This looks like a complete architectural misfire. I mean ATI's own X1650XT (to say nothing of the 1950pro destroying it) is kicking the crap out of it. Is that an early 2006 midrange card?
I have been mousing for 20+ years. I never had hand-wrist problems, but I do have TOS (Thoracic Outlet Syndrome) on my right side. I have now switched to left hand mouse usage, it definitely gets worse when I revert to right hand mouse.
In my opinion this would make it worse by needing more movements of the arm/shoulder to mouse where right now a lot of it is wrist fingertip action.
Also my hand is already close to neutral when I mouse with a conventional mouse, it is about 45 degrees with the pinky down and touching the mouse surface, this is a very comfortable angle.
As a first born in a divorced family, I had to look out for my younger brothers, there was alway pressure to do well, be a good example, watch the kids, be the man of the house...
I am the only brother who completed University, was only one on the honor roll etc, I am the only one who financially supports my aging parent...
But my younger siblings are better people persons, are more relaxed, and enjoy life more.
I think this has more to do with the role first born males assume and the pressures that go with that role. Necessity being the driver here, not biology.
I watched this from the beginning. The mini-series blew me away. The first season raised it up a notch and season 2 kept it their right until the end.
Then they did the flash forward, Apollo in a fat suit, Adama growing a mustache, Starbuck her hair. I have seen less farcical time shifts on southpark. All the characters seemed to forget who they were, and then we got the season 3 attempt to justify the flash forward characters with a pile of bad soap opera. Somewhere they hit the reset button, Apollo became unfat, the others less hairy and the whole New Caprica bit might not have happened.
A number of filler episodes later and we get the season 3 finale that was an improvement over the preceding soap opera, but breaks the essential rules of the games about who couldn't possibly be a Cylon. Now we will get the final season where they attempt to justify the inconsistencies that they introduced by running a series with no real set plan and making it up as they go along. I only had to listen too one podcast to realize they are making it up as the go. No planned arcs here.
After watching then end of season 2 to the end of season 3, I am thinking 22 episodes might be too much of a stretch for them to fill. More than enough to finish off if they have any good ideas left.
Nearly all TN based LCD screens (the majority sold) are 6bit depth displays with dithering. 8bit screens are even more rare in laptops than they are on desktops. I have never seen a laptop that didn't have a TN screen (as opposed to more expensive 8bit IPS/VA screens).
If you go directly to LCD manufacturer sites, they will list the spec as supporting 16.2 million colors. They list the true 8 bit screens as supporting 16.7 million colors.
If they want to go after anyone it should be the manufacturers of the panels. Frankly all the specs are essentially lies. 180 degree viewing angles??!! Geez the gamma start shifting if I move an inch. exactly what can anyone see when 90 degrees off axis from the screen??
By all means sue for some truth in advertising on LCD specs, but go after Samsung/LG et al...
CR does a city loop and a HW loop and they get much more realistic numbers for both tests. Their city numbers are much lower than old EPA, while the highway numbers are generally a bit higher.
I also like Edmunds.com long term tests. They drive a car for months/years and you get a averaged over many tanks number back. They get fairly low numbers and tend to make hybrid/diesel owners whine that the mileage can't be that bad...
I must say I totally agree. Season 1 and 2 were great, it was my favorite show on TV. Season 3 was a major letdown. Characterizations that just didn't make sense, quite a bit lame filler and a sense of wheel spinning.
I would much rather they go out with bang than spin their wheels like this any longer.
I am in Canada, I saw an early promo screening of "Serenity" and the paranoia was laughable, they were confiscating anything electronic that might have a camera (cellphones etc..) and they came in several times to scan the audience. It was plain silly, I felt like I was in a police state.
I think they should actually follow through with the previous threat and delay all movies in Canada by two weeks, that will be long enough for everyone to get the real buzz on the movie and should result in substantially less people being suckered by hype. Then they can find someone else to blame.
But let's face it, this is not really about Canadians camcordering movies. This is all about greasing public opinion for an attempt to intro more draconian copyright laws in Canada so we can enjoy the benefits of industry lawyers threatening our 12 year old kids and grannies with lawsuits about something they might have infringed and then forking over the money because they are too scared to fight.
