That's a side effect of the shitty soft-RAID that these boards have. I'm running an A8N-SLI Deluxe, which has both 4 SATA ports of nV-RAID and another 4 ports from a Silicon Image SATA RAID controller. Both of them are the same crappy driver-based softraid masquerading as a proper RAID card.
I don't think any comsumer motherboards actually have real RAID onboard. Hell, most server-class boards I see don't have it either, rather having either a ZCR expansion capability or ample slots for add-on cards.
Volume production of Cell chips for the PS3 is underway along with the RSX rasterizer for the system
uh huh.....and nVidia publically stating that they are not recieving any payments for RSX chips this quarter (thus meaning that they're likely not producing them yet) seems to tell a different story.
Given Sony's history of flat-out lying about the capabilities of their consoles, and nVidia's recent record of solid product launches, I'm going to have to trust nVidia over Sony (or a Sony employee, as you seeem to be).
The mention of 911 gives me an idea for an interesting angle to ensure ISPs can't neuter VoIP.....claim that by doing so they're endangering lives in the event of a 911 call.
Same here. When I had a Compaq R3000 DTR notebook with a 1680x1050 screen, Fedora and Mandrake always made me jump through hoops to get it working right, and even then more often than not I nuked X. I tried Ubuntu on a whim one day, and it autodetected the proper resolution. That was enough to get me to stick around long enough to realize the benefits of the apt-get way over the "fun" I'd had on RPM based systems for years.
Ever since then, I've been a Ubuntu user on the desktop and all Debian on my servers, though my laptop is OS X.
Video starts at 800x600...unacceptable on my 1680x1050 LCD....let's get some drivers......
Fuck, no networking.....neither of the two Gigabit devices are supported.....
*go to roommate's computer, download nVidia Forceware and nForce4 chipset drivers*
install chipset drivers, rejecting the "ActiveArmor" firewall.....reboot install video drivers.......reboot realize I have no local network access, since gigE card 2 is still not on.....download more drivers...install....no reboot this time
run Windows update, reboot, repeat about 5 times
Now, let's try this with Ubuntu....
installer asks which of my two NICs I prefer to use, autoconfigures with DHCP when X starts, it's already working at 1680x1050, and has 2D acceleration sound works, everything is detected, all that's left to do is install nvidia-glx with a few clicks in Synaptic and restart X
Same situation with my Tablet PC. On a computer built specifically for a certain version of Windows, the wireless still doesn't work out of the box, where any Linux distro in the last 4 years picks it up just fine (Orinoco miniPCI card).
Aside from OS X on to my powerbook, I've never had an OS install go so easily as it does with Ubuntu. It was a bit more interesting with my old laptop that had ATI graphics and a Broadcom wireless card, but Windows didn't support those out of the box either, so the fact that Ubuntu at least knew the right resolution to run it at gave it the lead.
I've taken many trips to both coasts, and pretty much the only area in the lower 48 that I haven't been is the Northeast. Just because I live in Ohio doesn't mean that I'm oblivious to the rest of the country and world.
Anyways, from what I've read on some game forums, it seems that those in larger cities close to either coast have no problems finding 360s, where us Midwesterners are less fortunate and still have to use online trackers and a bit of luck to get these things.
Oh and FYI, I'm just outside of Cleveland right now and the situation is the same as in Toledo, except there are a few more Core packages. Premiums are nowhere to be found and the smaller stores that took preorders (Gamestop, EB, Babbages, etc.) are still filling those.
Basically, in any area if you want a core package just go hunting around in the afternoon on a Tuesday (typical day to recieve them according to many store employees). If you want a premium and a Best Buy or Circuit City is nearby, go grab UNT1TLED's tracker and set it to a 15 minute or less refresh. (If you get one with this tool, send the guy a few bucks. An independent developer who writes useful little utilities like this is good to support. And no it's not me....the damn thing is written with.net 2.0, and I won't touch that stuff)
Sold out does mean as recently as 2 weeks ago, one local Best Buy got a shipment of 6, and 15 minutes later I was walking out with the last one in hand. Every other store in town was out of stock.
