Rose colored glasses much? You can still run the simple Linux on that ancient capable hardware. The days of spending time formatting a boot disk correctly and getting 24bit color working in X and the gnashing of teeth? I miss that too, oh wait, no I don't. Although I feel you with the kernel compliation issues (i.e. if you know what you're doing it's painless).
You'd see much higher gaming performance in Gentoo, which like FreeBSD, is compiled from source for your processor with your options. FBSD uses ports, which is very similar to portage used in Gentoo. It downloads source, looks at your kernel and compiles the code with the right options for your system.
Your Gentoo is showing. All software is compiled from source. FreeBSD installs (much like Linux) get you up and rolling with precompiled software known as packages (FreeBSD: man pkg_add) but you may also install the ports collection and cvsup && makeworld if you've ample free time. It's a time suck to mix and match packages if you're customising your sysinstall with special flags and bleeding edge dependencies. Gaming performance in Linux (and every other OS out there) is mainly a driver support game - specifically graphics drivers. Linux has a lot of churn interally which means lots of support, hardware vendors like nVidia have been dropping support for some chipsets because of this. Gentoo implemented portage based off of FreeBSD's ports collection which was implemented in the early 1990s.
I strongly suggest that if you want to get the most performance out of linux, use a compiled-from-source distro like gentoo. It makes a HUGE difference. It takes a lot longer to set up your system (since you compile the entire thing from source) but the end result is worth it if performance is your #1 goal.
Compiling from source does not mean it's super fast just because. The reality is that you'll now be compiling everything - all the time! Not just during the setup (you know most software spends its life in maintenance Have an updated low level dependancy? Recompile everything built on top of that! Do you know how long it takes to compile KDE or GNOME (or BOTH) plus a suite of software? That's several days of time compared to snagging a package built for your arcitecture. I don't know about you but I like to use my system instead of watching the results of the latest make -j10 scrolling in a terminal. Honestly, most of your speed will come from kernel options which is an order of magnitude faster to modify and deploy than rolling your own system from scratch, and then having to recompile and patch everything.
Additionally one of the strengths of FreeBSD is that it's an operating system, not just a kernel. It has binary compatibility with Linux and in many cases can run those same things faster than Linux can. Does it make it better than Linux? No. They are both tools which may be tailored to specific purposes - some more easily and capable than others.
So your solution is what exactly? That specialized doctors should support everyone (especially those with rare conditions) freely and forever? Perhaps this will enlighten you to the challenge of supporting a constantly moving target known as Linux. nVidia even drops support for their older cards for this very reason! Apparently not everyone is a doctor, and the doctors are focusing their efforts on more current issues which is why the support is fading. If you want to run specific hardware why not stick to distributions released around the time your hardware was released or better yet use an operating system which supports your hardware. If either of these solutions is unacceptable perhaps owning a computer is too expensive for your lifestyle.
What laws did President Bush write that wrecked the economy. Here's a hint... if a rooster lays an egg on a roof...
Roosters don't lay eggs?
Here is another hint as to who is responsible: In Jan 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.7% and $2.18 a gallon. Can you tell me what changed in Jan of 2007?
I'm not into partisan politics. You might recall that real estate bubble which we're still dealing with. Bailouts (1.6 trillian). Or tax cuts for the wealthy (which I expect to be extended) plus massive spending over seas. This isn't just a Bush issue and we're still feeling the effects of shit done during his reign like the fucking patriot act.Obama is no winner either. This was just off of the top of my head.
The recommendations will depend what you are trying to do. I own the second edition of ALSbS and I enjoy Jeff's writing style. The Art of Assembly Language with its HLA (High Level Assembly) can get you up and going pretty quickly. Although I had an interest in Windows applications and Mastering Turbo Assembler (2nd Edition) [Sams] is another awesome book, a little dryer is The Revolutionary guide to Assembly Language [Wrox] however you're in 16bit land with that one.
Yes, but once it is a war zone we call them terrorists because their hobby *may* help the bad guys. If we can't pin terrorist on them we call them a sympathizer or some other tag that makes it ok to at least harass them.
Not to get in the way of a good rant, but other countries do this. Link.
What percentage of the entire Russian population was killed? I was only referring to WWII deaths
Google it. So which country were all the Jews from? Keep in mind you're now comparing segments of multiple countries civilians against that of a single country. I hope you're not implying that one group's deaths count for more (care to define which race "Jewish" is?) than another.