My hope is that our current minority government situation will make such draconian changes much more difficult to pass.
Wasn't intel recently showing some Penryn benchmarks with up to 50% improvements depending on application.
All pointless till we have a 3rd party compare Penryn to Barcelona. I imagine neither will have much impact till 2008 as both will be production limited this year.
I don't listen to the NDP on anything. I can see massive military spending increases and jingoistic speeches for myself. My information comes straight from the mouths of the conservatives themselves who were just spouting the tired empty rhetoric that following the Kyoto protocol would result in economic disaster, they have engaged in multiple round of anti-gay marriage rhetoric. Charles McVety (CFAC, Canadas Jerry Fallwell) has a strong working relationship with the harper conservatives, and was drafted by Harper to sell his "child care plan".
The new Conservatives are like the US Republicans little brother, intent on proving they can hang with big brother. A little anti-gay marriage rhetoric, some Kyoto bashing, tax cuts for the wealthy, increased military spending and an increasing desire to use it.
The next Bioware of interest for me is Dragon Age (not mass effect) which is supposed to be a lot like Baldurs Gate 2 (many consider one of the best RPGs of all time as do I). It sounds like the game will have a top down view when in combat. It probably would have been easy to allow this view while exploring to expand the users, strictly optional of course. This does afflict a significant number of people. Not the FPS crowd of course, but it represents a barrier of entry for many. One of best friends has the same problem. I understand the appeal FPP but it would be nice to keep the option for the motion sickness afflicted.
No I didn't try Kotor/Jade Empire because they appear to be the type of games that gives me motion sickness. Was there a demo. Dropping $50 to get motion sickness is out of the question.
All FPS games give me motion sickness. View from behind shoulder, with camera following games like old tomb raider are just as bad, maybe worse. From what I have seen KOTOR is like tomb raider. Classic bioware and NeverWinterNights are both fine). I see a lot more NWN in my future. NWN gives you extensive camera control and this is what keeps it motion sickness free. Once the camera goes into follow mode in 3rd person, or FPS mode, it is puke city.
All the technology is better today (sound/graphics/AI) and even story can have more depth. Most 8 bit games are nostalgia. The were great in there context but today they are something like web/cellphone games.
But today novelty is somewhat lacking for the reasons you cite. Similar to Hollywood. Big game studios are risk adverse, so we are stuck in sequel hell. The occasional gem does slip through.
Unfortunately we are also suffering from the hammer owners philosophy of everything looking like a Nail. FPS engines are being used for everything.
Unfortunately for me, they are ruining one of my favorite genres. RPG - I am big fan of Baldurs Gate (1&2), Planescape Torment, NWN etc... Biowares next game will have First or Third person viewpoint like most new RPGs. I can't play from either perspective because they give me motion sickness (skip your folk remedies, there is no cure except excessive play time, I can no longer manage-getting my FPS legs as it were). I would be buying and playing these games if they didn't make me feel like puking. Instead I will fire up Baldurs Gate 2 again, not out of nostalgia, but because it won't make me ill.
So my favorite Genres:
RPG: Ruined (for me) by FP/TP view. Adventure: Basically dead.
Practically nothing left for me. Though it is saving me a lot of money on hardware upgrades.:-)
I think samsung even showed a 40" model previously.
If they want to start small how about 24" 1920x1200 computer monitor. I can't stand the viewing angle problems with LCD and I would pay more for OLED monitor in a heartbeat.
I have heard theoretical claims like this before. EEstor who was supposed to supply complete ultra cap systems to power electric cars last year. They still haven't offered so much as a single cell for testing. Not even a small one off.
In theory, theory and practice are the same, in practice they aren't.
Realize they are talking about a theoretical order of magnitude improvement in energy density. I would love it if true, but often such things never see the light of day when rubber meets the road.
Nowhere has anyone yet to demonstrate a capacitor anywhere close in energy density to a garden variety lithium battery. I will certainly take notice if/when they do. As will the world. Capacitors with battery like energy density is a world changing event (once affordable).
There have been zero demonstration of the real world viability of these theoretical calculations. I suspect nothing will happen anytime soon, despite hype to the contrary, but I would be quite happy to be proved wrong.
Every time a discussion on batteries comes up, someone brings up ultracapacitors as the savior wonder technology. Then they use power and energy densities interchangeably.
