Same about the PS3.
on
Blue Blu-ray
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Sony removing the vibrators from the PS3 controllers has clearly robbed the world of new and interesting uses and pushed back the development of Teledildonics, the bastards.
Oh well maybe these blue blu-rays are comparable with Bluedildonics? At least the PS3 has bluetooth.
(Yes I know that things other than PS3's can play the blu-ray).
Because hardware makers are always trying to reduce there market by buggering up Linux drivers... what is this, Bizarro World?
Generally if a Linux driver is closed source, its closed source because the maker of the driver does not have all the rights to give the source away, which I think is nVidia's excuse, or does not want others to see how it does certain things, which I think is nVidia's real issue.
While they may be upset if a developer guesses the "big secret" hidden in the driver, they would be pretty stupid to noble the hardware just to spite the Linux community, and the point of this article seems to be that the driver does not break any laws, so I'd assume its not stepping on any patients or secrets owned by anyone.
Well this is a bit old, but apparently it doesn't and I cannot see it being all that likely that Intel will spend time and money making there compiler kickass on AMD.
Clearly it would take money and skills to have a compiler team at AMD, but that doesn't answer why they don't want to spend that money to compete with there main competitor in a vital area of their processors being the best they can be.
Intel clearly think that it is important to offer a compiler(s) specifically for their chips, and I see that as a good thing for users of Intel based systems who want to get the most out of there hardware, so my question is why AMD do not make compiler software for their chips. They do after all have their own set of special extensions so would they not benefit from creating a compiler armed with there own "inside knowledge"?
Seems odd to me to make the chips but not the software to allow people to fully utilize them and if GCC et al are good enough why do Intel and IBM offer there own compilers for the processors they make?
While I don't like the situation of tabs being taken down, you cannot draw parallels with publishing reviews. Producing tabs is NOT the same as reviewing something.
Writing a review of a song is not the same as publishing all the words and notes, just like reviewing a movie is not the same as publishing the full script.
You could produce a script copy from watching a movie in much the same way as tabs are produced by listening to music but that would not be a review of the movie, it would be the script and I'm pretty sure that if a movie website published it for new movie as a "review" they would get sued.
I think the argument that producing tab is like reverse engineering is a lot stronger.
I have never quite understood the them and us feelings of some users. Personally I use a computer to get my job done and I don't give a flying flip what "kind" of other people are coming to join the party. To be honest I'm glad of all the users who want to run my chosen platform as it makes it better supported and more likely to improve...
Recently I've "moved" from Mac OS X to Ubuntu, because REALLY like having a system that updates all of my software on its own. I didn't move because Ubuntu is cool, or because Mac OS is crappy, but because it makes my job easier. Tools like Parallels will allow Windows users who want to move to Mac OS for whatever reason do so more easily, and that can only be a good thing for your chosen platform. Embrace the newbies:D
HOWEVER, having said that I can see your point about "Macintosh Explorer", I think my eyes might actually be bleeding that thing is horrible.
8 years ago, when I bought it because is was "the" title to have to show off your new DVD player with its funky features like follow the white rabbit commentary linky thing and ofc it being a pretty good scifi film.
8 years on you cannot expect it be the new "must have" title, especially when you remember parts 2 & 3. I would assume that most people who are rushing out now to buy the new format players will be the same people who were early DVD adopters so they just might have the matrix for the same reasons I do.
On the other hand, Pirates as a much newer title will be more appealing and it has PIRATES!!! and its not been available for 8 FRICKING YEARS!!!
Of course all that is just speculation, and if I can come up with even a part sensible reason why this is false, I'm dam sure the BluRay camp will be coming up with reasons that is a perfectly reasonable argument to show they are winning.
Put simply, you can prove anything with statistics.
Forget how many players are sold, or how many of X movie sold, all I want to see is total number of titles sold by each camp with each movie or tv series season counting as one title. In the end I really don't give a crap who wins, I'm just waiting for a player and use will whatever format Blockbuster online sends me.
I've been running Ubuntu for some time now, I have even "spread the word" my installing it on a few poor students laptops when there windows installation has died and I couldn't be bothered to find the windows drivers for the laptops hardware. Most of the people I have installed Ubuntu for are happy with it right out of the box, once i've added Medibuntu so that it can play DVD's ofc.
