You also seem to think the airflow is from back to front. I got the impression it was the other direction. Hence, the CPU isn't where the heat problems will be. It's the graphics card.
Actually, it is Front to Back, but they've change the position of all of the components. The CPU is in the lower front of the case and gets the air coming directly from the front of the case. The airflow continues in almost a straight line accross the chipset and across the graphics card. The expansion slots are pretty much where the CPU/ports used to be and the ports are at the bottom/back of the board.
But would the minimum amount of RAM needed to do this cost less than bundling a harddrive with the xbox2? Somehow I doubt it. the partition on the xbox for caching game files is ~5gb.
Correction, 2GiB. 2GiB for the OS, 2GiB for the WMA partition, 2GiB for scratchdisk (like what Halo uses in-game) and 2GiB for saved games.
the dreamcast ranks pretty much as a 3.5 generation console... it was pretty much the xbox-beta... nearly identical API, runs CE, same damn controller as the xbox...
Wrong, mostly wrong, and close. The Dreamcast could run one of two OS's. Windows CE was not used very extensively and then only for cheap-o titles that didn't really need much horsepower. Most games ran on Sega's OS. There are quite a lot of similarities between the Dreamcast and X-Box, however. Unfortunately, the DC controller was pretty rough on the hands and the analog stick wasn't very accurate. X-Box's controller is a definite improvement in both regards.
Regarding 3.5 gen VS 4.0 gen, I disagree. The Dreamcast has some damn impressive hardware. It's not quite as powerfull as a PS2, but it makes up for it by being easier to program and having a lot more texture memory that can use compressed textures (a feature the PS2 lacks). It took a couple of years for the PS2 software to actually start looking better than the DC software.
Sega was hurting financially (and still is) when they cut their system price to try to sell through their remaining inventory. Sony FUD + lack of confidence inspired by their Saturn bomb + lack of marketing practically killed the company despite the 1 year lead and easy to develop for system.
Microsoft has plenty of cash and seems content to bleed it on X-Box to give X-Box 2 a market advantage. I wouldn't count Microsoft out of the game until *after* an X-Box 2 launch. And then, only if XB2 bombs.
I just think it's funny that Slashdot STILL reports *user-run* attachments as "Windows viruses," as though it's some major flaw in Windows that users are dumb enough to run whatever executables come into their inbox.
Hell, my Outlook won't even let those attachments through to begin with. "BUT IT'S A WINDOWS VIRUS!!1"
I'll both agree and disagree with you on this one. Microsoft isn't at fault with this virus. It is, however, a Windows virus in that it only runs on Windows. You shouldn't just call it a "Worm" or a "Virus," as that may imply that more than Windows users are at risk.
The real concern is OEM's. Currently Dell cannot uninstall Media Player and install, say, Music Match or Real Player. They also cannot uninstall IE and Outlook and install Netscape or Mozilla. How long before they cannot uninstall MS Virus (er, MS Anti-Virus?) and install Symantec?
If the OEM's want to unbundle OS Apps and install their own, they should be given the opportunity to do so. Currently they are not.
I agree that having multiple tabs open then closing the whole window sucks when you forgot what you were doing in another tab. It needs an option that warns you that you have other tabs open (like Konsole does if you open multiple konsole sessions in a single window) when you try to close it. With that, tabs would be perfect and dummy-proof. Maybe it's an option that I haven't seen yet, if so the default needs to be set to whatever it's not set to now.:)
I haven't used Konquerer so perhaps it does this as well, but Opera will save all of your tabs when you close out the main window. When you open Opera back up, all of your tabs are back in place. It's a great feature.
not to be funny (i run my iPod on Linux) - but does the Karma play nicely on linux?
I'm not sure 100% of the Rio software is available on Linux, but the Rio itself has a webserver (over ethernet) and can run a rather nice Java client to transfer music and files with. I've also seen post from several users on the riovolution.com website that mention that they are running Linux.
Though I have to admit I tried original Halo on the PC and was terribly disappointed. I think xbox owners are wowed by it cause they don't have much to compare to on that platform. As much as I am pro-PS2, first person shooters belong on a mouse on a PC.