Power densities (KW/Kg) for electric cars are all but irrelevant for current technologies. All power density reflects is how fast you can discharge. For any battery containing sufficient energy density, there will be adequate power density. Any time you see power density being highlighted it is a red herring attempt to distract from the fact that energy density is poor (batteries or ultracaps).
Energy densities (KWh/Kg) are critical, this is how much stored energy you have and will determine range, and this is where even the best ultra capacitor are an order of magnitude behind. Your 40lb hybrid battery becomes a 400lb ultracapacitor to store the same energy. Hardly practical. Or that 200lb battery for a pure electic car, becomes a 2000lb ultracap.
Now there have been long on talk theoretical claims (EEstor) of catching up on the energy density, but NOTHING has been shown. Until someone delivers something with an almost order of magnitude increase in energy density, ultracaps are simply not suitable for driving electric cars.
It would be great if this could be delivered, but so far, I will believe when I see it, seems to be the best response.
I think research in this area is valuable, but I wouldn't sink my money into investing in hype. Pay attention to the energy density and ignore the power density.
The actual stored energy in Lithium is currently 20 TIMES greater by your own link.
Don't confuse power density with energy density. Power density is how fast you can discharge and almost a non-issue with any technology.
Energy density is how much actual energy you have stored and is the key factor, that ultracaps are behind on by an order of magnitude (20 times currently).
If all the theoretical projections make it into practice ultracaps will only halfway catch up with lithiums garden variety lithiums that exist today.
I see a lot of complaints about the lack of availability of 1080p broadcast. How will you spot the difference between 1080p and properly reconstructed 1080i on modern displays, none of which are actually capable of running in interlace mode.
DLP, LCD, LCD projector, LCOS, Plasma, SED, etc... Are all progressive displays, CRT and CRT projectors are the only interlace display tech that actually runs in interlace mode to the best of my knowledge.
1080i is supposed to have much better flagging for proper de-interlacing than the mess we had on DVD. 24 frame film source should deinterlace perfectly with no complex prediction technology needed.
So what is the difference between a native 1080p signal and a properly de-interlaced 1080i signal. I think you will find it is approaching nil.
Unlike DVD-Audio, SACD where I can't actually hear any difference, I can easily see the better quality of high definition video.
As soon as I get a new display I will upgrade to Blu Ray. That doesn't mean I plan on buying movies over again. Though I might consider an update to some favorites like Blade Runner.
Though, I think uptake will be slow based entirely on people who have high resolution displays.
He makes a clear point. Electric cars break the tie to any single fuel type. That means at any point the generation is cleaned up by adding renewables/nuclear even old electric on the road benefit.
You concentrate on the worse case scenario without even looking into it. You can look up carbon content per megajoule of energy today and do the comparison numbers.
You will still produce much less net emissions by using an electric car because of it's much higher efficiency.
Under no circumstance is an electric car producing more net emissions. This long tailpipe argument is an old unsupported red herring.
>Not long ago, you could get a PowerMac G5 with just one CPU for about $1500, so Apple seems to be convinced that the lack of an affordable mid tower won't hurt their sales.
>On the other hand, offering four diffent desktop computers would make picking a Mac more confusing for "mainstream" consumers.
PowerPC Macs never presented the tempting target for switchers that the Intel based ones with boot camp and parallels do. Switchers may be looking for something different than the mac faithful. And it should be about $1200 max, not $1500. You can build a nice Windows mid tower for $800, I will pay an Apple premium, but not a stupid one.
Four desktops confusing? I am talking about something aimed at switchers, who currently have 4000 desktops with windows to choose from and they can build their own if that is not enough (what I always do). Get rid of the mini if four desktops are too confusing.
Slashdot Mirror
This looks like a complete architectural misfire. I mean ATI's own X1650XT (to say nothing of the 1950pro destroying it) is kicking the crap out of it. Is that an early 2006 midrange card?
a ge=7
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=9187&p
I have been mousing for 20+ years. I never had hand-wrist problems, but I do have TOS (Thoracic Outlet Syndrome) on my right side. I have now switched to left hand mouse usage, it definitely gets worse when I revert to right hand mouse.
