I'm a CS master's student. I just bought a 15" 1.25. It is the perfect machine for what I do. Install fink, get Unix tools, install X-server. Now I use it exclusively, I hardly even touch my linux box anymore.
A mac really does make a perfect unix machine. If you were considering running windows on that asus laptop, I garuntee you will be happier running OS X on a Mac.
I have a 15" 1.25 and play WCIII and NWN both at full detail. I would hazard a guess that you should be able to play WCIII very will on any of the G4 iBooks. You might have to bump the detail down a notch, I don't think you will even notice the difference. It may not even be necessary at all.
Actually this Toughbook doesn't seem to be waterproof (others are). They advertise the magnesium alloy case and the shock-mounted hard drive. But nothing about waterproof.
From what I can tell looking at a few pictures and reading the specs I think the Apple iBook might be as durable. As for the bigger toughbooks, they are definitely tougher, hands down.
Plan to add bluetooth cell phone (as soon as my #@%# contract with Sprint ends). I think I will go with the Sony Ericsson T610 unless something cooler comes out in the next 2 months
No, Johnny Mnemonic was losely based on the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson. William Gibson also wrote the screenplay and it is credited as such in the movie. It was not a rip-off, unless you meant rip-off in the sense that it sucked.
[The G5 is] intended as a chip for massively parrallell super-computers
You are confusing the G5 (IBM 970) with the IBM POWER4. While the 970 makes use of several of the features of the POWER4, including the same ISA, comparable ALUs. There are also very significant differences. The POWER4 has a ridiculous memory bandwidth and interprocessor connects intended for masively parallel super-computers, it is also dual core. The 970 lacks these features, as it was always intended as a desktop/workstation level processor.
However, I do agree that G5 notebooks are a ways off. Partly for marketing reasons, partly for cost reasons, partly for engineering reasons. At least I hope that is true, because I ordered a 15" AluBook on Tuesday:-) I would like it to not be obsolete for some time.
Actually Yes, No, Cancel is a valid dialog choice. As in it asks a question which may be answered with either Yes or No, or you can cancel which takes back whatever you did to get there.
But I agree, Yes, Cancel is not good, this dialog should probably be OK, Cancel by default.
Actually you can get free samples of that PIC from Microchip sure you can only get 5, and you can only do it once, but for a hobby project it's easy enough. And yes, the shipping is free too. So that will knock almost $12 bucks off the price. That should make up for the other stuff, excepting the programmer, which is reusable, and therefore you can amortize the cost over various hobby projects;-)
The Apple Macintosh has prefered this configuration of Cancel and OK since it was first created in 1984. It is incorrect to say that GNOME is going against the grain of companies that have spent millions on HCI studies, because Apple is definitely one of those companies.
Well I don't have a Compact Flash adapter either, but like the post said, they are like $10 and plug into USB. They work in Linux much to my suprise.
A friend was over the other day, and I took some pictures with her digital camera. She didn't have the cable with her (which I know works), but she had a Compact Flash adapter. I gave her a funny look, and said, well might as well give it a try, popped it into a USB port and said, here goes nothing. Much to my suprise, SuSE mounted it as a drive, put it right on my desktop, I copied the pictures off and that was it.
I've used TrueSpace a bit back in the day. Try out the free version to see if you like it. I definitely agree with the parent about the intuitiveness of the interface, it is really impressive.
Unfortunately I believe TrueSpace is Windows only. I'm certain it would not be trivial for them to move to other platforms, but I have always thought that TrueSpace could move into the higher-end market if they would support more platforms.
I'm guessing red LED's are used in the first place because of the cost. I read somewhere that red LED's are pennies and blue LED's are like $2.00 USD each
Yeah, Blue LEDs are more expensive, but they have come down in price since they were introduced. I think they are about $0.30 each in quantity, still several times more than Red and Green at pennies each.
What other innovations are we missing until Microsoft deems it 'time'?