I bought an X-Box for Project Gotham Racing. I also got DOA 3 because I like DOA 2 on Dreamcast (too bad it was the same game with better graphics). Anyway, like you, I felt that FPS games belonged with a keyboard/mouse and held off on buying Halo because I figured it'd be out on PC eventually. Well, a year went by and Best Buy put Halo on sale for $30 on a Thanksgiving day sale. It was the first time I'd seen it below $50, so I picked it up. I was very impressed. Overall, from beginnning to end, I found it was better than Half-Life. If you took out the ending to HL, then I'd say that it was a little better than Halo. With that said, I've played Halo 1 player through twice on X-Box and once on PC, but have only played each of the HL games once each.
As far as control on X-Box, it's not bad. Once I get used to it, it was second nature. I'd still give a nod to keyboard/mouse, but I won't say that it's 100% necessary
All of this, of course, applies only to the 1 player game. MP on Halo PC is screwed up. No bots? No MP Coop? I like playing on a LAN with friends and MP Halo just doesn't cut it.
I can't speak for the parent, but I would accept a 256k Vorbis or a 320k MP3. Of course, I'd prefer FLAC or APE. 128k MP3 is noticeably degraded to me and I personally won't pay greater than CD prices for significantly less than CD quality.
I have an MZ-1 as well that I bought at a close-out a couple of years after they were introduced (still works, too!). It was *great* at the time. I even bought a bookshelf system and Sharp MD player with a longer battery life as well. In the era before CD-Rs, they were the only game in town (though expensive at $10 a disc).
Now, I don't use it very often. I currently use a Tungsten T to play Oggs and just recently ordered a Rio Karma. For playback, it's hard to see much use for MD anymore (though you can still buy them at the counter of most CD Rental shops in Japan:-).
Too bad Sony is shooting themselves in the foot as a portable Digital Recorder... You should be able to transfer music you record in the field back to the computer via USB at a high transfer rate...
Ogg as a technology is unimportant, no matter how many soon-to-be out of business Korean electronics manufacturers support it, because (almost) NO ONE CARES ABOUT IT!
Because 1) until (somewhat) recently, you needed a floating point processor to decode OGG. Most portable MP3 players do not have such a beast. 2) There have been quite a few dedicated MP3 decoding chips available on the market that allow the use of cheap, low powered processors that would normally not be able to decode MP3. 3) Even with Integer OGG support, the processing requirements of OGG are much higher than an MP3 player. Many MP3 players don't have the power to do OGG.
The fact of the matter is that 0.01% of Ogg users use it because they're convinced it's superior way to encode music.
Actually, I think that this is incorrect. There are *LOTS* of reasons to not use MP3 (sounds crappy until you hit 192k or so, hack id support, widely varying quality of encoders, patent laden, etc.). Of the alternatives, I like OGG the best. Part of which is that it's Free and open, part of which is that it sounds better. I also like FLAC and APE, but I normally wouldn't use those on a portable player. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but most of the people I speak with either can't hear the difference in audio, so use MP3 or do hear the difference in audio and use OGG/FLAC.
A can of soda is between 80 - 100 calories. Think about it.
Actually, read the can. A typical soda has ~170 calories. Some as low as 140 (Coke) and some much higher. A six pack delivers close to 1000 calories. Half of a 200lb. person's recommended diet and Two thirds of a 150lb. person's recommended diet. That's a *lot* of calories.
I recently switched to coffee with Splenda as a sweetener to kick my sugar habbit. I can't drink Aspertame sweetened drinks (90% of the diet cola market uses Aspertame) so there wasn't a whole lot else besides water I could drink and water wasn't going to help me remove my soda dependance. At first I drank caffeinated coffee, but I soon found that 4 cups a day really messed me up and I switched to decaff.
With all of those calories out of my diet, I can eat more real food and stay satisfied while still losing weight.
I run Hibernation (swap to disk not suspend to ram) on my Win2k machine I use for home theater. It only takes about 10 seconds or so to get to windows. About 3 of those seconds is spent in BIOS. It takes a little less time to go into suspend mode.
Actually, you're absolutely right. most of the large screen TV's these days are really quite good. Much better than the stuff that was out 5-10 years ago. And the prices for rear projection sets is actually pretty decent. My only real problem with big screens is that they weigh around a metric buttload:-)
but i doubt they'll ship by next xmas. i.e. this sounds like a significant change in display technology. if you believe them.
