If you use it day in day out you'll get yelled at, but I and my family have used the data cables for vacations for some time. latency is 2-300ms, and bandwitdh is about ISDN level.
Its a hell of a lot faster than any dialup I ever had, and if all you're doing is surfing run of the mill websites, it's almost indistinguishable from a basic broadband connection. I never tried really large file transfers but small ones I topped out at 8-10 KB/sec
Yes, it can. (I don't use this currently but have helped a friend set it up) We had svideo/audio running from the cable box into a wintv pvr-250, and a serial ir emitter (he chose to use a premade, somewhat expensive one from actisys, but there are many plans to build your own) the ir emitter was simply taped in front of the cable box and interfaced through lirc. then you just give myth the name of a script that changes the channels (skeleton scripts are provided, it basically just sends the digits in sequence).
The only drawback is that every time you change, it sends the full 3 digit channel number to the box rather than using up/down, which makes channel changing a little slower than normal. Life would be much easier if digital cable boxes had serial control.
As far as two boxes.....two scripts with a different argument to the rc command. You'd already have to have two video sources set up (one for each capture card) so its just a matter of typing channelscript2 on the properties page for the second, and hooking up another emitter to a second serial port.
And even if he gets that better job, he'll likely still not justify spending the kind of money it takes to buy a mac - until you get until the realm of filthy rich, apple hardware commands too much of a premium over its equivalent PC couterpart to be a smart budget decision.
I *hate* the digital cable interface. At least the brain-dead one that comcast uses in the phila area.
While I'll say that myth needs to get to the level of a good satellite grid guide before it will be accepted widely, be careful about the digital cable reference.
Currently anything where less than half the screen is covered with ads is better than what some of my friends pay $50+ a month for.
1xRTT (currently deployed widely in the U.S. by both verizon and sprint) is technically 3G. It is, however right down at the bottom of the definition, barely scraping by, in much the same way that many definitions of broadband may include ISDN. Most people refer to it as well as GPRS as 2.5g IIRC, GPRS just missed the cutoff to be termed 3G, whereas 1xRTT just made it.
Either way, Many people, especially those who pride themselves on knowing too much about cell phone technologies, like to make themselves feel superior by considering 1xRTT 2.5g and lumping it in with GPRS. While for the purposes of deciding which one to use, as they are rather close, the definition works, in reality, one is "3G", the other is not. If people looked at real world numbers rather than ITU "G" definitions, the whole issue wouldn't matter
You can't control the UI as you would with a remote. However, since myth is setup as a frontend/backend, there is no real need for the UI.
One of the standard mythtv modules is Mythweb, which presents a titantv-esque view of all your available channels, etc, and from which you can schedule/cancel recordings, as well as some other nice functions (more is being added with each release, such as "styles" that let it work on web-enabled cell phones)
In fact, mythweb doesn't even have to be on the same machine as the myth frontend or backend - it just has to be a box that has access to the database all the settings are stored in.
Most people who are still on dialup, are thus because they are too far out from CO/headend to get broadband. If they're that far out, chances are quite bad they're connecting at 56k.
My parents' house was such a house, too far from the central office. Luckily now we have cable, but our phone lines were such that I spent my days at 26.4 kbit. Others I know had similar experiences. So, I don't see anything wrong with NASA calling the typical home modem 32k, a more accurate representation of what people are actually getting these days.
^ Mod this one up, was just about to post that issue myself. The delay pretty much negates using it with a ps2. In this case a regular bt848 based el cheapo capture card is the way to go. I've used them for the exact purpose the OP mentions (video game consoles)
Yes, it does. However you cannot watch a digital cable channel while tivo is recording - leaving you in the same situation you were before - you may only access as many dc channels as you have boxes. The cable box is slaved to the tivo via the ir blaster, thus on your tivo you can access any channel in your subscription.
It is actually a valid, and legally sound argument. However, in this case it doesn't apply.