In my opinion this would make it worse by needing more movements of the arm/shoulder to mouse where right now a lot of it is wrist fingertip action.
Also my hand is already close to neutral when I mouse with a conventional mouse, it is about 45 degrees with the pinky down and touching the mouse surface, this is a very comfortable angle.
As a first born in a divorced family, I had to look out for my younger brothers, there was alway pressure to do well, be a good example, watch the kids, be the man of the house...
I am the only brother who completed University, was only one on the honor roll etc, I am the only one who financially supports my aging parent...
But my younger siblings are better people persons, are more relaxed, and enjoy life more.
I think this has more to do with the role first born males assume and the pressures that go with that role. Necessity being the driver here, not biology.
BB online will match netflix in that they will still have HDDVD, so how is this a win for netflix?
Is netflix starting a chain of B&M rental outlets to compete with BB?
I watched this from the beginning. The mini-series blew me away. The first season raised it up a notch and season 2 kept it their right until the end.
Then they did the flash forward, Apollo in a fat suit, Adama growing a mustache, Starbuck her hair. I have seen less farcical time shifts on southpark. All the characters seemed to forget who they were, and then we got the season 3 attempt to justify the flash forward characters with a pile of bad soap opera. Somewhere they hit the reset button, Apollo became unfat, the others less hairy and the whole New Caprica bit might not have happened.
A number of filler episodes later and we get the season 3 finale that was an improvement over the preceding soap opera, but breaks the essential rules of the games about who couldn't possibly be a Cylon. Now we will get the final season where they attempt to justify the inconsistencies that they introduced by running a series with no real set plan and making it up as they go along. I only had to listen too one podcast to realize they are making it up as the go. No planned arcs here.
After watching then end of season 2 to the end of season 3, I am thinking 22 episodes might be too much of a stretch for them to fill. More than enough to finish off if they have any good ideas left.
This looks like a frivolous lawsuit to me.
Nearly all TN based LCD screens (the majority sold) are 6bit depth displays with dithering. 8bit screens are even more rare in laptops than they are on desktops. I have never seen a laptop that didn't have a TN screen (as opposed to more expensive 8bit IPS/VA screens).
If you go directly to LCD manufacturer sites, they will list the spec as supporting 16.2 million colors. They list the true 8 bit screens as supporting 16.7 million colors.
If they want to go after anyone it should be the manufacturers of the panels. Frankly all the specs are essentially lies. 180 degree viewing angles??!! Geez the gamma start shifting if I move an inch. exactly what can anyone see when 90 degrees off axis from the screen??
By all means sue for some truth in advertising on LCD specs, but go after Samsung/LG et al...
CR does a city loop and a HW loop and they get much more realistic numbers for both tests. Their city numbers are much lower than old EPA, while the highway numbers are generally a bit higher.
I also like Edmunds.com long term tests. They drive a car for months/years and you get a averaged over many tanks number back. They get fairly low numbers and tend to make hybrid/diesel owners whine that the mileage can't be that bad...
I must say I totally agree. Season 1 and 2 were great, it was my favorite show on TV. Season 3 was a major letdown. Characterizations that just didn't make sense, quite a bit lame filler and a sense of wheel spinning.
I would much rather they go out with bang than spin their wheels like this any longer.
I am in Canada, I saw an early promo screening of "Serenity" and the paranoia was laughable, they were confiscating anything electronic that might have a camera (cellphones etc..) and they came in several times to scan the audience. It was plain silly, I felt like I was in a police state.
I think they should actually follow through with the previous threat and delay all movies in Canada by two weeks, that will be long enough for everyone to get the real buzz on the movie and should result in substantially less people being suckered by hype. Then they can find someone else to blame.
But let's face it, this is not really about Canadians camcordering movies. This is all about greasing public opinion for an attempt to intro more draconian copyright laws in Canada so we can enjoy the benefits of industry lawyers threatening our 12 year old kids and grannies with lawsuits about something they might have infringed and then forking over the money because they are too scared to fight.
My hope is that our current minority government situation will make such draconian changes much more difficult to pass.
Wasn't intel recently showing some Penryn benchmarks with up to 50% improvements depending on application.
All pointless till we have a 3rd party compare Penryn to Barcelona. I imagine neither will have much impact till 2008 as both will be production limited this year.
