Your right, having access to the sourcecode is a huge boon. Myself I do a fairbit of both cross platform and windows specific development, and yes I have a hell of alot less hassles when debugging if I can step into the origional sources. I agree with you 100%, that is one of the huge advantages to open source. Keep in mind, im not arguing that closed source is better then open source, or vice versa. Each have their own strengths and merits. In this case, im arguing that closed source monolithic development actually has an advantage.
See, your right, DLL hell and dependancies loops are bad in Windows aswell, although in my opinion, not nearly as bad, as frankly there are normally only multiple revisions of a single DLL normally from a single vendor. In linux, you can have multiple revisions of a single library, with multiple possible replacements for that library, each inturn that depends on a heirarchy of libraries above or below it, that exist in the same situation. Im not saying linux could under go as massive a change as what Windows just did. What I am saying is, it would be more likely to be bugged, or take a hell of alot longer. Frankly, just the overhead of coordinating between different teams, identifying all of the different area's that are affected and working out the myriad of combinations that the open source world contains, would be a staggering task. That said, in the MS world... theres one vendor, with one top level command and closed access to all the systems needing fixing.
Re:I'm sorry, were you expecting better?
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XP2 Spotted In The Wild
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Actually, I hold to my origional comment... but I want to add one thing, which MANY people commented on, and thankfully, not you!;)
First off... im not bashing linux, and im not saying Linux needs a 400 meg patch, because frankly it doesn't. Nor, am I saying that Linux is a worse or better operating system. Actually, now that I think about it more, although my wording was poor, what I meant to say is I dont think the Linux Community, could have pulled off a patch like this with as minimal impact as what Microsoft has done.
Not an attack... just an observation... here is my reasoning...
Microsoft has control over all aspects of the OS, one of the positives I suppose of closed source. They know for example that a change here in the kernal, will break feature x in the web browser. Additionally, one company controls basically all of the API's that 3rd party companies would have to use to write software.
Now, contrast that to the linux world, whereas you have on entity basically in control of the kernal development and direction. Then you have another group that controls Apache, another for GCC, another for X, another for KDE, etc, etc... You make massive changes in the kernal, and you are going to have a trickle out effect, that all other teams are going to have to deal with. Thing is, there is nobody there with a big stick that would force people to comply. Additionally, Linux is all about choice and freedom. But with that, perhaps my biggest beef with linux, and IMHO the thing holding linux back the most is the labrinth of dependancies between various libraries and subsystems. In a situation like this, where you need to make sweeping changes across the board, the team based, decentralized aspect... not to mention the multiple distributions, would make it all but impossible to do a rollout like this, with less impact then what MS has experienced.
Once again, to keep the fanboy zealots ( not you Hundalz ) quite... im not saying Linux sucks, or that open source sucks, or any of these things. And yes, im well aware that Linux does not need a patch like this, unlike windows... so please stop beating that poor dead horse.
What im saying is, that in this case, MS did good. For once they actually deserve some kudos. Also, this is one of those rarer examples, where a closed source single controller development system, is actually superior to open source. ( In regards to the ability to make sweeping changes with minimal impact, fairly quickly. ).
Ah, my thanks, I hadnt realized what the end user patch size was, as frankly I didnt much feel like waiting for the final release. I had believed the MSDN version would be somewhat bloated to support multiple os's etc, but not to the degree you told me. Thanks for the info.
Re:I'm sorry, were you expecting better?
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XP2 Spotted In The Wild
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· Score: 2, Insightful
UM... have you taken a look at the size of SP2 yet? I used the MSDN install about a week back, and it was 400 megs in size. Thats as big or bigger then the initial install of XP.
They arent bolting it on to XP, they are essentially rolling out Windows XP version 2. Sofar I havent had too many issues with the service pack, which is amazing considering how much it does. Frankly, I dont think Linux could come close to releasing a patch of this magnitude with as little side effects. Microsoft should truly be applauded for their recent actions... although, granted this is slashdot... aint gonna happen.
Thats odd to me, as im playing it on a laptop with the following specs:
ATI Radeon 9200 128 Meg ( who would have figured vid card would ever be listed before cpu...)
AMD 2.4 ghz
512 meg ddr
Drive is 5200 rpm, but other then nasty wait times, it never seems to hit the hardrive.
Frankly, at 800x600 it plays at 30+ fps, at 800x600. I see the oh so occasional stutter ( perhaps one studder per 20 minutes of gaming, lasting less then 2 seconds).
The only issue ive seen sofar, is a odd behavour on S-video out, where it conks out after about 20 minutes. Havent figured that out yet. If you know why this is happening, please let me know.
LOL, my hate of the US? So, are you saying that being critical of the US is the same as hate? Well, hate to tell you then, but about 6 billion people hate the US.
I have no hatred of the US, although I do see huge flaws. Next to the UK, the US is perhaps my favorite nation. I do have a hate for your current leader, but then again... so do half of your population!:)
I do disagree with your assumption that the terror is directed against America because of their success, and that if you swapped the US with Canada, Canada would be the target of terrorists. What is causing the terror is US foreign policy. The US has been meddling in Middle Eastern affairs for WAY to long. Iraq, then Iran, then Iraq again, helping train the Mujaden (sp?), Afghanistan in general, Pakistan, Isreal, Kuwait... there arent too many countries in the area that America hasnt either supplied arms and political ( and covert ) pressure for, or against. That, is the cause of the hatred over there.
