While none of these are top-of-the-line gaming cards, they aren't $50 bargain basement cards either. Nor are they "2004 level" cards. (The 2400XT was released in July 2007, the GeForce 8600M in May 2007)
Not that it is a great performance indicator but several of the cards you mention are available for under $50.
When the parent says they are "2004 level" cards I presume they mean that the performance compares to a top of the range card released in 2004. A top of the range Nvidia card in 2004 was the 6800GT if you look at the Toms Hardware videocard chart then you can see that a 6800GT out performs a 2400XT.
Just because a card is newer doesn't mean it is faster. The only serious gaming cards available in Macs at the moment are the 8800GS and 8800GT. With the GT only available in the Mac Pro range.
This isn't to say you can't play games on an iMac or MacBook Pro but they aren't gaming machines.
Your comparison of the use of intel graphics in low end Mac machines to Dells is irrelevant. Most of Dell's machines aren't sold for gaming either. They have specific ranges that are targeted at gamers, all of the systems in these ranges come with up to date medium to high power video cards.
Apparently they have a £40 disconnection charge(!) That was never mentioned in any documents I had when I signed up.
After a quick look at Be's site it seems that they have everyone on a 3 month rolling contract and if you want to get out with less than 3 months notice you need to pay a release fee. While it isn't the most consumer friendly of policies it is clearly marked in the pre-sales FAQ of their site.
This is a big factor for me too. I bought Neverwinter Nights 2, instead of pirating it, in part because I wanted a proper manual. In that kind of game you tend to need to look things up as you play so a real manual is much more convenient.
Of course when I got it home and opened the box it turned out that the 'manual' was a ten page quickstart guide and the actual reference was just a pdf on the disc.
If publishers want to increase sales they should offer people a product that can't be replicated if the game is pirated. Whether this takes the form of physical items in the box or the ability to play online.
I often buy games that I have already downloaded pirate copies of partly because that way I know they are good and partly because I want to play online and that is rarely possible with a pirated copy of the game. My most recent purchase was Call of Duty 4, it has really good multiplayer with persistant stats and unlockable achievements. I have already played through the single player but was happy to buy the game for the mulitplayer content.
The problem with Steam is a lot of the games are only available for purchase in the US even if they have been on general release for months. Games also tend to cost more on Steam, as the prices drop in shops the Steam price stays the same.
For example I went on to Steam last night to buy Call of Duty 4 only to find they were still charging over £40 for it. A quick look around retail sites and I found it for £21.99 + £3 postage so ordered it next day delivery.
I would rather buy all of my games through Steam but the last few times have all been the same, either much more expensive or not available in the UK.
On the piracy note yes I have already played a pirate copy of COD4 and was sufficiently impressed to buy it. I imagine the developers would rather I had bought it at full price on the day of release but £40 plus is more than I will happily pay for a game when I know that if I wait a few months the price will have halved.
If you RTFA then you will see that the percentages stated are for US sales only and the 3rd place is only from one set of figures. The other set places Apple 4th in the US after Acer.
Looking at worldwide figures they don't even make the top 5. Everytime someone trots out one of these "Apple market share exploding" articles it is always based on highly misleading data. For example the recent article claiming that Apple has 66% of the over $1000 computer market ignoring the fact that the 66% only takes into account retail sales and only in the US.
Looking around most high street stores you would be hard pressed to buy a machine that cost more than $1000 and wasn't made by Apple. This isn't because they dominate the market but because they only offer high-price options and sell a disproptionately large amount through bricks and mortar stores opposed to online.
Removing the 'over $1000' filter brings that down to 14% and that is still only including US retail sales.
I am not trying to imply that they aren't doing well or that their market share isn't growing, but haven't we had enough of these flamebait articles with misleading summaries based on incomplete figures?
The register really cant have too much room to talk... one day i was reading up about a particular subject, and four of the articles a google search found were exactly the same article with four bylines
I know The Register have news on the site from various sources not just their own reporters. This isn't plagiarism it is syndication, something that most news sources do so that every news outlet isn't paying a reporter to write an article on the same subject. In the same way that a lot of the news on sites such as news.bbc.co.uk are stories from AP and Reuters.
