a place for you and me, but here on earth there'd be no life without the light it gives."
Great song, great song.
I may be interpreting the original incorrectly, but it sounds like he may be doing this more for the learning experience and fun than anything else. Sure he does talk about eventually wanting it to be multi-platform, but that doesn't mean that it isn't just a learning project.
For someone who has used the various 3D programs and has a strong background in math, it actually sounds like a rather interesting project. I don't have anywbere near the knowledge necessary right now, but honestly, after a few years of looking into the material, it sounds like something that I would do just for the heck of it.
Then again, I tend to be interested in things that most people think are really weird, so I may not be the best judge on that sort of thing.
But in most *nixes, especially of the open source variety, all one would have to do essentially is change the variables a bit and recompile. Granted, it's somewhat more complicated an effort than just that, but you get the idea. This should be a much simpler problem to fix than the y2k bug that never really was a problem.
I suppose my point is that if we were able to survive the y2k bug without much of a real problem (sure some things were broken, but compared to what we were told was going to happen, it was really smooth), we ought to be able to do the same with *nix, only much easier.
See, I find all of this really strange, personally. My school (also to be left unnamed, though I rather like my school) uses Sun Blades in all of the CS labs and Linux boxes in my Electrical Engineering labs. Then again, we also have several sun boxes publically available in the library, so I suppose my school rather likes them. I've just grown so accustomed to seeing nearly everything in the university either running *nix for the users or at least running *nix on the servers (which I seem to have a knack for coming into contact with) that I assumed that it would be similar elsewhere. Oh well, live and learn I suppose.
A CS department working on Windows? Wow, I figured they'd at least be x86 running linux. My school's CS dept. runs evertything out of Sun Solaris boxes, and the Computer Engineering people run everything out of x86s with Linux. It kinda seems to make sense to me to teach students to develop on *nix, considering that it is one of the strongest platforms for software development and has so many tools freely available.
I don't know that I consider artwork to really be too much time on someone's hands any more than I do the fact that I wipe all the OS's off my computer every couple months just because I get bored with my install and want to try something different.
Sure, by installing different OS's, I'm learning a heck of a lot about computers (even if it is taking valuable time away from my engineering classes), but on the other hand, I bet these guys learned a heck of a lot by doing that, too.
To each his own, I say. If that sort of this is what makes 'em happy who cares if anyone else finds it interesting. Besides, I must admit that some of what I heard was pretty cool, even if it was coming out of a cell phone ringer, which I usually consider the most annoying thing on the planet.
The difference, of course, being that Nvidia had actually produced something by this time. Sure, it wasn't a voodoo killer at first, but who cares, they had made a product, which is vastly more than can be said about bitboys so far.
Ever study Communism? Real Communism, not the stuff Stalin and others have put into action. Real communism is based on people sharing resources so that all benefit. This is a far cry from requiring violence. Have all the attempts thus far been violent? Absolutely not! How about the countries (Like say, oh, the United States that you seem to think is so bloody perfect) have communist parties?
The US very definitely has one, and it puts someone into the Presidential election every time it comes up. They won't get elected because they are far too extreme for the average voter to support, but nevertheless, they are attempting to change the government. Doesn't sound too violent to me, and actually seems to embody the "American Way" pretty well.
Eh, there's a fine line between crackpot and genius, if you ask me. There have been a lot of people through the years who were by all rights geniuses but considered nuts. So Telsa had a few bad ideas... so what? He also pioneered the technology that allows modern long distance power transmission (AC, even though it is admittedly far more dangerous that DC). That alone puts him into the genius category as far as I'm concerned, even if he did have some nutty other projects.