This isn't a small town either, Toledo is either the 4th or 5th largest city in Ohio (not sure if we're ahead of Akron).
There were only 2 core packages anywhere too, so even those pieces of crap are selling.
hell if I know, but obviously it's hard/practically impossible, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing nearly as many complaints about SF, since people could easily neuter it.
it's the most hated protection in existance, both for it's effectiveness and bad side effects, so logically there are many people trying to break it.
From what I understand, Starforce actually converts the executable, or parts of it, to a bytecode format which is encrypted and only usable with Starforce installed and functional. The developer can choose how much or how little to protect, generally leaving the high performance areas unprotected and a few well chosen pieces heavily protected. This effectively means that one needs to reverse engineer the Starforce bytecode or acquire the source for the executable.
This is also why a popular method for defeating SF in the past was to use the demo binaries with the full version data, which has now led to demos being infected with this crap.
How about a situation where multiple possible dependencies are needed? Let's say a web-based app of some kind. It could be written in such a way that it will work on PHP 4 or 5, will work with either MySQL or Postgres, and will get along with any HTTPD that can use PHP. The Debian package format allows for this by using multiple resolution options and meta-packages (like httpd, mysql, gcc, etc. They don't specify a particular app or version, just maybe a small list of potential applications or versions of one that fulfill that need).
Many of the open-source virtualization products (QEMU for one IIRC) can create VMware compatible images. Suffer through the slow setup for one or two boots, then transfer over to VMware player for free.
They're definately pushing new games, but I disagree withy your statement that they won't be out before the other consoles. The other consoles are just having their first "public" demos at E3, meaning they're still months off. Over on the Xbox360, we've got Oblivion and Splinter Cell: Double Agent to look forward to this month, among others (I just listed to two that I have preorders on, obviously since those are the ones I want most).
I'll gladly admit that the 360 lacked a huge launch lineup, but PGR3 was almost enough for me alone, and the Live Arcade games have kept me distracted when I'm not in the mood for racing. I'm considering buying Fight Night, but for now the demo is doing a great job of entertaining my roommates when we get in to some massive tournaments.
By the time the other consoles hit, the 360's lineup will be going full steam. It's the same as the PS2's launch, just without as much backwards compatibility.
I can't wait to see what the other two bring to the table though. Revolution's on my must-buy list, and I have preorders on the PS3, though I'm not sure if I'm going to keep one or just resell them all on eBay. That one depends on the launch game lineup.
Sometimes it turns out that an existing "standard" dump was damaged somehow, or that there is a newer revision of the same game out there.
It still does bug me though when games like Pac-Man get revised like that, since I'm sure there haven't been any new versions of the arcade machine for years and while the number of people with the capability to dump the ROMs is small compared to consoles, it's still a popular enough game that you'd think it would have been verified hundreds of times over.
I'd like to see better changelog entries that explain WHY a particular ROM needs to be re-acquired.
I played many of these games hundreds of times as a kid dumping tens of dollars worth of quarters in to them (I'm sure the Pac-Man machine at my local bowling lanes has swallowed close to $200 of my quarters in the past 15 years). Assuming a $0.25 arcade, after 20 plays these downloads have paid for themselves. For the ones I played on a console, the value is even better, because I paid more to rent these back in those days than I do to buy them and compete online with my friends now.
That last point is important. Marble Blast Ultra is my big time-hog right now. This is not because it's a great game, it's really just a physics techdemo with a few challenges. What keeps me playing is competing with my friends and other random people around the world to get the fastest time through the level. When my friends will pop in to a private chat with me and tell me they just beat my score by a tenth of a second, I'll go and play that level for an hour trying to beat them. Even more, when I discover a new shortcut and smoke their times by 5, 10, or in some cases nearly 30 seconds, the feeling is awesome. I know it really is nothing more than an internet pissing contest, but when I see a score that shows me ranked in the top 100 worldwide (as I am on quite a few maps) out of between 15,000 and 30,000 players ranked on those maps, it's something to be proud of.