I'm now seeing new XBox 360s for sale sub-$260 (while the PS3 is at the same $399 that it's been at for well over a year)
I think that has more to do with Xbox 360 launching a year earlier than the PS3. All consoles go through price reductions during their lifetime just other electronics. It works on the basis that different demographics will buy at different price points.
Microsoft have also reduced the production cost of the Xbox 360 by 40% since it launched which means they can offer it a lower price without losing revenue. The PS3 on the other hand set a record for console manufacturing costs losing Sony an estimated $250 per console sold. The Xbox 360 was also originally sold at a loss but not to the same extent.
You seem to be trying to make the point that Microsoft are selling the Xbox at a lower price because they are finding it difficult to compete with the blu-ray equipped PS3 while ignoring the fact that the price of a PS3 is only just cheaper than buying an xbox 360 and a stand alone blu-ray player.
But while I disagree about this being a major threat to our food supply (I think we should be fine even without bananas)
If you RTFS then you will see that while 'we' in developed countries will be ok without bananas they make up a large part of the food supply for some people in Africa. This will likely have a massive effect on people who don't have the luxury to choose what they eat day to day.
Powerbook G4s [wikipedia.org] go for about $600 on Ebay [ebay.com] and that sounds like a fair price
Hardly a good price compared to an eeePC which costs $299, also the battery life of a 5 year old powerbook is hardly likely to be excellent so you can add another $50+ for a new battery.
If you plan to publish for profit or just for public display and are not a news outlet, getting releases is crucial. Using someone's image without permission is a sure-fire way to having a lawsuit handed to you.
In the UK (which is where we are talking about) there is no legal requirement to get a model release to use photographs of someone.
The lack of any coherent law of privacy in the UK means that photographers are not only free to take photographs of people in public places but they can use those photos as they wish, including for commercial gain. In some countries, individuals have rights over the commercial use of their images, hence the importance of obtaining a model release for the use of an image that contains a recognisable person. UK law does not, at present, recognise this right.
The guide does go on to say that what you do have to be wary of is conforming to the Data Protection Act which applies to anyone who controls the 'processing' of 'personal data'. But the act contains exceptions for publications of journalistic or artistic material, which would cover almost all photography.
As for a lot of publishers releasing patches to remove protection, thats total nonsense. There's only a few of them that have done that.
They don't normally release a "copy protection removal patch" it is just done as part of a general patch. I can only give examples from games I own but Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander were both patched at some point after release to remove Securom and the need for a disc to be inserted.
Actually it had the sound of a support guy who didn't agree with the system himself and wanted you to pester his bosses when it breaks...
This is very much the case. The game has been produced by Bioware, the copy protection will have been mandated by EA. I am sure Bioware would much rather not have people who play their games cursing the terrible copy protection.
Everytime my little brother calls me for a quick game of TF2, I start it up, and without fail it takes 5 minutes for Steam to load, and then, even if I have updates turned off, it still starts updating the game AND the steam platform. 40 minutes later, still can't play yet. So much for a quick game.
Having to update to the latest version of an online game before you can play is hardly an issue with steam. You do realise that if you had updates turned on then it would have updated already in the background?
What's to keep EA from turning off the authentication server in 5 years when they no longer "Support" the game.
I don't support their DRM but this isn't really comparable to the issues with PlayForSure. Microsoft were distributing someone elses product on the proviso that it was protected with DRM. EA are distributing their own product so they can patch the game at any point to remove the DRM. Microsoft couldn't do the same with PlayForSure because the record labels who own the copyright would never have agreed.
Copy protection on games is only really intended to stop copying for the first few months to protect sales. After this a lot of publishers release patches removing the copy protection as the game has sold 90% of its potential copies.
This doesn't of course make it ok to use copy protection that will prevent people from playing a game they have paid for. As copy protection is almost always broken almost immediately anyway it is only ever the legitimate customers who suffer.
