If your PC is a p3 700 or greater, with more than 128 mb ram, and a geforce 3 or better equivalent, any Xbox code you write will probably run better on your pc than an Xbox. Xbox's are von-neumann PCs with only subtle differences, see how easy it was to port linux to the xbox.
This seems like comparing apples & oranges to me. Languages are built around providing the best tool for the situation.
If i need to develop applications fast, flexible, and portable, I will use an interpreted language, like c#, java, or (if i am a masochist;) vb.
On the other hand, if i am coding in a microcontroller, coding OS level stuff, or coding extremely demanding software (i.e. massive simulations), I would choose C, as it gives me a chance to really monitor whats going on in terms of memory, and eliminates the overhead of the interpreter (and chances are i am not so concerned with code reuse).
Using C in the.NET environment is foolish,.NET is very strongly typed, and C barely knows what type is. Using java on a microcontroller (they have this!!) is also foolish, why waste 50% of the 3kb of memory for the interpreter, or 5% of the clock cycles.
If you read the article they layout problems with packet based protocols very clearly, namely the lack of assurance that a packet has been delivered. They are not re-inventing the wheel by any means, but rather inventing a fundamentally different method of structuring communications, and transferring data.
I am very curious how they will go ahead and build this protocol, because the compSci problems inherent in the task are very intriguiing. On the social side, i am curious if they will harness the OS community for testing (which would necessitate them opening up their protocol).
I have been long of the belief that this outsourcing would only flipflop the US's dominancy in hi-tech to current up&coming 3rd world nations, like India. However, these days i am starting to think, perhaps we (the US) should seize the oppurtunity of large amounts of skilled out of work tech workers, and utilize that to one-up our infrastructure so that by the time India meets our current level, we are miles ahead, or hopefully kilometers ahead (hey, intelligent, globalized units systems ARE techincal innovation, enough with the oil-lamp era ad hoc measurements!).
However, I am still on the fence on this issue, I don't like the fact that i can be replaced with someone i can't possibly compete with. But i realize that if this person continues to get paid well, they will soon have my current living standard, and presto, i will be able to compete with them!
By lcd i mean least common denominator. The knife is substandard (my knife), and the memory is substandard (personally i tote about 256mb cf cards). But the combination is still intriguing. Now, the altimeter swiss army knife is more interesting to me.
You pointed out an important point, that most people are not adept enough to select their favorite media player, etc. However, I disagree when you chastise MS's statemenet regarding consistency. From my experience, most 3rd party players aren't as well integrated as Microsoft's software, and as an end user, this is important, because i want to be able to utilize this software in every corner (i.e. media player previews in file explorer), and I want the interface to be orthogonal and consistent. As a windows developer, I know that Microsoft has provided the tools and documentation to build such a well integrated application, and clearly it is not so hard to make it consistent with the Windows 'look and feel', but few are willing to do this.
There are plenty of instances of unfair competition by Microsoft, where they undermine a user's independance of choice, but this forced reduction in the quality of the consistent computing environment Microsoft IS capable of providing (which linux, bring on the rants, is NOT), is in my opinion, not only wrong, but detrimental to the just cases against Microsoft.
Not really though. The comparisons to old fashioned communication techniques provide clarity here. Old mail arrived at a designated address, whereas phones orignally were 'instant messaging', however now have message recording machines. IMO this instant/mailbox when instant isn't possible is the ideal form of communication. However just as you can't receive a package over the phone, its a pain to send a coworker or customer a 5 mb file over instant messaging (especially if they are in different timezones).
Now if only servers would expand my mailbox limit beyond its sub-pda memory maximum!
I prefer the acme-rocket pack to the jet powered shoes personally, although springs on the soles of shoes can get that kangaroo motion down. Either way, that damn Fastus Birdus will always get away.
Open Source software is a great idea: it allows for mission critical stuff to be closely examined and transparent. However it makes no illusion that this software is freely created and distributed. People need to dedicate time, which no matter how you want to frame it, translates to money spent, even if they aren't directly being paid.