The demo functionality is nice as well. Being able to try out any game in the arcade (as well as many of the full games...Fight Night 3 in particular has everyone in my suite hooked) before paying a dime is rather nice. It helps prevent the feeling of "damn, this game sucks" that I got with many of my purchases on previous platforms (Arctic Thunder on Xbox is a particular example).
There are a few Xbox controllers that duplicate the layout of the 360 by placing the black and white buttons in the shoulder positions. I've seen them at Gamestop before.
Almost bought a few, because my old big "duke" Xbox controllers are wearing out and I can't stand the placement of black and white on the "S" controller, but I picked up a 360 on a whim and the Xbox hasn't been turned on since, except to watch Xvid movies (XBMC = happiness)
This is why I plan to play through it first on the Xbox 360, and then down the line when it's available with all expansions in a "Value Pack" or "Game of the Year Edition" or something like that, I'll buy the PC version. Hopefully by then my PC will be capable of running it cleanly at 1680x1050 (my LCD's native res).
This plan worked great for Morrowind, so I expect it to be just as good for Oblivion.
Of course if they crap up the PC version with StarForce or anything like that, I'll just skip it entirely and keep playing on the Xbox.
I've got a 5.1 Logitech system on my computer and a 7.1 Onkyo system in my home theater. Both were cheap ($55 and $450, respectively) so I have no urge to defend them based on cost. They don't sound much different (with the obvious note that the Onkyo's satellites and sub are 2-3 times the size of the Logitechs and are driven by much more power, so they get a lot louder before clipping), but I do think the 7.1 system does sound slightly better. Definately not $400 better, but I didn't buy them for the same purposes. One has do just make UT2K4 and HL2 sound good, the other has to create sound that matches the image put up by my projector, as well as being able to shake the dorm floor.
The 360 has the advantage in this way, because the dev environment is very similar to writing games for the most popular platform on the planet, the Windows PC. It's also using the same tools as Xbox 1, which were very easy additions to Visual Studio. I had a Hello World and a simple Pong-like game on my Xbox 1 within minutes of installing the dev environment, so I'd assume the 360 is about as easy.
Develop a game for PC that can take advantage of a dual core Athlon 64 with a recent ATI video card, and it'll port over to the 360 relatively easily. Aside from learning some new tweaks to the architecture for ATI+PowerPC vs. nVidia+x86, the only notable difference between 360 development and the original Xbox is the multithreading aspect. Granted that's not a small piece to bite off, especially in games, but it seems that it's the long-overdue future of gaming right now so developers should be learning to work with it anyways.
The last generation proves that statement wrong. The PS2 was first (ok, the Dreamcast was first, but it was more of a.5 of the generation before), but the Xbox and Gamecube are both better on paper and had better games.
The PS2 still won because by the time the other two came out, it had an installed base that was enough to get people to keep buying them so they could play the same games at their friends houses, well that and all the GTA games coming out first on it...
As a new owner of a 360 (less than a week) I can't yet see where this one came from. The power supply's vents are across the top of the thing, pulling air in one end and pushing it out the other. The air coming out of it is lukewarm, but the power supply itself doesn't get any warmer than my cell phone's wall wart, even after a 9 hour PGR3 session I put in while at work (night shift help desk job + VGA pack = win)
The only thing I can imagine is that these people are just wildly dropping their 360 power bricks on to shag carpeting, which comes up high enough to block the vents if it was to land upside-down.
The system itself, well that does get rather hot. The air coming out the back of it was competing with my TiBook. Maybe people are putting the power supply directly in the path of the hot exhaust from the console or something...
Slashdot Mirror
That's a side effect of the shitty soft-RAID that these boards have. I'm running an A8N-SLI Deluxe, which has both 4 SATA ports of nV-RAID and another 4 ports from a Silicon Image SATA RAID controller. Both of them are the same crappy driver-based softraid masquerading as a proper RAID card.