I ask because JAWS is absurdly expensive, and pretty much, beyond basic standards compliance, I'm not going to write for the idiosyncrasies of a client I can't test with (isn't free).
I'm therefore legally entitled to ignore the terms of the GPL (It was never presented to me before I bought the software) and distribute the code (Which is in the box, and therefore mine) however I want.
The GPL isn't a EULA that restricts what you can do with the software, it is a license that grants you additional rights. If you choose to view it as invalid because you are unable to read it before opening the box then that is fine. Your right to copy and distribute the software is limited by copyright not the GPL. It is the GPL that grants you rights over and above copyright, one of which is the right to distribute the software under certain conditions.
The 'millions of colours' option means (and has meant ever since the Mac IIfX) that a 24bit pallete is used rather than a 16bit pallete. How many colours the display natively supports is a completely different matter.
What you say is true but the false advertising claim stems from the fact that Apple clearly claim in the display section of their tech specs that they display "Millions of colors at all resolutions". If this was in the section about the graphics card then fair enough but it is in the description of the display itself.
He offered to get the CD for drivers, and she said she didn't need it. His reply was that she had become "one of those smug Mac users."
I am always hearing Mac users go on about how they can plug things in and have them 'just work' while Windows users need to install drivers for everything. This may have been the case in the pre Windows 98 days but since then almost any usb storage device can be plugged in and will be automatically detected and ready for use, as almost all devices with storage are basically just usb drives. Of course everything comes with software for downloading and organising your photos, but this doesn't mean you have to use it.
There are devices such as some webcams that won't work without drivers but then this is also true on OSX. Unless you buy an apple device or from someone like Belkin who guarantee Mac compatibility then not only do you have the problem of needing drivers to use the device you also have the problem that their probably aren't any for OSX.
- I would imagine this thing is the opposite of "ruggedized." It feels perfectly fine, but I would hate to drop it from more than a foot. I would imagine it would be in pieces. It doesn't exactly feel sturdy.
Anecdotal evidence only but a friend of mine has an Eee and inadvertantly launched it across a classroom by tripping over the power cable, it survived without a scratch after flying off a high desk onto a hard floor.
I can imagine that short of treading on it or getting it wet there isn't anything you could do within normal usage that would be more likely to damage it.
Well, if the Church wants to give the impression that they want to fix their mistakes and apologize for them, I think it would be better if they apologized for supporting dictatorships and benefiting from them
Running through grass could cause it to deform and brush the character
Crysis has this, it isn't entirely accurate but the grass and tree branches move as you push through them.
grenades and other explosives to properly damage the room....Tables that break into chunks and splinters.
Most games from the last few years have destructable objects, as said elsewhere the 'pieces' are pre-determined but the effect is good enough.
Ceilings that collapse when the supports are destroyed or weakened too much......When I ram a truck or tank into an unreinforced building, something actually happens.
Again Crysis has done this, if you drive a truck into the weaker buildings they collapse into sheets of corrugated steel and wall panels.
Physics simulation has come a long way without stand alone physics chips.
Why do so many people seem to have to phone someone just to shout "Hi. I'm on the train...yes the train....now Its leaving the station.... bye".
I realise this was probably a joke but I would imagine the reason most people do that is to let someone who is picking them up from their destination know that they have set off.
Slashdot Mirror
Be forewarned Mark of Chaos is apparently a badly done Total War clone.
Not that it is a great performance indicator but several of the cards you mention are available for under $50.
When the parent says they are "2004 level" cards I presume they mean that the performance compares to a top of the range card released in 2004. A top of the range Nvidia card in 2004 was the 6800GT if you look at the Toms Hardware videocard chart then you can see that a 6800GT out performs a 2400XT.
Just because a card is newer doesn't mean it is faster. The only serious gaming cards available in Macs at the moment are the 8800GS and 8800GT. With the GT only available in the Mac Pro range.
This isn't to say you can't play games on an iMac or MacBook Pro but they aren't gaming machines.
