Adding to Mr Drudge's comment, the 9600 is also not a technological breakthrough. As far as ATI is concerned, this card is 2 generations off the current performance benchmarks.
Next up, latest benchmarks and performance analysis on the new 1.2Ghz AMD CPU.
"if they (music company executives) are currently using the algorithm to screen submissions for their "hitability", can we (people who listen to music) use the same algorithm to reject recycled tunes and encourage originality?"
No. You don't have a say in this and you know it. Why ask? The industry is fueled by american teenagers. They aren't the wisest shoppers, nor the most picky. Give them a set of boobies to admire and some bling bling to think about and out come the $20's.
An example: Brittney Spear's popularity. 12 magazine covers and over 20 tv appearances this month alone. Who reading this actually buys her CDs? Probably not many, she's a manufactured star for highschool kids.
I do wish the sound of a 'band' would become popular again. It seems like ever since the alternative explosion in the early 90's every white-bread band has to sound the same. Can one male singer (not hiphop) NOT sing through his nose for a song or two? That, and the heroin voice (ie. Faith No More) is so damn overdone. What are we up to now? 5 or 6 top 40 bands that might as well have the same vocalist and guitarist? There must be some algorythm that picks up on this in the 'hitability' analysis.
This isn't anything new, I guess. It's like that Monkies tv show modelled after the Beatles. Except now, it's not a tv show and it's got a lot of re-runs./gripe
That post isn't offtopic......
on
Mafia Tech Support
·
· Score: 1, Troll
Though rot's point of view may be a little unpopular, I don't think it's fair to silence him by modding down. He's entirely on-topic, but brings up a point that many folks find laughable.
Think about it for a few minutes.. Why is it so laughable? Oh yes, the government and media has made people who disagree with them, or question them directly, appear more as kooks than folks with real questions or tangible ideas.
Go learn about the media, kids. You'd be suprised at where a lot of news stories come from.
Hell, I get paranoid enough on/., myself. It seems that any post making light of a Republican gets modded as a troll/off topic. Perhaps Ashcroft has penetrated/. with thousands of mod points? jk
Just like people did with mini-disks? I don't see people making the switch, personally.
Hell, most americans still use a VCR instead of a DVD player. Considering a DVD player is cheaper than a VCR, has enormous quality advantages, and has a lot of whiz bang features like not having to rewind tapes before returning them..
This story is nothing but babble, anyway. The death of the CD will not happen the same year the first product to replace it is released. I see DRM protected files being sold on the Internet as replacing the CD, if anything is going to do so in the next 5-10 years.
Ever since the laser disc, VHS and beta tape ordeal, Americans adopt media technologies much slower. Look at HDTV. Not many people want to touch that with a 10' pole right now because of all the shenannigins (sic) industry leaders have pulled.
It's all fun and games until the wife goes and spends $100 of real cash for enough credits to throw a tiki party, buy a new dress, shoes, hat, hair-style and jet board!;-)
I was being a little rude about the 'half a brain' remark. It is true, the game is a clean slate for building social realms. There's just none of the elements a classic twitch or role gamer would find appealing. Except for finding another butthole with a buggy to play pedestrian pong with.
I wouldn't expect anything less out of this monkey barrel known as Gamespy.
Back when Game Spy Arcade was initially released, I downloaded and installed it because they quit releasing updates for the copy of Gamespy I had bought the year before. Shortly afterwards, I started having trouble with exception errors.
During my troubleshooting, I had dumped the traffic from several connections and saved them away to a text file. I used the traffic in this file to figure out how to log into their chat server without the GSA application, but with BitchX (remember, my GSA was busted).
The previous week, you couldn't hardly connect to anything Gamespy related. Having worked in the Information Security sector for a few years, it seemed like a DDoS. Their irc servers were very slow, as were their web servers. I know this doesn't sound relevent, but here comes the humor..
I navigated through their very slightly modified ircd to get to the support room for GSA. I sat in the support queue for a bit, then had a shot to ask my questions. I asked about the exception and was told via a copy/paste solution the needed information. Then I simply asked if their network was slow due to another DDoS attack.. Big mistake.
