Sure, this is great for you....unless your drive happens to be one of those 'mass produced' POS that has failed and now you're out X amount of $$$. When are people going to realize that comparing ATA and SCSI via price vs. Paper Features(tm) vs. synthetic benchmarks is meaningless?
Please go read up on the differences between exposure of moving objects on film vs. the output of a 3d rendering device and you'll see why 24fps is 'tolerable' for movies. Even at 24fps, I still walk out of a theater with a headache from the 24hz flicker of the movie and the 60hz flicker of the display (nevermind the heterodyning of the two!). If you look at each individual frame, you'll see that there's inherent motion blur in the moving objects which happens to coincide with the amount of time that 1 frame is displayed. This gives the appearance of smooth motion, but its not perfect.
Most people who play these games have visual acuity much higher than average. If you truely believe in the age old "24hz-is-good-enough-for-everyone" bs, then why buy a monitor capable of greater than 60hz? After all, its MORE than twice that of a motion picture film. Your logic is fatally flawed.
I find it humorous that people who are, by your definition 'in touch with reality' are the same types who go running to their 'out of touch vi-using friends' to fix their WINDOWS computer when it breaks down. Its interesting how most uncertified teenage unix hacks can figure out (and fix) windows, yet most windows users/CERTIFIED admins break out sweating when faced with a computer without a 'start' menu.
I also think its humorous that most of the servers that contain all that porn and other dreck out there on the net (there mainly for your 'type's' benefit) that you and your 'in touch with reality' friends download, is hosted and routed by machines admined by 'out of touch vi-using' administrators.
I think people will start 'giving a fuck' when they find their computer is rebelling a little too much against the goals they want to accomplish with it (ie pirating music/movies etc). Considering the increasingly draconian design of windows, linux and other alternatives will look all that more tempting.
Get a clue. Since you're bothering to post here, you must have some interest in the subject, so don't tell me "I don't care." If you don't care, go download some more pr0n and/or britney spears mp3s and never visit slashdot again. Maybe you are just afraid that if windows dies off, you'll have to learn a new system? Oh well, c'est la vie. By then they'll all be pretty easy to use, and if you still have trouble, then YOU'LL be the one living in the past.
haha.. And perhaps if the console publishers let their developers take the time to make high quality games instead of rushing them, at least some of them would be even remotely interesting. For a console, I would have thought QC would be superior to pc games because once they're pressed, that's it, working or 'broken' that's the way the game will be... and you just paid $50 for it. Sure, PC games are released with bugs as well, but at least they can be patched.
RTS's ARE playable on consoles, with or without mouse support.
If you consider the current formula for an RTS, you simply cannot have the same level of complexity in a 8-12 button joystick that you can get with a 101 key keyboard and mouse. More importantly, the TV is no match for a nice high quality, high refresh, high-res non-interlaced monitor.
Have you ever tried 'expanding' a game? Have you ever worked on a mod or map project? I doubt it considering your attitude. Don't knock it 'til you try it. It isn't just about 'waiting for the next release.' Its about having FUN with the game after you've played it's maps Xmillion times. With a console, you'll NEVER EVER have that kind of flexibility. Even if the hardware down the road would allow it, the cartels controlling that hardware's content certainly will not. They make their money via the content they sell to you, and they don't want to be competing with their customers (ie you).
While I am not that familiar with sony's online package, the xbox live service does charge an extra fee on top of whatever normal isp fee you pay already. Of course, this opens up a whole new issue regardless of the console you own. What happens to your investment when sony decides that game X(or console for that matter!) is to be removed from the net servers? Guess you can't play it anymore, except single player. Sure, in some cases, you can link the consoles up via a switch and play on a lan, but since the games were written with a third party server in mind (And remember they can't be patched), you can never play them over the net again. Although this trend is starting to hit PC games(blizzard comes to mind as do the MMPORPGs), many of the games are designed to be run independently. If id software or Epic games goes out of business tomorrow, I can still fire up the games and play them over the net with friends if I wish.
With the world's gamers becoming more and more dependent on the internet for gaming, that last thing we need is some centralized group of people to decide what games we are going to play or not based on some lame financial forcast. Sure, the stock arguement is that you'll just buy and play a newer game. Considering all the rushed crap coming out of the development houses these days (for both console and pc), I'd rather let social forces dictate when I give up a game (ie there are no more players playing it). On a PC, there are people out there still playing Doom and Quake (1) as well as those who play Q3 and UT2k3. In fact, the most popular online game out there, counter-strike, is a 2+ year old mod of a five year old game developed on a 6-8 year old engine! If it weren't for this kind of flexibility, that game would not exist today.
The bottom line is, console players will never have the freedoms (especially when it comes to fully exploiting the concept of network gaming) that PC gamers do, and that's too bad. I used to buy into consoles for their arcade translations back in high school. Since stand-up arcade machines are dying out and being replaced by net connected computers, the need is diminishing. Consoles today are nothing more than stripped down computers manufactured by companies who were caught short by the internet so they created artificial scarcity via exclusive 'communities' and publishing contracts (RIAA anyone?).
You have good points, but try explaining that to a very non-technical executive who is afraid that everyone is out to steal their content. I've seen many companies that will do their entire website in Flash just so the content can't be "stolen".
Then that non-technical executive and his idiotic company have no business on the internet. Plain and simple. The big problem here is that these companies insist that their 'web content' is somehow 'valuable' and therefore needs to be 'protected.' Its rediculous. When are these companies going to realize the internet can't be made into a top-down media streaming service where their site is the ONLY place to get certain data? They only want it this way so they can charge money for it (and we all know how worthless most of the content out there is).
One of the great things about the net is the concept of a mirror (Nvidia, get a clue). With multiple mirrors, the information is fairly well protected from destruction and no one node (and its networks) of the net is overloaded with traffic. Of course, Orwellian rewrites may be exactly what these companies want.
To these companies: Give it up, you can't pay for (or make much money from) sites with advertising alone. Either charge for access or pay up for the bandwith and write it off as advertising your company's presence. You could also do us all a favor and get out and leave room/bandwith for people who will put up some decent content.
