How many Slashdot'ers does it take to change an LED?
Answer: The ISP hosting the site is about to find out....
For some numbers:
40% to remark on how cool it is
30% to wonder "why would anyone want to do this?"
10% to ponder the ramifications of attempting such a mod
9% to point out others' spelling/grammar errors, even though they completely understood the post
7% to warn about the dangers that this kind of a mod entails
6% to go off on unrelated rants because someone said something that rubbed them the wrong way
5% to note that they've already done it and how it changed their lives
3% to make sure everyone knows that they got FP or link to goatse
Yeah, it's 110%. But there are a lot of Slashdotters.
Note that while what you're saying is true for XP, earlier NT-based Windows systems (including 2000) don't allow true multi-display. Well, except if you're using a Matrox card. They're the only ones to have worked around this at the driver-level.
Oh, really? I must have my Win2k setup screwed up somehow, then, because I've been getting true multi-display since I first installed it a few years ago. Either that, or I don't know what you mean by "true multi-display"
For the curious: I've used the following combinations:
STB Velocity TNT/STB Velocity 128
Voodoo5/Velocity 128
Voodoo5/Matrox Mistique 220
Radeon 8500/Matrox Mistique 220
Matrox Millennium G550/Matrox Millennium 2
Matrox Mystique G200/some ATI Rage 3 somethin' or other.
All have worked flawlessly as true multimon solutions. At work I'm currently using the G550/Millennium 2 (granted, all Matrox cards) combo for 3 monitors and it works great.
Apple did multiple screens first, and it shows up in the more elegant handling of interface elements across displays and the general flexibility of those multi-monitor options compared to the "divided" dialog boxes and hardware constraints of Windows.
This is just completely untrue. Apple did do multi-display first, but Windows is every bit as good at handling multiple displays. If you put two ore more video cards in a box (which is what I've done since Win'98 originally came out), Windows handles multimon beautifully. Dialog boxes centered on active display, windows maximized to single display, etc.
The problem is that most dual-head video card makers, up until recently, have provided drivers that tell Windows "Hey, this is one big, wide display!", and Windows has no way of knowing that it's centering a dialog box across 2 monitors. Matrox has fixed this (finally) in their drivers, and ATI has as well with the drivers for the 9000 and 9700 -- the 8500 and earlier still haven't been fixed. (I don't know about nVidia, tho').
Get a real multimon solution for Windows and you won't be disappointed. I'm running a 3 19" displays at work -- 4800x1200 resolution is great.
The thing that you're sort of forgetting is that, to run a TV station, you've got to have a bunch of stuff. (No, I'm not in broadcasting -- this is just my uninformed opinion):
You've got to have some advertisers paying to have their spots shown during your shows. (unless you're a pay channel, obviously.)
You've got to have a schedule of shows -- you need rights to the shows, some way to advertise/let people know when they're playing. You need the equipment to broadcast the shows via whatever medium you're using.
And you need people make all that stuff happen. I don't really know how much overhead that would be in a dollar amount, but it surely can't be a trivial number. I think that the startup overhead is what probably prevents more "channel expirements" from happening.
In cases of the Olympics and other Pay-Per-View things, there's a pre-existing, quantifiable demand for stuff, so the networks can safely set up a new station and make their money back. For an anime channel, there's more risk, so that's why it's taken this long to show up.
And these are just my considerations. I'm sure that a TV exec would have *tons* of others.
Yeah, the show (Pokemon) came after the game, but it was originally aired in Japan. And the game's popularity really took off in large part due to the show. People just love Pikachu.
So I think the comparison between the Transformers and Pokemon cartoons isn't really all that applicable.
That's because transferring analog to digital sounds like crap.
Umm... I hate to break it to you, but unless you're recording an all-digital sound source, you're going to do some sort of analog-to-digital conversion on every CD. Period. Or do you think the music comes out of an orchestra/band simulcast as a bit-stream or analog?
Some of us actually do care about the liner notes and such. No, I don't discuss it with God. And yes, I'm willing to shell out a few bucks to get them.