BitchX showed some CTCP requests from the moderator, then comes the "How did you know about the denial of service attacks?" and immediately accuses me of being a hacker. It didn't matter that I told them GSA would not open, this was my only way to get support without waiting in the email queue for days. Then I pointed out that if they were going to have a policy against people connecting to their ircd with any client besides GSA, they should do something with the code to enforce this, and not make accusations over such silly things. At least take it off port 6667....
Then several other moderators join in on me. One was saying my IP was one of the ones generating traffic in one of the attacks on their network, etc.
Basically, my account got a lifetime ban on it as a result of me simply asking for help with an exception error. They also claimed to have given my information over to their legal team and to expect to hear from a lawyer soon.
So since my account is banned and I've been threatened with legal action from three of their employees, I'm a little confused. So, I send an email to Gamespy requesting contact information for their legal department. They never respond.
So, over the next month, I send them multiple transcripts of the chat logs and threats made towards me (by their employees) while reminding them I had given them $45 for a product that no longer works, meanwhile demanding an explanation for their rude actions towards me. After another month, or so, I get a response back saying they spoke with the employees involved and they were "confident this incident never took place".
So I asked them why my account had been banned. Guess what? No response again.
I could have just created a new account with another email address, but that situation was enough to make me never want to see one of their banners again. I might accidentally click one and generate some revenue for them.
First there were like 18 standards on connecting devices to an HDTV.
Then came the DVI-D encrypted ports.
Now this horse-shit.
Why on earth would any consumer with half a brain purchase into HDTV right now? If I were a legislative power, I would start issuing fines to industry players if they so much as said a peep about changing or protecting things any further than has already been done.
I am sorry, I don't see the problem here. With the exception of the WM9 HD demos on M$'s website, I have never seen material ripped in 720p or 1080i on the Internet.
The day of bullet-proof DRM is far from here. Instead of worrying about the speed of Internet pipes in 10 years, feel comfort in knowing it'll be a few years before piracy of material is remotely worth the time and effort. Think back to a 14.4k modem, 40MB HDD, and ripping WAV files of music and sending them to friends.
That's assuming WM9 HD media can be reliably squished down to 8 gigs for a >2 hour movie without too much quality loss. Not a whole lot of folks will download something that size.
The thing they need to focus on is chinese copy shops. It doesn't matter what DRM you are going to smack-down the American public with, we aren't the ones doing any direct damage. Focus on the criminals overseas who are mass-reproducing your materials.
Contrary to previous reports, eWeek is reporting that Microsoft's new version of Virtual PC will support Linux as a virtual OS.
Is the OS of a virtual machine really virtual? If so, how far does the virtuality extend? Do I virtually type on my virtual machine running a virtual copy of Linux? Am I virtually coding virtual thoughts when I virtually type on my virtual Linux while it runs on the virtual machine?
Next version better have full-on network multimedia capabilities. I want to run my ripped DVDs on the TV without more than a network cord to me server. My current multimedia computer is too loud, and quiet ones are either too expensive, or too low end (no surround sound, etc)
Also, if the stock Xbox makes too much noise, improve it. I ripped out all the shielding and replaced the fan with a quieter one. It runs a few degrees cooler without that insulation, but collects dust more readily. I just leave the bolts out so I can pop the lid off and vacuum it out when it comes time to vacuum out my PC's (monthly)..
Or you could quit trusting a HDD with all your rips and just slap them on a DVD(+/-)R and get a DVD player that'll read them reliably (all the progressive scan Sony's do, to my knowledge).:]
I guess you are right. That is quite a horsepower gain in a mere 4 years of evolution. I had assumed they designed a new engine core and ditched the old one.
That's what I get for not being much of a rice enthusiast.
Is there any word on the seals being more durable this time around? I remember the old days when half the RX-7's you'd see would have a big con trail of smoke behind it. Even one of my friends, who drove his like a little old lady, had bad seals after only 60k miles.:(
In 1998 the RX-7 RC2 had an output of 280hp and got around 20 miles to the gallon. Yes it was a turbo, but there's not really much negative to say about them when they are built properly (especially on a rotary).