Now I can have a bluetooth adapter in the back of my skull.. oh wait, thats a dying protocol, but at least i can trigger my neurons into making me grumble like a ferrari when i first wake up!
I would disagree that laptop is the optimal choice. The school I went to had ample computers in the library with the full host of standard apps (ms office, photoshop, illustrator), the science labs had matlab & mathematica, the engineering labs had engineering software, and so on.
The ideal solution, imo, these days, is a small form factor pc and a good lcd monitor. This gives you what college students will Really use there pcs for (mp3, movies, web, instant messenger, games and word processing), it doesn't take up much space (i would almost wager less space than a laptop, if you don't count the small form factor pc, which can be stashed just about anywhere), and will give you jsut about maximal bang/buck.
Darpa dedicates n-billion to fancy new spy satellite so it can examine the reflection of the hairs of a coconut carried by an African Swallow over the Mediterranean in the midst of a storm worthy of Greek mythology, thus finally allowing an answer to the question of air velocity of a coconut laden African swallow. There have already been talks of reallocating several more billion to answering the same question regarding European swallows. Naturally the pentagon has suggested a reduction in troop numbers and salary, and a removal of canned peaches from the midday menu, as a potential source for the reallocated funds, as clearly understanding coconut-laden-swallow velocities could very well be pivotal in finding the holy grail: oft considered a primary task of the United States Military.
Next Week: Smashing funds for Atom-Smashers so smashingly fetching berets can alleviate the questionable BadAss-ness of the American Soldier?
If the shirt is of tough enough, thin enough fabric, its impact with Superman's super-chest will either 1. deflect it, or 2. mushroom it. Either way there is little as far as penetration of the shirt.
Now my question is how can Superman pick up a locomotive without destroying whatever he is standing on (i.e. the 500,000 lbs (google) on 2 points *maybe* totaling 1 sqft, so thats about 500,000/144 = 3472 psi). I doubt the surface strength of concrete can take that pressure (Let alone the torque he exerts when he chucks the locomotive 100 miles, or the mere ability to pick up a locomotive by one end, i mean the torque would be ridiculous).
But i suppose all of Superman's super-feats pale in comparison to Batman's ability to conceal his identity for so damn long.
When i entered school I had this illusion that most entering tech students have of the fabled "average starting salary". Of course, now being a graduate, and watching very few of my peers get anywhere near that salary (and i was well above average in my dept), that school recruiting jargon is entirely debunked. The fact is some lucky bastards will nab a probably undeserved job for 100 grand, most will start out at 40 if they are lucky, and all in all, none of it will matter because it just might be that several of those who start out at 40 or less will go on to run a company rather than work for one, and make quite a bit more than the guy who has worked for 100 grand during all his 20s (and then promptly lost his job when his employers a) went bankrupt from paying a programmer so much, or b) offshored). And thats why you should not eat twinkies and speak russian.
yeah, but remember, alot of the/. crowd are IT people who wish/think they are CS people (ducks rotten tomatoes), and consequently not only think hacking perl is equivalent to understanding the difference between context free and context sensitive grammars, but feel vindicated in declaring themselves as "CS/Engineering" because they know how to write a class.
now time for me to crawl under my bridge and pick my big troll toenails
the CFD software we used at my company required 64 bit precision for accuracy. That would be painfully slow on a 32 bit machine
He does not state that it cannot be done on a 32 bit machine, but rather that it is "painfully" slow. Now i won't pretend to know more about this than all of you involved in this pissing contest, but i think there is alot of assumptions being tossed around about statements not actually made.
There are other cheaper hd based players out there.. best bang for buck i have seen is the Classic 10gb player for 120 bucks! Can't verify the quality of it, though.
Slashdot Mirror
If your PC is a p3 700 or greater, with more than 128 mb ram, and a geforce 3 or better equivalent, any Xbox code you write will probably run better on your pc than an Xbox. Xbox's are von-neumann PCs with only subtle differences, see how easy it was to port linux to the xbox.
nah, /. is the all-time biggest productivity-buster in existence
This seems like comparing apples & oranges to me. Languages are built around providing the best tool for the situation.