I don't think any comsumer motherboards actually have real RAID onboard. Hell, most server-class boards I see don't have it either, rather having either a ZCR expansion capability or ample slots for add-on cards.
Volume production of Cell chips for the PS3 is underway along with the RSX rasterizer for the system
uh huh.....and nVidia publically stating that they are not recieving any payments for RSX chips this quarter (thus meaning that they're likely not producing them yet) seems to tell a different story.
Given Sony's history of flat-out lying about the capabilities of their consoles, and nVidia's recent record of solid product launches, I'm going to have to trust nVidia over Sony (or a Sony employee, as you seeem to be).
And they don't come with Linux installed (FreeDOS only), plus they cost more than the equivalent Windows model.
Those models only exist so they can say they offer them. They're not intended to sell a single unit.
The AMD64 versions of Windows (both XP and Server 2003) and Linux do NUMA on Opterons. Common enough for you?
The mention of 911 gives me an idea for an interesting angle to ensure ISPs can't neuter VoIP.....claim that by doing so they're endangering lives in the event of a 911 call.
Same here. When I had a Compaq R3000 DTR notebook with a 1680x1050 screen, Fedora and Mandrake always made me jump through hoops to get it working right, and even then more often than not I nuked X. I tried Ubuntu on a whim one day, and it autodetected the proper resolution. That was enough to get me to stick around long enough to realize the benefits of the apt-get way over the "fun" I'd had on RPM based systems for years.
Ever since then, I've been a Ubuntu user on the desktop and all Debian on my servers, though my laptop is OS X.
You got lucky on that WiFi card.
Here's how it goes on my system....
Video starts at 800x600...unacceptable on my 1680x1050 LCD....let's get some drivers......
Fuck, no networking.....neither of the two Gigabit devices are supported.....
*go to roommate's computer, download nVidia Forceware and nForce4 chipset drivers*
install chipset drivers, rejecting the "ActiveArmor" firewall.....reboot
install video drivers.......reboot
realize I have no local network access, since gigE card 2 is still not on.....download more drivers...install....no reboot this time
run Windows update, reboot, repeat about 5 times
Now, let's try this with Ubuntu....
installer asks which of my two NICs I prefer to use, autoconfigures with DHCP
when X starts, it's already working at 1680x1050, and has 2D acceleration
sound works, everything is detected, all that's left to do is install nvidia-glx with a few clicks in Synaptic and restart X
Same situation with my Tablet PC. On a computer built specifically for a certain version of Windows, the wireless still doesn't work out of the box, where any Linux distro in the last 4 years picks it up just fine (Orinoco miniPCI card).
Aside from OS X on to my powerbook, I've never had an OS install go so easily as it does with Ubuntu. It was a bit more interesting with my old laptop that had ATI graphics and a Broadcom wireless card, but Windows didn't support those out of the box either, so the fact that Ubuntu at least knew the right resolution to run it at gave it the lead.
I've taken many trips to both coasts, and pretty much the only area in the lower 48 that I haven't been is the Northeast. Just because I live in Ohio doesn't mean that I'm oblivious to the rest of the country and world.
.net 2.0, and I won't touch that stuff)
Anyways, from what I've read on some game forums, it seems that those in larger cities close to either coast have no problems finding 360s, where us Midwesterners are less fortunate and still have to use online trackers and a bit of luck to get these things.
Oh and FYI, I'm just outside of Cleveland right now and the situation is the same as in Toledo, except there are a few more Core packages. Premiums are nowhere to be found and the smaller stores that took preorders (Gamestop, EB, Babbages, etc.) are still filling those.
Basically, in any area if you want a core package just go hunting around in the afternoon on a Tuesday (typical day to recieve them according to many store employees). If you want a premium and a Best Buy or Circuit City is nearby, go grab UNT1TLED's tracker and set it to a 15 minute or less refresh. (If you get one with this tool, send the guy a few bucks. An independent developer who writes useful little utilities like this is good to support. And no it's not me....the damn thing is written with
Sold out does mean as recently as 2 weeks ago, one local Best Buy got a shipment of 6, and 15 minutes later I was walking out with the last one in hand. Every other store in town was out of stock.