If CDs were only a few dollars, I'd buy a lot of them, rather than trying to track someone down that had a copy. On top of saving myself time, I get to support the artist (ideally), and get a nicely-produced set of liner notes.
Unfortunately, most CDs I want are $15+, so I rarely buy them (or steal them, for that matter). Music just isn't *that* important.
Cavedog tanked because they made several mistakes:
TA needed really good hardware to run acceptably. I had a P233 w/64 meg RAM to play it on, and it *still* chunked along any time there was *anything* going on.
TA was also very much a niche title. The games were long and drawn out, and slow paced to boot.
Having a niche title that'll only run on niche hardware isn't a very good combination. And then TA:Kingdoms came out, and it was just a different skin slapped on the TA engine. And on top of that, they managed to make it less interesting than the original.
I thought that Cavedog showed a lot of promise when TA came out, despite the fact that I didn't really enjoy it. Then when Kingdoms came out, I lost all interest in them.
It's tough to bash someone with so much clout and commercial success, but Peter Molyneux does *not* make fantastic games. He comes up with great concepts that are fun for a little bit, until you realize that your entire function as a player is basically housekeeping. Populous had me hooked for a few levels, and then it got boooooring. Same with Black and White.
He just *isn't* the visionary that everyone claims him to be. I mean, just look at his interview: "More AI. More graphics. More sound." Yeah, those are some pretty bold predictions. The real visionaries would be the ones that take Molyneux's ideas and turn them into a real game.
Dunno if you mean "Xevious", or "any top-down shooter", but one to keep an eye out for is Ikaruga. The Dreamcast version (not released in the US) is great twitch shooter action. There's also going to be a Gamecube version released in the next few months, which I will definitely be purchasing.
We used all java technology... and had no problems with speed
I have no doubt that this is true. Especially when the site seems to have a whopping 11 registered users and 2 live auctions. You could probably host the site using QBASIC technology on a 386 and not run into load problems with those kinds of numbers.
It talks about how inflation predicts multiple universes, this week.
We're supposed to have multiple universes this week?
Is it going to be anything like the Star Trek episode with all the different Enterprises from different universes meeting up around a tear in space-time?
If so, I'm going to find my other self that's dating Nicole Kidman, tie him up, and sneak into his universe.
so for hardware RAID SCSI the protocol could become obsolete if they cannot win the battle on other fronts
Why is this some sort of battle? The same people who make SCSI controllers also make IDE controllers (for the most part). The same people make both SCSI and IDE drives.
If a new standard comes out that obsoletes one, who the hell cares? It's surely not the hardware vendors, since all SCSI or IDE is to them is an acronym applied to their product. And it's definitely not SCSI or IDE themselves, since they aren't really people.
So again I ask, why is this a battle? It's like saying that there was a "battle" between Coaxial and Cat-5 ethernet cable. Or that there was a "battle" between B&W and Color TVs.
--Jeremy
Re:What (cool thing) could you do w/multiple devic
on
Tackling AGP 8X
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I've done this as well, and it does work. It's still much more convenient to be able to develop and debug on the same machine, though.
Two AGP slots would be nice... But I don't know if I really want two high-powered 3d accelerators in one machine. That would put out quite a bit of heat.
Unless you're 12y/o and like to play PG13 games, then GameCube is for you.
I'll assume that what you wrote is not what you meant, and will respond accordingly.
You must be one of those 16-year-old "mature" gamers that needs to come home and blow shit up after a long shift at Dairy Queen.
I feel no need to de defend my choice of entertainment against insipid comments like this. What boggles my mind is that people can be *so* insecure about the games they play that they feel a need to belittle others' choices, to somehow justify their gaming habits to themselves. Here's a tip for you: I don't care what you play! Just play whatever you like, and leave me out of it!
If you like Halo, what the hell does it matter what *I* think? I assure you, your well articulated critique of the Gamecube doesn't dampen my enjoyment of SSB:M, Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures, Resident Evil, or any of the other 17 games I own for the system.