Now it's 2003 and they are trying to pass off a 263hp rotary without a turbo as being some earth-shaking technological achievement and all the media outlets and car mags are eating it up. What was that about the fuel economy? Still gets ~ 20mpg? Yup.
I'll get excited when they release a twin turbo RX-8 or something with a rotary and all wheel drive.
There.com Vote for There as your pick for 2003's Best of What's New.
For years, science fiction writers have tempted us with tales of lands that exist only in cyberspace, where you can create a spanking new virtual version of yourself and pursue an alternate existence. After five years of development, There Inc. has opened the virtual doors to such a world, and it makes online chat rooms seem as old as Grandma's Victrola. Denizens of There can meticulously tailor the look of their online avatars and engage in whatever activities suit their fancy, from hoverboard races and paintball fights to shopping, clothing design and home construction.
Holy crap, I am having trouble believing anyone with half a brain could enjoy There. I am not sure how many readers have actually played this game, but here's some details about my beta test experience:
I get a set of CD's in the mail and a letter thanking me for participating in the 'free' beta test program. I install it, expecting another Everquest or graphical MUD with 3d graphics.
Boy was I wrong. It's like Efnet with a 3d card. There's no killing. No real adventure.
The money system is a rip-off. For instance, I could pay credits to change my hair color, get new pants, or buy a car. To get credits, you have pay them like $20. This isn't the slightest bit cool. I did find that I could sell all my clothes and run about in my under-wear. This got me about 40,000 credits (~$20 real money?) so I bought a car.
Having a car was great, I spent a few hours running people over repeatedly. You hit them hard enough and they fly for like a mile. There's no death, so they are stuck walking a while to get back. The moderators don't take to kindly to this. Instead of changing the game to lower the distance someone can get knocked, they basically follow you around whining about the rules and making things from your inventory disappear as punishment.
To top everything off, I was threatened to have my account suspended for running around with no clothes on. I'm sorry, but if you are going to allow me to make a giant, overweight, black male character, then allow me a huge profit by selling my clothes, I'll run around in my white boxers all I want. Why can I strip down to boxers and run around in them if it's not allowed? Seems a bit retarded.
It was quite obvious that more than half the people in the beta were there to cause disruption. A game with "no rules" (ya right) and no real goals results in a lot of bored people.
I did run into a few people that really liked the game. But as I said earlier, It's really just a graphical chatroom where people can play silly games together and do physical emotes while sitting on benches. A number of people I ran into during the beta had spent upwards of $60 getting their avatars decked out. If that's your thing, then you'll enjoy it. Otherwise, don't even think twice about getting this! Not even for your wife or kids.
It was the republican party who pushed for stricter laws, they were the ones who decided to push the War on Drugs issue. Bush refers to 'Texas Justice' and talks about being harsh on criminals.
All I ever hear from that party is about how to go about locking more people up. Sorry, but if you are going to all jump in and mod someone as a troll for putting 2 + 2 together, then go ahead. You are wasting your mod points silencing me instead of investing into your own comment or making someone else's stand out.
Hopefully the issue will get some damn coverage, finally. It's amazing how such a large portion of America is geek, yet none of the hottest tech issues ever get any mention in major media outlets.
Then TV executives act baffled when they find the Internet and computer games are causing a rapid decline in ratings. Give us the stories we see as relevent and stop interrupting TV when we do finally watch it with 'breaking news' about how Brittney changed her make-up..
Slashdot Mirror
DOH! :-)
You can't pick out the art majors by sight? I bet you didn't get much pooty-tang in college.
Adding to Mr Drudge's comment, the 9600 is also not a technological breakthrough. As far as ATI is concerned, this card is 2 generations off the current performance benchmarks.
Next up, latest benchmarks and performance analysis on the new 1.2Ghz AMD CPU.
This isn't new at all.. Here's some gangsta rap done entirely with speech synthesis.
Experience the lyrical terror of Stephen Hawking!
"if they (music company executives) are currently using the algorithm to screen submissions for their "hitability", can we (people who listen to music) use the same algorithm to reject recycled tunes and encourage originality?"