Their "cause" is the security assessment performed by the outside company. It doesn't need to be proven accurate to a t in court, just the fact it is there gives the bosses a legitamate reason to fire their existing guy. In the absence of something like this, were the guy simply fired without cause, unjust dismissal is easy to claim, especially against a large company. He simply picks a quality he has from the (male/female/white/black/red/blue/jewish/catholic/ e tc..) list, and gets a lawyer. I've seen it done before. The corporate lawyer had one meeting with the employee's lawyer, nearly shit himself, and the guy had his job back before the month was out. The bosses really disliked the employee, and managed to get rid of him 6mo later by building up enough of a paper trail justifying it, but the point is, for a large company, it takes work to fire someone properly.
While the article was on the subject of mice, I thought I'd take the discussion as a chance to ask a question that's been bugging me lately...
Has anyone else notice how many of the new keyboards coming out these days have the ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn cluster sideways? Personally I find this one of the most annoying things to come down the line in years. My 8 year old original microsoft natural keyboard is about to give out, and I had to resort to buying used for a replacement since so many of the new ones come with this moronic arrangement....
The big issue for me at this point is the ridiculous cost of data service. Data should be cheaper than voice because it is not necessary to block reserve the bandwidth. If I used any of the plans I have seen offered to date to surf the web I would be paying hundreds of dollars a week.
At the point reasonable cost data plans become available expect the number of devices with embedded phone systems to soar. I would like to have a phone in my car connected to the GPS system so it can grovel mapquest and find me routes as I am driving, also warn about trafic etc. I would also like a phone chip embedded in my laptop (along with the 802.11 card). Oh and throw away the RIM and replace it with an all function organizer.....
I'm going to bite on this one - Both T-Mobile and sprint offer flat rate data plans. I'd be shocked if one or the other didn't provide service in your area. Last I heard, sprint was 100/mo and t-mobile was 30/mo. 100 a month is a far cry from 100's a week.
I'd say by and large the service is now priced as a commodity. The initial per MB pricing was atrocious, however the flat rates are imo reasonable.
While its likely to be a while before you get any sort of phone chip embedded in your laptop, you can get close if you buy one with embedded 802.11, and get a pcmcia card for your mobile data service. Sprint offers them in both pcmcia and cf form factors, and I'd be surprised if t-mobile didn't offer at least pcmcia, seeing as gsm is a more widely used standard than 1xRTT.
As for tossing the RIM, look into a treo (palm os) or one of the Pocket PC based smartphones which have been available for over a year now for 2.5g networks.
If you don't need a full keyboard, my reccomendation would be the Samsung I500, which is a palm OS pda + phone in a form factor much more reminiscent of just a phone than a pda.
If you are getting a voice device + phone/pda from the same provider you should be able to wrangle yourself a discount on their respective services vs. their combined separate cost. This would be better done over the phone with the provider as the in-store staff is in my experience utterly clueless and will often steer you wrong.
Cell phone services have come a long way since a year or two ago when (comparatively) high speed data services first broke. Its worth taking another look, most of your requirements will be met now.
I don't know if the majority of people who post about sprint are shills for other providers or just have had drastically different user experiences than I have.
I spend all my time in the philly area with occaisional trips up into central nj and I really can't complain about sprint's service anywhere around here.
If the parent was referring to certain areas of bucks county when he said "just outside philly" he should double check if those towers he sees have the transmitters on them he thinks they do - the whole place is crawling with nimbys who fought cell phones tooth and nail. the area is getting better though, most areas have at least moderate signal.
As far as actually in philadelphia, the cherry hill area, as well as west as far as malvern (haven't made it out to phoneixville yet) I get nothing but full signal everywhere. A lot of times people are quick to bash their provider when they live in a basement across the street from a huge power transform station and are using a 3 year old phone with a busted antenna.
