Packages and DLLs are entiretly different things. Packages are pretty much applications where DLLs are APIs and Libraries. You can have a package of DLLs. UNIX does libraries pretty much the same thing except it's called 'lib'
Most hardware has a default driver in the OS unless the hardware came out after your hardware; either pull out the cd that came with it, go download it, or use windows update. and 70mb? most drivers I download are 1-3mb. The only drivers that are more than 5mb are video drivers and printers. That's not MS' fault, though.
I had an internship interview at MS a couple years ago. One of the interviewers I met with asked me about the best and worst software I had used. (No, I didn't say ME) After I was finished, I said that a lot of people didn't think too highly of Millennium and what he thought about it. He said, "We don't talk about Millennium..."
No, Windows needs to map video ram and any other physical device to memory space. In a 32-bit OS, you only have 4GB address space. You can't take away the video card's memory, so if you have a 32-bit OS with 2x2GB ram for your video cards, Windows won't boot.
What is wrong with Vista x64? XP doesn't support DirectX 10, x32 would be a waste if you want any more than 1GB RAM (assuming CrossFile/SLI setup) and you can't PC game on anything other than Windows (and actually have access to most games)
You seem to be ripping on him because he uses Vista. I'm assuming you'd be ok with XP? Either way, Vista runs fine for me. I have a video card that supports DX10, I might as well have an OS that does, too.
For my RAM, PSUs, etc I usually go for Corsair, Crucial, or Mushkin. Never had a problem with any of them. Been on a Mushkin run lately...
But all, for me, have never had issues. I've had some crappy PSUs in pre-built machines just die on me and when I'm spending $2000+ on a high-end system, I'm not going to save $40 on a cheap PSU. I'll spend the $100-$150 on a good PSU. I know it's worth it.
There's a limit to how many times you can re-write a flash bit. It is far less than the lifetime of a HDD. SSD = ~10,000 rewrites. HDD = the hardware will fail before the platters do. Honestly, until they get that rewrite number up 100x what it is now, I won't buy one.
A bit more info I found on the Cell Wikipedia Page
In 2008, IBM announced a revised variant of the Cell called the PowerXCell 8i, which is available in QS22 Blade Servers from IBM. The PowerXCell is manufactured on a 65 nm process, and adds support for up to 32GB of slotted DDR2 memory, as well as dramatically improving double-precision floating-point performance on the SPEs from a peak of about 14 GFLOPS to 102 GFLOPS total for 8 SPEs.
So, I configured 4 QS22's with 32GB RAM each and it came out to $42,144. This would be roughly 10x the price of your PS3 cluster with 8 systems. However, with the updated 8i architecture, you get more RAM as well as the higher performance.
8x PS3s = 112 GFLOPS
4x QS22s = 816 GFLOPS
7.28x the processing power for 10.5x the price. Seems reasonable to me. And if it really does cost them $5,000 per run on the NSF machine, 10 jobs pays for your system.
If you want your cell system without the PS3's, get a couple of these. Each comes with two Cell 8i CPUs in a 1U case. Upgradeable dedicated processor memory slots and general use RAM slots. A bit more expensive than the PS3's, but might be easier to get the institutions to pay for...
My High School started a laptop program when I was entering my Junior year. They started with the Sophomores that year so I wasn't able to get one. However, I ordered myself a laptop to use in my own classes, but didn't have any "laptop" classes. My brother was in the initial class, though, and I knew a lot of his friends.
First, and foremost, if the school is fronting most of the money, don't get macs. They cost way too much. I would suggest either have the families pay for the laptop up front with subsidies for those who can't afford it or get something else. Acer is fairly reasonable as are a few other brands.
The one issue my school had was that they got them the shittiest laptops they could. Don't do this; nobody will purchase them upon graduation.
Second, stop buying dead tree books and find eBooks to run your classes on. It will save the school money and make upgrading easier. It'll also help the kids by not having to carry so much and they'll always have their books in class and at home.
Don't lock down the machines; they will find a way around it. Instead, lock any ports on the school's network you deem necessary and do any proxy blocking you can. If you see students using a proxy, ban the IP. It isn't as preventative as some more invasive tools, but it's a lot less trouble.