Also, the worst part of all of it... Americans take a bad rap simply because of their Government. I dont think most of the anti-US nations ( such as france or germany ), that the average citizen has anything against the american citizens. Its just that Bush set back americas global image by 20 years.
So, basically I have nothing against the States, and love most of the culture ( with the exception of FOX and UPN:) ). Your current government though... I hate with a passion. Canada itself came VERY close to electing a similar government, and in all honesty, I would have been just as negative towards Canada had harper been elected and behaved like Bush has. Its a shame nations get perceived by the acts of their politicans, but it is also a reality.
My god, what a post... Your right... its a slow friday and your trying to stir the shit!:)Oh well, i'll bite
Your right, Canada had a signifigant contirbution to WWII ( and I ), and in fact had the second largest Navy at the end of the second world war ( Mostly because of the shit kicking that Japan and Germany took... ). However, entering the war, that was not the case. Canada is a country that rallies at the time of war ( real wars, not political invasions... ).
Now, the biggest irony is the reason why Canada is not a military power these days... The US! Do a search on a company called AVRO. The created the CF-100, then the CF-105(Arrow). The AVRO arrow was basically decades ahead of its time ( actually, it was heavily ripped off to create the F15... so think F15 tech in the late 50's ). Why did this amazing aircraft never come to see day, beyond test flights??? Well, basically it boiled down to political threats from "Canada's friends to the North". It came down to America dictated to Canada, scrap the Arrow and adopt the Bowmark (sp?) missle system, or the US would start doing missle tests over Canadian airspace.
Now the real reason? Basically it boils down to one of two reasons. THe first one is a no brainer... War is a major industry for the US. Had Canada had the best jet fighter/intercepter on the market, how well would sales of the StarFighter, F4 Phantom, etc have gone? Second reason, basically boils down to the U2 spy plane. That plane was the backbone of US intelligence, however its only defence was the alltitude it flew at, and altitude the Arrow could easily fly at. Ironically, the U2 didnt prove to be that invulnerable in the end did it? I believe in the end, Gary Powers was shot down by an AA missle launch from a Mig25.
So, long story short, Canada was on route to becoming a major military power, at least industrially. One of the biggest reason that Canada isnt these days, is because America basically dictated ( weilding a big stick ), come under our protection, OR ELSE!
Finally... the world isnt really that dangerous of a place with two exceptions. 1) Nukes. 2) The US. With the end of the Cold War, the US is the only country maintaining a large and agressive force, with the possible exception of China. TO put things simply, I think the world was much safer before the US invaded Iraq, then it is now.
However, thats the nice thing about Canada... should the US join "the dark side", watch how fast the "free world" unites against you, should you invade ( and not simply annex, big difference ). Also, dont kid yourself... Canada does not have nuclear weapons... but they are pioneers in the field. I imagine it would take a matter of minutes to create a weapon. The amount of weapons grade material in Canada if you were a parnoid, and Canada not a peaceful country, would probrably keep you up at night. Canada is a peaceful country by choice, not necesity. Dont get me wrong, should a landwar happen, Canada would get clobered... a budget of 100x to 1, and a population of 10x to 1 just cant be overcomed. However, if there is another WW, its going to be nuke based... population size and military budgets mean jack-shit in those situations.
Todays conflicts are going to be resolved with terror, because frankly, the US is the only country heavily investing in the military. However, the nicest defence against terrorism, is not to be a prick. Thats a defence that Canada has mastered... the US still has a hell of alot to learn. Im not even gonna mention isreal here... they are going to be targeted by terrorists for a very very long time.
To each his own I guess. London has its downsides, and far to many friggin rich yuppies thanks to UWO, but it also has a bunch of high points. I lived in Montreal ( the bargain of the century for cost of living ), Toronto ( hell itself ) and Dallas Tx over the course of my life. I enjoyed each, except Toronto, but now that im at the age of settling down, having a family and all that crap, im best suited to London.
To say you would make 40% less is a gross exagoration. From what ive seen, the payscale is pretty much inline to what most of the states is. The amount of money that you take home at the end of the month means squat. Its all about standard of living.
As an example, im in London, Ontario, which has a population of about 350K. Im a fairly high level developer, basically one step below IT manager. I pull in about 60K a year. From my understanding, I could go to New York city and basically double my salary, and have a 10% less tax to pay. Ditto, I could go to Toronto, and make about the same almost double what I make now ( more like 40% more ), but really what does that money buy me.
I am in the process of buying a luxury loft, 1,700 square feet in size, for about 150K. From what I understand, the same would cost me about about 400K in Toronto, and probrably well over 1/2 million in either NY or Cali. After, expenses, taxes and all that crap, im probrably left with about 1,500 a month of disposable income. That includes my mortgage, car payment, getting reamed for taxes ( that part aint a myth:) ).