However I personally like to play a few Windows games like Half-Life 2, World of Warcraft and Counter Strike and in order to do so i've had to "apt-get install wine". So I don't see how dell not including wine on the machines is a big deal, as it doesn't make there distribution any different from "plain" Ubuntu.
Dell are quite right not to install wine out of the box, as a user who can not "apt-get install wine" or if they have there own partial Dellbuntu mirror, adding the real Ubuntu software sources to apt, will have pretty limited luck getting it working anyway.
What I would find interesting is dell including a way to play copy protected dvd's out of the box, as to be that seems to be the one real problem with a default Ubuntu installation that people are likely to notice.
I assume they use a Bot to trawl the internet collecting the latest buzz words, and then another to automatically assemble the report... but after reading that piffle I don't think they would have the compitence to turn on the computer.
Not my students. I'm one of them... but they hunt in packs. If you have the only working robot they decend on you like jackals...
As for when to teach people how to manage memory, I think that in a University it should be done as soon as possible, if education worked by "leave it till they need it" then I wouldn't have learned half the exciting stuff I know now... leaving learning often just results in missing out.
PS. I'm pretty sure that the Java engine could have had garbage collection, but not much you can do when it doesn't. If you have a lazy ass vendor who provides the only solution then you just have to go with it... Microsoft build a bussiness on it:D
Let me be the first to welcome our new garbage collecting Overlords.
I love Objective-C and Apple (NeXT) API's. However, while garbage collection does make it "easier" to write software, I have GREAT fears about people not leaning to clean up after themselves.
Case in point was a University project I did involving robots. Everyone happy sets about coding there little robots in Java, write some simulators, then write the actual robots logic, all in wonderful cross platform Java. Que 100 students pondering why real thing ran for 20seconds then started beeping at them. I spent a LONG time trying to explain to people that with 64k of memory, and NO garbage collection (yey "special" Java) you cannot just keep creating temporary objects at will and hoping mummy will clean up.
I think its super that Apple will be even easier to write for, but please make sure your know how to clean up after yourself before you start coding, you never know when silicon mummy will be on holiday.
NB. Not sure I mean "easier" to write software, maybe "allows you to write with a little more of your brain unplugged".
Gumstix. With a Gumstix with an ethernet port you could interact with any desktop that can support X11, or even a web browser or ssh, telnet etc. However I admit, that if you want a thing to carry around with you the blackdog seems like the more nicely produced solution.
Memory Stick. If you get a nice big stick, and compile your programs to run from the stick, for both Windows / Linux etc, then you can have all you stuff / settings with you. As the BD will only be able to run software that is compiled for it i cannot see a problem in compiling for the memory stick.
Blackdog. I do see the advantage of having your own computer with you at all times. My issue really is that this thing would be so much better if they stuck and ethernet port on it. I don't see how it can setup USB networking without the modules for it being in the kernel, so you cannot say that it will just work with all OS's, where as a Memory Stick will work with any OS that has USB, and a Blackdog with Ethernet would work with any OS that is connected to a Network.
As for what the people via that link are doing... Well its seems they want to reprogramme the FPGA (a bit of preprogrammable logic) to change how the USB port works, so they can connect a chip to allow then to get some "real" wires to connect to robot bits... which is crazy, but fun...
I can see that you have your viewpoint, and I do think this tiny headless server concept is kinda neat, but without an ethernet connection, or even better wireless you will not sell it too me.
Mmm... wireless and bluetooth... GPS via Bluetooth for location, wireless for sniffing... wardriving while you walk around town, in your pocket. Bring on Blackdog Version 2.
Damit... the link doesn't work... I REALLY want to know why ppl would use this over a USB memory stick with some cunningly compiled programs (ie so that they work off the USB stick)...
So the blackdog can get network access via usb without installing any drivers? Or does it just mount as an external disk/cdrom, in which case its just an expensive USB stick? And do you access it via X11 if you want a GUI? or do they have some "funky" program to get graphical access... If the software is running on the blackdog, can you get access to files on the host other than via filesharing of some sort?
As for Gumstix it seems that you could "build" a blackdog type device from thier offerings, and even better you could build one with an ethernet port so that you could put it on the network direct.
