First of all, who is going to listen to someone who's real name is Reginald Dwight (look it up if you don't believe me)
Secondly, internet is neutral in music IMHO. Artists are being ripped off because people steal their music (if getting jabbed in the proverbial by a record company isn't bad enough), but it also helps new artists become popular (acid planet, myspace, need I go on?). I make my own music in my little studio in one room of my house. I use a keyboard, a guitar and (OMG) a computer. So Sir Dwight, are you saying my music is not as good as someone who plays live in front of people? Quite a generalization I think.
If anything has killed music (particularly interaction between musicians), I believe TV (Australian/American/Wherever Idol) and record companies (pre-packaged eye candy who can't really perform and have no musical skill whatsoever - you know who you are...) have killed music. And it's sad really. The best bands are out there unheard, unsigned, all because they're not what the record companies want to market. Taking a 'risk' these days is too hard because the pop market is too profitable.
My hope is one day we, as an audience, will break the cycle and start wanting real music again.
I love Maxtor drives too. They help me sell Seagates and WD's when they die. In the computer shop that I work in, every PC with a Maxtor drive that comes in for repair, a HDD test is run on the drive. It's truly frightening how many fail. They're not all old drives either, some are brand new. It's usually a 50/50 ratio of living to dead hard drives.
The other thing of note is the fact that it's always the same fault when they die. Windows will be able to see the physical drive but all the formatting on the drive gets toasted. It's almost like the FAT/NTFS table gets smashed every time. Uncanny really.
Lets not forget hard drives are now not the only SATA devices. DVDRW drives are now SATA too. Maybe someone might want 4 SATA DVDRW drives, and a huge amount of data storage using the remaining 6 SATA ports for hard drives. Sure, they're probably more a pirate than Long John Silver, but where there are needs, there will be purchases.
Why must we use the word 'pimp' all the time to mean 'dress up'.
Pimp, by definition, would mean you get your windows box to sell itself for sex with strangers, then take a cut of the profits in return for keeping it safe. It will end up diseased anyway so you fail in your job.
Wait a minute, now I get it.... *enlightenment*
Re:XP is _still_ better then linux and it's 7 year
on
Pimp Your XP
·
· Score: 1
They're an idiot for responding... right......and you did what now?
Re:Well tested?
on
Pimp Your XP
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Bzzzt!
Vista doesn't support SLI properly yet. Any support it does have, causes massive performance cuts. Trust me. I saw a 50% increase in speed when going from Vista to XP on a monster PC. 3DMark2006 score went from 10,000 to over 13,000 just with an OS change.
It seems you're forgetting that circumventing CSS copywrite encryption is illegal. CD's (generally) don't have copy protection mechanisms. You're comparing apples with oranges.
At work we recently built a gaming PC for a customer. This beast was $3800AUD for tower alone. It was mammoth. Without boring everyone, it had 2 8800gtx's in SLI, AMD X2 6000, 2Gb Corsair Twin2X Pro, etc etc. The best of the best (arguably).
The customer wanted Vista, his reasoning was that he had all the latest hardware, he may as well get the latest software.
After building this PC, we installed Vista Home Premium and all the games he provided (Doom 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, etc). Vista.... well... it looked pretty on the desktop. Thats about all. Either the games (with all the latest patches) ran slow, or not at all. Doom 3 had a coronary (due to Vista's lack of OpenGL), S.T.A.L.K.E.R became S.......T......A......you get the idea. We ran 3DMark06 on it and found it hard to pass 10,000 marks. We knew this PC could do more.
We consulted the customer and told him XP would probably be a better option. Despite the new hardware and level of equipment, Vista... well, sucked ass. He decided to take our advice and we formatted and installed XP. This transformed the PC into a demon.
Not only could we play every game he provided at full resolution and all options maxed out, but it scored the highest 3DMark06 score in the world for its' class (Air cooled, AMD based, 2gb ram, 8800gtx in SLI), beating the leader by 200 marks.
So my point is, Microsoft want people to go out and buy Vista, but until SP1 and most importantly for gamers, DX10 comes out, I see no compelling reason. For the record, we'll be selling XP to our customers as long as we can get it. Only 1 in 10 PC's we sell has Vista on it.
Let's go back in time 100 years. It's 1897. Music of that time was different, granted. So was the technology to record and distribute it, but artists were paid for performing music. An artist became famous because they were good. If they were really good, people would help them out and let them record for a modest fee, but the sales would get the artist a majority of proceeds.
Eventually, music became something influential on a corporate level. Zoom forward to 1957, 50 years ago from today. Artists began trying to market themselves to "record companies" in stead of their audience. The record companies would fund up and coming artists, who were usually established acts already. The elusive "record contract" would be still geared to pay the artist a good sum of money, but the cut for the record companies was getting bigger. This is where it began to snowball.