Unrealistically idealistic? Definately. But hey, I'm an old school net user and I miss the pre-commercial, pre-AOL days.
Can I map on a console? No. Can I use anything but the shitbox mouse/keyboard (if any is available) on a console? No. Can I create mods for my favorite games on a console? No.
Sure, X-Box has a harddisk for saved games and I think the next-gen sony box will have one too, but give me a break. By the time I buy the console, the extra controller, the keyboard, the mouse, and whatever rip-off 'online' package they offer, I've hit the price of a low to mid end PC, minus the above advantages...
Do I get stuck watching my games in relative slide show compared to a PC? YES. Most console developers figure that since the TV only renders ~30fps effectively, that that should be their target rate. In reality, the games run in a relatively low resolution and are choppy as hell (you can even see this in the commercials for the various games). Oh yeah, don't forget, in a console game, the player usually has NO control over display settings, so he can't sacrifice some of the rediculous eye candy for performance... 90% of the life of most FPS games is the expandability. Without that, it would die in weeks. I wonder if RTS games are even playable at a TV resolution?
There's another component to this. Most gamers are younger, and more technically adept than most of the population. They (whether they realize it or not) intuitively understand what the interface is telling them without excessive baby sitting. Most 30+ somethings these days are afraid of 'breaking' the computer. Younger people have no such compunctions.. Also, the fact that these people are being exposed to computing in kindergarten probably helps too.
no way.. The very thing that drove most techies to their discipline was their utter lack of social skills when they were younger (I said MOST not ALL). Most technical minds are by nature not as able to communicate with other people as they relate better to logical thinking(of which most people are not). In fact, if you think about it, usually the most technical of minds tend to wind up being the most a-typical socially. This seems to be true across just about any engineering discipline whether it be electronic, mechanical or chemical... Hell, just think about the stereotype of an engineer or a computer hacker. They're usually depicted as being extraodinarily intelligent, yet a bit rough around the edges personality wise. They're usually blunt and to the point, and that bluntess is part of what upsets people. The world of an engineer/programmer is very coarse (ie closer to black and white) than most other people, and as a result, interpersonal conflicts arise. Forcing (if its even possible) engineers to learn how to kiss ass would probably result in them being less effective engineers. Ass kissing is for the marketing types/admin. That's what they do best after all. They get paid the bigger salary, so why not let them handle this conflict between the customer and the programmer and let the engineer/programmer do his job? I've worked with a few 'nice' PC techs and programmers. Sure, they were 'nice,' (overly)well dressed people, but they were terrible technically. One can only guess how one of them passed his A+ cert stated on his resume without knowing how to install PCI peripherals in workstations(another whole topic in and of itself).
Nothing frustrates an engineer/programmer more than having to explain program use/concepts to the non-initiated. Its a royal pain in the ass because the other person doesn't have 1/10 the backround necessary to even understand what is being said. This usually results in both being pissed off at each other. No wonder help desk types are so stressed these days. They have to bear the brunt of this conflict daily.
Engineers having refined social skills won't change a thing if end-users refuse to learn at least the basic concepts of the application(s)/theories in question. For example, how much more dumbed down can we make windows? The interface is so overworked its becoming COUNTER intuitive to people who KNOW what they're doing (By this, I mean competent users, not programmers). The real issue is the pervasive learned fear of technology. There's no reason why most of these users can't learn a modern program. I mean, back in the WP5.1 days we did ok, so what's different about today? Some of these 'end-users' are professors with multiple masters degrees. Why can't they figure out how to manipulate the printer dialog box in windows?? Its sheer laziness..its gotta be.
Again, this isn't about rationality.. Perhaps the F22 was a bad example. Why do people tinker with antique cars when a modern japanese model surpasses them in every way with ease? Why? Because of nostalgia. The memories brought back by the car's era are more important to them than the actual car itself. This project is an ambitious attempt to bring some of that to like minded computer geeks. By definition, the choice to buy one of these isn't rational. I'm sure in a few years we'll be seeing people who collect x86 hardware even though it could be emulated easily on current systems.
I'm not attacking nor defending the hardware, just their right to do so. In all likelihood, they'll sell 2500 units and then flop. Maybe not, who knows. However, personally, if I just wanted the thing for the sound chips, I'd do what you said and buy one of those PCI cards with 3 or 4 SID chips on them. I just think $100 is too much for a 15 year+ outdated (but quite unique sounding) sound technology:). Maybe if the price goes down...
The problem with using USB for this functionality is that its useless unless your OS supports both the USB controller and your device. What do you do if your zip/jaz/kradstorageX drive is usb, and you have to boot to dos to upgrade your bios? Also, you are making the assumption that your OS is WORKING in the first place. Quite an assumption. Yes, floppies,PS2 ports and serial/parallel ports are old, but they WORK, are have been mapped in BIOSes for years (hence reliably), and don't depend on the operating system to enumerate and enable them. Sure some newer BIOSes will map certain types of USB devices, but that functionality is not widespread and therefore not dependable. USB/IEEE1394.b may be 'sexy' but they're no good if your stuck with a nonfunctioning OS installation. I don't care if you run mac OS, Win/Lintel or Solaris, there will be times when you need a floppy.
Also, PS2 USB converters are problematic at best. They don't always work, and when they do, you take a performance hit. I don't want to drop from a PS2 port sampling at 200hz to 125hz sampled USB pointing device. At 2048x1536, I need that 200hz to keep that pointer at least reasonably accurate at that resolution.
Finally, USB and their assorted brethen can have latency problems when used with devices like mice, especially if the PC is under load. Yes, I've seen it happen where the mouse pointer VISIBLY lags behind the mouse compared to it running on the PS2. Pitiful. Nothing beats having a dedicated IRQ for your pointing device. USB is fine for things like personal printers and cutesy web cams because they aren't sensitive to latency. There's a reason why all the crazy-gamer mice still support PS2.