In all honesty, this is one of the most reasonable bits I've heard from Ballmer. With the exception of the "castigate" comment, nothing came off as unreasonable or rediculous.
I mean, he even admits that they have a lot of work ahead of them to change the public's perception of the company, due to some of their questionable actions. He even admits that their *licensing* changes were a reason for people to not trust them.
This doesn't sound like Ballmer... Maybe they started him on Ritalin?
I'd love to see some of the great Japanese game publisher slip the leashes that have been put on them by the console makers and operate more like PC game companies. I'd like to see what they would do with that freedom.
Yes -- I'd love to see console games go through the same bug testing and quality assurance as PC games. Then it'd be much better, like in the PC world, where everything mostly works by at least the 2nd or 3rd patch. Err... wait.
(Just playing devil's advocate -- I play both console an PC games. I have no preference.)
Reminds me of an XBox "tech talk" I attended at Washington State University. It was supposed to be for people "interested in development of XBox software."
The whole thing was little more than an XBox advertisement and PS2/Gamecube bashing session. I particularly liked the part when they questioned the credibility of Sony and Nintendo in the console video game market.
So, in short, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was just a fluffy "Palladium is good!" soapbox with no real technical information.
Slashdot Mirror
If the moon landings were a hoax, don't you think the Soviet Union would have exposed it for propaganda purposes
The USSR won't expose it because they were in on it! Can't you people see how big this conspiracy is?
Land a man on the moon... Hah! Most of those NASA geeks probably can't even ride bicycles.
</sarcasm>
When you've got a mindset like that, you can rationalize *anything* away.
--Jeremy
How many Slashdot'ers does it take to change an LED? Answer: The ISP hosting the site is about to find out....
For some numbers:
40% to remark on how cool it is
30% to wonder "why would anyone want to do this?"
10% to ponder the ramifications of attempting such a mod
9% to point out others' spelling/grammar errors, even though they completely understood the post
7% to warn about the dangers that this kind of a mod entails
6% to go off on unrelated rants because someone said something that rubbed them the wrong way
5% to note that they've already done it and how it changed their lives
3% to make sure everyone knows that they got FP or link to goatse
Yeah, it's 110%. But there are a lot of Slashdotters.
--Jeremy
Note that while what you're saying is true for XP, earlier NT-based Windows systems (including 2000) don't allow true multi-display. Well, except if you're using a Matrox card. They're the only ones to have worked around this at the driver-level.
Oh, really? I must have my Win2k setup screwed up somehow, then, because I've been getting true multi-display since I first installed it a few years ago. Either that, or I don't know what you mean by "true multi-display"
For the curious: I've used the following combinations:
STB Velocity TNT/STB Velocity 128
Voodoo5/Velocity 128
Voodoo5/Matrox Mistique 220
Radeon 8500/Matrox Mistique 220
Matrox Millennium G550/Matrox Millennium 2
Matrox Mystique G200/some ATI Rage 3 somethin' or other.
All have worked flawlessly as true multimon solutions. At work I'm currently using the G550/Millennium 2 (granted, all Matrox cards) combo for 3 monitors and it works great.
--Jeremy
Apple did multiple screens first, and it shows up in the more elegant handling of interface elements across displays and the general flexibility of those multi-monitor options compared to the "divided" dialog boxes and hardware constraints of Windows.
This is just completely untrue. Apple did do multi-display first, but Windows is every bit as good at handling multiple displays. If you put two ore more video cards in a box (which is what I've done since Win'98 originally came out), Windows handles multimon beautifully. Dialog boxes centered on active display, windows maximized to single display, etc.
The problem is that most dual-head video card makers, up until recently, have provided drivers that tell Windows "Hey, this is one big, wide display!", and Windows has no way of knowing that it's centering a dialog box across 2 monitors. Matrox has fixed this (finally) in their drivers, and ATI has as well with the drivers for the 9000 and 9700 -- the 8500 and earlier still haven't been fixed. (I don't know about nVidia, tho').
Get a real multimon solution for Windows and you won't be disappointed. I'm running a 3 19" displays at work -- 4800x1200 resolution is great.