Lets move to more recent times. Now we have record companies finding talentless bimbos and tryhard boybands to front this multi-billion dollar industry. Not only that, the record companies are taking most of the proceeds and the artist is forced to tour/mime in order to make the kind of cash that would have been available to them 50 years ago. Good artists who may not be the 'in' thing at the moment (as in, not pop/emo/rap) struggle to get a recording contract. Even when they eventually do, it's on the record companies terms. Desperate to get noticed, most new artists will sign anything just to become famous.
So now record companies are making ridiculous amounts of money off the consumer and kicking the artist to the kerb when they are no longer the 'in' thing. This is bad for music, and bad for the consumer.
So when I torrent the latest album from the artist I like, does that make me a criminal? Even if I go to their concerts, buy merchandise and do all I can to get them money knowing that the record companies don't get as much of a cut from touring? I think, if anything, I'm doing the right thing. It's a very Robin Hood mentality, but stealing from the record companies and giving to the musicians is the way I believe in.
I think if everyone else did what I do, music would be in a better place.
Also, if you'd really hate Microsoft like you claim to, you'd hardly install Vista on your parents' PC. Because they use MS Office, and several other little programs that they are used to. They don't like being ripped off paying too much for a computer. This, in turn rules out any Mac option.
They also don't have a PHD in computer science, so that rules out Linux.
I'm not bitching, I'm merely trying to get the point across that we haven't embraced this relatively new 64-bit technology in the desktop market. Now microsoft are trying to look past the 64-bit advantage and go to a multicore operating system.
It just seems stupid to me.
I pose a follow up question then, what would be faster? 2 dual-core cpu's in a computer system running at 32-bit (hardware, OS and programs), or a single core computer system running (hardware, OS and programs) using 64-bit?
Microsoft had Windows XP 64-Bit edition to whet peoples appetites and give hardware/software companies what they needed as a testbed for 64-bit technology. I agree with your point on Apple, they're even more misguided than Microsoft, but thats a whole other story.
Whether we like it or not, the entire computer industry revolves around Microsoft. If they force people to change to 64-bit, people will inherently change to 64-bit. There may be a small percentage of people who seek an alternative (Apple or Linux), but the average consumer of IT is a sheep. 64-bit has been around long enough in the non-corporate, home market to mature. The problem is the software now, not the hardware, that's holding people back.
Why bother talking about multi core supporting operating systems when we still haven't embraced 64-bit technology yet. Why bother pushing for a new technology when the current 'new' technology hasn't even been implemented yet. IMHO, Microsoft should have made Vista 64-bit only and kept XP alive for the 32-bit people who don't want to migrate. This would force people to write 64-bit drivers and software in order to be on 'average Joe's' new PC. Instead, they've done what they've been doing for the past 30 years, compromising due to lack of adaptation.
Now I'm no supporter of Microsoft. I personally hate them. But you have to see where I'm coming from.
I recently built a new PC for my parents. It was a simple box with a Sempron 3000, 1gb DDR, 80Gb HDD, etc. It was all 64-bit compatible so I though Vista Home Premium 64-bit would be the best way to go. Their scanner isn't supported, their antivirus isn't supported, and the devices and software they use that DO work on Vista, are all running in 32-bit mode because there is no equivalent for 64-bit.
Please lets implement the great technology we have before concentrating on the future.
What about the "Backweb" software HP have been putting on their computers for the past decade? I actually questioned the product manager for HP Australia a few years back about the spyware HP ship with Pavilion and Presario home PC's and his answer was completely unsatisfactory. He said something to the effect of 'Backweb is designed to update customer's HP software remotely, including drivers, applications and other things. To my knowledge, this hasn't been implemented yet.
So the product manager of HP Australia not only doesn't know if it's been implemented yet, but he also is referring to something laying dormant for 10 years in their systems. Backweb software can potentially phone home and provide any and every detail about a customer. It's TSR, it's in memory ALL THE TIME, and hidden as a service.
It is so untrustworthy, HP themselves have renamed it in the add/remove programs as "Updates from HP" instead of backweb because customers thought it was spyware.
This latest development doesn't surprise me at all.
A wise decision. I haven't heard of many other companies being so employee friendly. Are there any other big companies out there that have this similar attitude?
I think it would be refreshing for employers to go out of their way to make their employees feel more at home. It would be much better for productivity.
Usually I just shake it to hear the parts rattle inside after I've thrown it across the room. It will only be a matter of time before we have concussions thanks to the wii-esque gaming that will be happening.
Slashdot Mirror
First of all, who is going to listen to someone who's real name is Reginald Dwight (look it up if you don't believe me)
Secondly, internet is neutral in music IMHO. Artists are being ripped off because people steal their music (if getting jabbed in the proverbial by a record company isn't bad enough), but it also helps new artists become popular (acid planet, myspace, need I go on?). I make my own music in my little studio in one room of my house. I use a keyboard, a guitar and (OMG) a computer. So Sir Dwight, are you saying my music is not as good as someone who plays live in front of people? Quite a generalization I think.