LCoS is somewhat new, but it's been around and is in current projectors/TVs. The revolution that Intel promises is integrating the display and the driving electronics (HDTV decoders, processors, de-interlacers, menuing systems, etc.) into one monolithic chip to help drive down the entire system cost of an LCoS projector. The chip itself could possibly be more expensive, but the entire board with the electronics on it will be much cheaper.
DLP is nice, but a main issue with DLP is that you have to replace the bulbs every 3-4 years. Currently, bulbs for DLP units range anywhere from $300-600, which is no small investment. Of course, DLP is also a projection format, so the viewing angle is not as wide, and from what ones I've seen at the store, the blacks aren't quite as dark as the plasmas or traditional CRTs.
There is a new TI chip on the market that greatly improves the contrast levels of DLP. Not quite as good as a really good CRT, but certainly acceptable.
LCOS, like DLP, is not a direct view technology and instead reflect light from a light source (bulb). The amount of light needed for these types of displays means a fairly expensive bulb replacement every 1000 - 3000 hours depending on the type of bulb.
I'm really a non-fan of rear-projection TVs, with their odd image quality and limited viewing angles. I wonder how long it will take this technology to be adapted to large-format, flat panel displays? I for one would be a big fan of a $1,000 42" flat panel display.
Have you seen a DLP Rear Projection TV recently? They are *nothing* like the old clunky CRT types from yesteryear. Color is very good, resolution is excellent and the viewing angle is actually quite good.
As far as your $1,000 42" flat panel display goes, the LCOS technology we're talking about here is not direct view. It uses reflected light just as a DLP does. The current techlogy for direct view screens like what you're speaking about are LCD and Plasma and both have their own problems.
Yeah yeah, how about a U.S. launch date? While the Japanese get all the games and systems first, the U.S. gets systems and games late with some games NEVER coming out here. Sure it'll make its way here, EVENTUALLY, but as an American GAMER I'm not exactly jumping with joy.
If it bothers you that much, perhaps you should buy a US console instead of a Foreign one. The X-Box came out in the US before it was launched in Japan. Heh... for that matter, so did all of the Atari systems:-P
Otherwise, maybe you shouldn't tout your "American Gamer" line so loudly.
Remember that there is a Sony Music division and a Sony Electronics division. Currently, one of the two makes a lot more money than the other... can you guess which?:P
Regulations sometimes require that stuff works within set limits. The law will then require the company to take resonable steps to ensure that end users can't change the software to circumvent the limits. Usually this will mean preventing release of modifiable source code.
By this argument, Ford ought to get sued if you remove the catalytic converter on your car. Is this remotely true?
No, by this argument, the regulating body for catalytic converters could sue Ford for adding an "Easy Lift, no muss, no fuss Catalytic converter bypass lever" to their cars.
Witch Hunter Robin, IMHO, blows. I have no idea why anyone would find this boring unimaginative series with its gigantic-craniumed characters appealing. Except perhaps for really angsty people like goths. To which I say, you should read/watch more shoujo. (On a side note, where did this infinite castle thing come from anyway? It was in Get Backers also...) For some reason I feel like mentioning I hated Noir too. All style, no substance.
Unfortunately, with WHR, you have to get past the first 8-10 episodes before the "Witch of the Week" syndrome wears off. I wouldn't call it an awesome series, but it's not bad. I couldn't watch Getbackers..:-( I liked Noir, but it ended badly... as did many anime from that particular year. Fortunately, Last Exile, Scrapped Princess and Ghost in the Shell TV made up for it:-)
Just a note: The SVG spec calls for an svgz format (gzipped) and existing browsers are already able to read gzipped content (html, xml, etc.). You normally wouldn't want to save to svg unless you planned on opening it with a normal text editor.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, it is Front to Back, but they've change the position of all of the components. The CPU is in the lower front of the case and gets the air coming directly from the front of the case. The airflow continues in almost a straight line accross the chipset and across the graphics card. The expansion slots are pretty much where the CPU/ports used to be and the ports are at the bottom/back of the board.
Correction, 2GiB. 2GiB for the OS, 2GiB for the WMA partition, 2GiB for scratchdisk (like what Halo uses in-game) and 2GiB for saved games.
Still, as you said, 2GiB RAM isn't cheap.