As to currency differences, to be honest, I dont really see any. When I go visit our Lansing site in Michigan, I pay basically the same as I would in canada when I eat out, get a hotel, order a beer. It used to be we could cross the border and save a ton of cash on things like gas, smokes, groceries, etc... but now, thats no longer true. Actually, I have a friend whos business consists of buying vehicles in Canada, and driving them up to the States for resale. Gives you a hit at how the exchange rates work:)
There are plenty of reasons to chose one country over the other... but wage sure isnt one of them. Cost of living/standard of living is the most important thing... wage is... when comparing one location to another... just a useless number.
Actually, day to day usage wise, im a developer who works mostly on the windows platform, and occasionally Linux or Novell, either on a remote machine or within a VM. Its very regular for me to have multiple IE windows open, a FireFox session with 4 or more tabs running, atleast one instance of Visual Studio running, often more, plus ofcourse outlook, a couple explorer windows, a few instances of MSDN, etc... multitasking isnt exactly foreign to me.
Thats the kicker though... it isnt exactly difficult for me either. Managing all of the above applications using an existing 2d window manager is by no means difficult for me. One caveat I need to be fair about though, I do run dual monitors. IMHO, dual monitors is a power user requirement for complete efficency... and no, I dont believe a 3d desktop would change that one iota.
Really... what advantage does looking glass give you over a tradional desktop? Are you ever going to hit a situation where viewing your documents, at say, a 45 degree angle has any actual value?
Like I said before... the only area I see 3d helping is perhaps in UI for task switching, or if new input devices are used. I can forsee the value in 3d, for say... making a task switcher that by having depth along the Z axis, orders your applications based of the priority or frequency of use... so say, for example, and initial alt tab shows at the front most layer, the most used applications, then in the depths, the apps you use less frequently. But, simply redirecting 2d output onto a 3d surface, I mean really... whats the point?!?!
Just from looking at the screenshots, I see zero reasons why this would be better then a traditional 2d desktop. In alot of ways, its inferior to a normal desktop, not to mention the wasted cycles spent rendering the damned thing.
Really, to take advantage of 3d desktops, we either need full immersive 3d ( alah, the 3d headsets, or perhaps holographic displays ), or the need to take a different perspective on computing then todays window'd concept. Really, what is the value of rotating a windowed view... does it really help you know what your document is, be seeing some strangely distorted side view of it? Perhaps things like 3d navigation could be handy... the ability to not only scroll up and down, but in and out... or to link relevant data not only in a tree based structure ( like the start menu ), but also group information based on relationships to other information, with perspective aswell.
But as it stands, just texturing an existing window onto a 3d billboard... really, whats the point? It will be interesting to see how microsoft exploits the 3rd dimension, given that avalon requires a 3d gpu to run. Hopefully, they do it better then SUN does. If I recall, there was an alternate windows manager called the Cube, that worked similar to this... what ever happenned to it?
Like a travel clock + keyboard and more memory and USB?
Looks like a duck, talks like a duck, quacks like a duck... hey, its a duck
Hate to tell you, but you are looking for a pda, pure and simple. My recomendation is to look on ebay for a first or second generation Windows CE devices ( the kinda with a keyboard ), or the origional Zaruas. You should be able to pick one up used for 100$.
There is one thing I cant figure out here. Spyware is the next big thing after virii... why havent the big anti virus companies gotten in on the action? I mean, how much more work would it take a McAffe or Symantec to add spyware detection tools and removal software to their current products? If you think about it, the only big thing that distinguishes one AV company from another is there response times to a new virus. Wouldnt this be a very sellable feature?
On the bright side, the big kids staying out of it, allows little guys the like LavaSoft ( ad-aware ), to carve a niche for themselves. However, in a lavasoft type company gets smart and offers virus removal in their tool aswell... why would you not get the do it all tool, instead of two pieces of software?
Its always funny watching big commerical companies miss the boat on stuff like this though:)
Also, I may be wrong, their may be an AntiVirus product out there that deals with SpyWare. If there is, please let me know!
Ahhhh... one of you people... let me guess, have a dictionary sitting beside your toilet to amuse yourself? Slashdot has the biggest population of grammar facists I have ever seen... but really should that shock me?:) Funny part is, you should have made fun of the fact I mispelled syndicate when I quoted it...
Regardless... there is the dictionary definition of a word... and there is the popular context that is taken in. Fag has more then one meaning, but what do 95% of North Americans think when they hear it... ditto for the word syndicate.
So put down your dictionary and thesarus, and I dunno... get a life?
yeah, I remember some of these groups from back playing on my Atari 800 and C64 and im 28 now, but I imagine that they survive mostly in name only. Pass the torch stuff. I remember reading about one group ( Phrozen Crew maybe? ) and seeing a membership turn over... the churn rate with these groups would make a dot.com company blush!
So I doubt many of these people are still origionals. If so, it might be time to grow up:)
Yes... 14 year old uber-geeks cracking games and software in mom's basement... yes, that something deserving the title "synicate".
Nice to see the government(s) spending money going after such terrifying villians instead of your friendly neighbourhood rapists, child molestors and murderers, eh?
Actually to be honest, I doubt that is the case. I imagine the processing power added by the GPU will be used to render each single frame faster. Speeding up rendering of a movie by distributing frame rendering across multiple machines is relatively easy... Just add 1/box per frame needed and your good to go. However, speeding up the time it takes to do a single frame on a single machine is much more difficult.
