The White Book is pretty good, but it could use work in a few areas. For instance: how about glossy porn inserts every two or three pages? Then I could throw out every other piece of paper in my house and I'd be ok.
Anyone who can explain something so well on paper is bound to be an amazing teacher.
The beast most of us have sitting on our desk these days is so fast as to make language performance not such an issue. What should be focused on to support the future of computing is a well-typed, well-structured language to allow programmers to think at a higher level of abstraction than previously. That's why I love Mac's standardization of Objective C so much -- it allows high-level control of programs. Performance only matters if it sucks.
Real has realized that if they do not embrace OSS, they will be swept under the rug by the combined might of M$ (Windows Media) and AOL (Nullsoft Winamp).
It's a bit like committing suicide by blowing yourself up in town center, instead of just slashing your wrists in a bathtub like a normal person. It ensures an enduring mark upon the outside world, but doesn't provide any benefit to anyone.
The PowerPC 970's design is adapted from IBM's successful Power4 server processor. Physically smaller, the PowerPC 970 sacrifices some execution units -- including the Power4's second processor core -- for 64-bit compatibility and the SIMD unit.
While the Power4 core has two processor cores and massive caches for MP implementations, the PowerPC 970 has only one processor core, an SIMD unit and a 512K on-die L2 cache. The cache includes error correction. The PowerPC 970, as described today, has no connectors for an L3 cache.
Ripping off unique Apple designs is not just pathetic, it's inevitable. I'm glad someone still takes design chances with their hardware -- it comes out quite well very often.:)
Am I the only one who sees the similarity to the modern Anti-Terrorism Plan and the old Salem Witch Hunts?
Oh, surely not. Plenty of people see it. There are differences though. During the Witch Trials people were crazy because they were poisoned with rye fungus, something the people knew nothing about. But today, it's Islam that's poisoning people's minds, and we know plenty of ways to take care of it so it doesn't get to the point of indiscriminately burning people alive.
Sure, there are plenty of innocent followers of Islam, just like there are plenty of music/software pirates who are otherwise good people. But instead of ignoring the source of a problem, a very real problem which is killing people every day, why not meet it head-on? It's no secret that most terrorists today are Islamic. 9/11, all the suicide bombings in Israel, Islamic Chechens holding 700 innocent godless Russians in a theater, the recent sniper attacks... to ignore the unifying factor is to ignore the truth. Something must be done, and I am glad that there are people in power in this country who aren't afraid to start somewhere.
now that the Internet provides near-universal exposure at comparatively no cost, the record companies' utility has expired.
I don't agree.
An anecdote some people here may share: back when I started surfing the web in 1995, websites were a lot easier to find. Back then, I'd happen upon more cool sites than I do now. These days, there is just so much of the web available that you need to use a portal/weblog/etc just to get there.
Internet-distributed music falls victim to the same problem. Sure, anyone can get it anytime anywhere, but what good is that if no one will find it? Record companies provide valuable services to musicians: distribution, promotion, sending CDs to radio stations, booking, etc. To discount all these just because there are some greedy record companies is foolish and immature. The Internet is not the final answer for musicians.
That said, I am very glad that someone in Finland can download my band's mp3s anytime.
Plenty of graphically-oriented sites are still navigable in Lynx. People here seem to be assuming that to make a Lynx-compatible site you need to bend over backwards and neuter your site design. This is not true. All it takes is a little bit of web design skill, something that most web designers have always lacked.
I didn't say anything about mandates. I just said that web designers who do not take accessibility into account deserve a kick in the nuts. To me it's a personal/corporate responsibility issue.
In my opinion, web design which makes a site inaccessible to impaired people is rude, discourteous, and even odious. It's not like disabled don't have enough problems. If you can't view it in Lynx, you're a bastard for writing it.
Tube amps may produce a better-sounding signal than solid-state amps, but the output signal of a solid-state amp is closer to the input signal. Period.
I've been saying this all along. If a dirtier signal sounds better, who cares about fidelity?
Here's a perfect example of...cave men clinging to the flat earth idea, creationists bashing evolution, and as P. T. Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute".