I'm willing to give up these ports and devices, but only if they are replaced with something that is superior in functionality and usefulness in ALL ways. Don't take away my ability to hack my OS back together via a quick file transfer via floppy, (as opposed to a 2hr reinstall) until you can guarantee that it won't crap out in the first place. I'm not willing to give up functionality for 'sexyness' or 'fadness' like most Apple users are (be honest, the biggest anti-floppy group are in the mac user crowd).
A typical 2 dimensional view from a typical two dimensional/. Anonymous coward.
There are many more ways to look at this subject than transistors/clockspeed. That's only one step higher than judging overall performance on clockspeed at all. Try reading this article for starters...
bah.. The C1 isn't about economics at all. This looks like a small scale effort done by hobbyists. They can't hope to make much money (if any) on it. If you were a fan of the hardware, you were a fan of the hardware regardless as to whether its 'economical' or not. It really is intended for 20 something geeks who had one of the originals during the 1980s and would like some real hardware to play with. Think about it, would you rather fly a real F22 or just fly a simulator?
Thats the problem with business types. They are usually too rigid and closeminded to even CONSIDER an idea in any other way than dollar signs. If this project were run by business types, you wouldn't be seeing it at ALL. Think about it..
Liability would work for proprietary software vendors since there is someone for the insurance companies to extract money from, but how would one hold an open source project responsible? After all, OSS is usually provided 'as-is' and 'without warranty expressed or implied.'
My guess is that the responsibility would fall back on the company in question thereby making OSS uninsurable. This might have a negative impact on OSS adoptance by IT depts if this 'hacker insurance' idea takes off. This also might add another bullet point on Microsoft's I-hate-OSS-and-you-should-too campaign flyer.
I guess my opinion is that people need to take responsibility for their problems. There seems to be an increasing need for people to blame someone else instead. Its why the lawyers and insurance companies are making a killing right now.
Re:how about a cell phone jammer?
on
GPS Jamming for $50
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Um, excuse me but if I have to pay ~$9 to see a damn movie, I would LIKE to see it WITHOUT being interrupted by someone's f***ing lame ass cell phone ring/conversation every 5 minutes. Now THAT is rude. If you want to make/take a call, then stand outside the auditorium to make it so you won't disturb others' paid-for entertainment. Come on, if you even think you might need to take an important call, wtf are you doing at a MOVIE THEATER with a cell phone? You should be at home/work waiting by a landline. Now that cell phones are nothing more than status items to show how big (or small) one's genitalia are, they ARE just a nuisance and should be blocked in certain situations.
Yeah...I'm sure clan cK, daler and co are going to give up their 125fps framerate in quake at 800x600+ on a nice monitor with high sample rate mouse to play some halo/HL clone over the internet on a console. I'm sorry but a ~512x384 interlaced resolution chugging along at ~25-35fps on Xbox/PS2 just doesn't compare. After playing PC games for years, the difference is painfully obvious, even to me. Most of the console fps games I've played ran really slowly, whether they're PC ports or not. Its even noticable in the COMMERCIALS for these games! One I saw was for a Navy Seals PS2. It featured a bunch of kids playing over the net vs some supposed army types (who own them haha). The in-game footage wes slow, choppy and inconsistent. Sure, the consoles look pretty....if you like a low res slide show that's slightly anti-aliased by the interlaced TV res. The developers push the machines too damn hard! Its too bad the only thing that sells console games these days is eye candy. At least a PC game that is bloat today, will run fine on tomorrow's hardware and can be tweaked to suit the player's preferences for performance vs eye candy. Very very few console games allow this, and those that do only offer a very limited set of options.
Now, what about mods? Most fps games stay alive because fans write up modifications/make new maps to keep the game interesting. Where would Quake be today without mods? Sure, consoles are starting to come with HDs, but with the draconian licensing surrounding the console dev. kits, any mods that do come out will be illegal (and probably banned from the multi-play services making them all but useless).
In the early days of consoles, the games were simple enough that most bugs could be easily found (in fact the japanese players loved finding the ones that did slip through). Today's console games, however, are far from perfect. As the games get more complicated (and more are ported from PC) the bigger the chance becomes of a showstopper bug slipping through. Then what happens? Well normally, the vendor releases a little (sometimes not so little) update that fixes the problem. On a console, you're screwed. You're out ~$50 and are now the proud owner of a plastic coaster. The gamer is now depending on the 'charity' of the vendor to send him a new disc. Yeah, that'll be the day.
While I'm sure that consoles will take over most of the mainstream gaming market, PC gaming will always have an audience akin to 'audiophilia'. If nothing else, there's no satisfying the lure of getting your CURRENT games running BETTER by having the capability of upgrading the hardware:).
I wouldn't say they're any better off actually. I'll tell you one thing, they weren't all born with low self-esteem and zero self-worth. What do you think drove most of these people to 'hide out' in a fantasy world, whether it be driven by heroin or Nvidia? Social intolerance because they were different somehow. These people had to shit on them every chance they got just so they could feel 'superior somehow. When this happens over and over for years, some people suck it up, and by doing so, completely ruin their social skills and emotional state. These people end up being miserable for the rest of their lives. Others? They say 'fuck it,' grab a machinegun and lay waste to the society that so totally and completely stomped out their self-worth, they felt they had nothing to lose. Still others turn to chemicals like alcohol and opiates and in doing so commit slow-acting suicide.
I submit that those who 'stoop' to mere interactive entertainment for escape from an intolerable environment are far stronger than those who picked up either a machinegun or a shotglass. After all, which is stronger? A video game that triggers natural enorphines, or some artificial chemical that is easily 100x more powerful than the natural equivalent? Could they have an addiction problem? Of course. Were they the cause? Depends. I am merely pointing out a most probable start of the cycle for most 'addicted' gamers. Keep what I said in mind the next time you are tempted to shit on the 'Nintendork' in class or that 'Everqueer IT guy' at your workplace. You're not helping. WTF? You don't like some person because they play a dumb video game? You want him to be more 'normal'? Why not ask him to hang out with your circle of friends at some point. That might make him wake up a little and realize the Real World might be worth experiencing a little now and then...