I'm no Microsoft apologist, but I really disagree with that statement. It was the market that decided that pen computing wasn't ready when the Apple Newton was around. Later the smaller and cheaper Palm Pilot took the market by storm.
My point is: the Newton was not unsucessful because Microsoft did anything to kill it. Palm was sucessful without any help from Microsoft. Microsoft is not the technological super-being who dictates who survives and who fails in the market. Some of Microsoft's own "innovations" have failed quite spectacularly, Microsoft Bob anyone?
Addmitedly, Microsoft has the significant advantage of having an awful lot of money and commanding quite a bit of media attention whenever it does anything. Will this be enough to make notebook sized pen computing sucessful? Only time will tell. But blaming the failure of a particular item, this "Pen for Windows" which you lack any details about, on Microsoft, instead of on the people who failed to develop it well, or market it properly is just senseless MS-bashing.
The POWER4 and presumably the 970 will also have, a very very nice branch prediction scheme. The POWER4 uses a total of 3 branch predicters to the Intel P4s one. The 3rd table weighs the comparative performance of the first two tables to acheive the highest possible correct branch prediction.
In addition, the PowerPC architecture includes a static branch prediction bit for branching instructions, which allows the compiler to "hint" to the processor the likely branch, the x86 architecture has no equivalent feature.
In short, branch misprediction occurs less often with the POWER4 (and hopefully the 970) for the above reasons. In addition, the "tripling" of the G4 pipeline in the 970 is still shorter than Intel's 20 stage P4.
Actually SACDs are an entirely different format that uses a digital bitstream (known as Direct Stream Digital or DSD) at a much higher frequency instead of Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) used by CDs and DVDs. Ideally this is a better digital storage format, but requires more space than the PCM used in CDs. By "better" I mean that the Analog to Digital (recording) followed by a conversion back to Analog (playing) will result in anolog waveforms that are closer to the original waveforms that were recorded as compared to PCM.
This is not to say that DSD will really make much of a difference to the average user in terms of how their music sounds. Most people on basic stereo's will probably never heard the difference.
For reference, Regular DVDs use the exact same PCM as CDs. DVD-A uses a higher bitrate, but it is still PCM.
Personally I'm of the opinion that most mass produced CDs don't even stress the limit of potential "quality" of the CD format (PCM). I have a few extremely well recorded and phenomenal sounding CDs that indicate to me the potential of the CD format, but most CDs are mediocre recordings. Why should improving the format (DVDA or SACD) make a difference? If recording quality doesn't increase, it won't matter at all.
Oh, and of course, 64 bit PowerPC code will run on a POWER4, but not on a Motorola PowerPC. But 32-bit PowerPC code that also has Altivec code will run on a Moto but not on a POWER4. So you can't say either is the subset of the the other.
it is somewhat irrelevant that the distribution doesn't install well at the resolution used by 24" monitors.
Interestingly, I have an old (4 years) Dell branded 21" Sony Trinitron. Installation of Suse 8.0 would not allow me to configure the monitor to 1600X1200. After installing at a lower resolution I spent an hour or two playing with various configuration tools to enable the monitor at 1600X1200.
Suse 8.1 Professional, which I just finished installing, allowed me to configure this directly resolution during installation (although it wasn't the default, which I would have preferred). The tool should also allow an expert user to enter specific modelines, without resorting to the command line. In fact I didn't need to do this, as I could select 1600X1200 from a check box.
So I'm not sure why the reviewer had the problem she had with her monitor, but my experience shows that Suse 8.1 monitor and resolution selection is much improved over the last version.
I wasn't aware of such issues with the DVI adaptor that cause it to be incompatible with a standard DVI connection. I do agree that the dongle is hardly an ideal interface, however, given that the vast majority of these monitors are sold and intended to be sold to Apple Macintosh customers, I don't think it is an unreasonable addition, as most customers (well excepting Apple notebook owners) will never have to deal with it. There is no other solution that would not add additional connections to the monitor (which Apple obviously intended to avoid, and I think was a good design goal, and by your own logic it reduces the possible failure points)
I'm actually still inclined to call the Apple Display Connector an open standard because in addition to using the same signal components as DVI it also is a well documented interface. I would equate it to an open extension to an existing protocol rather than a proprietary or "embrace-and-extend" tactic. It is a far cry from proprietary protocols like AppleTalk, that while arguably superior, were in no way compatible with open standards.