As for software, let them install what they want. If they bring it home, they should be able to do with it as they please. If they were school-owned and only used during class I can see restricting them, but they're not.
One last thing, the admin at my high school was incompetent. Find someone who knows what they're doing and for god's sake, backup their hard drives before you work on them or set up a network storage solution for kids' files. Our admin would just format and re-image when anyone had a problem for ANYTHING. The keyboard would break, reformat, just in case that was the issue before replacing hardware. A lot of my brother's friends stopped bringing their issues to the school because they would lose everything on their machines every time they brought it in.
Our program was ultimately shut down because the teachers weren't taking advantage of the laptops in class. This is the biggest problem. Use the eBooks, get software designed to augment their classes, and have teachers go through a rigorous computing course. If they don't know how things work, they won't use them.
Another note I forgot to add: Windows doesn't take your RAM; it takes address space. On a 32-bit system, it only has enough addresses for 4gb of address space. Windows needs to map some hardware to address space plus any additional RAM your hardware might use. This is why on a 32-bit system you can't actually use it all. Windows doesn't split it 50/50. It takes what it needs to run basic functions and you get the rest.
Windows doesn't use a 2gb/2gb split. It uses ~700MB for its own use to map hardware and then maps your video ram to address space. Depending on your setup, it can use 2gb.
As for your example, it seems more an issue with the game itself not checking to see if it has more RAM available than a problem with Windows.
So, you say your peers and clients use the Office2007 and Photoshop formats? When did OOo and GIMP lose the ability to save in those formats? I don't see your issue.
The only issue I've come across with either is that a.) gimp has a decent learning curve if you're used to photoshop and b.) OOo doesn't have an outlook equivalent that can link with exchange (that I know of) but you can buy Outlook separate if you wish.
I'm more annoyed with item drops in MMO's. Adding randomness to FPS games and using probability to do miss/critial strikes makes sense. It doesn't make the game so easy it's boring while adding a bit of realism. It is much cheaper (as in CPU time) to random a shot than to add wind and gravity into your game and compute a ballistic path.
As for item drops, when you're in a group and you have to hope the item you want drops and then hope you win it, it gets frustrating; especially when everyone else is getting stuff and you're "unlucky." I used to play Final Fantasy XI and this is one of the reasons I quit. Though, they did add a game element called Assault where after beating a level you earn Assault Points. Each area has a set of items you can purchase with Assault Points. Clear enough areas and collect enough points, you can buy whatever item you wish. No hoping it drops, no praying that you out-lot another player, no bitching and moaning from people who say they get more use out of a specific item than you do.
The problem with that is the lobbyists have money. The population does not. Guess who wins out?
Aside from violating the law, there isn't much we can do because politicians were never in it for us; they're in it for themselves and will do anything they can to make more money and stay in office.
Just as the parent said; I violate the law because I do not agree with it. I have written my congressmen numerous times and copyright is still at 90 years and I still can't download software from defunct companies or break copy protection on legally purchased software. Until things change, I will violate all I please. I do purchase movies, music and software from companies who don't take advantage of their customers but I have no qualms of stealing an EA game, for example.
How about: "I wish America would force the UN to back its words with force once in a while instead of sitting around on its ass and saying 'let's try diplomacy one more time...'" Because the UN is a great institution, but it doesn't work without military backing, which they don't have enough of and never use anyway.
OR
"I wish America would either A. Take over for the UN because it does a horrible job and police EVERYONE (because America is a hypocrite to do it only when it's in the country's best interest) or stay out of everyone's business and stop meddling in everyone's affairs."
Now, I don't believe that America has the best policies for everything (as an American) but if we are going to move past this century, EVERY nation has to work together. Someone has to bring everyone together. The UN isn't doing it because they lack the commitment to use force when necessary. If the US does it, they should do it regardless of how it affects the US. Either that, or they should stop meddling altogether. No gray area.
That's the problem; since it's automated, that 1% blocked could be anything. cnn/bbc/etc could be blocked for talking about a child porn news item. That would seem unacceptable to me.