Think about it this way... if hyper threading today doesnt allow two frames to be rendered at a time on a pc ( and it doesnt )... how is the GPU going to change that? However, if you speed up the rendering speed it takes to do a single frame, it will of course process more frames.
2) Renderman is by no means alone in the FX world. MentalRay and Brazil most immediatly come to mind.
3) As to UNIX and linux being quite good in a distributed environment... well duh... so are Windows and Mac boxes. As to file sizes... with the limit of 4gb on 32bit boxes, thats a pretty damned big file, and thats active in memory size limit. As to with files, the limit is more in terrabytes. As to Renderfarms, almost ever renderer under the sun handles this the same way... by having a render server that dispatches individuals frames across a number of machines. Even 3D Studios max default renderer supports this.
4) Who cares if Renderman is available with a sourcecode license... if you look at the Max or MAYA sdks... you would never need to go to the code level in the first place. Ditto for Mental Ray. The majority of dev tools in regards to a stand alone renderer boil down to import/export tools, and shader programming, and thats about it. Also, if your a major production house, Discreet, Alias or Softimage will all work to modify their tools to accomidate you. The new wave effects built into Maya are a result of the Perfect Storm, as an example.
As to why a dedicated rendering device from NVida would be better then your average UNIX or Linux box... I think your missing the point here. This isnt a dedicated rendering device... its software that works hand in hand with the existing Quadro already in your Linux box. As to the advantages... its a massive parallel processor boost to your box, with a chip that is a hell of alot better at managing floating point math, then your main processor is.
What I wonder is, if you have >1 Qaudro, do you get a boost perchip?
... but I had no idea it was cold enough for hell to freeze over! I have to believe this is a belated April fools day joke... these companies hate each other almost as much as the Oracle vs Microsoft feud. I mean... this went beyond an industry spat it was downright personal.
Funny thing is, this sounds alot like when Microsoft bailed out Corel... look how it turned out for them! Sun isnt exactly as strong as it once was... this is a bad sign of things to come.
Actually I just happenned to use Utah as an example, since im going to Utah next week to attend Brainshare.
Ok... so I lied a bit... my enterprise is a Microsoft Shop that just happens to use netware aswell.
I tried to go this route ( work was financing it, so what the heck:) )... and tried to merge all my misc crap into one device if possible. In the end I came to the conclusion that if you are on the road... you really cant do without a PC in the end, no matter how nice all this crap is getting.
The point where it started getting a bit insane for me is when I found myself going on a trip from London, Ontario Canada to Italy, on business... and I looked at what I had in my bag. 1 Palm V, 1 Compaq 3850 PocketPC, 1 Ibm thinkpad laptop, 2 cell phones ( 1 cdma for in Canada on Bell and 1 for use in Italy ), 1 wireless PCMCIA B and 1 wireless PCMCIA G adapter.... Frankly, for what I needed to do, I truly had to carry all that crap around... so when I got back, I spent alot of time looking into "ALL IN ONE" type devices.
First, I got a slightly newer ( 3980 ) PocketPC with bluetooth and a sleeve for it, with a wireless modem from Sierra Wireless. Truth is, the screen was just too small to use for much more then checking simple email. Plus, the Wireless card was just too slow, and way too expensive ( 500$ canadian at the time, plus 50$ a month thru rogers ). However, to get to any reasonable functionality and battery life... the compaq battery pack/pcmcia adapter doubled the size of the laptop. Also, the SW card's drivers were buggy as hell, and within 2 days, I started carrying my cell phone again. Not to mention talking into an Ipaq is wierd at best.
Ok... so that obviously wasnt the right choice... the next idea was a tablet PC / cell phone combo... Figured that would be a good mix. Made a bad mistake at this point, and chose a non bluetooth cell, so I needed to carry a cable to use the cell as a modem. Speeds again were still truly painfully slow. The Tablet PC I got (loaned) was a compaq with a 12 inch screen and I believe a transmeta processor. I dont know much more, as I only used it for about two weeks before giving up on it. Tablet PC is a great concept with poor execution. Use one for a few days, and you will understand exactly what im saying...
In the end, Ive settled on an ok combo... I bought ( personally, not through work:( ) on of those Acer Ferrari laptops that slashdot made fun of a few weeks back. It fight my requirements to a tee though. 802.11g, 4in1 card reader, bluetooth plus enough power to play games when im bored as snot in a hotelroom somewhere in Utah... Anyways, I coupled that ( for now ) with a Sony Ericson P800 phone ( bluetooth capable modem ) which is a decent Symbian powered phone. I bought it from Expansys.com, which means its unlocked and truly a world phone. So far this combo is working out very nicely for me. Sadly ive come to two conclusions... 1) wireless phones suck for modems... period! and 2) You need a big screen to do alot of the work you might want to do. I can terminal services into work via my cell phone, and type an office document, if I really want to... but... try doing it:)
The all in one device, for now, sadly is a myth. However, the voq phone from Sierra Wireless is looking like a very good prospect going forward!
Oh, and before anyone suggests it... linux just wasnt an option... my enterprise is a MS shop... so my hands are tied. THus also, no PowerBook.