;) vb.
.NET environment is foolish, .NET is very strongly typed, and C barely knows what type is. Using java on a microcontroller (they have this!!) is also foolish, why waste 50% of the 3kb of memory for the interpreter, or 5% of the clock cycles.
If i need to develop applications fast, flexible, and portable, I will use an interpreted language, like c#, java, or (if i am a masochist
On the other hand, if i am coding in a microcontroller, coding OS level stuff, or coding extremely demanding software (i.e. massive simulations), I would choose C, as it gives me a chance to really monitor whats going on in terms of memory, and eliminates the overhead of the interpreter (and chances are i am not so concerned with code reuse).
Using C in the
If you read the article they layout problems with packet based protocols very clearly, namely the lack of assurance that a packet has been delivered. They are not re-inventing the wheel by any means, but rather inventing a fundamentally different method of structuring communications, and transferring data.
I am very curious how they will go ahead and build this protocol, because the compSci problems inherent in the task are very intriguiing. On the social side, i am curious if they will harness the OS community for testing (which would necessitate them opening up their protocol).
I have been long of the belief that this outsourcing would only flipflop the US's dominancy in hi-tech to current up&coming 3rd world nations, like India. However, these days i am starting to think, perhaps we (the US) should seize the oppurtunity of large amounts of skilled out of work tech workers, and utilize that to one-up our infrastructure so that by the time India meets our current level, we are miles ahead, or hopefully kilometers ahead (hey, intelligent, globalized units systems ARE techincal innovation, enough with the oil-lamp era ad hoc measurements!).
However, I am still on the fence on this issue, I don't like the fact that i can be replaced with someone i can't possibly compete with. But i realize that if this person continues to get paid well, they will soon have my current living standard, and presto, i will be able to compete with them!
By lcd i mean least common denominator. The knife is substandard (my knife), and the memory is substandard (personally i tote about 256mb cf cards). But the combination is still intriguing. Now, the altimeter swiss army knife is more interesting to me.
Thats very interesting, reminds me of what the chip companies do regarding stable clock vs max clock rate.
Except with that combo, and a little knowledge of C#/.NET , you can pump out oodles of cool things that make your pda pretty kickass.
You pointed out an important point, that most people are not adept enough to select their favorite media player, etc. However, I disagree when you chastise MS's statemenet regarding consistency. From my experience, most 3rd party players aren't as well integrated as Microsoft's software, and as an end user, this is important, because i want to be able to utilize this software in every corner (i.e. media player previews in file explorer), and I want the interface to be orthogonal and consistent. As a windows developer, I know that Microsoft has provided the tools and documentation to build such a well integrated application, and clearly it is not so hard to make it consistent with the Windows 'look and feel', but few are willing to do this.
There are plenty of instances of unfair competition by Microsoft, where they undermine a user's independance of choice, but this forced reduction in the quality of the consistent computing environment Microsoft IS capable of providing (which linux, bring on the rants, is NOT), is in my opinion, not only wrong, but detrimental to the just cases against Microsoft.
scary as an IKEA toaster! Aaaaaaaah!
Not really though. The comparisons to old fashioned communication techniques provide clarity here. Old mail arrived at a designated address, whereas phones orignally were 'instant messaging', however now have message recording machines. IMO this instant/mailbox when instant isn't possible is the ideal form of communication. However just as you can't receive a package over the phone, its a pain to send a coworker or customer a 5 mb file over instant messaging (especially if they are in different timezones).
Now if only servers would expand my mailbox limit beyond its sub-pda memory maximum!
I prefer the acme-rocket pack to the jet powered shoes personally, although springs on the soles of shoes can get that kangaroo motion down. Either way, that damn Fastus Birdus will always get away.
I won't be satisified until I have Rocky Balboa's household robot (from Rocky IV).
Open Source software is a great idea: it allows for mission critical stuff to be closely examined and transparent. However it makes no illusion that this software is freely created and distributed. People need to dedicate time, which no matter how you want to frame it, translates to money spent, even if they aren't directly being paid.