Your comparison of the use of intel graphics in low end Mac machines to Dells is irrelevant. Most of Dell's machines aren't sold for gaming either. They have specific ranges that are targeted at gamers, all of the systems in these ranges come with up to date medium to high power video cards.
After a quick look at Be's site it seems that they have everyone on a 3 month rolling contract and if you want to get out with less than 3 months notice you need to pay a release fee. While it isn't the most consumer friendly of policies it is clearly marked in the pre-sales FAQ of their site.
This is a big factor for me too. I bought Neverwinter Nights 2, instead of pirating it, in part because I wanted a proper manual. In that kind of game you tend to need to look things up as you play so a real manual is much more convenient.
Of course when I got it home and opened the box it turned out that the 'manual' was a ten page quickstart guide and the actual reference was just a pdf on the disc.
If publishers want to increase sales they should offer people a product that can't be replicated if the game is pirated. Whether this takes the form of physical items in the box or the ability to play online.
I often buy games that I have already downloaded pirate copies of partly because that way I know they are good and partly because I want to play online and that is rarely possible with a pirated copy of the game. My most recent purchase was Call of Duty 4, it has really good multiplayer with persistant stats and unlockable achievements. I have already played through the single player but was happy to buy the game for the mulitplayer content.
More carrot and less stick is what is needed.
The problem with Steam is a lot of the games are only available for purchase in the US even if they have been on general release for months. Games also tend to cost more on Steam, as the prices drop in shops the Steam price stays the same.
For example I went on to Steam last night to buy Call of Duty 4 only to find they were still charging over £40 for it. A quick look around retail sites and I found it for £21.99 + £3 postage so ordered it next day delivery.
I would rather buy all of my games through Steam but the last few times have all been the same, either much more expensive or not available in the UK.
On the piracy note yes I have already played a pirate copy of COD4 and was sufficiently impressed to buy it. I imagine the developers would rather I had bought it at full price on the day of release but £40 plus is more than I will happily pay for a game when I know that if I wait a few months the price will have halved.
If you RTFA then you will see that the percentages stated are for US sales only and the 3rd place is only from one set of figures. The other set places Apple 4th in the US after Acer.
Looking at worldwide figures they don't even make the top 5. Everytime someone trots out one of these "Apple market share exploding" articles it is always based on highly misleading data. For example the recent article claiming that Apple has 66% of the over $1000 computer market ignoring the fact that the 66% only takes into account retail sales and only in the US.
Looking around most high street stores you would be hard pressed to buy a machine that cost more than $1000 and wasn't made by Apple. This isn't because they dominate the market but because they only offer high-price options and sell a disproptionately large amount through bricks and mortar stores opposed to online.
Removing the 'over $1000' filter brings that down to 14% and that is still only including US retail sales.
I am not trying to imply that they aren't doing well or that their market share isn't growing, but haven't we had enough of these flamebait articles with misleading summaries based on incomplete figures?
I know The Register have news on the site from various sources not just their own reporters. This isn't plagiarism it is syndication, something that most news sources do so that every news outlet isn't paying a reporter to write an article on the same subject. In the same way that a lot of the news on sites such as news.bbc.co.uk are stories from AP and Reuters.
I think that has more to do with Xbox 360 launching a year earlier than the PS3. All consoles go through price reductions during their lifetime just other electronics. It works on the basis that different demographics will buy at different price points.
Microsoft have also reduced the production cost of the Xbox 360 by 40% since it launched which means they can offer it a lower price without losing revenue. The PS3 on the other hand set a record for console manufacturing costs losing Sony an estimated $250 per console sold. The Xbox 360 was also originally sold at a loss but not to the same extent.
You seem to be trying to make the point that Microsoft are selling the Xbox at a lower price because they are finding it difficult to compete with the blu-ray equipped PS3 while ignoring the fact that the price of a PS3 is only just cheaper than buying an xbox 360 and a stand alone blu-ray player.