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Your right, having access to the sourcecode is a huge boon. Myself I do a fairbit of both cross platform and windows specific development, and yes I have a hell of alot less hassles when debugging if I can step into the origional sources. I agree with you 100%, that is one of the huge advantages to open source. Keep in mind, im not arguing that closed source is better then open source, or vice versa. Each have their own strengths and merits. In this case, im arguing that closed source monolithic development actually has an advantage.
See, your right, DLL hell and dependancies loops are bad in Windows aswell, although in my opinion, not nearly as bad, as frankly there are normally only multiple revisions of a single DLL normally from a single vendor. In linux, you can have multiple revisions of a single library, with multiple possible replacements for that library, each inturn that depends on a heirarchy of libraries above or below it, that exist in the same situation. Im not saying linux could under go as massive a change as what Windows just did. What I am saying is, it would be more likely to be bugged, or take a hell of alot longer. Frankly, just the overhead of coordinating between different teams, identifying all of the different area's that are affected and working out the myriad of combinations that the open source world contains, would be a staggering task. That said, in the MS world... theres one vendor, with one top level command and closed access to all the systems needing fixing.
Actually, I hold to my origional comment... but I want to add one thing, which MANY people commented on, and thankfully, not you! ;)
First off... im not bashing linux, and im not saying Linux needs a 400 meg patch, because frankly it doesn't. Nor, am I saying that Linux is a worse or better operating system. Actually, now that I think about it more, although my wording was poor, what I meant to say is I dont think the Linux Community, could have pulled off a patch like this with as minimal impact as what Microsoft has done.
Not an attack... just an observation... here is my reasoning...
Microsoft has control over all aspects of the OS, one of the positives I suppose of closed source. They know for example that a change here in the kernal, will break feature x in the web browser. Additionally, one company controls basically all of the API's that 3rd party companies would have to use to write software.
Now, contrast that to the linux world, whereas you have on entity basically in control of the kernal development and direction. Then you have another group that controls Apache, another for GCC, another for X, another for KDE, etc, etc... You make massive changes in the kernal, and you are going to have a trickle out effect, that all other teams are going to have to deal with. Thing is, there is nobody there with a big stick that would force people to comply. Additionally, Linux is all about choice and freedom. But with that, perhaps my biggest beef with linux, and IMHO the thing holding linux back the most is the labrinth of dependancies between various libraries and subsystems. In a situation like this, where you need to make sweeping changes across the board, the team based, decentralized aspect... not to mention the multiple distributions, would make it all but impossible to do a rollout like this, with less impact then what MS has experienced.
Once again, to keep the fanboy zealots ( not you Hundalz ) quite... im not saying Linux sucks, or that open source sucks, or any of these things. And yes, im well aware that Linux does not need a patch like this, unlike windows... so please stop beating that poor dead horse.
What im saying is, that in this case, MS did good. For once they actually deserve some kudos. Also, this is one of those rarer examples, where a closed source single controller development system, is actually superior to open source. ( In regards to the ability to make sweeping changes with minimal impact, fairly quickly. ).
Ah, my thanks, I hadnt realized what the end user patch size was, as frankly I didnt much feel like waiting for the final release. I had believed the MSDN version would be somewhat bloated to support multiple os's etc, but not to the degree you told me. Thanks for the info.
UM... have you taken a look at the size of SP2 yet? I used the MSDN install about a week back, and it was 400 megs in size. Thats as big or bigger then the initial install of XP.
They arent bolting it on to XP, they are essentially rolling out Windows XP version 2. Sofar I havent had too many issues with the service pack, which is amazing considering how much it does. Frankly, I dont think Linux could come close to releasing a patch of this magnitude with as little side effects. Microsoft should truly be applauded for their recent actions... although, granted this is slashdot... aint gonna happen.
LOL... your kidding right... "Windows ME up and running flawlessly"... um, ok! :)
Windows ME, was, and is, a festering pile of dogcrap. And im not even a MS basher.
Thats odd to me, as im playing it on a laptop with the following specs:
ATI Radeon 9200 128 Meg ( who would have figured vid card would ever be listed before cpu...)
AMD 2.4 ghz
512 meg ddr
Drive is 5200 rpm, but other then nasty wait times, it never seems to hit the hardrive.
Frankly, at 800x600 it plays at 30+ fps, at 800x600. I see the oh so occasional stutter ( perhaps one studder per 20 minutes of gaming, lasting less then 2 seconds).
The only issue ive seen sofar, is a odd behavour on S-video out, where it conks out after about 20 minutes. Havent figured that out yet. If you know why this is happening, please let me know.
LOL, my hate of the US? So, are you saying that being critical of the US is the same as hate? Well, hate to tell you then, but about 6 billion people hate the US.
:)
:) ). Your current government though... I hate with a passion. Canada itself came VERY close to electing a similar government, and in all honesty, I would have been just as negative towards Canada had harper been elected and behaved like Bush has. Its a shame nations get perceived by the acts of their politicans, but it is also a reality.
I have no hatred of the US, although I do see huge flaws. Next to the UK, the US is perhaps my favorite nation. I do have a hate for your current leader, but then again... so do half of your population!
I do disagree with your assumption that the terror is directed against America because of their success, and that if you swapped the US with Canada, Canada would be the target of terrorists. What is causing the terror is US foreign policy. The US has been meddling in Middle Eastern affairs for WAY to long. Iraq, then Iran, then Iraq again, helping train the Mujaden (sp?), Afghanistan in general, Pakistan, Isreal, Kuwait... there arent too many countries in the area that America hasnt either supplied arms and political ( and covert ) pressure for, or against. That, is the cause of the hatred over there.