I've been using sprint since I got fed up with a company that eventually turned into cingular. I'm on my second samsung phone in about 5 years and I"ve had nothing but good experiences with them. I want to upgrade to a camera phone but last I checked the A500 was still the best mix of features.
I still laugh at all my friends whenever they bitch about their T720s.
GSM may be utopia to some, but I've been happy enough with my plans for 5 years that I never missed the ability to change providers on a whim and keep my phone.
Your phone wasn't ringing because no one was calling you. Don't you know you have to switch to verizon, and you'll get girls coming to your house in the rain crying, or if not that, at least chicks who are cute even though they can't put one foot in front of the other? *DON'T TRIP* *OH*
btw, I"ve had a cdma phone for more than 2 years, and I'll never ever go back to cingular, they were, and according to my friend who has them, still are, total crap. I won't even get started on T-mobile.
Software radio for this level of sophistication is quite expensive.
And no, US cell phones are not close to these frequencies. 800mhz/1900 mhz is the norm for analog/digital.
The phones are so tightly integrated, including the parts that regulate frequency, not to mention the complexity of the base station, that what you are describing would be really not cost effective.
Taking traditional (possibly downsized) cordless phone components and putting them in a pretty plastic shell is another matter, which is the story behind the engenius.
Oh and if you are really pressed for cash and don't want the full-featured starter kit.... http://www.danaco.net/avr.htm - microcontrollers that would be more than capable for this for under $5, and under $10 for an assembled programmer. Probably better prices out there too, this is the first I could come up with.
Enough from your pic people! AVR's come in all shapes and sizes just like that other uproc family, not only that, they can execute nearly all their instructions in ONE clock cycle (divide pic's mhz by 4 when comparing) and they are *cheap*. I am no pricing expert but last I looked 6mo or so ago there was a respectable price difference. I understand pic's are popular, but you really need to know a thing or two about the avr's before you say things like that. They're quite cheap to program as well. ( I actually got my avr starter kit thing complete w/ serial & parallel programming cables, 2x20 lcd, max232 & power supply, assembled, for under 40. came with a basic *compiler* as well for all you basic stamp folk, not to mention free assembler tools from atmel, and gcc is available.
Or you could get any phone from sprint that supports pcs vision. Qualcomm makes a free tool to convert wav's into ringers you can download right to your phone (they're bigger than midi ringers of course)
Anyone who's into cool new phones and wants a service that won't charge you an arm and several legs for data use should check out the above. I don't wanna count the hundreds of dollars I'd owe if I'd used the same amount of data on at&t's network that I have on my $10 unlimited data plan.
But they to want to do it by IP, which kind of screws the potentially hundreds of other people on a webhost's server. It's like asking the govt. to tape off a whole block because there's a crackhouse on it. Do you really think the attorney general is going to provide an accurate/up to date list? And that the number of porn sites blocked will outnumber the number of legitimate ones that get effected collaterally?
What I'd like to know is how they expect the ISP's to know what sites do and don't have child pornography on them. I mean we've had software on the market for years to block regular porn, and look how effective that's been. This kind of thing is just not the realm of the judiciary, or even the legislature. PA's always been stupid on stuff like this, I believe there was some previous ruling/bill about blocking access to obscene material which cause standard porno boilerplate to add "if you live in PA" alongside "if you're a minor" in a number of cases. I'm not dissing pennsylvania, I live here, but the old adage about PA being Philly and pittsburgh with alabama in between is really quite true
Disclaimer: If it is afternoon on valentines day and you're still looking on slashdot for dating advice, things are not looking so good.
In all honesty, about the moment you start reading a "geek" themed guide to dating, give up. When it comes to this stuff, you are a male first, and a geek second. If you let that order be reversed it'll stay that way for the rest of your life.