Also AMD need to stop talking and start showing.
That article is from 2005. Shouldn't they be here by now?
"National Defence is important to protect our borders."
I agree. But the recent plan to purchase 100 tanks is not to defend our borders. It is to carry the fight in Afghanistan.
I don't listen to the NDP on anything. I can see massive military spending increases and jingoistic speeches for myself. My information comes straight from the mouths of the conservatives themselves who were just spouting the tired empty rhetoric that following the Kyoto protocol would result in economic disaster, they have engaged in multiple round of anti-gay marriage rhetoric. Charles McVety (CFAC, Canadas Jerry Fallwell) has a strong working relationship with the harper conservatives, and was drafted by Harper to sell his "child care plan".
_ ID=52904
This McVety:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE
The new Conservatives are like the US Republicans little brother, intent on proving they can hang with big brother. A little anti-gay marriage rhetoric, some Kyoto bashing, tax cuts for the wealthy, increased military spending and an increasing desire to use it.
So in short, you pay more and get less performance in hopes that someday, you will need DX10.
It seems nice of Nvidia to leave ATI/AMD a chance to beat them squarely in the $200 bracket by showing up with more memory bandwidth.
8600 is ok but hardly anything to get excited about. More about features than performance or bang/buck.
The next Bioware of interest for me is Dragon Age (not mass effect) which is supposed to be a lot like Baldurs Gate 2 (many consider one of the best RPGs of all time as do I). It sounds like the game will have a top down view when in combat. It probably would have been easy to allow this view while exploring to expand the users, strictly optional of course. This does afflict a significant number of people. Not the FPS crowd of course, but it represents a barrier of entry for many. One of best friends has the same problem. I understand the appeal FPP but it would be nice to keep the option for the motion sickness afflicted.
No I didn't try Kotor/Jade Empire because they appear to be the type of games that gives me motion sickness. Was there a demo. Dropping $50 to get motion sickness is out of the question.
All FPS games give me motion sickness. View from behind shoulder, with camera following games like old tomb raider are just as bad, maybe worse. From what I have seen KOTOR is like tomb raider. Classic bioware and NeverWinterNights are both fine). I see a lot more NWN in my future. NWN gives you extensive camera control and this is what keeps it motion sickness free. Once the camera goes into follow mode in 3rd person, or FPS mode, it is puke city.
All the technology is better today (sound/graphics/AI) and even story can have more depth. Most 8 bit games are nostalgia. The were great in there context but today they are something like web/cellphone games.
:-)
But today novelty is somewhat lacking for the reasons you cite. Similar to Hollywood. Big game studios are risk adverse, so we are stuck in sequel hell. The occasional gem does slip through.
Unfortunately we are also suffering from the hammer owners philosophy of everything looking like a Nail. FPS engines are being used for everything.
Unfortunately for me, they are ruining one of my favorite genres. RPG - I am big fan of Baldurs Gate (1&2), Planescape Torment, NWN etc... Biowares next game will have First or Third person viewpoint like most new RPGs. I can't play from either perspective because they give me motion sickness (skip your folk remedies, there is no cure except excessive play time, I can no longer manage-getting my FPS legs as it were). I would be buying and playing these games if they didn't make me feel like puking. Instead I will fire up Baldurs Gate 2 again, not out of nostalgia, but because it won't make me ill.
So my favorite Genres:
RPG: Ruined (for me) by FP/TP view.
Adventure: Basically dead.
Practically nothing left for me. Though it is saving me a lot of money on hardware upgrades.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/01/08/sonys-1-000-0 00-1-contrast-ratio-27-inch-oled-hdtv/
I think samsung even showed a 40" model previously.
If they want to start small how about 24" 1920x1200 computer monitor. I can't stand the viewing angle problems with LCD and I would pay more for OLED monitor in a heartbeat.
Stop talking and deliver.
I have heard theoretical claims like this before. EEstor who was supposed to supply complete ultra cap systems to power electric cars last year. They still haven't offered so much as a single cell for testing. Not even a small one off.
In theory, theory and practice are the same, in practice they aren't.
Realize they are talking about a theoretical order of magnitude improvement in energy density. I would love it if true, but often such things never see the light of day when rubber meets the road.