"You can only install it on machines you have administrator access on."
So which is it? Is the article wrong? Does it not need any custom drivers? You CANNOT install drivers on a Windows machine unless you have admin access...
"You plug it in and the computer starts churning. Several minutes later Windows asks you if it's okay to install this and that driver. As things are starting to look like they're getting good, the Windows XP SP2 firewall asks to let a half dozen ports open so the BlackDog can contact military spy satellites. Then, you need to reboot. So you reboot. You plug the BlackDog in, the computer churns for a couple minutes, more questions are asked regarding drivers and ports. And you need to reboot again. Finally, you plug the BlackDog in again, and you're ready to roll."
So according the the review it needs two reboots to install the windows drivers... While the article may not be correct, its the only info I have.
Also whats the point of being able to access a keyboard and mouse directly if you have no way to display the results? If you are using SSH or X11 to access the device then the KB/Mouse is routed via the network link (although that may be running over USB, its NOT the same thing as access the KB directly via USB)
As to what the BD is... its seem to be a tiny little server with no ethernet port that uses USB to connect to a host computer and piggyback onto its network access... with no ethernet port, and the need for a host computer I don't see the point...
My point however is not that this thing is totally useless, but that a USB memory stick with some software on it will give you the same functionality, and you do not have to install software to access a USB memory stick, or run programs off it. So instead of telling me the ins and outs of how this connects to your computer, please tell me what does this thing do that a (cheaper) USB memory stick cannot do more simply?
While I get that it is very "cool" to have a PC in your pocket, and "your" apps running on "your" little computer, this thing is only using the host as a link to the network, access to the device is then made using X11 or SSH etc... My poing was that is a really bad idea. You need to install driver (read admin access) software on the host computer in order to use the dam thing, so what advantage does this have over a usb memory stick with some executables on it?
Just to nit-pick, you are not using the USB or Firewire Ports from the host, all the USB connection to the blackdog enables it to get network access. With the network access you can then access it like you can access it via X11, ssh... so i'll give you the kb, mouse and videocard...
I'm not sure you understand what this thing is, or how it works...
Mmm, this post sounds a little mean... I don't mean too, just woke up...
While the Gumstix offering could be useful for a number of applications, although I would be more inclined to buy the "bits" I needed for a specfic project, the Blackdog looks totally useless.
From the article it seems that it basically piggybacks onto a desktop computer, and them allows you to connect to it (in the articles case via X11) and run some applications... Given that it needs a much more powerful computer to control it what is the difference between it and a USB memory stick with applications that can run on the host os... The programs may be running on the blackdog instead of the host, but so what.
Gumstix on the otherhand looks like a nice solution for a robotics project I have starting in January...
Microsoft Windows chief Jim Allchin said in a recent interview. "Let's suppose you had 10GB of primary memory--probably everything that you do could fit in memory," Allchin said.
Probabaly!!! What the hell is the average person going to do on a laptop that need 10GB of memory? Nice to know that the MS Windows chief is aiming for lofty goals in efficency.
Offering Supercomputer access on a pay for time spent basis is nothing new, even my computing department does it if you want to use the 'Big Machines'.
It would be FAR more interesting if someone like http://www.distributed.net/ started offering commercial clients access to 'super-clusters' made of everyone on the internet who can dedicate some processor power and get paid in return. Of course they would need to work out a bunch of problems but it would be cool.
And then I could finally start to make back some of the money I spent on this bloody computer.
Or we could all just use Java, but the problem is the simplicity of building stuff... in order to stop repeating myself and turning to a Kama-Hore please redirect to
Slashdot Mirror
Sony removing the vibrators from the PS3 controllers has clearly robbed the world of new and interesting uses and pushed back the development of Teledildonics, the bastards.
Oh well maybe these blue blu-rays are comparable with Bluedildonics? At least the PS3 has bluetooth.
(Yes I know that things other than PS3's can play the blu-ray).
Oh poo, I no speak proper grammur.
Please ignore the miss use of there in place of their (and whatever else I did wrong).
Because hardware makers are always trying to reduce there market by buggering up Linux drivers... what is this, Bizarro World?