In my experience, while opengl may sometimes offer better quality, when compared to the latest dx game+driver+card setups, it's no match in speed, and if you tweak the settings, you'll easily get matching or better quality with dx while still achieving better framerates. Opengl is a great technology, but for full-screen, bleeding edge 3d gaming, it is not currently the most effective choice. The fact of the matter is that consumer-level video card development follows directx. And I'm not comparing linux+wine to xp on anything other than gaming performance, since it was the subject at hand. I might add that I wouldn't try and run a primary desktop system in *any* os with less than 512. Even though xp could indeed run in much less if you set it up properly (I think its a fair comparison given that linux takes some setup work to get running optimally too, probably more) I think if you compared wine and xp on the same box there'd be a clear difference. the wine project has done a great job, but they'll always be playing catchup to the real thing. And without getting technical, I'll say this: When there is a graphics api set for linux that has the power to set a new version standard and have nvidia & ati craft their next board revisions to get the most out of that standard, then maybe we'll see some parity in the gaming arena. For now, only ms can claim that title.
Games need performance. CS is probably the greatest multiplayer game of the past 5 years (ever?) but it is pretty light on the hardware req's. Linux gets (1%) of the games that come out released native for it, and gaming continues to be one of the things that holds linux back bigtime. A fast, up to date 3d api would help things (i.e. a competitor to dx, not ogl) Wine, transgaming, whatever else they come up with is all well and good, but given how obsessed some gamers can be with performance, its still a windows world. I'm not even a rabid gamer, but if I can keep xp on my aging machine and be able to play new games for another year vs. 3 or 4 months with linux before needing an upgrade, well, the choice is obvious.
Oh and personally, I am one of those people who thinks linux is a fine and dandy pc/server OS, but can't figure out what good it is for cellphones. You're gonna have to write ~80% of the interface, code, etc from scratch anyway...maybe they're just trying to spite "does it run linux?" trolls when their new phones get posted to/. who knows. the current phones with j2me give an acceptable amount of user freedom to code for your handset.
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I'll second this.
If you use it day in day out you'll get yelled at, but I and my family have used the data cables for vacations for some time. latency is 2-300ms, and bandwitdh is about ISDN level.
Its a hell of a lot faster than any dialup I ever had, and if all you're doing is surfing run of the mill websites, it's almost indistinguishable from a basic broadband connection. I never tried really large file transfers but small ones I topped out at 8-10 KB/sec
Yes, it can. (I don't use this currently but have helped a friend set it up) We had svideo/audio running from the cable box into a wintv pvr-250, and a serial ir emitter (he chose to use a premade, somewhat expensive one from actisys, but there are many plans to build your own) the ir emitter was simply taped in front of the cable box and interfaced through lirc. then you just give myth the name of a script that changes the channels (skeleton scripts are provided, it basically just sends the digits in sequence).
The only drawback is that every time you change, it sends the full 3 digit channel number to the box rather than using up/down, which makes channel changing a little slower than normal. Life would be much easier if digital cable boxes had serial control.
As far as two boxes.....two scripts with a different argument to the rc command. You'd already have to have two video sources set up (one for each capture card) so its just a matter of typing channelscript2 on the properties page for the second, and hooking up another emitter to a second serial port.
And even if he gets that better job, he'll likely still not justify spending the kind of money it takes to buy a mac - until you get until the realm of filthy rich, apple hardware commands too much of a premium over its equivalent PC couterpart to be a smart budget decision.
I *hate* the digital cable interface. At least the brain-dead one that comcast uses in the phila area.
While I'll say that myth needs to get to the level of a good satellite grid guide before it will be accepted widely, be careful about the digital cable reference.
Currently anything where less than half the screen is covered with ads is better than what some of my friends pay $50+ a month for.
1xRTT (currently deployed widely in the U.S. by both verizon and sprint) is technically 3G. It is, however right down at the bottom of the definition, barely scraping by, in much the same way that many definitions of broadband may include ISDN. Most people refer to it as well as GPRS as 2.5g IIRC, GPRS just missed the cutoff to be termed 3G, whereas 1xRTT just made it.