Anyway, thanks for the information, and the (rare) intelligent Slashdot debate:-)
Spyky
PS: I'm also rather skeptical that you would be unable to return the monitor to Apple had it not worked with your hardware. I've found Apple's customer service to be far superior to most PC hardware vendors.
The Apple monitors are *not* incompatable with the rest of the PC world. The connector is based on a basic DVI connection and adds power and USB. You can get an adaptor from Apple themselves. And if you are considering spending $3500 certainly $150 is hardly a problem, as the entire package is still cheaper than most other LCD monitors.
Apple in recent years has gone to great lengths to use standards, realizing that they cannot make Apple Bus and AppleTalk etc. and expect companies to design hardware that works with their proprietary protocol.
In fact I'm hard pressed to think of a single proprietary protocol or otherwise that is in use in any modern mac. USB, Firewire, ATA, standard SDRAM, DVI, TCP/IP, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, 802.11b, etc.
Not trying to say that Apple doesn't do dumb things, but I think they've gotten a lot smarter in the last few years, and I think its worth giving them credit where credit is due.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a CS master's student. I just bought a 15" 1.25. It is the perfect machine for what I do. Install fink, get Unix tools, install X-server. Now I use it exclusively, I hardly even touch my linux box anymore.
A mac really does make a perfect unix machine. If you were considering running windows on that asus laptop, I garuntee you will be happier running OS X on a Mac.
-Spyky
I have a 15" 1.25 and play WCIII and NWN both at full detail. I would hazard a guess that you should be able to play WCIII very will on any of the G4 iBooks. You might have to bump the detail down a notch, I don't think you will even notice the difference. It may not even be necessary at all.
-Spyky
Actually this Toughbook doesn't seem to be waterproof (others are). They advertise the magnesium alloy case and the shock-mounted hard drive. But nothing about waterproof.
From what I can tell looking at a few pictures and reading the specs I think the Apple iBook might be as durable. As for the bigger toughbooks, they are definitely tougher, hands down.
-Spyky
Apple Powerbook (new 15") and the Apple mouse.
Plan to add bluetooth cell phone (as soon as my #@%# contract with Sprint ends). I think I will go with the Sony Ericsson T610 unless something cooler comes out in the next 2 months
-Spyky
No, Johnny Mnemonic was losely based on the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson. William Gibson also wrote the screenplay and it is credited as such in the movie. It was not a rip-off, unless you meant rip-off in the sense that it sucked.
-Spyky
[The G5 is] intended as a chip for massively parrallell super-computers
:-) I would like it to not be obsolete for some time.
You are confusing the G5 (IBM 970) with the IBM POWER4. While the 970 makes use of several of the features of the POWER4, including the same ISA, comparable ALUs. There are also very significant differences. The POWER4 has a ridiculous memory bandwidth and interprocessor connects intended for masively parallel super-computers, it is also dual core. The 970 lacks these features, as it was always intended as a desktop/workstation level processor.
However, I do agree that G5 notebooks are a ways off. Partly for marketing reasons, partly for cost reasons, partly for engineering reasons. At least I hope that is true, because I ordered a 15" AluBook on Tuesday
-Spyky
Actually Yes, No, Cancel is a valid dialog choice. As in it asks a question which may be answered with either Yes or No, or you can cancel which takes back whatever you did to get there.
But I agree, Yes, Cancel is not good, this dialog should probably be OK, Cancel by default.
-Spyky
Actually you can get free samples of that PIC from Microchip sure you can only get 5, and you can only do it once, but for a hobby project it's easy enough. And yes, the shipping is free too. So that will knock almost $12 bucks off the price. That should make up for the other stuff, excepting the programmer, which is reusable, and therefore you can amortize the cost over various hobby projects ;-)
-Spyky
The Apple Macintosh has prefered this configuration of Cancel and OK since it was first created in 1984. It is incorrect to say that GNOME is going against the grain of companies that have spent millions on HCI studies, because Apple is definitely one of those companies.