But have any of them managed to wipe out 20-30% of a given ethnic group?
Are you ignorant of how Europeans and later the American government's encounters with the natives went? How about Native Taiwanese?
Sure "a lot" of blacks, homosexuals, POWs, etc. were also killed in the war, but if you can point to any other group that was killed in the proportions jews were, I would love to have a link to your sources.
As in millions of deaths? Look no further than Russians, between the Reich and Stalin. Japan was pretty ruthless to the Chinese: WW2 CasualtiesNeroMetrics. I've had someone argue that the simply because there are more of either of these groups that it's not as bad. Human deaths are human deaths. Beyond the WW2 how about how many people died during Mao's Cultural Revolution? Estimates are at ~60 million, no religious motives there either 20th Century Genocides.
They don't need positional data to do that. That is like saying we need to tag each TCP/IP packet with geo-location data to know how to do "something". We don't. Everything required for billing is in the header, and more specifically, how the header causes the packet to "move"....
Wireless has plenty of "tags" and "headers" for it to bill correctly. Wireless carriers have something pretty similar to peering and transit agreements. When you are roaming and connect to a tower it knows that you are not a customer. That is based on the data you are sending. It determines who it needs to bill before it even connects you, otherwise it would not allow the communication. Nothing in that process requires GPS positioning data, or triangulation data to be stored.
Thanks for the clarification.
That's a whole different argument here. I agree with you in principle, but unless you are a lawyer and have the time to read 250 pages, it is pretty hard to fully comprehend a TOS. That is why privacy statements should be simple, then explained further.
Absolutely, the TOS should be aimed at their intended customers (lay persons) with privacy set to "fail safe" as in remain private.
I've had a few this evening so please pardon me if this has been addressed. I find many of your points valid however there is a strong argument for one of your points:
A victory will be when it is illegal, punishable by prison terms, for any wireless carrier to record positioning data.
It's my understanding that cell phones use cell towers to relay messages, and many of these towers are operated by third parties in addition to the company. These third parties charge respective carriers for use. This is useful for many things otherwise how are you able to bill someone without knowing which user is receiving service? How do the messages get back to your phone if they don't know which tower you're connected to? It's like saying the server you're connected to shouldn't keep logs of people (or companies) who use their service which they charge for - what happens when you need to dispute a bill? I probably could've worded this better. I think for a good estimate of how long things are retained look no further than how long you're able to retrieve your statements from a carrier. Perhaps someone from the industry will shed more light on this.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, your ISP, and your wireless carrier can apparently be used to strip away all privacy, not just from you, but from everyone.
I don't like being tracked any more than the other guy, but honestly if it's private information why is it provided freely, willingly, and broadcast by users on these social sites? I hate to be a rules guy but for crying out loud the terms and conditions agreed to might shed some light on what makes the service a "free" service. Agreeing to something you've not read (or even understand) isn't smart. Is that a wise move with a mortgage? How about when financing a car!? If you're getting a service or item for free there is a catch and it's irresponsible to assume otherwise. This situation is like a blogger who is upset when someone else comes across one of their posts. If it's indeed private information keep it to yourself! A social network promotes sharing information, much like the ping from a phone to a tower to receive service.
"I can keep a secret but the people I tell can't" sums up the privacy argument.
Consoles are typically much cheaper and it's not uncommon for them to be subsidized and phones even more so, lowering the barrier to entry compared to a PC. I think the PC number is a bit low. For example World of Warcraft has monthly subscriptions (let's say 11.5 million subscribers * $12.95 a month = $148,925,000 monthly (or $1.7 billion yearly for this title alone). This figure has grown - not declined and there are multiple MMORPGs which use a subscription model as well as Free 2 Play and oodles of microtransaction games. There are more PCs out there than ever and more games than ever. If the PC market is only $700 million as you claim why are games allowed to balloon up to to $50-100 million range for such an allegedly small market?
I'd be curious to see Valve's numbers from all of the Steam sales. On Wikipedia it looks like the sims has sold pretty well too, (16million copies = $800 million alone).
Say what you will, but the recent reboot of the Batman franchise has been handled extremely well.
Apparently the reboot was handled so extremely well you're not able to recall the title correctly! I jest! I really enjoyed the new movies especially The Dark Knight.