I want you to go to an audio boutique, pick a piece of music, and listen to it on both their best solid-state system and their best tube system. Have you done this before? It certainly sounds like you have, as you are putting forth a very strong opinion about it. Anyone who puts out such an opinion must be very sure of themselves, sure enough that they've actually checNO WAIT YOU DIDN'T. YOU ARE JUST A FUCKING ASSHOLE WHO DOESN'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT SHIT YET BELIEVES HE SHITS ICE CREAM AND DROPS KNOWLEDGE AT EVERY BELCH.
Eat a bag of shit and shoot yourself in the head. While you're at it, read up on tube amplification (theory, not product reviews) and listen to a few.
Look at the link I posted above. Max plate dissipation for one side of a 12AX7 is 1.1W; therefore the total dissipation for the three 12AX7s is going to be under 6.6W. This is no big problem.
In general, Class A amps don't get too hot, because in order to keep the signal from distorting you can't push the tubes too hard. In Class AB, in which pairs of overdriven tubes are used to amplify the living shit out of a signal, you start to see more heat coming from the tubes. The tubes used in AB amps (usually the power amplification stage) are much larger, such as the venerable 30W 6L6 or the 40W KT88.
It's not just that though. Tube amps sound very different when clipping (ie, amplitude too high).
This is a preamp. No clipping should be going on at all.
You're right about the difference between clipping styles, but this is only an issue in guitar amps, or other amps where overdrive distortion is intentional. A preamp between the DAC and the sound-out port on a computer should not overdrive at all. If it does, it will sound like ass.
The style of amplification in use here, called Class A, is defined by the fact that the input signal is biased such that no clipping occurs.
I find it very interesting that they would put tubes on there for the center, satellite and stereo channels. From my experience rec.audio.* groups (sampling of the "high end" users that have computers), those that prefer the tube sound would probably not buy a mobo with that (preferring instead to waste $20k on an amp that would do it for them).
Tube power amps sound just a little bit better than their solid-state counterparts. The place where tubes really shine is in Class A (non-push-pull) amplification, which is generally used in the preamp phase. It's here where tubes' famous even-order harmonics are produced -- it's these octave harmonics which make tube sound so sweet and agreeable to human ears. Taking audio from a regular computer sound card, audio which has been produced with a solid-state preamp, and pumping it through a $20k tube power amp is just what you called -- a waste. However, when tubes are intimately involved in the sound production within the computer and are used for preamplification, you can hook it up to a $150 solid-state power amp and it will sound better than sound from a regular soundcard.
For supposedly playing to the low-end audiophile market, AOpen isn't doing a great job. Nowhere can I find what kind of tubes they're using!
Since six channels are being amplified (5.1) and three tubes are present, I'm assuming they're using three double-triodes in Class A configuration. Maybe 12AX7s? Note to AOpen: people care about this kind of thing.
I went to MacWorld this year, in NYC. I was so excited to be able to attend for the first time.
Bullshit. No vendors were giving anything away (I think I saw some free peace-sign pins. oooooh.), the best product announcement Apple could muster was adding two diagonal inches to the iMac LCD, and all the interesting stuff (talks, etc) cost way too much money. The best part was going to a #mfz buddy's apartment in Manhattan and smoking Manhattan kind bud for the rest of the day.
Apple plays no great part in the whole thing, and if you ask me it's a waste of time anyhow.
If Apple won't be at MW2004, then we can safely assume that no new PPCs will be showing up in the Apple lineup. Because if they were, Steve Jobs would NOT BE ABLE TO RESIST announcing it there.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple were trying to break from the pattern of announcing all their new shit at conferences (MW, SIGGRAPH, etc). That leads to too much speculation.
Slashdot Mirror
The White Book is pretty good, but it could use work in a few areas. For instance: how about glossy porn inserts every two or three pages? Then I could throw out every other piece of paper in my house and I'd be ok.
Anyone who can explain something so well on paper is bound to be an amazing teacher.