Aqua HIG
-Spyky
Star Trek is a TV show
-Spyky
My favorite part of the keynote:
Gigantic screen behind Steve Job reads:
"Open Source
We think it's great"
-Spyky
I was pleased to see BMW update their site to support Mozilla a month or two ago.
Previously all the menubars were severly mangled and unusable in Mozilla.
-Spyky
Well I don't have a Compact Flash adapter either, but like the post said, they are like $10 and plug into USB. They work in Linux much to my suprise.
A friend was over the other day, and I took some pictures with her digital camera. She didn't have the cable with her (which I know works), but she had a Compact Flash adapter. I gave her a funny look, and said, well might as well give it a try, popped it into a USB port and said, here goes nothing. Much to my suprise, SuSE mounted it as a drive, put it right on my desktop, I copied the pictures off and that was it.
SWEET!
-Spyky
I've used TrueSpace a bit back in the day. Try out the free version to see if you like it. I definitely agree with the parent about the intuitiveness of the interface, it is really impressive.
Unfortunately I believe TrueSpace is Windows only. I'm certain it would not be trivial for them to move to other platforms, but I have always thought that TrueSpace could move into the higher-end market if they would support more platforms.
-Spyky
I'm guessing red LED's are used in the first place because of the cost. I read somewhere that red LED's are pennies and blue LED's are like $2.00 USD each
Yeah, Blue LEDs are more expensive, but they have come down in price since they were introduced. I think they are about $0.30 each in quantity, still several times more than Red and Green at pennies each.
-Spyky
What other innovations are we missing until Microsoft deems it 'time'?
I'm no Microsoft apologist, but I really disagree with that statement. It was the market that decided that pen computing wasn't ready when the Apple Newton was around. Later the smaller and cheaper Palm Pilot took the market by storm.
My point is: the Newton was not unsucessful because Microsoft did anything to kill it. Palm was sucessful without any help from Microsoft. Microsoft is not the technological super-being who dictates who survives and who fails in the market. Some of Microsoft's own "innovations" have failed quite spectacularly, Microsoft Bob anyone?
Addmitedly, Microsoft has the significant advantage of having an awful lot of money and commanding quite a bit of media attention whenever it does anything. Will this be enough to make notebook sized pen computing sucessful? Only time will tell. But blaming the failure of a particular item, this "Pen for Windows" which you lack any details about, on Microsoft, instead of on the people who failed to develop it well, or market it properly is just senseless MS-bashing.
-Spyky
6 or 7 previews. I want to go to that theater!
Last movie I saw in the theater I counted 12, yes *12* full length previews!
On the plus side, I could have showed up half an hour late and not missed more than five minutes of the movie.
Spyky
The POWER4 and presumably the 970 will also have, a very very nice branch prediction scheme. The POWER4 uses a total of 3 branch predicters to the Intel P4s one. The 3rd table weighs the comparative performance of the first two tables to acheive the highest possible correct branch prediction.
In addition, the PowerPC architecture includes a static branch prediction bit for branching instructions, which allows the compiler to "hint" to the processor the likely branch, the x86 architecture has no equivalent feature.
In short, branch misprediction occurs less often with the POWER4 (and hopefully the 970) for the above reasons. In addition, the "tripling" of the G4 pipeline in the 970 is still shorter than Intel's 20 stage P4.
Spyky
Your swap file doesn't need to be journalled.
Spyky
Actually SACDs are an entirely different format that uses a digital bitstream (known as Direct Stream Digital or DSD) at a much higher frequency instead of Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) used by CDs and DVDs. Ideally this is a better digital storage format, but requires more space than the PCM used in CDs. By "better" I mean that the Analog to Digital (recording) followed by a conversion back to Analog (playing) will result in anolog waveforms that are closer to the original waveforms that were recorded as compared to PCM.