Generally if a Linux driver is closed source, its closed source because the maker of the driver does not have all the rights to give the source away, which I think is nVidia's excuse, or does not want others to see how it does certain things, which I think is nVidia's real issue.
While they may be upset if a developer guesses the "big secret" hidden in the driver, they would be pretty stupid to noble the hardware just to spite the Linux community, and the point of this article seems to be that the driver does not break any laws, so I'd assume its not stepping on any patients or secrets owned by anyone.
Just my 2 pence ofc.
Well this is a bit old, but apparently it doesn't and I cannot see it being all that likely that Intel will spend time and money making there compiler kickass on AMD.
Intel compiler crippled on AMD chips!
http://www.swallowtail.org/naughty-intel.html
Clearly it would take money and skills to have a compiler team at AMD, but that doesn't answer why they don't want to spend that money to compete with there main competitor in a vital area of their processors being the best they can be.
Top result on google for "amd compiler" is...
o dbytype/3.developme/11.compiler/index.html
http://www.amd.com/epd/desiging/fusionpartners/pr
list of 3rd party software from the era of Win98/NT, just a little out of date.
Intel clearly think that it is important to offer a compiler(s) specifically for their chips, and I see that as a good thing for users of Intel based systems who want to get the most out of there hardware, so my question is why AMD do not make compiler software for their chips. They do after all have their own set of special extensions so would they not benefit from creating a compiler armed with there own "inside knowledge"?
Seems odd to me to make the chips but not the software to allow people to fully utilize them and if GCC et al are good enough why do Intel and IBM offer there own compilers for the processors they make?
While I don't like the situation of tabs being taken down, you cannot draw parallels with publishing reviews. Producing tabs is NOT the same as reviewing something.
Writing a review of a song is not the same as publishing all the words and notes, just like reviewing a movie is not the same as publishing the full script.
You could produce a script copy from watching a movie in much the same way as tabs are produced by listening to music but that would not be a review of the movie, it would be the script and I'm pretty sure that if a movie website published it for new movie as a "review" they would get sued.
I think the argument that producing tab is like reverse engineering is a lot stronger.
I have never quite understood the them and us feelings of some users. Personally I use a computer to get my job done and I don't give a flying flip what "kind" of other people are coming to join the party. To be honest I'm glad of all the users who want to run my chosen platform as it makes it better supported and more likely to improve...
:D
Recently I've "moved" from Mac OS X to Ubuntu, because REALLY like having a system that updates all of my software on its own. I didn't move because Ubuntu is cool, or because Mac OS is crappy, but because it makes my job easier. Tools like Parallels will allow Windows users who want to move to Mac OS for whatever reason do so more easily, and that can only be a good thing for your chosen platform. Embrace the newbies
HOWEVER, having said that I can see your point about "Macintosh Explorer", I think my eyes might actually be bleeding that thing is horrible.
8 years ago, when I bought it because is was "the" title to have to show off your new DVD player with its funky features like follow the white rabbit commentary linky thing and ofc it being a pretty good scifi film.
8 years on you cannot expect it be the new "must have" title, especially when you remember parts 2 & 3. I would assume that most people who are rushing out now to buy the new format players will be the same people who were early DVD adopters so they just might have the matrix for the same reasons I do.
On the other hand, Pirates as a much newer title will be more appealing and it has PIRATES!!! and its not been available for 8 FRICKING YEARS!!!
Of course all that is just speculation, and if I can come up with even a part sensible reason why this is false, I'm dam sure the BluRay camp will be coming up with reasons that is a perfectly reasonable argument to show they are winning.
Put simply, you can prove anything with statistics.
Forget how many players are sold, or how many of X movie sold, all I want to see is total number of titles sold by each camp with each movie or tv series season counting as one title. In the end I really don't give a crap who wins, I'm just waiting for a player and use will whatever format Blockbuster online sends me.
Dammit should review my posts first, d-oh!!!
I've been running Ubuntu for some time now, I have even "spread the word" my installing it on a few poor students laptops when there windows installation has died and I couldn't be bothered to find the windows drivers for the laptops hardware. Most of the people I have installed Ubuntu for are happy with it right out of the box, once i've added Medibuntu so that it can play DVD's ofc.