Also, the worst part of all of it... Americans take a bad rap simply because of their Government. I dont think most of the anti-US nations ( such as france or germany ), that the average citizen has anything against the american citizens. Its just that Bush set back americas global image by 20 years.
So, basically I have nothing against the States, and love most of the culture ( with the exception of FOX and UPN
My god, what a post... Your right... its a slow friday and your trying to stir the shit! :)Oh well, i'll bite
... so think F15 tech in the late 50's ). Why did this amazing aircraft never come to see day, beyond test flights??? Well, basically it boiled down to political threats from "Canada's friends to the North". It came down to America dictated to Canada, scrap the Arrow and adopt the Bowmark (sp?) missle system, or the US would start doing missle tests over Canadian airspace.
Your right, Canada had a signifigant contirbution to WWII ( and I ), and in fact had the second largest Navy at the end of the second world war ( Mostly because of the shit kicking that Japan and Germany took... ). However, entering the war, that was not the case. Canada is a country that rallies at the time of war ( real wars, not political invasions... ).
Now, the biggest irony is the reason why Canada is not a military power these days... The US! Do a search on a company called AVRO. The created the CF-100, then the CF-105(Arrow). The AVRO arrow was basically decades ahead of its time ( actually, it was heavily ripped off to create the F15
Now the real reason? Basically it boils down to one of two reasons. THe first one is a no brainer... War is a major industry for the US. Had Canada had the best jet fighter/intercepter on the market, how well would sales of the StarFighter, F4 Phantom, etc have gone? Second reason, basically boils down to the U2 spy plane. That plane was the backbone of US intelligence, however its only defence was the alltitude it flew at, and altitude the Arrow could easily fly at. Ironically, the U2 didnt prove to be that invulnerable in the end did it? I believe in the end, Gary Powers was shot down by an AA missle launch from a Mig25.
So, long story short, Canada was on route to becoming a major military power, at least industrially. One of the biggest reason that Canada isnt these days, is because America basically dictated ( weilding a big stick ), come under our protection, OR ELSE!
Finally... the world isnt really that dangerous of a place with two exceptions. 1) Nukes. 2) The US. With the end of the Cold War, the US is the only country maintaining a large and agressive force, with the possible exception of China. TO put things simply, I think the world was much safer before the US invaded Iraq, then it is now.
However, thats the nice thing about Canada... should the US join "the dark side", watch how fast the "free world" unites against you, should you invade ( and not simply annex, big difference ). Also, dont kid yourself... Canada does not have nuclear weapons... but they are pioneers in the field. I imagine it would take a matter of minutes to create a weapon. The amount of weapons grade material in Canada if you were a parnoid, and Canada not a peaceful country, would probrably keep you up at night. Canada is a peaceful country by choice, not necesity. Dont get me wrong, should a landwar happen, Canada would get clobered... a budget of 100x to 1, and a population of 10x to 1 just cant be overcomed. However, if there is another WW, its going to be nuke based... population size and military budgets mean jack-shit in those situations.
Todays conflicts are going to be resolved with terror, because frankly, the US is the only country heavily investing in the military. However, the nicest defence against terrorism, is not to be a prick. Thats a defence that Canada has mastered... the US still has a hell of alot to learn. Im not even gonna mention isreal here... they are going to be targeted by terrorists for a very very long time.
To each his own I guess. London has its downsides, and far to many friggin rich yuppies thanks to UWO, but it also has a bunch of high points. I lived in Montreal ( the bargain of the century for cost of living ), Toronto ( hell itself ) and Dallas Tx over the course of my life. I enjoyed each, except Toronto, but now that im at the age of settling down, having a family and all that crap, im best suited to London.
To say you would make 40% less is a gross exagoration. From what ive seen, the payscale is pretty much inline to what most of the states is. The amount of money that you take home at the end of the month means squat. Its all about standard of living.
:) ).
:)
As an example, im in London, Ontario, which has a population of about 350K. Im a fairly high level developer, basically one step below IT manager. I pull in about 60K a year. From my understanding, I could go to New York city and basically double my salary, and have a 10% less tax to pay. Ditto, I could go to Toronto, and make about the same almost double what I make now ( more like 40% more ), but really what does that money buy me.
I am in the process of buying a luxury loft, 1,700 square feet in size, for about 150K. From what I understand, the same would cost me about about 400K in Toronto, and probrably well over 1/2 million in either NY or Cali. After, expenses, taxes and all that crap, im probrably left with about 1,500 a month of disposable income. That includes my mortgage, car payment, getting reamed for taxes ( that part aint a myth
As to currency differences, to be honest, I dont really see any. When I go visit our Lansing site in Michigan, I pay basically the same as I would in canada when I eat out, get a hotel, order a beer. It used to be we could cross the border and save a ton of cash on things like gas, smokes, groceries, etc... but now, thats no longer true. Actually, I have a friend whos business consists of buying vehicles in Canada, and driving them up to the States for resale. Gives you a hit at how the exchange rates work
There are plenty of reasons to chose one country over the other... but wage sure isnt one of them. Cost of living/standard of living is the most important thing... wage is... when comparing one location to another... just a useless number.