This isn't a small town either, Toledo is either the 4th or 5th largest city in Ohio (not sure if we're ahead of Akron).
There were only 2 core packages anywhere too, so even those pieces of crap are selling.
hell if I know, but obviously it's hard/practically impossible, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing nearly as many complaints about SF, since people could easily neuter it.
it's the most hated protection in existance, both for it's effectiveness and bad side effects, so logically there are many people trying to break it.
From what I understand, Starforce actually converts the executable, or parts of it, to a bytecode format which is encrypted and only usable with Starforce installed and functional. The developer can choose how much or how little to protect, generally leaving the high performance areas unprotected and a few well chosen pieces heavily protected. This effectively means that one needs to reverse engineer the Starforce bytecode or acquire the source for the executable.
This is also why a popular method for defeating SF in the past was to use the demo binaries with the full version data, which has now led to demos being infected with this crap.
How about a situation where multiple possible dependencies are needed? Let's say a web-based app of some kind. It could be written in such a way that it will work on PHP 4 or 5, will work with either MySQL or Postgres, and will get along with any HTTPD that can use PHP. The Debian package format allows for this by using multiple resolution options and meta-packages (like httpd, mysql, gcc, etc. They don't specify a particular app or version, just maybe a small list of potential applications or versions of one that fulfill that need).
Here's a kinda-known hint:
Many of the open-source virtualization products (QEMU for one IIRC) can create VMware compatible images. Suffer through the slow setup for one or two boots, then transfer over to VMware player for free.
I'm sure if they could tell that their data was being sent, it was in the clear.
They're definately pushing new games, but I disagree withy your statement that they won't be out before the other consoles. The other consoles are just having their first "public" demos at E3, meaning they're still months off. Over on the Xbox360, we've got Oblivion and Splinter Cell: Double Agent to look forward to this month, among others (I just listed to two that I have preorders on, obviously since those are the ones I want most).
I'll gladly admit that the 360 lacked a huge launch lineup, but PGR3 was almost enough for me alone, and the Live Arcade games have kept me distracted when I'm not in the mood for racing. I'm considering buying Fight Night, but for now the demo is doing a great job of entertaining my roommates when we get in to some massive tournaments.
By the time the other consoles hit, the 360's lineup will be going full steam. It's the same as the PS2's launch, just without as much backwards compatibility.
I can't wait to see what the other two bring to the table though. Revolution's on my must-buy list, and I have preorders on the PS3, though I'm not sure if I'm going to keep one or just resell them all on eBay. That one depends on the launch game lineup.
Sometimes it turns out that an existing "standard" dump was damaged somehow, or that there is a newer revision of the same game out there.
It still does bug me though when games like Pac-Man get revised like that, since I'm sure there haven't been any new versions of the arcade machine for years and while the number of people with the capability to dump the ROMs is small compared to consoles, it's still a popular enough game that you'd think it would have been verified hundreds of times over.
I'd like to see better changelog entries that explain WHY a particular ROM needs to be re-acquired.
I look at it this way:
I played many of these games hundreds of times as a kid dumping tens of dollars worth of quarters in to them (I'm sure the Pac-Man machine at my local bowling lanes has swallowed close to $200 of my quarters in the past 15 years). Assuming a $0.25 arcade, after 20 plays these downloads have paid for themselves. For the ones I played on a console, the value is even better, because I paid more to rent these back in those days than I do to buy them and compete online with my friends now.
That last point is important. Marble Blast Ultra is my big time-hog right now. This is not because it's a great game, it's really just a physics techdemo with a few challenges. What keeps me playing is competing with my friends and other random people around the world to get the fastest time through the level. When my friends will pop in to a private chat with me and tell me they just beat my score by a tenth of a second, I'll go and play that level for an hour trying to beat them. Even more, when I discover a new shortcut and smoke their times by 5, 10, or in some cases nearly 30 seconds, the feeling is awesome. I know it really is nothing more than an internet pissing contest, but when I see a score that shows me ranked in the top 100 worldwide (as I am on quite a few maps) out of between 15,000 and 30,000 players ranked on those maps, it's something to be proud of.