However I personally like to play a few Windows games like Half-Life 2, World of Warcraft and Counter Strike and in order to do so i've had to "apt-get install wine". So I don't see how dell not including wine on the machines is a big deal, as it doesn't make there distribution any different from "plain" Ubuntu.
Dell are quite right not to install wine out of the box, as a user who can not "apt-get install wine" or if they have there own partial Dellbuntu mirror, adding the real Ubuntu software sources to apt, will have pretty limited luck getting it working anyway.
What I would find interesting is dell including a way to play copy protected dvd's out of the box, as to be that seems to be the one real problem with a default Ubuntu installation that people are likely to notice.
1. Collect Buzzwords
2. ???
3. Publish Report
I assume they use a Bot to trawl the internet collecting the latest buzz words, and then another to automatically assemble the report... but after reading that piffle I don't think they would have the compitence to turn on the computer.
...your students...
:D
Not my students. I'm one of them... but they hunt in packs. If you have the only working robot they decend on you like jackals...
As for when to teach people how to manage memory, I think that in a University it should be done as soon as possible, if education worked by "leave it till they need it" then I wouldn't have learned half the exciting stuff I know now... leaving learning often just results in missing out.
PS. I'm pretty sure that the Java engine could have had garbage collection, but not much you can do when it doesn't. If you have a lazy ass vendor who provides the only solution then you just have to go with it... Microsoft build a bussiness on it
Let me be the first to welcome our new garbage collecting Overlords.
I love Objective-C and Apple (NeXT) API's. However, while garbage collection does make it "easier" to write software, I have GREAT fears about people not leaning to clean up after themselves.
Case in point was a University project I did involving robots. Everyone happy sets about coding there little robots in Java, write some simulators, then write the actual robots logic, all in wonderful cross platform Java. Que 100 students pondering why real thing ran for 20seconds then started beeping at them. I spent a LONG time trying to explain to people that with 64k of memory, and NO garbage collection (yey "special" Java) you cannot just keep creating temporary objects at will and hoping mummy will clean up.
I think its super that Apple will be even easier to write for, but please make sure your know how to clean up after yourself before you start coding, you never know when silicon mummy will be on holiday.
NB. Not sure I mean "easier" to write software, maybe "allows you to write with a little more of your brain unplugged".
Gumstix. With a Gumstix with an ethernet port you could interact with any desktop that can support X11, or even a web browser or ssh, telnet etc. However I admit, that if you want a thing to carry around with you the blackdog seems like the more nicely produced solution.
Memory Stick. If you get a nice big stick, and compile your programs to run from the stick, for both Windows / Linux etc, then you can have all you stuff / settings with you. As the BD will only be able to run software that is compiled for it i cannot see a problem in compiling for the memory stick.
Blackdog. I do see the advantage of having your own computer with you at all times. My issue really is that this thing would be so much better if they stuck and ethernet port on it. I don't see how it can setup USB networking without the modules for it being in the kernel, so you cannot say that it will just work with all OS's, where as a Memory Stick will work with any OS that has USB, and a Blackdog with Ethernet would work with any OS that is connected to a Network.
As for what the people via that link are doing... Well its seems they want to reprogramme the FPGA (a bit of preprogrammable logic) to change how the USB port works, so they can connect a chip to allow then to get some "real" wires to connect to robot bits... which is crazy, but fun...
I can see that you have your viewpoint, and I do think this tiny headless server concept is kinda neat, but without an ethernet connection, or even better wireless you will not sell it too me.
Mmm... wireless and bluetooth... GPS via Bluetooth for location, wireless for sniffing... wardriving while you walk around town, in your pocket. Bring on Blackdog Version 2.
Damit... the link doesn't work... I REALLY want to know why ppl would use this over a USB memory stick with some cunningly compiled programs (ie so that they work off the USB stick)...
So the blackdog can get network access via usb without installing any drivers? Or does it just mount as an external disk/cdrom, in which case its just an expensive USB stick? And do you access it via X11 if you want a GUI? or do they have some "funky" program to get graphical access... If the software is running on the blackdog, can you get access to files on the host other than via filesharing of some sort?
As for Gumstix it seems that you could "build" a blackdog type device from thier offerings, and even better you could build one with an ethernet port so that you could put it on the network direct.
I forgot... also from TFA...
