The carrier has done well, except for that Russian spy that stole photons from the reactor back in 1986, fell off the ship, then "disappeared" from the hospital...
Well, I wouldn't go that far. But it is disturbing. Think about TV/cable. So called "premium channels" like HBO and Showtime for years were just convenient movie rental stores, but when network and cable TV by and large took a sharp down turn with reality TV and the same comedy over and over, they innovated and have some of the best (quality) shows on TV. Even some cable channels have started to produce decent series, like USA's Monk, Dead Zone, 4400, and Sci-Fi's BSG (of course). Now these are some of the most popular shows on iTunes, showing even more that people will pay for quality if the free stuff is less than stellar.
Point is, the vast majority of people will always just do whatever is free/popular/advertised to death. Those who truly want a good experience and good quality, the web connoisseurs per se, will pay for the good stuff. The trick is to balance our demand so that the price of the good stuff doesn't get too high - or stays free, with off the backbone networks or private ones.
You already know what I'm going to say, based on my emphasis, right?
Hehe, no whatever could you mean?
I just love what makes it through as summaries on here. I think grandparent of my original post was right - you have to immediately call BS on something that has "benchmark" and "10x" in it. Very few posters got what you pointed out, that it was a physics-itensive benchmark, and that its results can't be reasonably extrapolated to all cases. We almost need a Slashdot for Dummies that is just links and no summaries so we can avoid all this...but then what we do in our free/work time?
The GPU may be 10x faster at physics calculations, but the summary says framerate improvments of 10x - so how realistic is something like 600 fps? Ridiculous, even if you had a monitor/graphics system capable of 600 refreshes per second.
But true. The only sure protection is to build something that cannot be circumvented because of some law of physics. Software-driven systems will probably never reach this point. We just have to educate people to be safe enough that only the most inventive criminals can get in (and make it so that people understand how to be safe, not just install X because it will "protect" me from Y). It's just like common sense in anything else - know where not to go, what not to do, and if you are unsure, don't do it.
Intel claims the GMA 950 (I think that's the one in the mini) can do hardware MPEG-2, but no mention of hardware h.264. That was my biggest surprise - if Apple is going to push h.264 as hard as it seems they (and everyone else) will, you'd think they'd put a h.264 hardware card in there, like any of ATi's X-00 and X1-00 or nVidia's 7000 series (and maybe the 6000s).
The Mini was definitely the most important part of the announcement. I guess Mac-heads aren't used to thinking like this, but remember - Intel releases new chips all the time, and sells them directly to consumers. The Mini and iMac are both socketed, so whether you think a Core Solo or 1.67Ghz Core Duo is a big deal or not in a Mini, XtremeSystems has already upgraded theirs to 2.16Ghz. An upgradeable CPU that doesn't require some third-party solution a year or two later? Not a big deal to PC users, but for the Mac, its the first in a hopefully long line of greater flexibility in Mac hardware.
I just hope it doesn't just play stuff that is popular and tries to cram it in a small form factor. That's the biggest reason I don't like most PSP games, but love some DS games like Mario Kart DS and Nintendogs.
Now, if instead of trying to play Halo, the thing had a souped-up version of Windows Journal from the Tablet PC Edition and motion sensors to act like an Etch-a-Sketch (like the Powerbooks, but without having to weigh 4 lbs.), that would be innovative. Imagine using a tablet to show ideas at work, then just shaking the tablet to erase. The ease of use would appeal to tons of people, not just the gadget-inclined.
Afterwards, convert Apple completely into a 'content provider/distributor' and get out of the desktop comptuer market totally.