...because they already have fox! :)
Actually, day to day usage wise, im a developer who works mostly on the windows platform, and occasionally Linux or Novell, either on a remote machine or within a VM. Its very regular for me to have multiple IE windows open, a FireFox session with 4 or more tabs running, atleast one instance of Visual Studio running, often more, plus ofcourse outlook, a couple explorer windows, a few instances of MSDN, etc... multitasking isnt exactly foreign to me.
Thats the kicker though... it isnt exactly difficult for me either. Managing all of the above applications using an existing 2d window manager is by no means difficult for me. One caveat I need to be fair about though, I do run dual monitors. IMHO, dual monitors is a power user requirement for complete efficency... and no, I dont believe a 3d desktop would change that one iota.
Really... what advantage does looking glass give you over a tradional desktop? Are you ever going to hit a situation where viewing your documents, at say, a 45 degree angle has any actual value?
Like I said before... the only area I see 3d helping is perhaps in UI for task switching, or if new input devices are used. I can forsee the value in 3d, for say... making a task switcher that by having depth along the Z axis, orders your applications based of the priority or frequency of use... so say, for example, and initial alt tab shows at the front most layer, the most used applications, then in the depths, the apps you use less frequently. But, simply redirecting 2d output onto a 3d surface, I mean really... whats the point?!?!
Just from looking at the screenshots, I see zero reasons why this would be better then a traditional 2d desktop. In alot of ways, its inferior to a normal desktop, not to mention the wasted cycles spent rendering the damned thing.
... does it really help you know what your document is, be seeing some strangely distorted side view of it? Perhaps things like 3d navigation could be handy... the ability to not only scroll up and down, but in and out... or to link relevant data not only in a tree based structure ( like the start menu ), but also group information based on relationships to other information, with perspective aswell.
Really, to take advantage of 3d desktops, we either need full immersive 3d ( alah, the 3d headsets, or perhaps holographic displays ), or the need to take a different perspective on computing then todays window'd concept. Really, what is the value of rotating a windowed view
But as it stands, just texturing an existing window onto a 3d billboard... really, whats the point? It will be interesting to see how microsoft exploits the 3rd dimension, given that avalon requires a 3d gpu to run. Hopefully, they do it better then SUN does. If I recall, there was an alternate windows manager called the Cube, that worked similar to this... what ever happenned to it?
LOL! What, your ducks dont talk? Hmmm... maybe I do need that vacation after all....
:)
Yet another reason I wish slashdot had an edit function!
Like a travel clock + keyboard and more memory and USB?
Looks like a duck, talks like a duck, quacks like a duck... hey, its a duck
Hate to tell you, but you are looking for a pda, pure and simple. My recomendation is to look on ebay for a first or second generation Windows CE devices ( the kinda with a keyboard ), or the origional Zaruas. You should be able to pick one up used for 100$.
There is one thing I cant figure out here. Spyware is the next big thing after virii... why havent the big anti virus companies gotten in on the action? I mean, how much more work would it take a McAffe or Symantec to add spyware detection tools and removal software to their current products? If you think about it, the only big thing that distinguishes one AV company from another is there response times to a new virus. Wouldnt this be a very sellable feature?
:)
On the bright side, the big kids staying out of it, allows little guys the like LavaSoft ( ad-aware ), to carve a niche for themselves. However, in a lavasoft type company gets smart and offers virus removal in their tool aswell... why would you not get the do it all tool, instead of two pieces of software?
Its always funny watching big commerical companies miss the boat on stuff like this though
Also, I may be wrong, their may be an AntiVirus product out there that deals with SpyWare. If there is, please let me know!
Ahhhh... one of you people... let me guess, have a dictionary sitting beside your toilet to amuse yourself? Slashdot has the biggest population of grammar facists I have ever seen... but really should that shock me? :) Funny part is, you should have made fun of the fact I mispelled syndicate when I quoted it...
Regardless... there is the dictionary definition of a word... and there is the popular context that is taken in. Fag has more then one meaning, but what do 95% of North Americans think when they hear it... ditto for the word syndicate.
So put down your dictionary and thesarus, and I dunno... get a life?
yeah, I remember some of these groups from back playing on my Atari 800 and C64 and im 28 now, but I imagine that they survive mostly in name only. Pass the torch stuff. I remember reading about one group ( Phrozen Crew maybe? ) and seeing a membership turn over... the churn rate with these groups would make a dot.com company blush!
:)
So I doubt many of these people are still origionals. If so, it might be time to grow up
I just love the spin they put on this...
these international warez syndicates
Yes... 14 year old uber-geeks cracking games and software in mom's basement... yes, that something deserving the title "synicate".
Nice to see the government(s) spending money going after such terrifying villians instead of your friendly neighbourhood rapists, child molestors and murderers, eh?
Sad... and the media is playing into it...
Actually to be honest, I doubt that is the case. I imagine the processing power added by the GPU will be used to render each single frame faster. Speeding up rendering of a movie by distributing frame rendering across multiple machines is relatively easy... Just add 1/box per frame needed and your good to go. However, speeding up the time it takes to do a single frame on a single machine is much more difficult.