This is not to say that DSD will really make much of a difference to the average user in terms of how their music sounds. Most people on basic stereo's will probably never heard the difference.
For reference, Regular DVDs use the exact same PCM as CDs. DVD-A uses a higher bitrate, but it is still PCM.
Personally I'm of the opinion that most mass produced CDs don't even stress the limit of potential "quality" of the CD format (PCM). I have a few extremely well recorded and phenomenal sounding CDs that indicate to me the potential of the CD format, but most CDs are mediocre recordings. Why should improving the format (DVDA or SACD) make a difference? If recording quality doesn't increase, it won't matter at all.
Spyky
Oh, and of course, 64 bit PowerPC code will run on a POWER4, but not on a Motorola PowerPC. But 32-bit PowerPC code that also has Altivec code will run on a Moto but not on a POWER4. So you can't say either is the subset of the the other.
-Spyky
Nope, that's not quite right.
POWER *is* PowerPC (at 64-bits), the Altivec extensions are not a part of IBMs POWER4 (or PowerPC).
So true PowerPC code will run on either a POWER4 or PowerPC, but PowerPC code that has Altivec extensions will not run on a POWER4.
Reference
Spyky
it is somewhat irrelevant that the distribution doesn't install well at the resolution used by 24" monitors.
Interestingly, I have an old (4 years) Dell branded 21" Sony Trinitron. Installation of Suse 8.0 would not allow me to configure the monitor to 1600X1200. After installing at a lower resolution I spent an hour or two playing with various configuration tools to enable the monitor at 1600X1200.
Suse 8.1 Professional, which I just finished installing, allowed me to configure this directly resolution during installation (although it wasn't the default, which I would have preferred). The tool should also allow an expert user to enter specific modelines, without resorting to the command line. In fact I didn't need to do this, as I could select 1600X1200 from a check box.
So I'm not sure why the reviewer had the problem she had with her monitor, but my experience shows that Suse 8.1 monitor and resolution selection is much improved over the last version.
-Spyky
I wasn't aware of such issues with the DVI adaptor that cause it to be incompatible with a standard DVI connection. I do agree that the dongle is hardly an ideal interface, however, given that the vast majority of these monitors are sold and intended to be sold to Apple Macintosh customers, I don't think it is an unreasonable addition, as most customers (well excepting Apple notebook owners) will never have to deal with it. There is no other solution that would not add additional connections to the monitor (which Apple obviously intended to avoid, and I think was a good design goal, and by your own logic it reduces the possible failure points)
:-)
I'm actually still inclined to call the Apple Display Connector an open standard because in addition to using the same signal components as DVI it also is a well documented interface. I would equate it to an open extension to an existing protocol rather than a proprietary or "embrace-and-extend" tactic. It is a far cry from proprietary protocols like AppleTalk, that while arguably superior, were in no way compatible with open standards.
Anyway, thanks for the information, and the (rare) intelligent Slashdot debate
Spyky
PS: I'm also rather skeptical that you would be unable to return the monitor to Apple had it not worked with your hardware. I've found Apple's customer service to be far superior to most PC hardware vendors.
The Apple monitors are *not* incompatable with the rest of the PC world. The connector is based on a basic DVI connection and adds power and USB. You can get an adaptor from Apple themselves. And if you are considering spending $3500 certainly $150 is hardly a problem, as the entire package is still cheaper than most other LCD monitors.
Apple in recent years has gone to great lengths to use standards, realizing that they cannot make Apple Bus and AppleTalk etc. and expect companies to design hardware that works with their proprietary protocol.
In fact I'm hard pressed to think of a single proprietary protocol or otherwise that is in use in any modern mac. USB, Firewire, ATA, standard SDRAM, DVI, TCP/IP, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, 802.11b, etc.
Not trying to say that Apple doesn't do dumb things, but I think they've gotten a lot smarter in the last few years, and I think its worth giving them credit where credit is due.
Spyky