The demo functionality is nice as well. Being able to try out any game in the arcade (as well as many of the full games...Fight Night 3 in particular has everyone in my suite hooked) before paying a dime is rather nice. It helps prevent the feeling of "damn, this game sucks" that I got with many of my purchases on previous platforms (Arctic Thunder on Xbox is a particular example).
There are a few Xbox controllers that duplicate the layout of the 360 by placing the black and white buttons in the shoulder positions. I've seen them at Gamestop before.
Almost bought a few, because my old big "duke" Xbox controllers are wearing out and I can't stand the placement of black and white on the "S" controller, but I picked up a 360 on a whim and the Xbox hasn't been turned on since, except to watch Xvid movies (XBMC = happiness)
This is why I plan to play through it first on the Xbox 360, and then down the line when it's available with all expansions in a "Value Pack" or "Game of the Year Edition" or something like that, I'll buy the PC version. Hopefully by then my PC will be capable of running it cleanly at 1680x1050 (my LCD's native res).
This plan worked great for Morrowind, so I expect it to be just as good for Oblivion.
Of course if they crap up the PC version with StarForce or anything like that, I'll just skip it entirely and keep playing on the Xbox.
IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit.
I've got a 5.1 Logitech system on my computer and a 7.1 Onkyo system in my home theater. Both were cheap ($55 and $450, respectively) so I have no urge to defend them based on cost. They don't sound much different (with the obvious note that the Onkyo's satellites and sub are 2-3 times the size of the Logitechs and are driven by much more power, so they get a lot louder before clipping), but I do think the 7.1 system does sound slightly better. Definately not $400 better, but I didn't buy them for the same purposes. One has do just make UT2K4 and HL2 sound good, the other has to create sound that matches the image put up by my projector, as well as being able to shake the dorm floor.
So that's what those guys in the '87 Cutlass on 24" wheels had......
The 360 has the advantage in this way, because the dev environment is very similar to writing games for the most popular platform on the planet, the Windows PC. It's also using the same tools as Xbox 1, which were very easy additions to Visual Studio. I had a Hello World and a simple Pong-like game on my Xbox 1 within minutes of installing the dev environment, so I'd assume the 360 is about as easy.
Develop a game for PC that can take advantage of a dual core Athlon 64 with a recent ATI video card, and it'll port over to the 360 relatively easily. Aside from learning some new tweaks to the architecture for ATI+PowerPC vs. nVidia+x86, the only notable difference between 360 development and the original Xbox is the multithreading aspect. Granted that's not a small piece to bite off, especially in games, but it seems that it's the long-overdue future of gaming right now so developers should be learning to work with it anyways.
The last generation proves that statement wrong. The PS2 was first (ok, the Dreamcast was first, but it was more of a .5 of the generation before), but the Xbox and Gamecube are both better on paper and had better games.
The PS2 still won because by the time the other two came out, it had an installed base that was enough to get people to keep buying them so they could play the same games at their friends houses, well that and all the GTA games coming out first on it...
As a new owner of a 360 (less than a week) I can't yet see where this one came from. The power supply's vents are across the top of the thing, pulling air in one end and pushing it out the other. The air coming out of it is lukewarm, but the power supply itself doesn't get any warmer than my cell phone's wall wart, even after a 9 hour PGR3 session I put in while at work (night shift help desk job + VGA pack = win)
The only thing I can imagine is that these people are just wildly dropping their 360 power bricks on to shag carpeting, which comes up high enough to block the vents if it was to land upside-down.
The system itself, well that does get rather hot. The air coming out the back of it was competing with my TiBook. Maybe people are putting the power supply directly in the path of the hot exhaust from the console or something...