As for the whole "think of the children" issue. There are child protection software packages available. Parents need to start taking responsibility for their offspring and stop expecting everyone else to bend over backwards for them. You brought them into this world, not me. You take care of their well-being. I'm all for "thinking of the children" when it doesn't adversely affect anyone else but this does. Therefore, it is unacceptable.
This is to make them money on used games sales. It has nothing to do with shoplifting. The game companies make $0 when a game is sold used. They're trying to figure out a way to make those people who buy games used have to pay them in order to play a game. If you need to activate it via online to get the game working at all, then even used single player games will require a payment to the game company to activate it.
He has the right as long as he creates the format-shifted version personally. Downloading it would still be considered illegal. However, ethically, I see no problem with it as long as he owns a dead tree version.
The problem I see with this is that a lot of people have been complaining about the Game Industry trying to stop second-hand selling of games because they see no money from said games.
Even if the author was still in business and the publisher still had this book in print, paying for a used copy still gives no money to them. It's irrelevant that it's out of print. If your argument is that because it's out of print makes no difference. It's funny that all these people bring this up when so many condemn the games industry for the same thing.
We have the right to sell what we own; be it a book or a game. This question is more about the ethical/legal issues of downloading the eBook over buying used. As I stated before, commenting on another thread, Fair Use would dictate that he has the legal right to buy the used copy and scan it in himself. Ethically, I see no issue with buying the used book and downloading the eBook version, but the law has been upheld before that you must make the backup personally for it to fall under fair use. I disagree with this, but that's the legal side of it.
This would be my advice, too. Buy the used book and go download the ebook version. If you're really worried about downloading it, scan it in yourself.
If you don't agree with a law, and have morally sound arguments to disobey it, you have the responsibility to yourself not to. Think of it as eBook Prohibition.
Slashdot Mirror
wtf... I know I logged in for that /facepalm
Packages and DLLs are entiretly different things. Packages are pretty much applications where DLLs are APIs and Libraries. You can have a package of DLLs. UNIX does libraries pretty much the same thing except it's called 'lib'
Most hardware has a default driver in the OS unless the hardware came out after your hardware; either pull out the cd that came with it, go download it, or use windows update. and 70mb? most drivers I download are 1-3mb. The only drivers that are more than 5mb are video drivers and printers. That's not MS' fault, though.
I have no idea why ANY OS has a 32bit version anymore. Drop this legacy crap; it's holding everyone back...
I had an internship interview at MS a couple years ago. One of the interviewers I met with asked me about the best and worst software I had used. (No, I didn't say ME) After I was finished, I said that a lot of people didn't think too highly of Millennium and what he thought about it. He said, "We don't talk about Millennium..."
It made the cross-country trip worth it
No, Windows needs to map video ram and any other physical device to memory space. In a 32-bit OS, you only have 4GB address space. You can't take away the video card's memory, so if you have a 32-bit OS with 2x2GB ram for your video cards, Windows won't boot.
What is wrong with Vista x64? XP doesn't support DirectX 10, x32 would be a waste if you want any more than 1GB RAM (assuming CrossFile/SLI setup) and you can't PC game on anything other than Windows (and actually have access to most games)
You seem to be ripping on him because he uses Vista. I'm assuming you'd be ok with XP? Either way, Vista runs fine for me. I have a video card that supports DX10, I might as well have an OS that does, too.
For my RAM, PSUs, etc I usually go for Corsair, Crucial, or Mushkin. Never had a problem with any of them. Been on a Mushkin run lately...
But all, for me, have never had issues. I've had some crappy PSUs in pre-built machines just die on me and when I'm spending $2000+ on a high-end system, I'm not going to save $40 on a cheap PSU. I'll spend the $100-$150 on a good PSU. I know it's worth it.
There's a limit to how many times you can re-write a flash bit. It is far less than the lifetime of a HDD. SSD = ~10,000 rewrites. HDD = the hardware will fail before the platters do. Honestly, until they get that rewrite number up 100x what it is now, I won't buy one.