Either way, Many people, especially those who pride themselves on knowing too much about cell phone technologies, like to make themselves feel superior by considering 1xRTT 2.5g and lumping it in with GPRS. While for the purposes of deciding which one to use, as they are rather close, the definition works, in reality, one is "3G", the other is not. If people looked at real world numbers rather than ITU "G" definitions, the whole issue wouldn't matter
Yes (kind of)
You can't control the UI as you would with a remote. However, since myth is setup as a frontend/backend, there is no real need for the UI.
One of the standard mythtv modules is Mythweb, which presents a titantv-esque view of all your available channels, etc, and from which you can schedule/cancel recordings, as well as some other nice functions (more is being added with each release, such as "styles" that let it work on web-enabled cell phones)
In fact, mythweb doesn't even have to be on the same machine as the myth frontend or backend - it just has to be a box that has access to the database all the settings are stored in.
Most people who are still on dialup, are thus because they are too far out from CO/headend to get broadband. If they're that far out, chances are quite bad they're connecting at 56k.
My parents' house was such a house, too far from the central office. Luckily now we have cable, but our phone lines were such that I spent my days at 26.4 kbit. Others I know had similar experiences. So, I don't see anything wrong with NASA calling the typical home modem 32k, a more accurate representation of what people are actually getting these days.
^ Mod this one up, was just about to post that issue myself. The delay pretty much negates using it with a ps2. In this case a regular bt848 based el cheapo capture card is the way to go. I've used them for the exact purpose the OP mentions (video game consoles)
Yes, it does. However you cannot watch a digital cable channel while tivo is recording - leaving you in the same situation you were before - you may only access as many dc channels as you have boxes. The cable box is slaved to the tivo via the ir blaster, thus on your tivo you can access any channel in your subscription.
It is actually a valid, and legally sound argument. However, in this case it doesn't apply.
/ e tc..) list, and gets a lawyer. I've seen it done before. The corporate lawyer had one meeting with the employee's lawyer, nearly shit himself, and the guy had his job back before the month was out. The bosses really disliked the employee, and managed to get rid of him 6mo later by building up enough of a paper trail justifying it, but the point is, for a large company, it takes work to fire someone properly.
Their "cause" is the security assessment performed by the outside company. It doesn't need to be proven accurate to a t in court, just the fact it is there gives the bosses a legitamate reason to fire their existing guy. In the absence of something like this, were the guy simply fired without cause, unjust dismissal is easy to claim, especially against a large company. He simply picks a quality he has from the (male/female/white/black/red/blue/jewish/catholic
While the article was on the subject of mice, I thought I'd take the discussion as a chance to ask a question that's been bugging me lately...
...rant over
Has anyone else notice how many of the new keyboards coming out these days have the ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn cluster sideways? Personally I find this one of the most annoying things to come down the line in years. My 8 year old original microsoft natural keyboard is about to give out, and I had to resort to buying used for a replacement since so many of the new ones come with this moronic arrangement....
Of course, California is the biggest state.
Now we can add geographically challenged to mathematically challenged. Go look up some land areas.
The big issue for me at this point is the ridiculous cost of data service. Data should be cheaper than voice because it is not necessary to block reserve the bandwidth. If I used any of the plans I have seen offered to date to surf the web I would be paying hundreds of dollars a week.
....
At the point reasonable cost data plans become available expect the number of devices with embedded phone systems to soar. I would like to have a phone in my car connected to the GPS system so it can grovel mapquest and find me routes as I am driving, also warn about trafic etc. I would also like a phone chip embedded in my laptop (along with the 802.11 card). Oh and throw away the RIM and replace it with an all function organizer.
I'm going to bite on this one - Both T-Mobile and sprint offer flat rate data plans. I'd be shocked if one or the other didn't provide service in your area. Last I heard, sprint was 100/mo and t-mobile was 30/mo. 100 a month is a far cry from 100's a week.