--Jeremy
I think you're right, to an extent.
The thing that you're sort of forgetting is that, to run a TV station, you've got to have a bunch of stuff. (No, I'm not in broadcasting -- this is just my uninformed opinion):
You've got to have some advertisers paying to have their spots shown during your shows. (unless you're a pay channel, obviously.)
You've got to have a schedule of shows -- you need rights to the shows, some way to advertise/let people know when they're playing. You need the equipment to broadcast the shows via whatever medium you're using.
And you need people make all that stuff happen. I don't really know how much overhead that would be in a dollar amount, but it surely can't be a trivial number. I think that the startup overhead is what probably prevents more "channel expirements" from happening.
In cases of the Olympics and other Pay-Per-View things, there's a pre-existing, quantifiable demand for stuff, so the networks can safely set up a new station and make their money back. For an anime channel, there's more risk, so that's why it's taken this long to show up.
And these are just my considerations. I'm sure that a TV exec would have *tons* of others.
--Jeremy
Yeah, the show (Pokemon) came after the game, but it was originally aired in Japan. And the game's popularity really took off in large part due to the show. People just love Pikachu.
So I think the comparison between the Transformers and Pokemon cartoons isn't really all that applicable.
--Jeremy
Hey -- if that Nintendo stuff is taking up too much space, I'd be glad to take it off your hands... (no pun intended)
--Jeremy
That's because transferring analog to digital sounds like crap.
... I hate to break it to you, but unless you're recording an all-digital sound source, you're going to do some sort of analog-to-digital conversion on every CD. Period. Or do you think the music comes out of an orchestra/band simulcast as a bit-stream or analog?
Umm
--Jeremy
Sure, I'll fan the flames here...
Yet another proof that Slashdot is *not* the place to look for philosophical ideals.
+4 Insightful? Gimme a break. There's about as much insight in there as one of Dubya's impromptu speeches.
--Jeremy
Some of us actually do care about the liner notes and such. No, I don't discuss it with God. And yes, I'm willing to shell out a few bucks to get them.
If CDs were only a few dollars, I'd buy a lot of them, rather than trying to track someone down that had a copy. On top of saving myself time, I get to support the artist (ideally), and get a nicely-produced set of liner notes.
Unfortunately, most CDs I want are $15+, so I rarely buy them (or steal them, for that matter). Music just isn't *that* important.
--Jeremy
I especially like how nicely formatted and spaced it is, ensuring optimum readibility.
Block-right text and no paragraph breaks? It almost looks like a Slashdot comment...
--Jeremy
Cavedog tanked because they made several mistakes:
TA needed really good hardware to run acceptably. I had a P233 w/64 meg RAM to play it on, and it *still* chunked along any time there was *anything* going on.
TA was also very much a niche title. The games were long and drawn out, and slow paced to boot.
Having a niche title that'll only run on niche hardware isn't a very good combination. And then TA:Kingdoms came out, and it was just a different skin slapped on the TA engine. And on top of that, they managed to make it less interesting than the original.
I thought that Cavedog showed a lot of promise when TA came out, despite the fact that I didn't really enjoy it. Then when Kingdoms came out, I lost all interest in them.
--Jeremy
It's tough to bash someone with so much clout and commercial success, but Peter Molyneux does *not* make fantastic games. He comes up with great concepts that are fun for a little bit, until you realize that your entire function as a player is basically housekeeping. Populous had me hooked for a few levels, and then it got boooooring. Same with Black and White.
He just *isn't* the visionary that everyone claims him to be. I mean, just look at his interview: "More AI. More graphics. More sound." Yeah, those are some pretty bold predictions. The real visionaries would be the ones that take Molyneux's ideas and turn them into a real game.
--Jeremy
I'll second that. Super Metroid is my favorite game of all time. Hands down.
And the new GBA Castlevania game, Harmony of Dissonance, also gives SOTN a run for its money. If only HoD had better music...
