Funny thing is, it was up to +4 at one point before it got modded into oblivion. Oh, well, time to post some pointless MS bashing to get back up to max karma...;)
Re:[ot]Mods, this is a link to emacs
on
Vi IMproved -- Vim
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· Score: 1, Offtopic
Moderator: Oooh, it's got a link to something related to the article! Mod it up!
What got me suspicious was that the link was to gnu.org and I was pretty sure that VIM wasn't completely free... The 'emacs' at the end of the URL was a giveaway. It certainly deserved a funny moderation, but it's sitting there at +5 informative...
Sounds about right; I remember forking out about £100 to get an extra 16MB in my P100 to get 24MB total; Windows 95 (yes, I was a late convert to linux) ran a heck of a lot better after that! Now you get more RAM in your graphics card and you can buy half a gig (or more) of RAM for the same price.
Yes, it looks pretty old, although it should be able to be ported to Pocket PC if you get the C compiler etc from MS (free download, BTW, links elsewhere).
I'd personally love to get my pocket PC (iPaq) running terminal software with a serial cable as it would be damned useful for use in our computer rooms where a server doesn't have a terminal already.
Yuppers, all my upgrades have followed the requirement for new motherboard + RAM. First it was a 486/25 with old (32-pin?) SIMMS. Then a P100 with with the next-generation (72-pin?) SIMMS. Then a P233 with EDO RAM, then an Athlon 600 with SDRAM and now an Athlon 1800+ (i.e. 1533MHz) with DDR RAM.
DDR seems to be around for a bit, but I'll probably get new faster DDR RAM when I upgrade again.
Yup, and when the GF5/NV30 comes out ATI will have another card out "I don't think anyone should purchase the GF5 until the (new ATI modle) comes out".
Buying PC components is like this; your computer is off the leading edge within weeks, if not days or hours.
However, you're pretty much right in that most games don't require the 3D power of a new card unless you're running at 1600x1200x32, and even a GF2/3 should handle that OK. However, there will be those that absolutely must have the latest & (presumably) greatest.
Re:They Are Pbly in India
on
Working Abroad?
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Naw, probably more likely they've been outsourced to Glasgow; the chances of finding anyone who can speak English there are pretty remote!
I now patiently await a mix of moderation; I'm guessing +2 funny, -1 offtopic and -1 flamebait. *waits*
Well, that might be the case for e.g. Nvidia, but AFAIK some other drivers are written independantly of the Windows ones. Also, the article touches upon other issues like AGP & other chipset drivers which almost certainly aren't shared between Windows/linux. I think it's a valid question (which is why I posted it as well). It could be, of course, that the linux/FreeBSD drivers are noticably worse than the bad performance that the Windows drivers provide; without having benchmarks, I can't tell.
However, linux's open source nature at least gives people a chance to tweak the system to provide that advantage if it isn't there already; it may cause some interesting developments in linux graphics.
From the article, the author reckons this is a software (driver) issue rather than a hardware issue. I also note the test rig ran Windows, but how does linux shape up? Is it better or worse?
In any event, there's another issue he doesn't really touch upon; while he mentions that a single frame at 1600x1200@32bit colour is 7.5MB, he ignores the fact that a 30fps movie would require (30*7.5)=225MB per second uncompressed; you either have to have that much disk bandwidth or have enough CPU grunt to compress that on the fly. I guess a dedicated MPEG encoder card could help, but your average box is going to have trouble keeping up with on-screen gibs, rocket trails and blood splatters and encoding video.
Re:I've recently lost a bunch of weight..
on
Exercise for Geeks?
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· Score: 2
I'll second the walks. I used to walk 20mins to work every day at a a fairly brisk pace and it kept my weight down. Since I started driving to work, I've put on about a stone and I really need to start exercising again. I did start swimming, but I broke my ankle the next week which put me out of action for a while and I haven't worked up the resolve to go back.
Think brand recognition. Someone does a search for Britney and a link pops up for Shavlik. The idea is that somewhere, that name gets lodged into the back of the brain and when it crops up again, the person thinks "I've heard that name somewhere before" and presumably is more inclined to look at them.