Now I can have a bluetooth adapter in the back of my skull.. oh wait, thats a dying protocol, but at least i can trigger my neurons into making me grumble like a ferrari when i first wake up!
I would disagree that laptop is the optimal choice. The school I went to had ample computers in the library with the full host of standard apps (ms office, photoshop, illustrator), the science labs had matlab & mathematica, the engineering labs had engineering software, and so on.
The ideal solution, imo, these days, is a small form factor pc and a good lcd monitor. This gives you what college students will Really use there pcs for (mp3, movies, web, instant messenger, games and word processing), it doesn't take up much space (i would almost wager less space than a laptop, if you don't count the small form factor pc, which can be stashed just about anywhere), and will give you jsut about maximal bang/buck.
Darpa dedicates n-billion to fancy new spy satellite so it can examine the reflection of the hairs of a coconut carried by an African Swallow over the Mediterranean in the midst of a storm worthy of Greek mythology, thus finally allowing an answer to the question of air velocity of a coconut laden African swallow. There have already been talks of reallocating several more billion to answering the same question regarding European swallows. Naturally the pentagon has suggested a reduction in troop numbers and salary, and a removal of canned peaches from the midday menu, as a potential source for the reallocated funds, as clearly understanding coconut-laden-swallow velocities could very well be pivotal in finding the holy grail: oft considered a primary task of the United States Military.
Next Week: Smashing funds for Atom-Smashers so smashingly fetching berets can alleviate the questionable BadAss-ness of the American Soldier?
If the shirt is of tough enough, thin enough fabric, its impact with Superman's super-chest will either 1. deflect it, or 2. mushroom it. Either way there is little as far as penetration of the shirt.
Now my question is how can Superman pick up a locomotive without destroying whatever he is standing on (i.e. the 500,000 lbs (google) on 2 points *maybe* totaling 1 sqft, so thats about 500,000/144 = 3472 psi). I doubt the surface strength of concrete can take that pressure (Let alone the torque he exerts when he chucks the locomotive 100 miles, or the mere ability to pick up a locomotive by one end, i mean the torque would be ridiculous).
But i suppose all of Superman's super-feats pale in comparison to Batman's ability to conceal his identity for so damn long.
find a way to get /.ed
next, weather machine. Now that Saddam has been ousted, what evil villain will take on the project?
When i entered school I had this illusion that most entering tech students have of the fabled "average starting salary". Of course, now being a graduate, and watching very few of my peers get anywhere near that salary (and i was well above average in my dept), that school recruiting jargon is entirely debunked. The fact is some lucky bastards will nab a probably undeserved job for 100 grand, most will start out at 40 if they are lucky, and all in all, none of it will matter because it just might be that several of those who start out at 40 or less will go on to run a company rather than work for one, and make quite a bit more than the guy who has worked for 100 grand during all his 20s (and then promptly lost his job when his employers a) went bankrupt from paying a programmer so much, or b) offshored). And thats why you should not eat twinkies and speak russian.
Irrelevant? I think not.
yeah, but remember, alot of the /. crowd are IT people who wish/think they are CS people (ducks rotten tomatoes), and consequently not only think hacking perl is equivalent to understanding the difference between context free and context sensitive grammars, but feel vindicated in declaring themselves as "CS/Engineering" because they know how to write a class.
now time for me to crawl under my bridge and pick my big troll toenails
did you read the post?
the CFD software we used at my company required 64 bit precision for accuracy. That would be painfully slow on a 32 bit machine
He does not state that it cannot be done on a 32 bit machine, but rather that it is "painfully" slow. Now i won't pretend to know more about this than all of you involved in this pissing contest, but i think there is alot of assumptions being tossed around about statements not actually made.
Oh the conflict.. those who are so passionately against landmines and genetic engineering will have to choose!
Me? I choose landmines that explode into flowers, which we can all dance around, happy with joined hands singing Peace on Earth
There are other cheaper hd based players out there.. best bang for buck i have seen is the Classic 10gb player for 120 bucks! Can't verify the quality of it, though.