The beast most of us have sitting on our desk these days is so fast as to make language performance not such an issue. What should be focused on to support the future of computing is a well-typed, well-structured language to allow programmers to think at a higher level of abstraction than previously. That's why I love Mac's standardization of Objective C so much -- it allows high-level control of programs. Performance only matters if it sucks.
Real network has ZERO creditility with me. I hate them with a passion. They are the AoHell of media players.
No sir, that's Winamp you're thinking of.
Real has realized that if they do not embrace OSS, they will be swept under the rug by the combined might of M$ (Windows Media) and AOL (Nullsoft Winamp).
It's a bit like committing suicide by blowing yourself up in town center, instead of just slashing your wrists in a bathtub like a normal person. It ensures an enduring mark upon the outside world, but doesn't provide any benefit to anyone.
The PowerPC 970's design is adapted from IBM's successful Power4 server processor. Physically smaller, the PowerPC 970 sacrifices some execution units -- including the Power4's second processor core -- for 64-bit compatibility and the SIMD unit.
While the Power4 core has two processor cores and massive caches for MP implementations, the PowerPC 970 has only one processor core, an SIMD unit and a 512K on-die L2 cache. The cache includes error correction. The PowerPC 970, as described today, has no connectors for an L3 cache.
Hey, when I see an FP I grab it. No sense letting it go to waste!
Ripping off unique Apple designs is not just pathetic, it's inevitable. I'm glad someone still takes design chances with their hardware -- it comes out quite well very often. :)
the Skidpad
FP!
Am I the only one who sees the similarity to the modern Anti-Terrorism Plan and the old Salem Witch Hunts?
Oh, surely not. Plenty of people see it. There are differences though. During the Witch Trials people were crazy because they were poisoned with rye fungus, something the people knew nothing about. But today, it's Islam that's poisoning people's minds, and we know plenty of ways to take care of it so it doesn't get to the point of indiscriminately burning people alive.
Sure, there are plenty of innocent followers of Islam, just like there are plenty of music/software pirates who are otherwise good people. But instead of ignoring the source of a problem, a very real problem which is killing people every day, why not meet it head-on? It's no secret that most terrorists today are Islamic. 9/11, all the suicide bombings in Israel, Islamic Chechens holding 700 innocent godless Russians in a theater, the recent sniper attacks... to ignore the unifying factor is to ignore the truth. Something must be done, and I am glad that there are people in power in this country who aren't afraid to start somewhere.
Wow, Man! This Is Totally A Refreshingly Insightful And Insightfully Refreshing Indictment Of The Practices Of Elected Officials In Modern America!
Gag me with a taser.
p.s. iplayfasterthanyou
now that the Internet provides near-universal exposure at comparatively no cost, the record companies' utility has expired.
I don't agree.
An anecdote some people here may share: back when I started surfing the web in 1995, websites were a lot easier to find. Back then, I'd happen upon more cool sites than I do now. These days, there is just so much of the web available that you need to use a portal/weblog/etc just to get there.
Internet-distributed music falls victim to the same problem. Sure, anyone can get it anytime anywhere, but what good is that if no one will find it? Record companies provide valuable services to musicians: distribution, promotion, sending CDs to radio stations, booking, etc. To discount all these just because there are some greedy record companies is foolish and immature. The Internet is not the final answer for musicians.
That said, I am very glad that someone in Finland can download my band's mp3s anytime.
Plenty of graphically-oriented sites are still navigable in Lynx. People here seem to be assuming that to make a Lynx-compatible site you need to bend over backwards and neuter your site design. This is not true. All it takes is a little bit of web design skill, something that most web designers have always lacked.
But mandated?
I didn't say anything about mandates. I just said that web designers who do not take accessibility into account deserve a kick in the nuts. To me it's a personal/corporate responsibility issue.
In my opinion, web design which makes a site inaccessible to impaired people is rude, discourteous, and even odious. It's not like disabled don't have enough problems. If you can't view it in Lynx, you're a bastard for writing it.
Tube amps may produce a better-sounding signal than solid-state amps, but the output signal of a solid-state amp is closer to the input signal. Period.
I've been saying this all along. If a dirtier signal sounds better, who cares about fidelity?