Bah, why do I bother. 95% of the world sees it as you do probably. So be it.
Did you use the exact same drivers they did? If I recall, after this gave them sufficiently bad publicity, they released drivers without the stupid hack.
"I've had quiet the contrary issue. I have never had any issues with ATI drivers, and love and worship ATI as a whole..."
No one should trust the opinion of someone who 'worships' a company like that.
Until they offer the music in some sort of open standard that can be implemented on ANY computer WITHOUT ROYALTIES, I will not buy from nor support them. Why should I have to have windows (or whatever) to play music I legally purchased? Its like having to read a book with a special light because its printed in special ink that's otherwise invisible, and the text is of poor quality and resolution. WMA is a poor choice both technically (it sounds terrible compared with other current formats) and politically since it is tied to one vendor. Also, I want the choice of being able to purchase music stored in a non-lossy system. Those who think MP3/Ogg/WMA/MPEGx sounds/looks as good as the original recording are those who've killed their ears listening to their 5kW car stereos or only listen through crap 'multimedia' speakers. Anyone taken a good look at digital cable (not HDTV though it has issues too) on a decent TV lately? Even on a 7 year old sony XBR^2 TV, the picture has all kinds of noticable dithering and banding compared to an analog picture and the sound is mp3 quality at best. Unfortunately, most people can't tell the difference and/or don't care, so I'm sure the day will come when access to the uncompressed media is gone forever in the name of cost, 'convenience' and 'security'. After all, the not really secure as it will be hacked, yet it is klunky enough to piss off average consumers.
I don't see why I should spend tons of $$ on a good stereo system if I can only get this compressed crap that sounds like it was recorded with a $99 boom box. 128kb/sec != cd quality people! These formats are ok for a trial listening or two, or for a portable walkman, but not for an audiophile setup. Yes, I know audiophiles are only a tiny fraction of the market. However, the difference between the formats is that one (CD) was good enough for almost every conceivable system, while these 'lossy' formats are certainly NOT. Its a downgrade as far as I'm concerned. Think of it this way: Would you want a shitty jpg inkjet printout of a mona lisa or a hand painted copy of the real thing hanging on the wall?
rupees? Well in that case, if India's citizens need more rupees, just have them walk out, then back into a dungeon that has some and they can collect as many as they need! Then they can go get that nasty ganon!
ha..ha.............ha? ok nm.
"The perfect example we like to use is Doom3; Doom3 was designed around DX8 technology, it will be Doom3's successor that can truly take advantage of the features of GeForce FX."
Doom is based on DirectX 8? Well, maybe for sound and control input on windows but not for the renderer. Does this refer to the version of shader specification being used or is Anandtech smoking crack?
In the video graphics market, the first generation features of a new card are almost NEVER used until two or three successive generations later. Eg, the Geforce vs the geforce 2,3 and their 'hardware transform and lighting.' What matters is, how well is the card going to play TODAYs games like doom3 (both the card's and the game's release will roughly coincide)? By the time 'tomorrow's games' that use these new features come out, this GeforceFX will be far too slow to play them well anyway. The GeforceFX 2 or 3 should be able to...and guess what? They'll have some new features..and so on and on and on....
I buy video cards based on how well they'll run my favorite games of today on my current system, not on how well they'll run QuakeEngine(tm) version 7 two years down the road. I'll worry about that then.
So you're saying that the next gen oracle, doom 3, and Blender should be written in python/perl/java? C code, btw is not usually all that portable. The libraries vary so greatly between systems that porting can be a long process. This is especially true for C++ applications as the level of compliancy between different compilers varies even more greatly than with C. This is as it should be, since the semantics of systems also varies greatly. Another point to mention, is that if the libraries of the system you're porting FROM are not open source, you'll either have to re-create their functionality(create a 'wrapper'), or re-write your code to use the target's equivalents(preferred). Either way, its a daunting task, especially for large projects. Despite this, its usually worth the effort.
High level languages are nice for development/turnaround time and maintenance, but they really lack in terms of performance compared to a straight C/asm application. This makes them good for quick-and-dirty programs for web pages and system admin tasks but horrible for applications that require a significant percentage of cpu time. EVERY single java applet/application I've used, was slow, ugly looking and used an inordinate amount of cpu time. I avoid them like the plague and try to find a equivalent in C source/native binary format whenever possible.
On Portable APIs:
Again, nice and convenient for programmers, but usually ugly and inconsistent for end users. EG: GTKradiant (http://www.qeradiant.com). While using the GTK toolkit makes it easier to keep the program portable, in most environments (except Gnome I suppose) its interface is foreign and behaves inconsistently with its surrounding environment, whether it be win32, KDE or anything else. For a stark comparison, try out the win32 gtkradiant and then the original id software win32 native version. It runs a WHOLE lot better than the GTK port on windows.
Another example would be the win32 port of kVirc (version 3.0.x). While a little less clunky than GTKradiant, the QT functions mess with your windows settings by renabling many of the eye candy features so its transparent effects work properly. Even though kVirc gives you options to turn this stuff off, the QT runtime still renables the settings anyway. This is stupid, yet typical of the types of bugs found in a situation such as this.
Anyone remember MS Word 6.0.x for Macintosh? It was so bad, MS rewrote the GUI using standard mac calls and rereleased it as Word 6.1. It was slow, bloated, and had a ton of bugs because MS decided to take the easy way out and port just enough of the windows run-time to get the application running.
I guess my point with all of this is that using 'portable' APIs and high level languages does come with a penalty. Both high level and low level languages/APIs offer different benefits and drawbacks. Consider how you would approach the problem as well as the userbase involved. Are they going to be pissed off because your program lags their workstations? Are they willing to wait around every time your java applet processes their 1MB+ spreadsheet and redraws the GUI via that extra layer(or two or three) of abstraction? Are they going to tolerate the interface inconsistencies inherent in those 'portable' APIs compared to their native one? If your user is going to PAY for software that you claim to be compatible with his OS, it had damn well better be native code. Besides, a shoddy looking/running program makes you look bad right?