I'm not 100% sure that's the motivation or indeed, if it even works, but it's one explanation...
Hrm, I'm suddenly reminded of the scene in "Almost Famous" when the Rolling Stone editor is discussing the "Mojo machine" which can send "a whole page in 30 minutes!". Dunno if current modems will time out at that duration, but it's worth a thought!
IIRC, the Beagle is intended to search for various chemical using spectroscopes; these organic chemicals are part of the requirement for life (as we know it, in any case). Traces of these chemicals could potentially survive radiation, vacuum and heat, even if "life" doesn't.
That will be tougher for Sun and Microsoft. Both live and die by licensing fees stemming from their proprietary operating systems.
Bull; Sun make very little from OS licensing. Hell, it's free for systems up to 8 CPUs, and everything over that size comes with an OS license. Sun make money from selling hardware, primarily servers & storage. They do sell software as well (e.g. Sun Cluster, SRM), but that's mostly so they can offer a total solution, in the same way IBM has done for a long time.
I work in an Oil & Gas company, so there are a few bits of software for plotting, but they're all commercial. However, Justplot (from Justcroft) is the main software, but some others use Zeh plotting.
Aside from that, I think CUPS has some hooks for plotters, but I've never looked into it seriously.
Iain Banks seems to enjoy ending stories with most of the main character dying. For a particularly depressing read, though, try "A Song of Stone". I wouldn't recommend it much as a novel, but it is a most depressing read.
Well done, you've just pointed out why browser plugins are flawed in linux.
In Windows, you click a link which installs & configures the plugin, even when a page loads with a plugin required.
With linux, you have to hunt for the download (NB: java.sun.com requires something like 5-10 clicks to get to the damn download page!), download, install, and then you have to drop to the console to complete the install.
It's getting better, I admit, plugins tend to work after installation (I've had huge trouble getting basic plugins to work under NS4), but it still ain't perfect.
For a while, I had horrendous trouble in Windows ME using Windows Explorer. I'd start it up, and it would take 10-20 seconds (mebbe more, I forget) to display a list of drives etc.
Some investigation later led me to the floppy being the culprit. I have no idea if it was ME being dumb (possible), dodgy BIOS or broken hardware (drive/cable/whatever). In any event, I removed the floppy drive and it started working so much better.
Since then, I've stopped using floppies. I have four PCs at home; one is highly unstable (old P233; I suspect a dodgy CPU or MB) and unused, one is my server box, one is my desktop and the last is waiting to be rebuilt for stuff. None have Floppy drives (either due to being cannabilized or just because I removed the floppy) as they will all boot from CD and I can use ethernet/CD-R for file transfer.
This has caused me a problem precisely one time; a friend was visiting and had a floppy with some files he'd got from the internet (I dunno, silly pics, that kinda thing) which I couldn't view. Big deal; I might take it into work and copy it to my iPaq one of these days, probably not though.
Given that a set of lenses can cost a few thousand, that increase in cost isn't as big a deal as it might at first seem. For serious photographers, however, you need to think of SLRs or equivalent. I'm happy enough in the "hobby" category with my "point and click" camera; mebbe one day I'll be bothered to spend the money and get a "proper" camera and re-learn real photography (I did some back at school many, many years ago).
Slashdot Mirror
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=2, Insightful=1, Funny=1, Overrated=1, Total=5.
Funny thing is, it was up to +4 at one point before it got modded into oblivion. Oh, well, time to post some pointless MS bashing to get back up to max karma...;)
What got me suspicious was that the link was to gnu.org and I was pretty sure that VIM wasn't completely free... The 'emacs' at the end of the URL was a giveaway. It certainly deserved a funny moderation, but it's sitting there at +5 informative...
Ah, the joys of progress!
I'd personally love to get my pocket PC (iPaq) running terminal software with a serial cable as it would be damned useful for use in our computer rooms where a server doesn't have a terminal already.
DDR seems to be around for a bit, but I'll probably get new faster DDR RAM when I upgrade again.
Buying PC components is like this; your computer is off the leading edge within weeks, if not days or hours.