/gripe
No. You don't have a say in this and you know it. Why ask? The industry is fueled by american teenagers. They aren't the wisest shoppers, nor the most picky. Give them a set of boobies to admire and some bling bling to think about and out come the $20's.
An example: Brittney Spear's popularity. 12 magazine covers and over 20 tv appearances this month alone. Who reading this actually buys her CDs? Probably not many, she's a manufactured star for highschool kids.
I do wish the sound of a 'band' would become popular again. It seems like ever since the alternative explosion in the early 90's every white-bread band has to sound the same. Can one male singer (not hiphop) NOT sing through his nose for a song or two? That, and the heroin voice (ie. Faith No More) is so damn overdone. What are we up to now? 5 or 6 top 40 bands that might as well have the same vocalist and guitarist? There must be some algorythm that picks up on this in the 'hitability' analysis.
This isn't anything new, I guess. It's like that Monkies tv show modelled after the Beatles. Except now, it's not a tv show and it's got a lot of re-runs.
Oh, "in person". Blah, I was waiting for you to press a button on your death satellite.
Ok, let's test this:
Send me repeated vulgar emails and I will pee on your lawn, have an affair with your wife, have a baby with her and leave you to raise the child.
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
I'm still here!
Though rot's point of view may be a little unpopular, I don't think it's fair to silence him by modding down. He's entirely on-topic, but brings up a point that many folks find laughable.
/., myself. It seems that any post making light of a Republican gets modded as a troll/off topic. Perhaps Ashcroft has penetrated /. with thousands of mod points? jk
Think about it for a few minutes.. Why is it so laughable? Oh yes, the government and media has made people who disagree with them, or question them directly, appear more as kooks than folks with real questions or tangible ideas.
Go learn about the media, kids. You'd be suprised at where a lot of news stories come from.
Hell, I get paranoid enough on
Yes, but this is forum. The rules of grammar do not apply on /., otherwise we'd all be in trouble.
:]
Now click your way back to Fark forums with the other grammar nazis!
Just like people did with mini-disks? I don't see people making the switch, personally.
Hell, most americans still use a VCR instead of a DVD player. Considering a DVD player is cheaper than a VCR, has enormous quality advantages, and has a lot of whiz bang features like not having to rewind tapes before returning them..
This story is nothing but babble, anyway. The death of the CD will not happen the same year the first product to replace it is released. I see DRM protected files being sold on the Internet as replacing the CD, if anything is going to do so in the next 5-10 years.
Ever since the laser disc, VHS and beta tape ordeal, Americans adopt media technologies much slower. Look at HDTV. Not many people want to touch that with a 10' pole right now because of all the shenannigins (sic) industry leaders have pulled.
It's all fun and games until the wife goes and spends $100 of real cash for enough credits to throw a tiki party, buy a new dress, shoes, hat, hair-style and jet board! ;-)
I was being a little rude about the 'half a brain' remark. It is true, the game is a clean slate for building social realms. There's just none of the elements a classic twitch or role gamer would find appealing. Except for finding another butthole with a buggy to play pedestrian pong with.
I wouldn't expect anything less out of this monkey barrel known as Gamespy.
Back when Game Spy Arcade was initially released, I downloaded and installed it because they quit releasing updates for the copy of Gamespy I had bought the year before. Shortly afterwards, I started having trouble with exception errors.
During my troubleshooting, I had dumped the traffic from several connections and saved them away to a text file. I used the traffic in this file to figure out how to log into their chat server without the GSA application, but with BitchX (remember, my GSA was busted).
The previous week, you couldn't hardly connect to anything Gamespy related. Having worked in the Information Security sector for a few years, it seemed like a DDoS. Their irc servers were very slow, as were their web servers. I know this doesn't sound relevent, but here comes the humor..
I navigated through their very slightly modified ircd to get to the support room for GSA. I sat in the support queue for a bit, then had a shot to ask my questions. I asked about the exception and was told via a copy/paste solution the needed information. Then I simply asked if their network was slow due to another DDoS attack.. Big mistake.