Here's a perfect example of...cave men clinging to the flat earth idea, creationists bashing evolution, and as P. T. Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute".
I want you to go to an audio boutique, pick a piece of music, and listen to it on both their best solid-state system and their best tube system. Have you done this before? It certainly sounds like you have, as you are putting forth a very strong opinion about it. Anyone who puts out such an opinion must be very sure of themselves, sure enough that they've actually checNO WAIT YOU DIDN'T. YOU ARE JUST A FUCKING ASSHOLE WHO DOESN'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT SHIT YET BELIEVES HE SHITS ICE CREAM AND DROPS KNOWLEDGE AT EVERY BELCH.
Eat a bag of shit and shoot yourself in the head. While you're at it, read up on tube amplification (theory, not product reviews) and listen to a few.
Look at the link I posted above. Max plate dissipation for one side of a 12AX7 is 1.1W; therefore the total dissipation for the three 12AX7s is going to be under 6.6W. This is no big problem.
In general, Class A amps don't get too hot, because in order to keep the signal from distorting you can't push the tubes too hard. In Class AB, in which pairs of overdriven tubes are used to amplify the living shit out of a signal, you start to see more heat coming from the tubes. The tubes used in AB amps (usually the power amplification stage) are much larger, such as the venerable 30W 6L6 or the 40W KT88.
It's not just that though. Tube amps sound very different when clipping (ie, amplitude too high).
This is a preamp. No clipping should be going on at all.
You're right about the difference between clipping styles, but this is only an issue in guitar amps, or other amps where overdrive distortion is intentional. A preamp between the DAC and the sound-out port on a computer should not overdrive at all. If it does, it will sound like ass.
The style of amplification in use here, called Class A, is defined by the fact that the input signal is biased such that no clipping occurs.
I find it very interesting that they would put tubes on there for the center, satellite and stereo channels. From my experience rec.audio.* groups (sampling of the "high end" users that have computers), those that prefer the tube sound would probably not buy a mobo with that (preferring instead to waste $20k on an amp that would do it for them).
Tube power amps sound just a little bit better than their solid-state counterparts. The place where tubes really shine is in Class A (non-push-pull) amplification, which is generally used in the preamp phase. It's here where tubes' famous even-order harmonics are produced -- it's these octave harmonics which make tube sound so sweet and agreeable to human ears. Taking audio from a regular computer sound card, audio which has been produced with a solid-state preamp, and pumping it through a $20k tube power amp is just what you called -- a waste. However, when tubes are intimately involved in the sound production within the computer and are used for preamplification, you can hook it up to a $150 solid-state power amp and it will sound better than sound from a regular soundcard.
For supposedly playing to the low-end audiophile market, AOpen isn't doing a great job. Nowhere can I find what kind of tubes they're using!
Since six channels are being amplified (5.1) and three tubes are present, I'm assuming they're using three double-triodes in Class A configuration. Maybe 12AX7s? Note to AOpen: people care about this kind of thing.
I went to MacWorld this year, in NYC. I was so excited to be able to attend for the first time.
Bullshit. No vendors were giving anything away (I think I saw some free peace-sign pins. oooooh.), the best product announcement Apple could muster was adding two diagonal inches to the iMac LCD, and all the interesting stuff (talks, etc) cost way too much money. The best part was going to a #mfz buddy's apartment in Manhattan and smoking Manhattan kind bud for the rest of the day.
Apple plays no great part in the whole thing, and if you ask me it's a waste of time anyhow.
If Apple won't be at MW2004, then we can safely assume that no new PPCs will be showing up in the Apple lineup. Because if they were, Steve Jobs would NOT BE ABLE TO RESIST announcing it there.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple were trying to break from the pattern of announcing all their new shit at conferences (MW, SIGGRAPH, etc). That leads to too much speculation.
Until these things have a whiskey port, they will do me no good.
C'mon, man, truly practical computing!
iJesus God, please don't look to Emacs and vi for insight into good UI design.^[ZZ^J
Macintosh gets UI design right with Interface Builder (which came from NeXTSTEP). I cannot recommend it enough.