I think I may have done, about 5 hours of my life are missing and I still have my gum.
If you're referring to this quote "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum.", its by Rowdy Roddy Piper in They Live (1988).
If you're a game studio who uses a publisher, you may need to meet a few of their requirements which require certain things like DRM. These game studios don't have to make a deal with these publishers. Often the decision comes may boil down to the lesser of the evils. EA also takes it a step further and requires you to register on their website to activate and use DLC (this hinders resale which may be their goal). Bleh.
I don't work for Valve, or enjoy hoops of DRM, nor do I think Steam is gods gift but wow, nevermind the majority of the people not having problems like you mention or being a jerks about it. It's unfortunate you're so grumpy about not playing "your" licensed game(s) however taking it out on someone who hasn't shared your personal experience is hypocritical. Your experience is an unfortunate minority and if there are rampant problems affecting everyone, then nobody would use it due to bad PR. For an example look at Ubisoft and their call home DRM crap. The fact is the system works pretty good otherwise Steam wouldn't be growing in popularity with nearly 4 million users on at peak time (and growing) with more publishers than ever. Nothing is perfect either which is why Steam and other companies also work with customers when there are issues.
Since you're playing games you may be running Windows, which features a number of managed technologies so lamenting DRM when one may be using something which features activation technology (among others) is interesting. If you're on a console there are DLC which are tied into an account - which may be pulled or banned if you don't use it properly - similar to Steam.
I've heard of users who are in the armed services getting locked out of their Steam account who travel frequently (the usage pattern may appear as a hacked account) which is something that customer service does handle - and frankly this is a protective feature. If you're gleening your info off of forums please keep in mind the loudest don't represent the majority. To sum up your opinion: "Your experience is invalid. Only my experience matters." pfft.
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Rose colored glasses much? You can still run the simple Linux on that ancient capable hardware. The days of spending time formatting a boot disk correctly and getting 24bit color working in X and the gnashing of teeth? I miss that too, oh wait, no I don't. Although I feel you with the kernel compliation issues (i.e. if you know what you're doing it's painless).
Seriously though, what are you missing?
You'd see much higher gaming performance in Gentoo, which like FreeBSD, is compiled from source for your processor with your options. FBSD uses ports, which is very similar to portage used in Gentoo. It downloads source, looks at your kernel and compiles the code with the right options for your system.
Your Gentoo is showing. All software is compiled from source. FreeBSD installs (much like Linux) get you up and rolling with precompiled software known as packages (FreeBSD: man pkg_add) but you may also install the ports collection and cvsup && makeworld if you've ample free time. It's a time suck to mix and match packages if you're customising your sysinstall with special flags and bleeding edge dependencies. Gaming performance in Linux (and every other OS out there) is mainly a driver support game - specifically graphics drivers. Linux has a lot of churn interally which means lots of support, hardware vendors like nVidia have been dropping support for some chipsets because of this. Gentoo implemented portage based off of FreeBSD's ports collection which was implemented in the early 1990s.
I strongly suggest that if you want to get the most performance out of linux, use a compiled-from-source distro like gentoo. It makes a HUGE difference. It takes a lot longer to set up your system (since you compile the entire thing from source) but the end result is worth it if performance is your #1 goal.
Compiling from source does not mean it's super fast just because. The reality is that you'll now be compiling everything - all the time! Not just during the setup (you know most software spends its life in maintenance Have an updated low level dependancy? Recompile everything built on top of that! Do you know how long it takes to compile KDE or GNOME (or BOTH) plus a suite of software? That's several days of time compared to snagging a package built for your arcitecture. I don't know about you but I like to use my system instead of watching the results of the latest make -j10 scrolling in a terminal. Honestly, most of your speed will come from kernel options which is an order of magnitude faster to modify and deploy than rolling your own system from scratch, and then having to recompile and patch everything.
Additionally one of the strengths of FreeBSD is that it's an operating system, not just a kernel. It has binary compatibility with Linux and in many cases can run those same things faster than Linux can. Does it make it better than Linux? No. They are both tools which may be tailored to specific purposes - some more easily and capable than others.