If anything has killed music (particularly interaction between musicians), I believe TV (Australian/American/Wherever Idol) and record companies (pre-packaged eye candy who can't really perform and have no musical skill whatsoever - you know who you are...) have killed music. And it's sad really. The best bands are out there unheard, unsigned, all because they're not what the record companies want to market. Taking a 'risk' these days is too hard because the pop market is too profitable.
My hope is one day we, as an audience, will break the cycle and start wanting real music again.
With all those acronyms, that could have possibly been the geekiest sentence ever! ;)
It's humor people, laugh...
I love Maxtor drives too. They help me sell Seagates and WD's when they die. In the computer shop that I work in, every PC with a Maxtor drive that comes in for repair, a HDD test is run on the drive. It's truly frightening how many fail. They're not all old drives either, some are brand new. It's usually a 50/50 ratio of living to dead hard drives.
The other thing of note is the fact that it's always the same fault when they die. Windows will be able to see the physical drive but all the formatting on the drive gets toasted. It's almost like the FAT/NTFS table gets smashed every time. Uncanny really.
Lets not forget hard drives are now not the only SATA devices. DVDRW drives are now SATA too. Maybe someone might want 4 SATA DVDRW drives, and a huge amount of data storage using the remaining 6 SATA ports for hard drives. Sure, they're probably more a pirate than Long John Silver, but where there are needs, there will be purchases.
Why must we use the word 'pimp' all the time to mean 'dress up'.
Pimp, by definition, would mean you get your windows box to sell itself for sex with strangers, then take a cut of the profits in return for keeping it safe. It will end up diseased anyway so you fail in your job.
Wait a minute, now I get it.... *enlightenment*
They're an idiot for responding... right... ...and you did what now?
Bzzzt!
Vista doesn't support SLI properly yet. Any support it does have, causes massive performance cuts. Trust me. I saw a 50% increase in speed when going from Vista to XP on a monster PC. 3DMark2006 score went from 10,000 to over 13,000 just with an OS change.
It seems you're forgetting that circumventing CSS copywrite encryption is illegal. CD's (generally) don't have copy protection mechanisms. You're comparing apples with oranges.
Here is an example:
At work we recently built a gaming PC for a customer. This beast was $3800AUD for tower alone. It was mammoth. Without boring everyone, it had 2 8800gtx's in SLI, AMD X2 6000, 2Gb Corsair Twin2X Pro, etc etc. The best of the best (arguably).
The customer wanted Vista, his reasoning was that he had all the latest hardware, he may as well get the latest software.
After building this PC, we installed Vista Home Premium and all the games he provided (Doom 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, etc). Vista.... well... it looked pretty on the desktop. Thats about all. Either the games (with all the latest patches) ran slow, or not at all. Doom 3 had a coronary (due to Vista's lack of OpenGL), S.T.A.L.K.E.R became S.......T......A......you get the idea. We ran 3DMark06 on it and found it hard to pass 10,000 marks. We knew this PC could do more.
We consulted the customer and told him XP would probably be a better option. Despite the new hardware and level of equipment, Vista... well, sucked ass. He decided to take our advice and we formatted and installed XP. This transformed the PC into a demon.
Not only could we play every game he provided at full resolution and all options maxed out, but it scored the highest 3DMark06 score in the world for its' class (Air cooled, AMD based, 2gb ram, 8800gtx in SLI), beating the leader by 200 marks.
So my point is, Microsoft want people to go out and buy Vista, but until SP1 and most importantly for gamers, DX10 comes out, I see no compelling reason. For the record, we'll be selling XP to our customers as long as we can get it. Only 1 in 10 PC's we sell has Vista on it.
Let's go back in time 100 years. It's 1897. Music of that time was different, granted. So was the technology to record and distribute it, but artists were paid for performing music. An artist became famous because they were good. If they were really good, people would help them out and let them record for a modest fee, but the sales would get the artist a majority of proceeds.
Eventually, music became something influential on a corporate level. Zoom forward to 1957, 50 years ago from today. Artists began trying to market themselves to "record companies" in stead of their audience. The record companies would fund up and coming artists, who were usually established acts already. The elusive "record contract" would be still geared to pay the artist a good sum of money, but the cut for the record companies was getting bigger. This is where it began to snowball.
Lets move to more recent times. Now we have record companies finding talentless bimbos and tryhard boybands to front this multi-billion dollar industry. Not only that, the record companies are taking most of the proceeds and the artist is forced to tour/mime in order to make the kind of cash that would have been available to them 50 years ago. Good artists who may not be the 'in' thing at the moment (as in, not pop/emo/rap) struggle to get a recording contract. Even when they eventually do, it's on the record companies terms. Desperate to get noticed, most new artists will sign anything just to become famous.