I'd say by and large the service is now priced as a commodity. The initial per MB pricing was atrocious, however the flat rates are imo reasonable.
While its likely to be a while before you get any sort of phone chip embedded in your laptop, you can get close if you buy one with embedded 802.11, and get a pcmcia card for your mobile data service. Sprint offers them in both pcmcia and cf form factors, and I'd be surprised if t-mobile didn't offer at least pcmcia, seeing as gsm is a more widely used standard than 1xRTT.
As for tossing the RIM, look into a treo (palm os) or one of the Pocket PC based smartphones which have been available for over a year now for 2.5g networks.
If you don't need a full keyboard, my reccomendation would be the Samsung I500, which is a palm OS pda + phone in a form factor much more reminiscent of just a phone than a pda.
If you are getting a voice device + phone/pda from the same provider you should be able to wrangle yourself a discount on their respective services vs. their combined separate cost. This would be better done over the phone with the provider as the in-store staff is in my experience utterly clueless and will often steer you wrong.
Cell phone services have come a long way since a year or two ago when (comparatively) high speed data services first broke. Its worth taking another look, most of your requirements will be met now.
I don't know if the majority of people who post about sprint are shills for other providers or just have had drastically different user experiences than I have. I spend all my time in the philly area with occaisional trips up into central nj and I really can't complain about sprint's service anywhere around here. If the parent was referring to certain areas of bucks county when he said "just outside philly" he should double check if those towers he sees have the transmitters on them he thinks they do - the whole place is crawling with nimbys who fought cell phones tooth and nail. the area is getting better though, most areas have at least moderate signal. As far as actually in philadelphia, the cherry hill area, as well as west as far as malvern (haven't made it out to phoneixville yet) I get nothing but full signal everywhere. A lot of times people are quick to bash their provider when they live in a basement across the street from a huge power transform station and are using a 3 year old phone with a busted antenna. I've been using sprint since I got fed up with a company that eventually turned into cingular. I'm on my second samsung phone in about 5 years and I"ve had nothing but good experiences with them. I want to upgrade to a camera phone but last I checked the A500 was still the best mix of features. I still laugh at all my friends whenever they bitch about their T720s. GSM may be utopia to some, but I've been happy enough with my plans for 5 years that I never missed the ability to change providers on a whim and keep my phone.
Your phone wasn't ringing because no one was calling you. Don't you know you have to switch to verizon, and you'll get girls coming to your house in the rain crying, or if not that, at least chicks who are cute even though they can't put one foot in front of the other? *DON'T TRIP* *OH* btw, I"ve had a cdma phone for more than 2 years, and I'll never ever go back to cingular, they were, and according to my friend who has them, still are, total crap. I won't even get started on T-mobile.
Software radio for this level of sophistication is quite expensive. And no, US cell phones are not close to these frequencies. 800mhz/1900 mhz is the norm for analog/digital. The phones are so tightly integrated, including the parts that regulate frequency, not to mention the complexity of the base station, that what you are describing would be really not cost effective. Taking traditional (possibly downsized) cordless phone components and putting them in a pretty plastic shell is another matter, which is the story behind the engenius.
Oh and if you are really pressed for cash and don't want the full-featured starter kit.... http://www.danaco.net/avr.htm - microcontrollers that would be more than capable for this for under $5, and under $10 for an assembled programmer. Probably better prices out there too, this is the first I could come up with.
Enough from your pic people! AVR's come in all shapes and sizes just like that other uproc family, not only that, they can execute nearly all their instructions in ONE clock cycle (divide pic's mhz by 4 when comparing) and they are *cheap*. I am no pricing expert but last I looked 6mo or so ago there was a respectable price difference. I understand pic's are popular, but you really need to know a thing or two about the avr's before you say things like that. They're quite cheap to program as well. ( I actually got my avr starter kit thing complete w/ serial & parallel programming cables, 2x20 lcd, max232 & power supply, assembled, for under 40. came with a basic *compiler* as well for all you basic stamp folk, not to mention free assembler tools from atmel, and gcc is available.