BitchX showed some CTCP requests from the moderator, then comes the "How did you know about the denial of service attacks?" and immediately accuses me of being a hacker. It didn't matter that I told them GSA would not open, this was my only way to get support without waiting in the email queue for days. Then I pointed out that if they were going to have a policy against people connecting to their ircd with any client besides GSA, they should do something with the code to enforce this, and not make accusations over such silly things. At least take it off port 6667....
Then several other moderators join in on me. One was saying my IP was one of the ones generating traffic in one of the attacks on their network, etc.
Basically, my account got a lifetime ban on it as a result of me simply asking for help with an exception error. They also claimed to have given my information over to their legal team and to expect to hear from a lawyer soon.
So since my account is banned and I've been threatened with legal action from three of their employees, I'm a little confused. So, I send an email to Gamespy requesting contact information for their legal department. They never respond.
So, over the next month, I send them multiple transcripts of the chat logs and threats made towards me (by their employees) while reminding them I had given them $45 for a product that no longer works, meanwhile demanding an explanation for their rude actions towards me. After another month, or so, I get a response back saying they spoke with the employees involved and they were "confident this incident never took place".
So I asked them why my account had been banned. Guess what? No response again.
I could have just created a new account with another email address, but that situation was enough to make me never want to see one of their banners again. I might accidentally click one and generate some revenue for them.
First there were like 18 standards on connecting devices to an HDTV.
Then came the DVI-D encrypted ports.
Now this horse-shit.
Why on earth would any consumer with half a brain purchase into HDTV right now? If I were a legislative power, I would start issuing fines to industry players if they so much as said a peep about changing or protecting things any further than has already been done.
I am sorry, I don't see the problem here. With the exception of the WM9 HD demos on M$'s website, I have never seen material ripped in 720p or 1080i on the Internet.
The day of bullet-proof DRM is far from here. Instead of worrying about the speed of Internet pipes in 10 years, feel comfort in knowing it'll be a few years before piracy of material is remotely worth the time and effort. Think back to a 14.4k modem, 40MB HDD, and ripping WAV files of music and sending them to friends.
That's assuming WM9 HD media can be reliably squished down to 8 gigs for a >2 hour movie without too much quality loss. Not a whole lot of folks will download something that size.
The thing they need to focus on is chinese copy shops. It doesn't matter what DRM you are going to smack-down the American public with, we aren't the ones doing any direct damage. Focus on the criminals overseas who are mass-reproducing your materials.
Contrary to previous reports, eWeek is reporting that Microsoft's new version of Virtual PC will support Linux as a virtual OS.
Is the OS of a virtual machine really virtual? If so, how far does the virtuality extend? Do I virtually type on my virtual machine running a virtual copy of Linux? Am I virtually coding virtual thoughts when I virtually type on my virtual Linux while it runs on the virtual machine?
Well, for those of us that grew up before Fast and the Furious, a 'rice burner' is a car made in Japan.
Silly kids and their fads.
Next version better have full-on network multimedia capabilities. I want to run my ripped DVDs on the TV without more than a network cord to me server. My current multimedia computer is too loud, and quiet ones are either too expensive, or too low end (no surround sound, etc)
:]
Then just get a normal Xbox, throw a mod chip, then get a copy of XBox Media Player..
It works beautifully.
Also, if the stock Xbox makes too much noise, improve it. I ripped out all the shielding and replaced the fan with a quieter one. It runs a few degrees cooler without that insulation, but collects dust more readily. I just leave the bolts out so I can pop the lid off and vacuum it out when it comes time to vacuum out my PC's (monthly)..
Or you could quit trusting a HDD with all your rips and just slap them on a DVD(+/-)R and get a DVD player that'll read them reliably (all the progressive scan Sony's do, to my knowledge).
I guess you are right. That is quite a horsepower gain in a mere 4 years of evolution. I had assumed they designed a new engine core and ditched the old one.
:(
That's what I get for not being much of a rice enthusiast.
Is there any word on the seals being more durable this time around? I remember the old days when half the RX-7's you'd see would have a big con trail of smoke behind it. Even one of my friends, who drove his like a little old lady, had bad seals after only 60k miles.
How about the RX-8?