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Sure, this is great for you....unless your drive happens to be one of those 'mass produced' POS that has failed and now you're out X amount of $$$.
When are people going to realize that comparing ATA and SCSI via price vs. Paper Features(tm) vs. synthetic benchmarks is meaningless?
Please go read up on the differences between exposure of moving objects on film vs. the output of a 3d rendering device and you'll see why 24fps is 'tolerable' for movies. Even at 24fps, I still walk out of a theater with a headache from the 24hz flicker of the movie and the 60hz flicker of the display (nevermind the heterodyning of the two!). If you look at each individual frame, you'll see that there's inherent motion blur in the moving objects which happens to coincide with the amount of time that 1 frame is displayed. This gives the appearance of smooth motion, but its not perfect.
Most people who play these games have visual acuity much higher than average. If you truely believe in the age old "24hz-is-good-enough-for-everyone" bs, then why buy a monitor capable of greater than 60hz? After all, its MORE than twice that of a motion picture film. Your logic is fatally flawed.
I find it humorous that people who are, by your definition 'in touch with reality' are the same types who go running to their 'out of touch vi-using friends' to fix their WINDOWS computer when it breaks down. Its interesting how most uncertified teenage unix hacks can figure out (and fix) windows, yet most windows users/CERTIFIED admins break out sweating when faced with a computer without a 'start' menu.
I also think its humorous that most of the servers that contain all that porn and other dreck out there on the net (there mainly for your 'type's' benefit) that you and your 'in touch with reality' friends download, is hosted and routed by machines admined by 'out of touch vi-using' administrators.
I think people will start 'giving a fuck' when they find their computer is rebelling a little too much against the goals they want to accomplish with it (ie pirating music/movies etc). Considering the increasingly draconian design of windows, linux and other alternatives will look all that more tempting.
Get a clue. Since you're bothering to post here, you must have some interest in the subject, so don't tell me "I don't care." If you don't care, go download some more pr0n and/or britney spears mp3s and never visit slashdot again. Maybe you are just afraid that if windows dies off, you'll have to learn a new system? Oh well, c'est la vie. By then they'll all be pretty easy to use, and if you still have trouble, then YOU'LL be the one living in the past.
If you consider the current formula for an RTS, you simply cannot have the same level of complexity in a 8-12 button joystick that you can get with a 101 key keyboard and mouse. More importantly, the TV is no match for a nice high quality, high refresh, high-res non-interlaced monitor.
Have you ever tried 'expanding' a game? Have you ever worked on a mod or map project? I doubt it considering your attitude. Don't knock it 'til you try it. It isn't just about 'waiting for the next release.' Its about having FUN with the game after you've played it's maps Xmillion times. With a console, you'll NEVER EVER have that kind of flexibility. Even if the hardware down the road would allow it, the cartels controlling that hardware's content certainly will not. They make their money via the content they sell to you, and they don't want to be competing with their customers (ie you).
While I am not that familiar with sony's online package, the xbox live service does charge an extra fee on top of whatever normal isp fee you pay already. Of course, this opens up a whole new issue regardless of the console you own. What happens to your investment when sony decides that game X(or console for that matter!) is to be removed from the net servers? Guess you can't play it anymore, except single player. Sure, in some cases, you can link the consoles up via a switch and play on a lan, but since the games were written with a third party server in mind (And remember they can't be patched), you can never play them over the net again. Although this trend is starting to hit PC games(blizzard comes to mind as do the MMPORPGs), many of the games are designed to be run independently. If id software or Epic games goes out of business tomorrow, I can still fire up the games and play them over the net with friends if I wish.
With the world's gamers becoming more and more dependent on the internet for gaming, that last thing we need is some centralized group of people to decide what games we are going to play or not based on some lame financial forcast. Sure, the stock arguement is that you'll just buy and play a newer game. Considering all the rushed crap coming out of the development houses these days (for both console and pc), I'd rather let social forces dictate when I give up a game (ie there are no more players playing it). On a PC, there are people out there still playing Doom and Quake (1) as well as those who play Q3 and UT2k3. In fact, the most popular online game out there, counter-strike, is a 2+ year old mod of a five year old game developed on a 6-8 year old engine! If it weren't for this kind of flexibility, that game would not exist today.
The bottom line is, console players will never have the freedoms (especially when it comes to fully exploiting the concept of network gaming) that PC gamers do, and that's too bad. I used to buy into consoles for their arcade translations back in high school. Since stand-up arcade machines are dying out and being replaced by net connected computers, the need is diminishing. Consoles today are nothing more than stripped down computers manufactured by companies who were caught short by the internet so they created artificial scarcity via exclusive 'communities' and publishing contracts (RIAA anyone?).
Why is something like this on slashdot? Sigh, I guess I'll never understand the compulsive need to drink..
Then that non-technical executive and his idiotic company have no business on the internet. Plain and simple. The big problem here is that these companies insist that their 'web content' is somehow 'valuable' and therefore needs to be 'protected.' Its rediculous. When are these companies going to realize the internet can't be made into a top-down media streaming service where their site is the ONLY place to get certain data? They only want it this way so they can charge money for it (and we all know how worthless most of the content out there is).
One of the great things about the net is the concept of a mirror (Nvidia, get a clue). With multiple mirrors, the information is fairly well protected from destruction and no one node (and its networks) of the net is overloaded with traffic. Of course, Orwellian rewrites may be exactly what these companies want.
To these companies: Give it up, you can't pay for (or make much money from) sites with advertising alone. Either charge for access or pay up for the bandwith and write it off as advertising your company's presence. You could also do us all a favor and get out and leave room/bandwith for people who will put up some decent content.
Unrealistically idealistic? Definately. But hey, I'm an old school net user and I miss the pre-commercial, pre-AOL days.
Can I map on a console? No.