A bit more info I found on the Cell Wikipedia Page
In 2008, IBM announced a revised variant of the Cell called the PowerXCell 8i, which is available in QS22 Blade Servers from IBM. The PowerXCell is manufactured on a 65 nm process, and adds support for up to 32GB of slotted DDR2 memory, as well as dramatically improving double-precision floating-point performance on the SPEs from a peak of about 14 GFLOPS to 102 GFLOPS total for 8 SPEs.
So, I configured 4 QS22's with 32GB RAM each and it came out to $42,144. This would be roughly 10x the price of your PS3 cluster with 8 systems. However, with the updated 8i architecture, you get more RAM as well as the higher performance.
8x PS3s = 112 GFLOPS
4x QS22s = 816 GFLOPS
7.28x the processing power for 10.5x the price. Seems reasonable to me. And if it really does cost them $5,000 per run on the NSF machine, 10 jobs pays for your system.
IBM BladeCenter QS22
If you want your cell system without the PS3's, get a couple of these. Each comes with two Cell 8i CPUs in a 1U case. Upgradeable dedicated processor memory slots and general use RAM slots. A bit more expensive than the PS3's, but might be easier to get the institutions to pay for...
My High School started a laptop program when I was entering my Junior year. They started with the Sophomores that year so I wasn't able to get one. However, I ordered myself a laptop to use in my own classes, but didn't have any "laptop" classes. My brother was in the initial class, though, and I knew a lot of his friends.
First, and foremost, if the school is fronting most of the money, don't get macs. They cost way too much. I would suggest either have the families pay for the laptop up front with subsidies for those who can't afford it or get something else. Acer is fairly reasonable as are a few other brands.
The one issue my school had was that they got them the shittiest laptops they could. Don't do this; nobody will purchase them upon graduation.
Second, stop buying dead tree books and find eBooks to run your classes on. It will save the school money and make upgrading easier. It'll also help the kids by not having to carry so much and they'll always have their books in class and at home.
Don't lock down the machines; they will find a way around it. Instead, lock any ports on the school's network you deem necessary and do any proxy blocking you can. If you see students using a proxy, ban the IP. It isn't as preventative as some more invasive tools, but it's a lot less trouble.
As for software, let them install what they want. If they bring it home, they should be able to do with it as they please. If they were school-owned and only used during class I can see restricting them, but they're not.
One last thing, the admin at my high school was incompetent. Find someone who knows what they're doing and for god's sake, backup their hard drives before you work on them or set up a network storage solution for kids' files. Our admin would just format and re-image when anyone had a problem for ANYTHING. The keyboard would break, reformat, just in case that was the issue before replacing hardware. A lot of my brother's friends stopped bringing their issues to the school because they would lose everything on their machines every time they brought it in.
Our program was ultimately shut down because the teachers weren't taking advantage of the laptops in class. This is the biggest problem. Use the eBooks, get software designed to augment their classes, and have teachers go through a rigorous computing course. If they don't know how things work, they won't use them.
Another note I forgot to add: Windows doesn't take your RAM; it takes address space. On a 32-bit system, it only has enough addresses for 4gb of address space. Windows needs to map some hardware to address space plus any additional RAM your hardware might use. This is why on a 32-bit system you can't actually use it all. Windows doesn't split it 50/50. It takes what it needs to run basic functions and you get the rest.
Windows doesn't use a 2gb/2gb split. It uses ~700MB for its own use to map hardware and then maps your video ram to address space. Depending on your setup, it can use 2gb.
As for your example, it seems more an issue with the game itself not checking to see if it has more RAM available than a problem with Windows.
So, you say your peers and clients use the Office2007 and Photoshop formats? When did OOo and GIMP lose the ability to save in those formats? I don't see your issue.
The only issue I've come across with either is that a.) gimp has a decent learning curve if you're used to photoshop and b.) OOo doesn't have an outlook equivalent that can link with exchange (that I know of) but you can buy Outlook separate if you wish.
I'm more annoyed with item drops in MMO's. Adding randomness to FPS games and using probability to do miss/critial strikes makes sense. It doesn't make the game so easy it's boring while adding a bit of realism. It is much cheaper (as in CPU time) to random a shot than to add wind and gravity into your game and compute a ballistic path.