"You can only install it on machines you have administrator access on."
So which is it? Is the article wrong? Does it not need any custom drivers? You CANNOT install drivers on a Windows machine unless you have admin access...
OK... from the article
"You plug it in and the computer starts churning. Several minutes later Windows asks you if it's okay to install this and that driver. As things are starting to look like they're getting good, the Windows XP SP2 firewall asks to let a half dozen ports open so the BlackDog can contact military spy satellites. Then, you need to reboot. So you reboot. You plug the BlackDog in, the computer churns for a couple minutes, more questions are asked regarding drivers and ports. And you need to reboot again. Finally, you plug the BlackDog in again, and you're ready to roll."
So according the the review it needs two reboots to install the windows drivers... While the article may not be correct, its the only info I have.
Also whats the point of being able to access a keyboard and mouse directly if you have no way to display the results? If you are using SSH or X11 to access the device then the KB/Mouse is routed via the network link (although that may be running over USB, its NOT the same thing as access the KB directly via USB)
As to what the BD is... its seem to be a tiny little server with no ethernet port that uses USB to connect to a host computer and piggyback onto its network access... with no ethernet port, and the need for a host computer I don't see the point...
My point however is not that this thing is totally useless, but that a USB memory stick with some software on it will give you the same functionality, and you do not have to install software to access a USB memory stick, or run programs off it. So instead of telling me the ins and outs of how this connects to your computer, please tell me what does this thing do that a (cheaper) USB memory stick cannot do more simply?
While I get that it is very "cool" to have a PC in your pocket, and "your" apps running on "your" little computer, this thing is only using the host as a link to the network, access to the device is then made using X11 or SSH etc... My poing was that is a really bad idea. You need to install driver (read admin access) software on the host computer in order to use the dam thing, so what advantage does this have over a usb memory stick with some executables on it?
Just to nit-pick, you are not using the USB or Firewire Ports from the host, all the USB connection to the blackdog enables it to get network access. With the network access you can then access it like you can access it via X11, ssh... so i'll give you the kb, mouse and videocard...
I'm not sure you understand what this thing is, or how it works...
Mmm, this post sounds a little mean... I don't mean too, just woke up...
While the Gumstix offering could be useful for a number of applications, although I would be more inclined to buy the "bits" I needed for a specfic project, the Blackdog looks totally useless.
From the article it seems that it basically piggybacks onto a desktop computer, and them allows you to connect to it (in the articles case via X11) and run some applications... Given that it needs a much more powerful computer to control it what is the difference between it and a USB memory stick with applications that can run on the host os... The programs may be running on the blackdog instead of the host, but so what.
Gumstix on the otherhand looks like a nice solution for a robotics project I have starting in January...
Microsoft Windows chief Jim Allchin said in a recent interview. "Let's suppose you had 10GB of primary memory--probably everything that you do could fit in memory," Allchin said.
Probabaly!!! What the hell is the average person going to do on a laptop that need 10GB of memory? Nice to know that the MS Windows chief is aiming for lofty goals in efficency.
Really nice picture on the product page of a father and son using an Apple iBook...
Shame the software is for Windows.
Personally I would suggest not buying games for a child that are rated above his/her age...
Also how does it stop a kid from playing Flash games in a web browser instead of researching homework...
Or that the kid probabally knows more about the computer than ma or pa.
Offering Supercomputer access on a pay for time spent basis is nothing new, even my computing department does it if you want to use the 'Big Machines'.
It would be FAR more interesting if someone like http://www.distributed.net/ started offering commercial clients access to 'super-clusters' made of everyone on the internet who can dedicate some processor power and get paid in return. Of course they would need to work out a bunch of problems but it would be cool.
And then I could finally start to make back some of the money I spent on this bloody computer.
Or we could all just use Java, but the problem is the simplicity of building stuff... in order to stop repeating myself and turning to a Kama-Hore please redirect to
8 40119
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=141324&cid=11
That is kinda simptomatic of what I was getting at, with Flash you can build stuff faster, and the construction tools draw in graphic designers.
And as you point out dev's are not stupid and so if the tools make it easier to develop stuff then they will use them to.
But a vector graphics animation builder linked to Java as a backend would be REALLY powerful, although Java will never be as simple as ActionScript.