Anyone who thinks the desktop computer market has much life past 2010 isn't paying attention. For consumers, it'll be all about media and communication, not having a workhouse machine able to do whatever all at once. Laptops will be the machine of choice for travellers for their all-in-one ease of transport, but an Xbox/Tivo/TV-like box, an iPod-like phone/media device, and some device for video/e-mail will be all consumers need. I know its been predicted for years, but with consumer tech like the iPod taking off far beyond what anyone thought in 2001 and the power race over in favor of efficiency, ease of use, etc, it looks like it might actually happen. Specialized, integrated home devices will dominate the consumer market. Only research labs, universities, and data-oriented businesses will need the traditional computer.
Or even d)Have your engineers know how to develop good programs. I remember when my mother taught typing to high school students just ten to fifteen years ago - now everyone is expected to know how to use a keyboard, whether you do it "properly" or not.
I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think that in the near future, everyone in technical fields will have to know how to build good software, not just know how to make a "hello world". It may not be the best software, and there will still be plenty of opportunities for professional programmers to develop much better software. But just like I can't type as fast as some secretarial professionals can, everyone will need software development skills.
So, we all know that Intel releases incremental speed bumps nearly every quarter or even more frequently, and this seems to have worked well for Apple here. But what about the quarterly (or more) price drops? A series of cuts is scheduled for the Pentium D over April and Q3 2006 that will almost half some prices. Will Apple catch things into even better margins, or will we see much more quickly update specs AND prices?
Right. It's bad enough with submitters copy and paste from AP or Reuters reports, since that's mostly what the big news sites do anyway, but when you copy and paste someone's blog entry, we're just asking for speculative posts.
That said, I really wonder if there is much to this. With the Google-Skype deal, you'd think Google and eBay would be getting along better than to have Google launch a service directly competing with another eBay company. But then again, this is Google - how long until you can get "it" on GBay?
OS X's GUI is very Open GL heavy, so it's less the CPU and more the GPU that matters. CPU can still make a difference, of course, especially when putting a high-end graphics card with a low-end CPU is nearly impossible in an Apple product, except for the PowerMacs, which generally come with high-end graphics cards anyway.
The Vista GUI (if I recall) is going to rely on DirectX 10 (or whatever version). In theory, so long as ATi and nVidia keep up and their cards have good DX10 implementation, the CPU shouldn't matter as much. Of course, it's may not just be a matter of how "graphic intense" the two OSes are - it depends on how efficiently they are implemented. OS X is well built. Vista, we'll have to see when it comes out.
...probably what parent said. That was my first reaction - I'd love to compare next Christmas if someone big (Dell maybe? HP?) starts packaging other browsers, or the Google Pack takes off. Also, what about all the Mac sales in the past two months? Apple posted pretty good numbers (for them, but still), and I sure hope none of those new Mac users dug through their Applications folder to find IE5 for Mac...sheesh.
The previous article was on the same topic, but that doesn't automatically make it a dupe. This new article talks about the mediation that is now going on as a result, the previous one did not.
I seem to recall an incident 17 years ago leading me to believe the Chinese people need (and want) to fight their government. Sure, times have changed, the economy is more open, but China is not a free country. Freedom is not liking your government and fighting it every four years through elections. Freedom does not include jailing people for their political views, religious views, etc. And most important, before you cite the Bush administration - freedom is not worrying about what the government hands out.
And what you need to do is take advantage of the freedom in America to NOT listen to our media. While it is unfortunately true the freedom of press often means the press is free to copy everyone else or be biased, it also means you don't have to listen to them. If you think you are not free because you cannot find a unique voice in the media, then you have proven my point - you don't know what freedom is really all about, the choice to reject what you are told. Thinking you are not free because the media tells you you are not free is just as bad as taking those wonderful Xinhua press releases as hard facts.
Slashdot Mirror
And it took 13 days...That's one slow simulation.
The carrier has done well, except for that Russian spy that stole photons from the reactor back in 1986, fell off the ship, then "disappeared" from the hospital...
Could this be the end of internet innovation?