Can I use anything but the shitbox mouse/keyboard (if any is available) on a console? No.
Can I create mods for my favorite games on a console? No.
Sure, X-Box has a harddisk for saved games and I think the next-gen sony box will have one too, but give me a break. By the time I buy the console, the extra controller, the keyboard, the mouse, and whatever rip-off 'online' package they offer, I've hit the price of a low to mid end PC, minus the above advantages...
Do I get stuck watching my games in relative slide show compared to a PC? YES. Most console developers figure that since the TV only renders ~30fps effectively, that that should be their target rate. In reality, the games run in a relatively low resolution and are choppy as hell (you can even see this in the commercials for the various games). Oh yeah, don't forget, in a console game, the player usually has NO control over display settings, so he can't sacrifice some of the rediculous eye candy for performance... 90% of the life of most FPS games is the expandability. Without that, it would die in weeks. I wonder if RTS games are even playable at a TV resolution?
There's another component to this. Most gamers are younger, and more technically adept than most of the population. They (whether they realize it or not) intuitively understand what the interface is telling them without excessive baby sitting. Most 30+ somethings these days are afraid of 'breaking' the computer. Younger people have no such compunctions.. Also, the fact that these people are being exposed to computing in kindergarten probably helps too.
no way.. The very thing that drove most techies to their discipline was their utter lack of social skills when they were younger (I said MOST not ALL). Most technical minds are by nature not as able to communicate with other people as they relate better to logical thinking(of which most people are not). In fact, if you think about it, usually the most technical of minds tend to wind up being the most a-typical socially. This seems to be true across just about any engineering discipline whether it be electronic, mechanical or chemical... Hell, just think about the stereotype of an engineer or a computer hacker. They're usually depicted as being extraodinarily intelligent, yet a bit rough around the edges personality wise. They're usually blunt and to the point, and that bluntess is part of what upsets people. The world of an engineer/programmer is very coarse (ie closer to black and white) than most other people, and as a result, interpersonal conflicts arise. Forcing (if its even possible) engineers to learn how to kiss ass would probably result in them being less effective engineers. Ass kissing is for the marketing types/admin. That's what they do best after all. They get paid the bigger salary, so why not let them handle this conflict between the customer and the programmer and let the engineer/programmer do his job? I've worked with a few 'nice' PC techs and programmers. Sure, they were 'nice,' (overly)well dressed people, but they were terrible technically. One can only guess how one of them passed his A+ cert stated on his resume without knowing how to install PCI peripherals in workstations(another whole topic in and of itself).
Nothing frustrates an engineer/programmer more than having to explain program use/concepts to the non-initiated. Its a royal pain in the ass because the other person doesn't have 1/10 the backround necessary to even understand what is being said. This usually results in both being pissed off at each other. No wonder help desk types are so stressed these days. They have to bear the brunt of this conflict daily.
Engineers having refined social skills won't change a thing if end-users refuse to learn at least the basic concepts of the application(s)/theories in question. For example, how much more dumbed down can we make windows? The interface is so overworked its becoming COUNTER intuitive to people who KNOW what they're doing (By this, I mean competent users, not programmers). The real issue is the pervasive learned fear of technology. There's no reason why most of these users can't learn a modern program. I mean, back in the WP5.1 days we did ok, so what's different about today? Some of these 'end-users' are professors with multiple masters degrees. Why can't they figure out how to manipulate the printer dialog box in windows?? Its sheer laziness..its gotta be.
Again, this isn't about rationality.. Perhaps the F22 was a bad example. Why do people tinker with antique cars when a modern japanese model surpasses them in every way with ease? Why? Because of nostalgia. The memories brought back by the car's era are more important to them than the actual car itself. This project is an ambitious attempt to bring some of that to like minded computer geeks. By definition, the choice to buy one of these isn't rational.
:). Maybe if the price goes down...
I'm sure in a few years we'll be seeing people who collect x86 hardware even though it could be emulated easily on current systems.
I'm not attacking nor defending the hardware, just their right to do so. In all likelihood, they'll sell 2500 units and then flop. Maybe not, who knows. However, personally, if I just wanted the thing for the sound chips, I'd do what you said and buy one of those PCI cards with 3 or 4 SID chips on them. I just think $100 is too much for a 15 year+ outdated (but quite unique sounding) sound technology
The problem with using USB for this functionality is that its useless unless your OS supports both the USB controller and your device. What do you do if your zip/jaz/kradstorageX drive is usb, and you have to boot to dos to upgrade your bios?
Also, you are making the assumption that your OS is WORKING in the first place. Quite an assumption. Yes, floppies,PS2 ports and serial/parallel ports are old, but they WORK, are have been mapped in BIOSes for years (hence reliably), and don't depend on the operating system to enumerate and enable them. Sure some newer BIOSes will map certain types of USB devices, but that functionality is not widespread and therefore not dependable. USB/IEEE1394.b may be 'sexy' but they're no good if your stuck with a nonfunctioning OS installation. I don't care if you run mac OS, Win/Lintel or Solaris, there will be times when you need a floppy.
Also, PS2 USB converters are problematic at best. They don't always work, and when they do, you take a performance hit. I don't want to drop from a PS2 port sampling at 200hz to 125hz sampled USB pointing device. At 2048x1536, I need that 200hz to keep that pointer at least reasonably accurate at that resolution.
Finally, USB and their assorted brethen can have latency problems when used with devices like mice, especially if the PC is under load. Yes, I've seen it happen where the mouse pointer VISIBLY lags behind the mouse compared to it running on the PS2. Pitiful. Nothing beats having a dedicated IRQ for your pointing device. USB is fine for things like personal printers and cutesy web cams because they aren't sensitive to latency. There's a reason why all the crazy-gamer mice still support PS2.
I'm willing to give up these ports and devices, but only if they are replaced with something that is superior in functionality and usefulness in ALL ways. Don't take away my ability to hack my OS back together via a quick file transfer via floppy, (as opposed to a 2hr reinstall) until you can guarantee that it won't crap out in the first place. I'm not willing to give up functionality for 'sexyness' or 'fadness' like most Apple users are (be honest, the biggest anti-floppy group are in the mac user crowd).