So your solution is what exactly? That specialized doctors should support everyone (especially those with rare conditions) freely and forever? Perhaps this will enlighten you to the challenge of supporting a constantly moving target known as Linux. nVidia even drops support for their older cards for this very reason! Apparently not everyone is a doctor, and the doctors are focusing their efforts on more current issues which is why the support is fading. If you want to run specific hardware why not stick to distributions released around the time your hardware was released or better yet use an operating system which supports your hardware. If either of these solutions is unacceptable perhaps owning a computer is too expensive for your lifestyle.
I feel your pain. Unfortunately the windows drivers have the best performance in my experience.
AMD Phenom II 955
nVidia GTX 260
8GB DDR2
FreeBSD 8.2 AMD64, nVidia 275.28 drivers
What laws did President Bush write that wrecked the economy. Here's a hint... if a rooster lays an egg on a roof...
Roosters don't lay eggs?
Here is another hint as to who is responsible: In Jan 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.7% and $2.18 a gallon. Can you tell me what changed in Jan of 2007?
I'm not into partisan politics. You might recall that real estate bubble which we're still dealing with. Bailouts (1.6 trillian). Or tax cuts for the wealthy (which I expect to be extended) plus massive spending over seas. This isn't just a Bush issue and we're still feeling the effects of shit done during his reign like the fucking patriot act.Obama is no winner either. This was just off of the top of my head.
It's a video game, chances are a bunch of them are not adults.
You may be surprised.
I'll save you the 2.5 seconds of googling required to discover that it's an internet meme.
The recommendations will depend what you are trying to do. I own the second edition of ALSbS and I enjoy Jeff's writing style. The Art of Assembly Language with its HLA (High Level Assembly) can get you up and going pretty quickly. Although I had an interest in Windows applications and Mastering Turbo Assembler (2nd Edition) [Sams] is another awesome book, a little dryer is The Revolutionary guide to Assembly Language [Wrox] however you're in 16bit land with that one.
A lot of words and gestures in the US and likely other English speaking nations carry duel meanings.
Quite right! Pistols at dawn, then?
Yes, but once it is a war zone we call them terrorists because their hobby *may* help the bad guys. If we can't pin terrorist on them we call them a sympathizer or some other tag that makes it ok to at least harass them.
Not to get in the way of a good rant, but other countries do this. Link.
What percentage of the entire Russian population was killed? I was only referring to WWII deaths
Google it. So which country were all the Jews from? Keep in mind you're now comparing segments of multiple countries civilians against that of a single country. I hope you're not implying that one group's deaths count for more (care to define which race "Jewish" is?) than another.
But have any of them managed to wipe out 20-30% of a given ethnic group?
Are you ignorant of how Europeans and later the American government's encounters with the natives went? How about Native Taiwanese?
Sure "a lot" of blacks, homosexuals, POWs, etc. were also killed in the war, but if you can point to any other group that was killed in the proportions jews were, I would love to have a link to your sources.
As in millions of deaths? Look no further than Russians, between the Reich and Stalin. Japan was pretty ruthless to the Chinese: WW2 Casualties NeroMetrics. I've had someone argue that the simply because there are more of either of these groups that it's not as bad. Human deaths are human deaths. Beyond the WW2 how about how many people died during Mao's Cultural Revolution? Estimates are at ~60 million, no religious motives there either 20th Century Genocides.
They don't need positional data to do that. That is like saying we need to tag each TCP/IP packet with geo-location data to know how to do "something". We don't. Everything required for billing is in the header, and more specifically, how the header causes the packet to "move". ...
Wireless has plenty of "tags" and "headers" for it to bill correctly. Wireless carriers have something pretty similar to peering and transit agreements. When you are roaming and connect to a tower it knows that you are not a customer. That is based on the data you are sending. It determines who it needs to bill before it even connects you, otherwise it would not allow the communication. Nothing in that process requires GPS positioning data, or triangulation data to be stored.
Thanks for the clarification.
That's a whole different argument here. I agree with you in principle, but unless you are a lawyer and have the time to read 250 pages, it is pretty hard to fully comprehend a TOS. That is why privacy statements should be simple, then explained further.
Absolutely, the TOS should be aimed at their intended customers (lay persons) with privacy set to "fail safe" as in remain private.
Randomly replying to undo my mismod =(.
A victory will be when it is illegal, punishable by prison terms, for any wireless carrier to record positioning data.