Well, I wouldn't go that far. But it is disturbing. Think about TV/cable. So called "premium channels" like HBO and Showtime for years were just convenient movie rental stores, but when network and cable TV by and large took a sharp down turn with reality TV and the same comedy over and over, they innovated and have some of the best (quality) shows on TV. Even some cable channels have started to produce decent series, like USA's Monk, Dead Zone, 4400, and Sci-Fi's BSG (of course). Now these are some of the most popular shows on iTunes, showing even more that people will pay for quality if the free stuff is less than stellar.
Point is, the vast majority of people will always just do whatever is free/popular/advertised to death. Those who truly want a good experience and good quality, the web connoisseurs per se, will pay for the good stuff. The trick is to balance our demand so that the price of the good stuff doesn't get too high - or stays free, with off the backbone networks or private ones.
What good is self-publishing when EA will just buy you in a couple years if you get big/good enough?
You already know what I'm going to say, based on my emphasis, right?
Hehe, no whatever could you mean?
I just love what makes it through as summaries on here. I think grandparent of my original post was right - you have to immediately call BS on something that has "benchmark" and "10x" in it. Very few posters got what you pointed out, that it was a physics-itensive benchmark, and that its results can't be reasonably extrapolated to all cases. We almost need a Slashdot for Dummies that is just links and no summaries so we can avoid all this...but then what we do in our free/work time?
Oh right.
*runs off to patent on-the-fly ODE solving*
The GPU may be 10x faster at physics calculations, but the summary says framerate improvments of 10x - so how realistic is something like 600 fps? Ridiculous, even if you had a monitor/graphics system capable of 600 refreshes per second.
1. Design game that needs to solve ODEs on the fly.
2. ???
3. Win Nobel Prize.
Seriously, let me, uh, see your hardware/code before you go patent it. Just curious, you know.
You sound like a bitter Frenchman...
But true. The only sure protection is to build something that cannot be circumvented because of some law of physics. Software-driven systems will probably never reach this point. We just have to educate people to be safe enough that only the most inventive criminals can get in (and make it so that people understand how to be safe, not just install X because it will "protect" me from Y). It's just like common sense in anything else - know where not to go, what not to do, and if you are unsure, don't do it.
So what if it is available in "product form" yet? It's not like a company would talk about something and never release it.
Yeah, TFA is a noob trap with all those adds. Need at least 3 lvl 60 mages and maybe 2 tanks to take care of them.
Intel claims the GMA 950 (I think that's the one in the mini) can do hardware MPEG-2, but no mention of hardware h.264. That was my biggest surprise - if Apple is going to push h.264 as hard as it seems they (and everyone else) will, you'd think they'd put a h.264 hardware card in there, like any of ATi's X-00 and X1-00 or nVidia's 7000 series (and maybe the 6000s).
Nine if you count the first 4 days of January as part of 2007.
The Mini was definitely the most important part of the announcement. I guess Mac-heads aren't used to thinking like this, but remember - Intel releases new chips all the time, and sells them directly to consumers. The Mini and iMac are both socketed, so whether you think a Core Solo or 1.67Ghz Core Duo is a big deal or not in a Mini, XtremeSystems has already upgraded theirs to 2.16Ghz. An upgradeable CPU that doesn't require some third-party solution a year or two later? Not a big deal to PC users, but for the Mac, its the first in a hopefully long line of greater flexibility in Mac hardware.
I just hope it doesn't just play stuff that is popular and tries to cram it in a small form factor. That's the biggest reason I don't like most PSP games, but love some DS games like Mario Kart DS and Nintendogs.
Now, if instead of trying to play Halo, the thing had a souped-up version of Windows Journal from the Tablet PC Edition and motion sensors to act like an Etch-a-Sketch (like the Powerbooks, but without having to weigh 4 lbs.), that would be innovative. Imagine using a tablet to show ideas at work, then just shaking the tablet to erase. The ease of use would appeal to tons of people, not just the gadget-inclined.