How about K-radBSD for those old school types? :P
A typical 2 dimensional view from a typical two dimensional /. Anonymous coward.
There are many more ways to look at this subject than transistors/clockspeed. That's only one step higher than judging overall performance on clockspeed at all. Try reading this article for starters...
bah.. The C1 isn't about economics at all. This looks like a small scale effort done by hobbyists. They can't hope to make much money (if any) on it. If you were a fan of the hardware, you were a fan of the hardware regardless as to whether its 'economical' or not. It really is intended for 20 something geeks who had one of the originals during the 1980s and would like some real hardware to play with. Think about it, would you rather fly a real F22 or just fly a simulator?
Thats the problem with business types. They are usually too rigid and closeminded to even CONSIDER an idea in any other way than dollar signs. If this project were run by business types, you wouldn't be seeing it at ALL. Think about it..
Liability would work for proprietary software vendors since there is someone for the insurance companies to extract money from, but how would one hold an open source project responsible? After all, OSS is usually provided 'as-is' and 'without warranty expressed or implied.'
My guess is that the responsibility would fall back on the company in question thereby making OSS uninsurable. This might have a negative impact on OSS adoptance by IT depts if this 'hacker insurance' idea takes off. This also might add another bullet point on Microsoft's I-hate-OSS-and-you-should-too campaign flyer.
I guess my opinion is that people need to take responsibility for their problems. There seems to be an increasing need for people to blame someone else instead. Its why the lawyers and insurance companies are making a killing right now.
Um, excuse me but if I have to pay ~$9 to see a damn movie, I would LIKE to see it WITHOUT being interrupted by someone's f***ing lame ass cell phone ring/conversation every 5 minutes. Now THAT is rude. If you want to make/take a call, then stand outside the auditorium to make it so you won't disturb others' paid-for entertainment. Come on, if you even think you might need to take an important call, wtf are you doing at a MOVIE THEATER with a cell phone? You should be at home/work waiting by a landline. Now that cell phones are nothing more than status items to show how big (or small) one's genitalia are, they ARE just a nuisance and should be blocked in certain situations.
Yeah...I'm sure clan cK, daler and co are going to give up their 125fps framerate in quake at 800x600+ on a nice monitor with high sample rate mouse to play some halo/HL clone over the internet on a console. I'm sorry but a ~512x384 interlaced resolution chugging along at ~25-35fps on Xbox/PS2 just doesn't compare. After playing PC games for years, the difference is painfully obvious, even to me. Most of the console fps games I've played ran really slowly, whether they're PC ports or not. Its even noticable in the COMMERCIALS for these games! One I saw was for a Navy Seals PS2. It featured a bunch of kids playing over the net vs some supposed army types (who own them haha). The in-game footage wes slow, choppy and inconsistent. Sure, the consoles look pretty....if you like a low res slide show that's slightly anti-aliased by the interlaced TV res. The developers push the machines too damn hard! Its too bad the only thing that sells console games these days is eye candy. At least a PC game that is bloat today, will run fine on tomorrow's hardware and can be tweaked to suit the player's preferences for performance vs eye candy. Very very few console games allow this, and those that do only offer a very limited set of options.
:).
Now, what about mods? Most fps games stay alive because fans write up modifications/make new maps to keep the game interesting. Where would Quake be today without mods? Sure, consoles are starting to come with HDs, but with the draconian licensing surrounding the console dev. kits, any mods that do come out will be illegal (and probably banned from the multi-play services making them all but useless).
In the early days of consoles, the games were simple enough that most bugs could be easily found (in fact the japanese players loved finding the ones that did slip through). Today's console games, however, are far from perfect. As the games get more complicated (and more are ported from PC) the bigger the chance becomes of a showstopper bug slipping through. Then what happens? Well normally, the vendor releases a little (sometimes not so little) update that fixes the problem. On a console, you're screwed. You're out ~$50 and are now the proud owner of a plastic coaster. The gamer is now depending on the 'charity' of the vendor to send him a new disc. Yeah, that'll be the day.
While I'm sure that consoles will take over most of the mainstream gaming market, PC gaming will always have an audience akin to 'audiophilia'. If nothing else, there's no satisfying the lure of getting your CURRENT games running BETTER by having the capability of upgrading the hardware
I wouldn't say they're any better off actually. I'll tell you one thing, they weren't all born with low self-esteem and zero self-worth. What do you think drove most of these people to 'hide out' in a fantasy world, whether it be driven by heroin or Nvidia? Social intolerance because they were different somehow. These people had to shit on them every chance they got just so they could feel 'superior somehow. When this happens over and over for years, some people suck it up, and by doing so, completely ruin their social skills and emotional state. These people end up being miserable for the rest of their lives. Others? They say 'fuck it,' grab a machinegun and lay waste to the society that so totally and completely stomped out their self-worth, they felt they had nothing to lose. Still others turn to chemicals like alcohol and opiates and in doing so commit slow-acting suicide.
I submit that those who 'stoop' to mere interactive entertainment for escape from an intolerable environment are far stronger than those who picked up either a machinegun or a shotglass. After all, which is stronger? A video game that triggers natural enorphines, or some artificial chemical that is easily 100x more powerful than the natural equivalent? Could they have an addiction problem? Of course. Were they the cause? Depends. I am merely pointing out a most probable start of the cycle for most 'addicted' gamers. Keep what I said in mind the next time you are tempted to shit on the 'Nintendork' in class or that 'Everqueer IT guy' at your workplace. You're not helping. WTF? You don't like some person because they play a dumb video game? You want him to be more 'normal'? Why not ask him to hang out with your circle of friends at some point. That might make him wake up a little and realize the Real World might be worth experiencing a little now and then...
Bah, why do I bother. 95% of the world sees it as you do probably. So be it.
Did you use the exact same drivers they did? If I recall, after this gave them sufficiently bad publicity, they released drivers without the stupid hack.
