This analogy should be generalized... In this modern world, virtually every nontrivial piece of technology you encounter (car, TV, mobile phone, microwave oven, etc) has a vast base of knowledge behind it which is, with the exception of the computer, invisible to all but the most specialized end users working in that field and not necessary to simply *use* it. We don't expect people to choose cars based on what brand of fuel pump they have or what embedded OS their engine monitor uses. We don't expect people to choose TVs based on the electron gun characteristics or layout of buttons on the remote. We don't have to know technical details of frequency assignments or wireless protocol design to use a cell phone. We don't need to know how radiation heats water to operate a microwave. Why are computers the exception?
(The answer seems to be a mixture of computers lacking the long history of standardization and polishing the other devices do, and the politics and elitism that prevent these standards from emerging. It really would be a good thing (for "them", if perhaps not "us") if every single computer in the world had an identical interface and core OS feature set, neglecting all considerations of precise details of this theoretical feature set.)
How fast were the Xeons? The article doesn't seem to say. If they were at significantly higher clock speed, then yes, Apple really is making far better use if it can keep up with that handicap.
Dual-processor macs have been shipping in one form or another for at least 3 years, and a number of game ports do explicitly take advantage of them. Also, the OS is smart enough to move things like sound and asynchronous OpenGL operations to the second processor for an automatic speedup.
Actually, I was using the most precise sense of the word: One who makes threats, or carries out said threats, against one group with the intent of forcing another group to bow to their demands. True, the definition does specifically mention violence, but "terrorists use bombs and anthrax" is also a generalization.
You know, when you put it that way, SPEWS are terrorists. Hurting innocents in an attempt to force a party only vaguely connected to the victims to accede to their wishes? What's the difference?
If your HD was erased by a virus, would you conclude you are an inferior user and get rid of your computer? Of course not. I don't think *anyone* has ever completely given up computer use even after a major disaster. Cells are not individually sentient, users are. This is why the analogy doesn't quite work.
I don't think it's that big of a deal in an age where I could find the names of the lunar features (or most other sets of raw facts) in 45 seconds on google instead of spending half an hour on a trip to the local library. Being well-educated today means being taught processes, like calculus (which I got in high school).
You already use the third dimensions every time you place a window overlapping another window. All that's missing is perspective.
Also remember that there are always the things that are built on top of a technology that are assumed to be impossible or sometimes can't even be imagined until the technology itself is widespread. Desktop publishing was not possible until the 2D GUI was established. Mac OS X's Expose depends on its abstracted window system and hardware-accelerated "renderer".
This is slightly off-topic here, but still worth pointing out: Not only has the EV/EVO content been ported to the OS X Nova engine, but it has also been ported to the Windows engine. Good news for everyone who still wants to play it but threw out their last Mac a while ago...
I can't wait until society evolves to the point where it's not possible to communicate anything to anyone due to the remote possibility of offending someone somewhere somehow. Actually, I think I *can* wait.
(you can declare a function in your C++ object that will be called by the debugger whe you inspect an object. The String restult of this function in displayed in the debugger)
You mean like the -description method, which has been in Cocoa since day 1?
Warthog Jump and Warthog Jump Revisited are the "Birth of a Nation" of Halo movies: Sure, they're not impressive compared to movies that came out years later, but at the time they were a revolution, and they almost singlehandedly launched the entire Halo machinima scene.
Anything is provably correct, it just depends on how much time and money you are willing to spend. *Life*-critical things like code used in hospital equipment is often proved correct in entirety.
The point of the article is that Doom III is *trying* to compete with Half-Life 2. It's not just a dumb shooter anymore, it's full of scripted events and sidekicks and so on. However, whether it can actually surpass HL2 in these areas is very much in doubt, and the changes tend to make it not as good a dumb shooter.
Slashdot Mirror
It wasn't first, Daystar's 4-CPU clone was first, but then they gave up on the concept for a while.