Wrong, mostly wrong, and close. The Dreamcast could run one of two OS's. Windows CE was not used very extensively and then only for cheap-o titles that didn't really need much horsepower. Most games ran on Sega's OS. There are quite a lot of similarities between the Dreamcast and X-Box, however. Unfortunately, the DC controller was pretty rough on the hands and the analog stick wasn't very accurate. X-Box's controller is a definite improvement in both regards.
Regarding 3.5 gen VS 4.0 gen, I disagree. The Dreamcast has some damn impressive hardware. It's not quite as powerfull as a PS2, but it makes up for it by being easier to program and having a lot more texture memory that can use compressed textures (a feature the PS2 lacks). It took a couple of years for the PS2 software to actually start looking better than the DC software.
Microsoft != Sega
Sega was hurting financially (and still is) when they cut their system price to try to sell through their remaining inventory. Sony FUD + lack of confidence inspired by their Saturn bomb + lack of marketing practically killed the company despite the 1 year lead and easy to develop for system.
Microsoft has plenty of cash and seems content to bleed it on X-Box to give X-Box 2 a market advantage. I wouldn't count Microsoft out of the game until *after* an X-Box 2 launch. And then, only if XB2 bombs.
I'll both agree and disagree with you on this one. Microsoft isn't at fault with this virus. It is, however, a Windows virus in that it only runs on Windows. You shouldn't just call it a "Worm" or a "Virus," as that may imply that more than Windows users are at risk.
The real concern is OEM's. Currently Dell cannot uninstall Media Player and install, say, Music Match or Real Player. They also cannot uninstall IE and Outlook and install Netscape or Mozilla. How long before they cannot uninstall MS Virus (er, MS Anti-Virus?) and install Symantec?
If the OEM's want to unbundle OS Apps and install their own, they should be given the opportunity to do so. Currently they are not.
I haven't used Konquerer so perhaps it does this as well, but Opera will save all of your tabs when you close out the main window. When you open Opera back up, all of your tabs are back in place. It's a great feature.
There have been a couple of deals in the past where you could get one for $250. It's usually priced in the $280-$300 price range.
I'm not sure 100% of the Rio software is available on Linux, but the Rio itself has a webserver (over ethernet) and can run a rather nice Java client to transfer music and files with. I've also seen post from several users on the riovolution.com website that mention that they are running Linux.
I bought an X-Box for Project Gotham Racing. I also got DOA 3 because I like DOA 2 on Dreamcast (too bad it was the same game with better graphics). Anyway, like you, I felt that FPS games belonged with a keyboard/mouse and held off on buying Halo because I figured it'd be out on PC eventually. Well, a year went by and Best Buy put Halo on sale for $30 on a Thanksgiving day sale. It was the first time I'd seen it below $50, so I picked it up. I was very impressed. Overall, from beginnning to end, I found it was better than Half-Life. If you took out the ending to HL, then I'd say that it was a little better than Halo. With that said, I've played Halo 1 player through twice on X-Box and once on PC, but have only played each of the HL games once each.
As far as control on X-Box, it's not bad. Once I get used to it, it was second nature. I'd still give a nod to keyboard/mouse, but I won't say that it's 100% necessary
All of this, of course, applies only to the 1 player game. MP on Halo PC is screwed up. No bots? No MP Coop? I like playing on a LAN with friends and MP Halo just doesn't cut it.
I can't speak for the parent, but I would accept a 256k Vorbis or a 320k MP3. Of course, I'd prefer FLAC or APE. 128k MP3 is noticeably degraded to me and I personally won't pay greater than CD prices for significantly less than CD quality.
I have an MZ-1 as well that I bought at a close-out a couple of years after they were introduced (still works, too!). It was *great* at the time. I even bought a bookshelf system and Sharp MD player with a longer battery life as well. In the era before CD-Rs, they were the only game in town (though expensive at $10 a disc).
Now, I don't use it very often. I currently use a Tungsten T to play Oggs and just recently ordered a Rio Karma. For playback, it's hard to see much use for MD anymore (though you can still buy them at the counter of most CD Rental shops in Japan :-).
Too bad Sony is shooting themselves in the foot as a portable Digital Recorder... You should be able to transfer music you record in the field back to the computer via USB at a high transfer rate...