Anyone who thinks the desktop computer market has much life past 2010 isn't paying attention. For consumers, it'll be all about media and communication, not having a workhouse machine able to do whatever all at once. Laptops will be the machine of choice for travellers for their all-in-one ease of transport, but an Xbox/Tivo/TV-like box, an iPod-like phone/media device, and some device for video/e-mail will be all consumers need. I know its been predicted for years, but with consumer tech like the iPod taking off far beyond what anyone thought in 2001 and the power race over in favor of efficiency, ease of use, etc, it looks like it might actually happen. Specialized, integrated home devices will dominate the consumer market. Only research labs, universities, and data-oriented businesses will need the traditional computer.
Or even d)Have your engineers know how to develop good programs. I remember when my mother taught typing to high school students just ten to fifteen years ago - now everyone is expected to know how to use a keyboard, whether you do it "properly" or not.
I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think that in the near future, everyone in technical fields will have to know how to build good software, not just know how to make a "hello world". It may not be the best software, and there will still be plenty of opportunities for professional programmers to develop much better software. But just like I can't type as fast as some secretarial professionals can, everyone will need software development skills.
So, we all know that Intel releases incremental speed bumps nearly every quarter or even more frequently, and this seems to have worked well for Apple here. But what about the quarterly (or more) price drops? A series of cuts is scheduled for the Pentium D over April and Q3 2006 that will almost half some prices. Will Apple catch things into even better margins, or will we see much more quickly update specs AND prices?
pc-facile.com writes
Right. It's bad enough with submitters copy and paste from AP or Reuters reports, since that's mostly what the big news sites do anyway, but when you copy and paste someone's blog entry, we're just asking for speculative posts.
That said, I really wonder if there is much to this. With the Google-Skype deal, you'd think Google and eBay would be getting along better than to have Google launch a service directly competing with another eBay company. But then again, this is Google - how long until you can get "it" on GBay?
OS X's GUI is very Open GL heavy, so it's less the CPU and more the GPU that matters. CPU can still make a difference, of course, especially when putting a high-end graphics card with a low-end CPU is nearly impossible in an Apple product, except for the PowerMacs, which generally come with high-end graphics cards anyway.
The Vista GUI (if I recall) is going to rely on DirectX 10 (or whatever version). In theory, so long as ATi and nVidia keep up and their cards have good DX10 implementation, the CPU shouldn't matter as much. Of course, it's may not just be a matter of how "graphic intense" the two OSes are - it depends on how efficiently they are implemented. OS X is well built. Vista, we'll have to see when it comes out.
And if you look closely, it's displaying the "Action Cancelled" screen in IE.
Apparently it is connected to the internet, but not going anywhere.
...probably what parent said. That was my first reaction - I'd love to compare next Christmas if someone big (Dell maybe? HP?) starts packaging other browsers, or the Google Pack takes off. Also, what about all the Mac sales in the past two months? Apple posted pretty good numbers (for them, but still), and I sure hope none of those new Mac users dug through their Applications folder to find IE5 for Mac...sheesh.
The previous article was on the same topic, but that doesn't automatically make it a dupe. This new article talks about the mediation that is now going on as a result, the previous one did not.
RSS still hasn't updated though.
I seem to recall an incident 17 years ago leading me to believe the Chinese people need (and want) to fight their government. Sure, times have changed, the economy is more open, but China is not a free country. Freedom is not liking your government and fighting it every four years through elections. Freedom does not include jailing people for their political views, religious views, etc. And most important, before you cite the Bush administration - freedom is not worrying about what the government hands out. And what you need to do is take advantage of the freedom in America to NOT listen to our media. While it is unfortunately true the freedom of press often means the press is free to copy everyone else or be biased, it also means you don't have to listen to them. If you think you are not free because you cannot find a unique voice in the media, then you have proven my point - you don't know what freedom is really all about, the choice to reject what you are told. Thinking you are not free because the media tells you you are not free is just as bad as taking those wonderful Xinhua press releases as hard facts.