It's my understanding that cell phones use cell towers to relay messages, and many of these towers are operated by third parties in addition to the company. These third parties charge respective carriers for use. This is useful for many things otherwise how are you able to bill someone without knowing which user is receiving service? How do the messages get back to your phone if they don't know which tower you're connected to? It's like saying the server you're connected to shouldn't keep logs of people (or companies) who use their service which they charge for - what happens when you need to dispute a bill? I probably could've worded this better. I think for a good estimate of how long things are retained look no further than how long you're able to retrieve your statements from a carrier. Perhaps someone from the industry will shed more light on this.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, your ISP, and your wireless carrier can apparently be used to strip away all privacy, not just from you, but from everyone.
I don't like being tracked any more than the other guy, but honestly if it's private information why is it provided freely, willingly, and broadcast by users on these social sites? I hate to be a rules guy but for crying out loud the terms and conditions agreed to might shed some light on what makes the service a "free" service. Agreeing to something you've not read (or even understand) isn't smart. Is that a wise move with a mortgage? How about when financing a car!? If you're getting a service or item for free there is a catch and it's irresponsible to assume otherwise. This situation is like a blogger who is upset when someone else comes across one of their posts. If it's indeed private information keep it to yourself! A social network promotes sharing information, much like the ping from a phone to a tower to receive service.
"I can keep a secret but the people I tell can't" sums up the privacy argument.
I've used infrarecorder and recommend it, however you might want to give imgburn a try.
It's a Swedish proverb: "We get tired of doing nothing."
Thanks for the laugh!
Consoles are typically much cheaper and it's not uncommon for them to be subsidized and phones even more so, lowering the barrier to entry compared to a PC. I think the PC number is a bit low. For example World of Warcraft has monthly subscriptions (let's say 11.5 million subscribers * $12.95 a month = $148,925,000 monthly (or $1.7 billion yearly for this title alone). This figure has grown - not declined and there are multiple MMORPGs which use a subscription model as well as Free 2 Play and oodles of microtransaction games. There are more PCs out there than ever and more games than ever. If the PC market is only $700 million as you claim why are games allowed to balloon up to to $50-100 million range for such an allegedly small market?
I'd be curious to see Valve's numbers from all of the Steam sales. On Wikipedia it looks like the sims has sold pretty well too, (16million copies = $800 million alone).
Apparently not if you worked support in the 90s.
Including The Dark Night movies?
Say what you will, but the recent reboot of the Batman franchise has been handled extremely well.
Apparently the reboot was handled so extremely well you're not able to recall the title correctly! I jest! I really enjoyed the new movies especially The Dark Knight.
I think I may have done, about 5 hours of my life are missing and I still have my gum.
If you're referring to this quote "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum.", its by Rowdy Roddy Piper in They Live (1988).
If you're a game studio who uses a publisher, you may need to meet a few of their requirements which require certain things like DRM. These game studios don't have to make a deal with these publishers. Often the decision comes may boil down to the lesser of the evils. EA also takes it a step further and requires you to register on their website to activate and use DLC (this hinders resale which may be their goal). Bleh.
I don't work for Valve, or enjoy hoops of DRM, nor do I think Steam is gods gift but wow, nevermind the majority of the people not having problems like you mention or being a jerks about it. It's unfortunate you're so grumpy about not playing "your" licensed game(s) however taking it out on someone who hasn't shared your personal experience is hypocritical. Your experience is an unfortunate minority and if there are rampant problems affecting everyone, then nobody would use it due to bad PR. For an example look at Ubisoft and their call home DRM crap. The fact is the system works pretty good otherwise Steam wouldn't be growing in popularity with nearly 4 million users on at peak time (and growing) with more publishers than ever. Nothing is perfect either which is why Steam and other companies also work with customers when there are issues.
Since you're playing games you may be running Windows, which features a number of managed technologies so lamenting DRM when one may be using something which features activation technology (among others) is interesting. If you're on a console there are DLC which are tied into an account - which may be pulled or banned if you don't use it properly - similar to Steam.
I've heard of users who are in the armed services getting locked out of their Steam account who travel frequently (the usage pattern may appear as a hacked account) which is something that customer service does handle - and frankly this is a protective feature. If you're gleening your info off of forums please keep in mind the loudest don't represent the majority. To sum up your opinion: "Your experience is invalid. Only my experience matters." pfft.
Yes but schwanz means tail or colloquially penis in German..
The reference was not lost to me, ich kann Deutsch.