So now record companies are making ridiculous amounts of money off the consumer and kicking the artist to the kerb when they are no longer the 'in' thing. This is bad for music, and bad for the consumer.
So when I torrent the latest album from the artist I like, does that make me a criminal? Even if I go to their concerts, buy merchandise and do all I can to get them money knowing that the record companies don't get as much of a cut from touring? I think, if anything, I'm doing the right thing. It's a very Robin Hood mentality, but stealing from the record companies and giving to the musicians is the way I believe in.
I think if everyone else did what I do, music would be in a better place.
Did anyone else read that as "Hardon Collider"?
*Snikers*
They also don't have a PHD in computer science, so that rules out Linux.
I'm not bitching, I'm merely trying to get the point across that we haven't embraced this relatively new 64-bit technology in the desktop market. Now microsoft are trying to look past the 64-bit advantage and go to a multicore operating system.
It just seems stupid to me.
I pose a follow up question then, what would be faster? 2 dual-core cpu's in a computer system running at 32-bit (hardware, OS and programs), or a single core computer system running (hardware, OS and programs) using 64-bit?
Microsoft had Windows XP 64-Bit edition to whet peoples appetites and give hardware/software companies what they needed as a testbed for 64-bit technology. I agree with your point on Apple, they're even more misguided than Microsoft, but thats a whole other story.
Whether we like it or not, the entire computer industry revolves around Microsoft. If they force people to change to 64-bit, people will inherently change to 64-bit. There may be a small percentage of people who seek an alternative (Apple or Linux), but the average consumer of IT is a sheep. 64-bit has been around long enough in the non-corporate, home market to mature. The problem is the software now, not the hardware, that's holding people back.
Why bother talking about multi core supporting operating systems when we still haven't embraced 64-bit technology yet. Why bother pushing for a new technology when the current 'new' technology hasn't even been implemented yet. IMHO, Microsoft should have made Vista 64-bit only and kept XP alive for the 32-bit people who don't want to migrate. This would force people to write 64-bit drivers and software in order to be on 'average Joe's' new PC. Instead, they've done what they've been doing for the past 30 years, compromising due to lack of adaptation.
Now I'm no supporter of Microsoft. I personally hate them. But you have to see where I'm coming from.
I recently built a new PC for my parents. It was a simple box with a Sempron 3000, 1gb DDR, 80Gb HDD, etc. It was all 64-bit compatible so I though Vista Home Premium 64-bit would be the best way to go. Their scanner isn't supported, their antivirus isn't supported, and the devices and software they use that DO work on Vista, are all running in 32-bit mode because there is no equivalent for 64-bit.
Please lets implement the great technology we have before concentrating on the future.
Okay, call it offtopic, whatever. But I reckon Teh Cowboy has been waiting for a decade to post an article with ANY Vanilla Ice reference possible.
ALL HAIL TEH NEILZORZ!!!!!
Okay, now I'm going to be in negative karma for this, but it's worth it.
What about the "Backweb" software HP have been putting on their computers for the past decade? I actually questioned the product manager for HP Australia a few years back about the spyware HP ship with Pavilion and Presario home PC's and his answer was completely unsatisfactory. He said something to the effect of 'Backweb is designed to update customer's HP software remotely, including drivers, applications and other things. To my knowledge, this hasn't been implemented yet.
So the product manager of HP Australia not only doesn't know if it's been implemented yet, but he also is referring to something laying dormant for 10 years in their systems. Backweb software can potentially phone home and provide any and every detail about a customer. It's TSR, it's in memory ALL THE TIME, and hidden as a service.
It is so untrustworthy, HP themselves have renamed it in the add/remove programs as "Updates from HP" instead of backweb because customers thought it was spyware.
This latest development doesn't surprise me at all.
Patches are probably out already. I'm sure there are some hackers who have gotten code and already written spyware for it.
A wise decision. I haven't heard of many other companies being so employee friendly. Are there any other big companies out there that have this similar attitude?
I think it would be refreshing for employers to go out of their way to make their employees feel more at home. It would be much better for productivity.
No. Now move along. Nobody cares who's first. Try to make an intelligent/informative/funny/insightful comment. People will care about that.
What they mean to say is they don't want new employees using Google's internal internet bandwidth searching for another job.
I for one, would love to work at Google. Don't they let you bring your pets to work?
Usually I just shake it to hear the parts rattle inside after I've thrown it across the room. It will only be a matter of time before we have concussions thanks to the wii-esque gaming that will be happening.
...for the first person to complain that it doesn't run Vista.
Internet: A large interconnected group of computers, spread worldwide and beyond, for the sole purpose of spreading porn.