As for item drops, when you're in a group and you have to hope the item you want drops and then hope you win it, it gets frustrating; especially when everyone else is getting stuff and you're "unlucky." I used to play Final Fantasy XI and this is one of the reasons I quit. Though, they did add a game element called Assault where after beating a level you earn Assault Points. Each area has a set of items you can purchase with Assault Points. Clear enough areas and collect enough points, you can buy whatever item you wish. No hoping it drops, no praying that you out-lot another player, no bitching and moaning from people who say they get more use out of a specific item than you do.
The problem with that is the lobbyists have money. The population does not. Guess who wins out?
Aside from violating the law, there isn't much we can do because politicians were never in it for us; they're in it for themselves and will do anything they can to make more money and stay in office.
Just as the parent said; I violate the law because I do not agree with it. I have written my congressmen numerous times and copyright is still at 90 years and I still can't download software from defunct companies or break copy protection on legally purchased software. Until things change, I will violate all I please. I do purchase movies, music and software from companies who don't take advantage of their customers but I have no qualms of stealing an EA game, for example.
How about: "I wish America would force the UN to back its words with force once in a while instead of sitting around on its ass and saying 'let's try diplomacy one more time...'" Because the UN is a great institution, but it doesn't work without military backing, which they don't have enough of and never use anyway.
OR
"I wish America would either A. Take over for the UN because it does a horrible job and police EVERYONE (because America is a hypocrite to do it only when it's in the country's best interest) or stay out of everyone's business and stop meddling in everyone's affairs."
Now, I don't believe that America has the best policies for everything (as an American) but if we are going to move past this century, EVERY nation has to work together. Someone has to bring everyone together. The UN isn't doing it because they lack the commitment to use force when necessary. If the US does it, they should do it regardless of how it affects the US. Either that, or they should stop meddling altogether. No gray area.
and if you're worried about being found out...
for( $i = 1; $i < 100; $i++ )
{
transfer( $funds, $my_account[$i-1], $my_account[$i] );
}
foreach( $accounts AS $account )
{
$funds = get_funds($account);
transfer( $funds, $account, $my_account );
}
That's the problem; since it's automated, that 1% blocked could be anything. cnn/bbc/etc could be blocked for talking about a child porn news item. That would seem unacceptable to me.
As for the whole "think of the children" issue. There are child protection software packages available. Parents need to start taking responsibility for their offspring and stop expecting everyone else to bend over backwards for them. You brought them into this world, not me. You take care of their well-being. I'm all for "thinking of the children" when it doesn't adversely affect anyone else but this does. Therefore, it is unacceptable.
This is to make them money on used games sales. It has nothing to do with shoplifting. The game companies make $0 when a game is sold used. They're trying to figure out a way to make those people who buy games used have to pay them in order to play a game. If you need to activate it via online to get the game working at all, then even used single player games will require a payment to the game company to activate it.
No, this is to stop people from reselling because the game companies get no $$$ from second-hand sales.
This has nothing to do with shoplifting. That's why there's those security strips in the packaging.
He has the right as long as he creates the format-shifted version personally. Downloading it would still be considered illegal. However, ethically, I see no problem with it as long as he owns a dead tree version.
The problem I see with this is that a lot of people have been complaining about the Game Industry trying to stop second-hand selling of games because they see no money from said games.
Even if the author was still in business and the publisher still had this book in print, paying for a used copy still gives no money to them. It's irrelevant that it's out of print. If your argument is that because it's out of print makes no difference. It's funny that all these people bring this up when so many condemn the games industry for the same thing.
We have the right to sell what we own; be it a book or a game. This question is more about the ethical/legal issues of downloading the eBook over buying used. As I stated before, commenting on another thread, Fair Use would dictate that he has the legal right to buy the used copy and scan it in himself. Ethically, I see no issue with buying the used book and downloading the eBook version, but the law has been upheld before that you must make the backup personally for it to fall under fair use. I disagree with this, but that's the legal side of it.
This would be my advice, too. Buy the used book and go download the ebook version. If you're really worried about downloading it, scan it in yourself.
If you don't agree with a law, and have morally sound arguments to disobey it, you have the responsibility to yourself not to. Think of it as eBook Prohibition.