--Jeremy
Dunno if you mean "Xevious", or "any top-down shooter", but one to keep an eye out for is Ikaruga. The Dreamcast version (not released in the US) is great twitch shooter action. There's also going to be a Gamecube version released in the next few months, which I will definitely be purchasing.
--Jeremy
It's just childish and moronic.
... it fits in perfectly with the rest of Slashdot! :)
So
--Jeremy
We used all java technology ... and had no problems with speed
I have no doubt that this is true. Especially when the site seems to have a whopping 11 registered users and 2 live auctions. You could probably host the site using QBASIC technology on a 386 and not run into load problems with those kinds of numbers.
--Jeremy
It talks about how inflation predicts multiple universes, this week.
We're supposed to have multiple universes this week?
Is it going to be anything like the Star Trek episode with all the different Enterprises from different universes meeting up around a tear in space-time?
If so, I'm going to find my other self that's dating Nicole Kidman, tie him up, and sneak into his universe.
Can't wait to see what happens next week...
--Jeremy
Nintendo has only loved the pocketbooks of their users, nothing more.
As opposed to Sony and Microsoft, whose aims are entirely altruistic.
</sarcasm>
--Jeremy
so for hardware RAID SCSI the protocol could become obsolete if they cannot win the battle on other fronts
Why is this some sort of battle? The same people who make SCSI controllers also make IDE controllers (for the most part). The same people make both SCSI and IDE drives.
If a new standard comes out that obsoletes one, who the hell cares? It's surely not the hardware vendors, since all SCSI or IDE is to them is an acronym applied to their product. And it's definitely not SCSI or IDE themselves, since they aren't really people.
So again I ask, why is this a battle? It's like saying that there was a "battle" between Coaxial and Cat-5 ethernet cable. Or that there was a "battle" between B&W and Color TVs.
--Jeremy
I've done this as well, and it does work. It's still much more convenient to be able to develop and debug on the same machine, though.
... But I don't know if I really want two high-powered 3d accelerators in one machine. That would put out quite a bit of heat.
Two AGP slots would be nice
--Jeremy
Unless you're 12y/o and like to play PG13 games, then GameCube is for you.
I'll assume that what you wrote is not what you meant, and will respond accordingly.
You must be one of those 16-year-old "mature" gamers that needs to come home and blow shit up after a long shift at Dairy Queen.
I feel no need to de defend my choice of entertainment against insipid comments like this. What boggles my mind is that people can be *so* insecure about the games they play that they feel a need to belittle others' choices, to somehow justify their gaming habits to themselves. Here's a tip for you: I don't care what you play! Just play whatever you like, and leave me out of it!
If you like Halo, what the hell does it matter what *I* think? I assure you, your well articulated critique of the Gamecube doesn't dampen my enjoyment of SSB:M, Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures, Resident Evil, or any of the other 17 games I own for the system.
--Jeremy
In all honesty, this is one of the most reasonable bits I've heard from Ballmer. With the exception of the "castigate" comment, nothing came off as unreasonable or rediculous.
I mean, he even admits that they have a lot of work ahead of them to change the public's perception of the company, due to some of their questionable actions. He even admits that their *licensing* changes were a reason for people to not trust them.
This doesn't sound like Ballmer... Maybe they started him on Ritalin?
--Jeremy
I'd love to see some of the great Japanese game publisher slip the leashes that have been put on them by the console makers and operate more like PC game companies. I'd like to see what they would do with that freedom.
Yes -- I'd love to see console games go through the same bug testing and quality assurance as PC games. Then it'd be much better, like in the PC world, where everything mostly works by at least the 2nd or 3rd patch. Err... wait.
(Just playing devil's advocate -- I play both console an PC games. I have no preference.)
--Jeremy
Reminds me of an XBox "tech talk" I attended at Washington State University. It was supposed to be for people "interested in development of XBox software."
The whole thing was little more than an XBox advertisement and PS2/Gamecube bashing session. I particularly liked the part when they questioned the credibility of Sony and Nintendo in the console video game market.
So, in short, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was just a fluffy "Palladium is good!" soapbox with no real technical information.
--Jeremy