Nowhere has anyone yet to demonstrate a capacitor anywhere close in energy density to a garden variety lithium battery. I will certainly take notice if/when they do. As will the world. Capacitors with battery like energy density is a world changing event (once affordable).
There have been zero demonstration of the real world viability of these theoretical calculations. I suspect nothing will happen anytime soon, despite hype to the contrary, but I would be quite happy to be proved wrong.
Every time a discussion on batteries comes up, someone brings up ultracapacitors as the savior wonder technology. Then they use power and energy densities interchangeably.
Power densities (KW/Kg) for electric cars are all but irrelevant for current technologies. All power density reflects is how fast you can discharge. For any battery containing sufficient energy density, there will be adequate power density. Any time you see power density being highlighted it is a red herring attempt to distract from the fact that energy density is poor (batteries or ultracaps).
Energy densities (KWh/Kg) are critical, this is how much stored energy you have and will determine range, and this is where even the best ultra capacitor are an order of magnitude behind. Your 40lb hybrid battery becomes a 400lb ultracapacitor to store the same energy. Hardly practical. Or that 200lb battery for a pure electic car, becomes a 2000lb ultracap.
Now there have been long on talk theoretical claims (EEstor) of catching up on the energy density, but NOTHING has been shown. Until someone delivers something with an almost order of magnitude increase in energy density, ultracaps are simply not suitable for driving electric cars.
It would be great if this could be delivered, but so far, I will believe when I see it, seems to be the best response.
I think research in this area is valuable, but I wouldn't sink my money into investing in hype. Pay attention to the energy density and ignore the power density.
The actual stored energy in Lithium is currently 20 TIMES greater by your own link.
Don't confuse power density with energy density. Power density is how fast you can discharge and almost a non-issue with any technology.
Energy density is how much actual energy you have stored and is the key factor, that ultracaps are behind on by an order of magnitude (20 times currently).
If all the theoretical projections make it into practice ultracaps will only halfway catch up with lithiums garden variety lithiums that exist today.
Pipe dream until that happens.
I see a lot of complaints about the lack of availability of 1080p broadcast. How will you spot the difference between 1080p and properly reconstructed 1080i on modern displays, none of which are actually capable of running in interlace mode.
DLP, LCD, LCD projector, LCOS, Plasma, SED, etc... Are all progressive displays, CRT and CRT projectors are the only interlace display tech that actually runs in interlace mode to the best of my knowledge.
1080i is supposed to have much better flagging for proper de-interlacing than the mess we had on DVD. 24 frame film source should deinterlace perfectly with no complex prediction technology needed.
So what is the difference between a native 1080p signal and a properly de-interlaced 1080i signal. I think you will find it is approaching nil.
Unlike DVD-Audio, SACD where I can't actually hear any difference, I can easily see the better quality of high definition video.
As soon as I get a new display I will upgrade to Blu Ray. That doesn't mean I plan on buying movies over again. Though I might consider an update to some favorites like Blade Runner.
Though, I think uptake will be slow based entirely on people who have high resolution displays.
He makes a clear point. Electric cars break the tie to any single fuel type. That means at any point the generation is cleaned up by adding renewables/nuclear even old electric on the road benefit.
You concentrate on the worse case scenario without even looking into it. You can look up carbon content per megajoule of energy today and do the comparison numbers.
You will still produce much less net emissions by using an electric car because of it's much higher efficiency.
Under no circumstance is an electric car producing more net emissions. This long tailpipe argument is an old unsupported red herring.
>Not long ago, you could get a PowerMac G5 with just one CPU for about $1500, so Apple seems to be convinced that the lack of an affordable mid tower won't hurt their sales.
>On the other hand, offering four diffent desktop computers would make picking a Mac more confusing for "mainstream" consumers.
PowerPC Macs never presented the tempting target for switchers that the Intel based ones with boot camp and parallels do. Switchers may be looking for something different than the mac faithful. And it should be about $1200 max, not $1500. You can build a nice Windows mid tower for $800, I will pay an Apple premium, but not a stupid one.
Four desktops confusing? I am talking about something aimed at switchers, who currently have 4000 desktops with windows to choose from and they can build their own if that is not enough (what I always do). Get rid of the mini if four desktops are too confusing.