"I've had quiet the contrary issue. I have never had any issues with ATI drivers, and love and worship ATI as a whole..." No one should trust the opinion of someone who 'worships' a company like that.
Until they offer the music in some sort of open standard that can be implemented on ANY computer WITHOUT ROYALTIES, I will not buy from nor support them. Why should I have to have windows (or whatever) to play music I legally purchased? Its like having to read a book with a special light because its printed in special ink that's otherwise invisible, and the text is of poor quality and resolution. WMA is a poor choice both technically (it sounds terrible compared with other current formats) and politically since it is tied to one vendor.
Also, I want the choice of being able to purchase music stored in a non-lossy system. Those who think MP3/Ogg/WMA/MPEGx sounds/looks as good as the original recording are those who've killed their ears listening to their 5kW car stereos or only listen through crap 'multimedia' speakers. Anyone taken a good look at digital cable (not HDTV though it has issues too) on a decent TV lately? Even on a 7 year old sony XBR^2 TV, the picture has all kinds of noticable dithering and banding compared to an analog picture and the sound is mp3 quality at best. Unfortunately, most people can't tell the difference and/or don't care, so I'm sure the day will come when access to the uncompressed media is gone forever in the name of cost, 'convenience' and 'security'. After all, the not really secure as it will be hacked, yet it is klunky enough to piss off average consumers.
I don't see why I should spend tons of $$ on a good stereo system if I can only get this compressed crap that sounds like it was recorded with a $99 boom box. 128kb/sec != cd quality people! These formats are ok for a trial listening or two, or for a portable walkman, but not for an audiophile setup. Yes, I know audiophiles are only a tiny fraction of the market. However, the difference between the formats is that one (CD) was good enough for almost every conceivable system, while these 'lossy' formats are certainly NOT. Its a downgrade as far as I'm concerned. Think of it this way: Would you want a shitty jpg inkjet printout of a mona lisa or a hand painted copy of the real thing hanging on the wall?
Ok...rant --off
rupees? Well in that case, if India's citizens need more rupees, just have them walk out, then back into a dungeon that has some and they can collect as many as they need! Then they can go get that nasty ganon! ha..ha.............ha? ok nm.
Don't these stupid jokes get tiresome after awhile? Post something intelligent or don't bother.
"The perfect example we like to use is Doom3; Doom3 was designed around DX8 technology, it will be Doom3's successor that can truly take advantage of the features of GeForce FX." Doom is based on DirectX 8? Well, maybe for sound and control input on windows but not for the renderer. Does this refer to the version of shader specification being used or is Anandtech smoking crack? In the video graphics market, the first generation features of a new card are almost NEVER used until two or three successive generations later. Eg, the Geforce vs the geforce 2,3 and their 'hardware transform and lighting.' What matters is, how well is the card going to play TODAYs games like doom3 (both the card's and the game's release will roughly coincide)? By the time 'tomorrow's games' that use these new features come out, this GeforceFX will be far too slow to play them well anyway. The GeforceFX 2 or 3 should be able to...and guess what? They'll have some new features..and so on and on and on.... I buy video cards based on how well they'll run my favorite games of today on my current system, not on how well they'll run QuakeEngine(tm) version 7 two years down the road. I'll worry about that then.
On High level languages:
So you're saying that the next gen oracle, doom 3, and Blender should be written in python/perl/java? C code, btw is not usually all that portable. The libraries vary so greatly between systems that porting can be a long process. This is especially true for C++ applications as the level of compliancy between different compilers varies even more greatly than with C. This is as it should be, since the semantics of systems also varies greatly. Another point to mention, is that if the libraries of the system you're porting FROM are not open source, you'll either have to re-create their functionality(create a 'wrapper'), or re-write your code to use the target's equivalents(preferred). Either way, its a daunting task, especially for large projects. Despite this, its usually worth the effort.
High level languages are nice for development/turnaround time and maintenance, but they really lack in terms of performance compared to a straight C/asm application. This makes them good for quick-and-dirty programs for web pages and system admin tasks but horrible for applications that require a significant percentage of cpu time. EVERY single java applet/application I've used, was slow, ugly looking and used an inordinate amount of cpu time. I avoid them like the plague and try to find a equivalent in C source/native binary format whenever possible.
On Portable APIs:
Again, nice and convenient for programmers, but usually ugly and inconsistent for end users. EG: GTKradiant (http://www.qeradiant.com). While using the GTK toolkit makes it easier to keep the program portable, in most environments (except Gnome I suppose) its interface is foreign and behaves inconsistently with its surrounding environment, whether it be win32, KDE or anything else. For a stark comparison, try out the win32 gtkradiant and then the original id software win32 native version. It runs a WHOLE lot better than the GTK port on windows.
Another example would be the win32 port of kVirc (version 3.0.x). While a little less clunky than GTKradiant, the QT functions mess with your windows settings by renabling many of the eye candy features so its transparent effects work properly. Even though kVirc gives you options to turn this stuff off, the QT runtime still renables the settings anyway. This is stupid, yet typical of the types of bugs found in a situation such as this.
Anyone remember MS Word 6.0.x for Macintosh? It was so bad, MS rewrote the GUI using standard mac calls and rereleased it as Word 6.1. It was slow, bloated, and had a ton of bugs because MS decided to take the easy way out and port just enough of the windows run-time to get the application running.
I guess my point with all of this is that using 'portable' APIs and high level languages does come with a penalty. Both high level and low level languages/APIs offer different benefits and drawbacks. Consider how you would approach the problem as well as the userbase involved. Are they going to be pissed off because your program lags their workstations? Are they willing to wait around every time your java applet processes their 1MB+ spreadsheet and redraws the GUI via that extra layer(or two or three) of abstraction? Are they going to tolerate the interface inconsistencies inherent in those 'portable' APIs compared to their native one? If your user is going to PAY for software that you claim to be compatible with his OS, it had damn well better be native code. Besides, a shoddy looking/running program makes you look bad right?