Think about it this way... if hyper threading today doesnt allow two frames to be rendered at a time on a pc ( and it doesnt )... how is the GPU going to change that? However, if you speed up the rendering speed it takes to do a single frame, it will of course process more frames.
1) Renderman is anything but fast.
2) Renderman is by no means alone in the FX world. MentalRay and Brazil most immediatly come to mind. 3) As to UNIX and linux being quite good in a distributed environment... well duh... so are Windows and Mac boxes. As to file sizes... with the limit of 4gb on 32bit boxes, thats a pretty damned big file, and thats active in memory size limit. As to with files, the limit is more in terrabytes. As to Renderfarms, almost ever renderer under the sun handles this the same way... by having a render server that dispatches individuals frames across a number of machines. Even 3D Studios max default renderer supports this.
4) Who cares if Renderman is available with a sourcecode license... if you look at the Max or MAYA sdks... you would never need to go to the code level in the first place. Ditto for Mental Ray. The majority of dev tools in regards to a stand alone renderer boil down to import/export tools, and shader programming, and thats about it. Also, if your a major production house, Discreet, Alias or Softimage will all work to modify their tools to accomidate you. The new wave effects built into Maya are a result of the Perfect Storm, as an example.
As to why a dedicated rendering device from NVida would be better then your average UNIX or Linux box... I think your missing the point here. This isnt a dedicated rendering device... its software that works hand in hand with the existing Quadro already in your Linux box. As to the advantages... its a massive parallel processor boost to your box, with a chip that is a hell of alot better at managing floating point math, then your main processor is.
What I wonder is, if you have >1 Qaudro, do you get a boost perchip?
Phew... im glad to see im not the only one having deja vu!
Phew... im glad to see im no the only one having deja vu!
... but I had no idea it was cold enough for hell to freeze over! I have to believe this is a belated April fools day joke... these companies hate each other almost as much as the Oracle vs Microsoft feud. I mean... this went beyond an industry spat it was downright personal.
Funny thing is, this sounds alot like when Microsoft bailed out Corel... look how it turned out for them! Sun isnt exactly as strong as it once was... this is a bad sign of things to come.
Actually I just happenned to use Utah as an example, since im going to Utah next week to attend Brainshare. Ok... so I lied a bit... my enterprise is a Microsoft Shop that just happens to use netware aswell.
I tried to go this route ( work was financing it, so what the heck :) )... and tried to merge all my misc crap into one device if possible. In the end I came to the conclusion that if you are on the road... you really cant do without a PC in the end, no matter how nice all this crap is getting.
:( ) on of those Acer Ferrari laptops that slashdot made fun of a few weeks back. It fight my requirements to a tee though. 802.11g, 4in1 card reader, bluetooth plus enough power to play games when im bored as snot in a hotelroom somewhere in Utah... Anyways, I coupled that ( for now ) with a Sony Ericson P800 phone ( bluetooth capable modem ) which is a decent Symbian powered phone. I bought it from Expansys.com, which means its unlocked and truly a world phone. So far this combo is working out very nicely for me. Sadly ive come to two conclusions... 1) wireless phones suck for modems... period! and 2) You need a big screen to do alot of the work you might want to do. I can terminal services into work via my cell phone, and type an office document, if I really want to... but... try doing it :)
The point where it started getting a bit insane for me is when I found myself going on a trip from London, Ontario Canada to Italy, on business... and I looked at what I had in my bag. 1 Palm V, 1 Compaq 3850 PocketPC, 1 Ibm thinkpad laptop, 2 cell phones ( 1 cdma for in Canada on Bell and 1 for use in Italy ), 1 wireless PCMCIA B and 1 wireless PCMCIA G adapter.... Frankly, for what I needed to do, I truly had to carry all that crap around... so when I got back, I spent alot of time looking into "ALL IN ONE" type devices.
First, I got a slightly newer ( 3980 ) PocketPC with bluetooth and a sleeve for it, with a wireless modem from Sierra Wireless. Truth is, the screen was just too small to use for much more then checking simple email. Plus, the Wireless card was just too slow, and way too expensive ( 500$ canadian at the time, plus 50$ a month thru rogers ). However, to get to any reasonable functionality and battery life... the compaq battery pack/pcmcia adapter doubled the size of the laptop. Also, the SW card's drivers were buggy as hell, and within 2 days, I started carrying my cell phone again. Not to mention talking into an Ipaq is wierd at best.
Ok... so that obviously wasnt the right choice... the next idea was a tablet PC / cell phone combo... Figured that would be a good mix. Made a bad mistake at this point, and chose a non bluetooth cell, so I needed to carry a cable to use the cell as a modem. Speeds again were still truly painfully slow. The Tablet PC I got (loaned) was a compaq with a 12 inch screen and I believe a transmeta processor. I dont know much more, as I only used it for about two weeks before giving up on it. Tablet PC is a great concept with poor execution. Use one for a few days, and you will understand exactly what im saying...
In the end, Ive settled on an ok combo... I bought ( personally, not through work
The all in one device, for now, sadly is a myth. However, the voq phone from Sierra Wireless is looking like a very good prospect going forward!
Oh, and before anyone suggests it... linux just wasnt an option... my enterprise is a MS shop... so my hands are tied. THus also, no PowerBook.