However, you're pretty much right in that most games don't require the 3D power of a new card unless you're running at 1600x1200x32, and even a GF2/3 should handle that OK. However, there will be those that absolutely must have the latest & (presumably) greatest.
I now patiently await a mix of moderation; I'm guessing +2 funny, -1 offtopic and -1 flamebait. *waits*
However, linux's open source nature at least gives people a chance to tweak the system to provide that advantage if it isn't there already; it may cause some interesting developments in linux graphics.
In any event, there's another issue he doesn't really touch upon; while he mentions that a single frame at 1600x1200@32bit colour is 7.5MB, he ignores the fact that a 30fps movie would require (30*7.5)=225MB per second uncompressed; you either have to have that much disk bandwidth or have enough CPU grunt to compress that on the fly. I guess a dedicated MPEG encoder card could help, but your average box is going to have trouble keeping up with on-screen gibs, rocket trails and blood splatters and encoding video.
I'll second the walks. I used to walk 20mins to work every day at a a fairly brisk pace and it kept my weight down. Since I started driving to work, I've put on about a stone and I really need to start exercising again. I did start swimming, but I broke my ankle the next week which put me out of action for a while and I haven't worked up the resolve to go back.
I'm not 100% sure that's the motivation or indeed, if it even works, but it's one explanation...
Lone voice: "I'm not"
Sorry, had to be done.
Hrm, I'm suddenly reminded of the scene in "Almost Famous" when the Rolling Stone editor is discussing the "Mojo machine" which can send "a whole page in 30 minutes!". Dunno if current modems will time out at that duration, but it's worth a thought!
IIRC, the Beagle is intended to search for various chemical using spectroscopes; these organic chemicals are part of the requirement for life (as we know it, in any case). Traces of these chemicals could potentially survive radiation, vacuum and heat, even if "life" doesn't.
Aside from that, I think CUPS has some hooks for plotters, but I've never looked into it seriously.
Iain Banks seems to enjoy ending stories with most of the main character dying. For a particularly depressing read, though, try "A Song of Stone". I wouldn't recommend it much as a novel, but it is a most depressing read.
As for CPU power, I think the rule of thumb is 100MHz/100Mbit for SPARC/RISC & 200MHz/100Mbit for x86.
Java was just an example; the same goes for things like Quicktime/Flash etc. They have commonly been a PITA to get working.
In Windows, you click a link which installs & configures the plugin, even when a page loads with a plugin required.
With linux, you have to hunt for the download (NB: java.sun.com requires something like 5-10 clicks to get to the damn download page!), download, install, and then you have to drop to the console to complete the install.
It's getting better, I admit, plugins tend to work after installation (I've had huge trouble getting basic plugins to work under NS4), but it still ain't perfect.
Some investigation later led me to the floppy being the culprit. I have no idea if it was ME being dumb (possible), dodgy BIOS or broken hardware (drive/cable/whatever). In any event, I removed the floppy drive and it started working so much better.
Since then, I've stopped using floppies. I have four PCs at home; one is highly unstable (old P233; I suspect a dodgy CPU or MB) and unused, one is my server box, one is my desktop and the last is waiting to be rebuilt for stuff. None have Floppy drives (either due to being cannabilized or just because I removed the floppy) as they will all boot from CD and I can use ethernet/CD-R for file transfer.
This has caused me a problem precisely one time; a friend was visiting and had a floppy with some files he'd got from the internet (I dunno, silly pics, that kinda thing) which I couldn't view. Big deal; I might take it into work and copy it to my iPaq one of these days, probably not though.
Worryingly enough, I believe that if I loaded linux for my mother with enough card games, she'd be happy with the result.
...just change your name by deed poll to something common, like "John Smith" or "Jim Brown". They'll never be able to tie anything to you then"
Given that a set of lenses can cost a few thousand, that increase in cost isn't as big a deal as it might at first seem. For serious photographers, however, you need to think of SLRs or equivalent. I'm happy enough in the "hobby" category with my "point and click" camera; mebbe one day I'll be bothered to spend the money and get a "proper" camera and re-learn real photography (I did some back at school many, many years ago).
10 comments and the site's down. Did anyone grab a copy before we killed the site?