Because 1) until (somewhat) recently, you needed a floating point processor to decode OGG. Most portable MP3 players do not have such a beast. 2) There have been quite a few dedicated MP3 decoding chips available on the market that allow the use of cheap, low powered processors that would normally not be able to decode MP3. 3) Even with Integer OGG support, the processing requirements of OGG are much higher than an MP3 player. Many MP3 players don't have the power to do OGG.
Actually, I think that this is incorrect. There are *LOTS* of reasons to not use MP3 (sounds crappy until you hit 192k or so, hack id support, widely varying quality of encoders, patent laden, etc.). Of the alternatives, I like OGG the best. Part of which is that it's Free and open, part of which is that it sounds better. I also like FLAC and APE, but I normally wouldn't use those on a portable player. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but most of the people I speak with either can't hear the difference in audio, so use MP3 or do hear the difference in audio and use OGG/FLAC.
Actually, read the can. A typical soda has ~170 calories. Some as low as 140 (Coke) and some much higher. A six pack delivers close to 1000 calories. Half of a 200lb. person's recommended diet and Two thirds of a 150lb. person's recommended diet. That's a *lot* of calories.
I recently switched to coffee with Splenda as a sweetener to kick my sugar habbit. I can't drink Aspertame sweetened drinks (90% of the diet cola market uses Aspertame) so there wasn't a whole lot else besides water I could drink and water wasn't going to help me remove my soda dependance. At first I drank caffeinated coffee, but I soon found that 4 cups a day really messed me up and I switched to decaff.
With all of those calories out of my diet, I can eat more real food and stay satisfied while still losing weight.
I run Hibernation (swap to disk not suspend to ram) on my Win2k machine I use for home theater. It only takes about 10 seconds or so to get to windows. About 3 of those seconds is spent in BIOS. It takes a little less time to go into suspend mode.
So, every time you have a Ko fight, you fight for a KO? Ouch... ^_^;;
Actually, you're absolutely right. most of the large screen TV's these days are really quite good. Much better than the stuff that was out 5-10 years ago. And the prices for rear projection sets is actually pretty decent. My only real problem with big screens is that they weigh around a metric buttload :-)
LCoS is somewhat new, but it's been around and is in current projectors/TVs. The revolution that Intel promises is integrating the display and the driving electronics (HDTV decoders, processors, de-interlacers, menuing systems, etc.) into one monolithic chip to help drive down the entire system cost of an LCoS projector. The chip itself could possibly be more expensive, but the entire board with the electronics on it will be much cheaper.
There is a new TI chip on the market that greatly improves the contrast levels of DLP. Not quite as good as a really good CRT, but certainly acceptable.
LCOS, like DLP, is not a direct view technology and instead reflect light from a light source (bulb). The amount of light needed for these types of displays means a fairly expensive bulb replacement every 1000 - 3000 hours depending on the type of bulb.
Have you seen a DLP Rear Projection TV recently? They are *nothing* like the old clunky CRT types from yesteryear. Color is very good, resolution is excellent and the viewing angle is actually quite good.
As far as your $1,000 42" flat panel display goes, the LCOS technology we're talking about here is not direct view. It uses reflected light just as a DLP does. The current techlogy for direct view screens like what you're speaking about are LCD and Plasma and both have their own problems.
If it bothers you that much, perhaps you should buy a US console instead of a Foreign one. The X-Box came out in the US before it was launched in Japan. Heh... for that matter, so did all of the Atari systems :-P
Otherwise, maybe you shouldn't tout your "American Gamer" line so loudly.
Remember that there is a Sony Music division and a Sony Electronics division. Currently, one of the two makes a lot more money than the other... can you guess which? :P
No, by this argument, the regulating body for catalytic converters could sue Ford for adding an "Easy Lift, no muss, no fuss Catalytic converter bypass lever" to their cars.
Unfortunately, with WHR, you have to get past the first 8-10 episodes before the "Witch of the Week" syndrome wears off. I wouldn't call it an awesome series, but it's not bad. I couldn't watch Getbackers.. :-( I liked Noir, but it ended badly... as did many anime from that particular year. Fortunately, Last Exile, Scrapped Princess and Ghost in the Shell TV made up for it :-)
Just a note: The SVG spec calls for an svgz format (gzipped) and existing browsers are already able to read gzipped content (html, xml, etc.). You normally wouldn't want to save to svg unless you planned on opening it with a normal text editor.