If you RTFS then you will see that while 'we' in developed countries will be ok without bananas they make up a large part of the food supply for some people in Africa. This will likely have a massive effect on people who don't have the luxury to choose what they eat day to day.
Hardly a good price compared to an eeePC which costs $299, also the battery life of a 5 year old powerbook is hardly likely to be excellent so you can add another $50+ for a new battery.
In the UK (which is where we are talking about) there is no legal requirement to get a model release to use photographs of someone.
I quote from the UK Photographers Rights guide
The guide does go on to say that what you do have to be wary of is conforming to the Data Protection Act which applies to anyone who controls the 'processing' of 'personal data'. But the act contains exceptions for publications of journalistic or artistic material, which would cover almost all photography.
They don't normally release a "copy protection removal patch" it is just done as part of a general patch. I can only give examples from games I own but Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander were both patched at some point after release to remove Securom and the need for a disc to be inserted.
This is very much the case. The game has been produced by Bioware, the copy protection will have been mandated by EA. I am sure Bioware would much rather not have people who play their games cursing the terrible copy protection.
Having to update to the latest version of an online game before you can play is hardly an issue with steam. You do realise that if you had updates turned on then it would have updated already in the background?
I don't support their DRM but this isn't really comparable to the issues with PlayForSure. Microsoft were distributing someone elses product on the proviso that it was protected with DRM. EA are distributing their own product so they can patch the game at any point to remove the DRM. Microsoft couldn't do the same with PlayForSure because the record labels who own the copyright would never have agreed.
Copy protection on games is only really intended to stop copying for the first few months to protect sales. After this a lot of publishers release patches removing the copy protection as the game has sold 90% of its potential copies.
This doesn't of course make it ok to use copy protection that will prevent people from playing a game they have paid for. As copy protection is almost always broken almost immediately anyway it is only ever the legitimate customers who suffer.
There is an extension for Firefox that simulates what screen reader users experience.
The GPL isn't a EULA that restricts what you can do with the software, it is a license that grants you additional rights. If you choose to view it as invalid because you are unable to read it before opening the box then that is fine. Your right to copy and distribute the software is limited by copyright not the GPL. It is the GPL that grants you rights over and above copyright, one of which is the right to distribute the software under certain conditions.
What you say is true but the false advertising claim stems from the fact that Apple clearly claim in the display section of their tech specs that they display "Millions of colors at all resolutions". If this was in the section about the graphics card then fair enough but it is in the description of the display itself.
Are USB serial ports made by the Department of Redundancy Department?
I am always hearing Mac users go on about how they can plug things in and have them 'just work' while Windows users need to install drivers for everything. This may have been the case in the pre Windows 98 days but since then almost any usb storage device can be plugged in and will be automatically detected and ready for use, as almost all devices with storage are basically just usb drives. Of course everything comes with software for downloading and organising your photos, but this doesn't mean you have to use it.
There are devices such as some webcams that won't work without drivers but then this is also true on OSX. Unless you buy an apple device or from someone like Belkin who guarantee Mac compatibility then not only do you have the problem of needing drivers to use the device you also have the problem that their probably aren't any for OSX.
Yes I imagine the pattern goes something like:
Or are you suggesting that reviews should be posted before the book has been released and read?
Anecdotal evidence only but a friend of mine has an Eee and inadvertantly launched it across a classroom by tripping over the power cable, it survived without a scratch after flying off a high desk onto a hard floor.
I can imagine that short of treading on it or getting it wet there isn't anything you could do within normal usage that would be more likely to damage it.
Another good one would be to stop claiming that condoms have tiny holes in them that let AIDS through.
Crysis has this, it isn't entirely accurate but the grass and tree branches move as you push through them.
Most games from the last few years have destructable objects, as said elsewhere the 'pieces' are pre-determined but the effect is good enough.
Again Crysis has done this, if you drive a truck into the weaker buildings they collapse into sheets of corrugated steel and wall panels.
Physics simulation has come a long way without stand alone physics chips.
I realise this was probably a joke but I would imagine the reason most people do that is to let someone who is picking them up from their destination know that they have set off.