Or you could get any phone from sprint that supports pcs vision. Qualcomm makes a free tool to convert wav's into ringers you can download right to your phone (they're bigger than midi ringers of course) Anyone who's into cool new phones and wants a service that won't charge you an arm and several legs for data use should check out the above. I don't wanna count the hundreds of dollars I'd owe if I'd used the same amount of data on at&t's network that I have on my $10 unlimited data plan.
But they to want to do it by IP, which kind of screws the potentially hundreds of other people on a webhost's server. It's like asking the govt. to tape off a whole block because there's a crackhouse on it. Do you really think the attorney general is going to provide an accurate/up to date list? And that the number of porn sites blocked will outnumber the number of legitimate ones that get effected collaterally?
What I'd like to know is how they expect the ISP's to know what sites do and don't have child pornography on them. I mean we've had software on the market for years to block regular porn, and look how effective that's been. This kind of thing is just not the realm of the judiciary, or even the legislature. PA's always been stupid on stuff like this, I believe there was some previous ruling/bill about blocking access to obscene material which cause standard porno boilerplate to add "if you live in PA" alongside "if you're a minor" in a number of cases. I'm not dissing pennsylvania, I live here, but the old adage about PA being Philly and pittsburgh with alabama in between is really quite true
Disclaimer: If it is afternoon on valentines day and you're still looking on slashdot for dating advice, things are not looking so good.
In all honesty, about the moment you start reading a "geek" themed guide to dating, give up. When it comes to this stuff, you are a male first, and a geek second. If you let that order be reversed it'll stay that way for the rest of your life.
Bits??? you have bits??? Why in my day we only had one bit, and it was a 0! kids....
In my experience, while opengl may sometimes offer better quality, when compared to the latest dx game+driver+card setups, it's no match in speed, and if you tweak the settings, you'll easily get matching or better quality with dx while still achieving better framerates. Opengl is a great technology, but for full-screen, bleeding edge 3d gaming, it is not currently the most effective choice. The fact of the matter is that consumer-level video card development follows directx. And I'm not comparing linux+wine to xp on anything other than gaming performance, since it was the subject at hand. I might add that I wouldn't try and run a primary desktop system in *any* os with less than 512. Even though xp could indeed run in much less if you set it up properly (I think its a fair comparison given that linux takes some setup work to get running optimally too, probably more) I think if you compared wine and xp on the same box there'd be a clear difference. the wine project has done a great job, but they'll always be playing catchup to the real thing. And without getting technical, I'll say this: When there is a graphics api set for linux that has the power to set a new version standard and have nvidia & ati craft their next board revisions to get the most out of that standard, then maybe we'll see some parity in the gaming arena. For now, only ms can claim that title.
Games need performance. CS is probably the greatest multiplayer game of the past 5 years (ever?) but it is pretty light on the hardware req's. Linux gets (1%) of the games that come out released native for it, and gaming continues to be one of the things that holds linux back bigtime. A fast, up to date 3d api would help things (i.e. a competitor to dx, not ogl) Wine, transgaming, whatever else they come up with is all well and good, but given how obsessed some gamers can be with performance, its still a windows world. I'm not even a rabid gamer, but if I can keep xp on my aging machine and be able to play new games for another year vs. 3 or 4 months with linux before needing an upgrade, well, the choice is obvious. Oh and personally, I am one of those people who thinks linux is a fine and dandy pc/server OS, but can't figure out what good it is for cellphones. You're gonna have to write ~80% of the interface, code, etc from scratch anyway...maybe they're just trying to spite "does it run linux?" trolls when their new phones get posted to /. who knows. the current phones with j2me give an acceptable amount of user freedom to code for your handset.