This analogy should be generalized... In this modern world, virtually every nontrivial piece of technology you encounter (car, TV, mobile phone, microwave oven, etc) has a vast base of knowledge behind it which is, with the exception of the computer, invisible to all but the most specialized end users working in that field and not necessary to simply *use* it. We don't expect people to choose cars based on what brand of fuel pump they have or what embedded OS their engine monitor uses. We don't expect people to choose TVs based on the electron gun characteristics or layout of buttons on the remote. We don't have to know technical details of frequency assignments or wireless protocol design to use a cell phone. We don't need to know how radiation heats water to operate a microwave. Why are computers the exception?
(The answer seems to be a mixture of computers lacking the long history of standardization and polishing the other devices do, and the politics and elitism that prevent these standards from emerging. It really would be a good thing (for "them", if perhaps not "us") if every single computer in the world had an identical interface and core OS feature set, neglecting all considerations of precise details of this theoretical feature set.)
How fast were the Xeons? The article doesn't seem to say. If they were at significantly higher clock speed, then yes, Apple really is making far better use if it can keep up with that handicap.
OpenGL still requires some grunt work on the processor. The GPU can't do things like prepare DMA sessions.
Microsoft is working on a hardware-accelerated graphics system for Longhorn, due in 2005 or 2006.
Dual-processor macs have been shipping in one form or another for at least 3 years, and a number of game ports do explicitly take advantage of them. Also, the OS is smart enough to move things like sound and asynchronous OpenGL operations to the second processor for an automatic speedup.
Anyone who would ever have a reason to type "export PATH=foo" would not be confused that easily...
Actually, I was using the most precise sense of the word: One who makes threats, or carries out said threats, against one group with the intent of forcing another group to bow to their demands. True, the definition does specifically mention violence, but "terrorists use bombs and anthrax" is also a generalization.
You know, when you put it that way, SPEWS are terrorists. Hurting innocents in an attempt to force a party only vaguely connected to the victims to accede to their wishes? What's the difference?
If your HD was erased by a virus, would you conclude you are an inferior user and get rid of your computer? Of course not. I don't think *anyone* has ever completely given up computer use even after a major disaster. Cells are not individually sentient, users are. This is why the analogy doesn't quite work.
That's old news, man. QT4 has been out for years. We're up to QT6.3 now, and I can't wait for the next version with Pixlet...
I don't think it's that big of a deal in an age where I could find the names of the lunar features (or most other sets of raw facts) in 45 seconds on google instead of spending half an hour on a trip to the local library. Being well-educated today means being taught processes, like calculus (which I got in high school).
You already use the third dimensions every time you place a window overlapping another window. All that's missing is perspective.
Also remember that there are always the things that are built on top of a technology that are assumed to be impossible or sometimes can't even be imagined until the technology itself is widespread. Desktop publishing was not possible until the 2D GUI was established. Mac OS X's Expose depends on its abstracted window system and hardware-accelerated "renderer".
This is slightly off-topic here, but still worth pointing out: Not only has the EV/EVO content been ported to the OS X Nova engine, but it has also been ported to the Windows engine. Good news for everyone who still wants to play it but threw out their last Mac a while ago...
No, that's the price you pay for us to be able to mock you. Sucker.
I can't wait until society evolves to the point where it's not possible to communicate anything to anyone due to the remote possibility of offending someone somewhere somehow. Actually, I think I *can* wait.
Actually, if it cost $699 to conceive a child, I think the world would be a much better place...
WJ and WJR are much, much older than that joke.
Warthog Jump and Warthog Jump Revisited are the "Birth of a Nation" of Halo movies: Sure, they're not impressive compared to movies that came out years later, but at the time they were a revolution, and they almost singlehandedly launched the entire Halo machinima scene.
4 buttons? How primitive. Modern users have 16-button mice, caveman!
Anything is provably correct, it just depends on how much time and money you are willing to spend. *Life*-critical things like code used in hospital equipment is often proved correct in entirety.
Actually, one of my CRTs does have a dead pixel. I was as incredulous as you are at first, but the black dot is clearly behind the monitor glass.
The point of the article is that Doom III is *trying* to compete with Half-Life 2. It's not just a dumb shooter anymore, it's full of scripted events and sidekicks and so on. However, whether it can actually surpass HL2 in these areas is very much in doubt, and the changes tend to make it not as good a dumb shooter.
No, HERE you go: FIGHT!!