In 1998 the RX-7 RC2 had an output of 280hp and got around 20 miles to the gallon. Yes it was a turbo, but there's not really much negative to say about them when they are built properly (especially on a rotary).
Now it's 2003 and they are trying to pass off a 263hp rotary without a turbo as being some earth-shaking technological achievement and all the media outlets and car mags are eating it up. What was that about the fuel economy? Still gets ~ 20mpg? Yup.
I'll get excited when they release a twin turbo RX-8 or something with a rotary and all wheel drive.
There
There.com
Vote for
There
as your pick for 2003's Best of What's New.
For years, science fiction writers have tempted us with tales of lands that exist only in cyberspace, where you can create a spanking new virtual version of yourself and pursue an alternate existence. After five years of development, There Inc. has opened the virtual doors to such a world, and it makes online chat rooms seem as old as Grandma's Victrola. Denizens of There can meticulously tailor the look of their online avatars and engage in whatever activities suit their fancy, from hoverboard races and paintball fights to shopping, clothing design and home construction.
Holy crap, I am having trouble believing anyone with half a brain could enjoy There. I am not sure how many readers have actually played this game, but here's some details about my beta test experience:
I get a set of CD's in the mail and a letter thanking me for participating in the 'free' beta test program. I install it, expecting another Everquest or graphical MUD with 3d graphics.
Boy was I wrong. It's like Efnet with a 3d card. There's no killing. No real adventure.
The money system is a rip-off. For instance, I could pay credits to change my hair color, get new pants, or buy a car. To get credits, you have pay them like $20. This isn't the slightest bit cool. I did find that I could sell all my clothes and run about in my under-wear. This got me about 40,000 credits (~$20 real money?) so I bought a car.
Having a car was great, I spent a few hours running people over repeatedly. You hit them hard enough and they fly for like a mile. There's no death, so they are stuck walking a while to get back. The moderators don't take to kindly to this. Instead of changing the game to lower the distance someone can get knocked, they basically follow you around whining about the rules and making things from your inventory disappear as punishment.
To top everything off, I was threatened to have my account suspended for running around with no clothes on. I'm sorry, but if you are going to allow me to make a giant, overweight, black male character, then allow me a huge profit by selling my clothes, I'll run around in my white boxers all I want. Why can I strip down to boxers and run around in them if it's not allowed? Seems a bit retarded.
It was quite obvious that more than half the people in the beta were there to cause disruption. A game with "no rules" (ya right) and no real goals results in a lot of bored people.
I did run into a few people that really liked the game. But as I said earlier, It's really just a graphical chatroom where people can play silly games together and do physical emotes while sitting on benches. A number of people I ran into during the beta had spent upwards of $60 getting their avatars decked out. If that's your thing, then you'll enjoy it. Otherwise, don't even think twice about getting this! Not even for your wife or kids.
Apple delivers the first 64-bit computer.
Amazing.
Wow, I guess nobody got the joke.
It was the republican party who pushed for stricter laws, they were the ones who decided to push the War on Drugs issue. Bush refers to 'Texas Justice' and talks about being harsh on criminals.
All I ever hear from that party is about how to go about locking more people up. Sorry, but if you are going to all jump in and mod someone as a troll for putting 2 + 2 together, then go ahead. You are wasting your mod points silencing me instead of investing into your own comment or making someone else's stand out.
Yes, I am an asshole.
No no no.. The politically correct way of saying the same thing is, as follows:
Yes, I am a Republican.
Hopefully the issue will get some damn coverage, finally. It's amazing how such a large portion of America is geek, yet none of the hottest tech issues ever get any mention in major media outlets.
Then TV executives act baffled when they find the Internet and computer games are causing a rapid decline in ratings. Give us the stories we see as relevent and stop interrupting TV when we do finally watch it with 'breaking news' about how Brittney changed her make-up..
This one is the anamorphic version.. It could just be my dyslexia combined with the bad acting making it seem worse than it really was.. ;)
"implanted into the brains of paralyzed people, will help them control a cursor on a screen or play video games."
I'll need one of these after my Xbox controllers have finally rendered my hands useless.