Can't say I've ever had that problem with ATI's drivers on my machine. That sounds to me (because of my experiences and those of all the people I talk to) more like a story that gets passed around more for the shock value, rather than the truth value. Things just improve all around the board with new releases, especially 5.13 - I suspect it's an incompatibility between the ATI card and the bargain bin refurbished factory seconds that a lot of people put into their computers because they can save five dollars. Seriously, just buy good hardware for the extra $5 and your weird problems will go away. I've built, upgraded, and fixed computers for my customers for a long time now and it's mind boggling how crappy of a component some companies will sell to ignorant people. You wouldn't believe what that goes (or doesn't) into some stuff... crappy solders, low quality PCBs, no cache, extra high latency, inconsistent timings, shaky power conditioning, under-performing power supplies, etc. It's not like generic medication, folks. You get what you pay for, and if you try too hard to save money, you get garbage and weird errors.
No thanks. I mean, I love the Murlocs as much as anyone, especially when they give me the good drops. But playing as or with one really doesn't sound like a good time. The noises, man! THE NOISES!
It is true that as a scripting language Python is slower than (byte)compiled languages. But it is slower by a constant factor. In other words people would say "Your Python solution is 4x slower than my Java solution!". What this means though is that just by upgrading the hardware that Python runs on, one can reach the speed of execution of the compiled program. In other words Python on an Athlon 64 fx 57 might run faster than java bytecode on a 1Ghz Athlon, or might even run faster than C on a 100Mhz machine (I am just making these numbers up, maybe someone knows of some benchmarks?). The point is that application that required C 15-20 years ago can probably be re-written in Python now.
When I say "Your Python solution is 4x slower than my Java solution!" I mean to say that I want to use my Java solution on my servers, because I don't want to (or can't because the technology just doesn't physically exist) upgrade to something 4x faster to run your Python solution. I don't care if it makes me breakfast and sings a song and dances around, and it's got all these cool knobs, levers and blinking lights. Suppose I'm forced to run my Java solution on a dedicated dual-3 GHz machine just to get it to keep up with my needs. If I am to consider a scripted language replacement for a tool I already have, I must observe that it works at least as well as what I already have. I need to break even, not tell all my bosses, users and clients that the new system is exactly the same as the old one except 4x slower. I won't use a slow solution when a much faster solution meets or exceeds my needs. It has nothing to do with personal preference, it has to do with the people who make my job exist.
This is why we care about speed. Optimization is not for the little guys at home tinkering with their cron jobs or 100-hits-per-week webservers. Optimization is for the corporations, who benefit from that.1% speed improvement when that.1% gets run a few million times a day and time is money.
Yeah, I know you might only have been writing about the speed factor. But it's important that people understand that just because it CAN be used for something doesn't mean that it SHOULD be used in place of the other solutions.
Yikes, I disagree about the selfishness. Look at the AH, all the LS drama (especially HNMLS's), and the party scene. Maybe I just played on a bad server, but it was terrible.
I played both games (WoW since September and almost two years of FFXI+both expansions) and there is so much drama in either game that you just can't enjoy it if you're playing without your RL friends.
WoW is more rewarding for your time. There's no match for the party machine in FFXI, but then again, when you've made the 30th trip back to Valkurm Dunes from your home town for new gear/spells/food/AH crap and you're still level 17, WoW starts to look really good. And when you wait two hours for a party at level 30, and the level 40 players tell you to stop whining because they wait four hours, and the 50s tell them to stop whining because they've been waiting all week, etc etc. and you can't solo past 15 or so... well, FFXI looks a lot less appealing. But if you find a huge LS that plays together, or get five of your friends to play on a schedule with you, then maybe you can enjoy the game.
My suggestion is play something slightly more soloable than FFXI.
So, you're going to try to single-handedly start a boycott right during the Christmas shopping season, when all the kids are begging their parents for the PS3 and all those PlayStation games, music CDs, DVDs, TVs, DVD players, headphones, digital cameras, movie tickets, and miscellaneous electronics devices they've been wanting, so that Sony execs will say "Oh, how wrong we have been to value our money so much"? How exactly did you plan for this to work, and who do you think is going to listen that will make any sort of significant impact on Sony's finances?
Remember, they blame their losses on piracy, rather than more probable causes, so if people suddenly stop buying from them... guess who takes the blame: Pirates! Arr, those horrible scallywags!
You know, that whole "think about your breathing" (or sometimes other additions) thing you do in your posts is really irritating... I don't care about the attention being drawn to breathing, but I do care about extra text in an article that doesn't belong. Please, when you copy and paste the article, don't add to it, especially not in the middle. That's not witty or clever, it's stupid. What's next? Think about the size of your tongue in your mouth, how huge and weird it is?
Re:Latency, latency, latency, latency...
on
IP Based Audio Systems?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Ever wonder why the dialog doesn't sync with the actors' lips when you watch a DVD on your computer? Even if you have [dedicated] hardware-accelerated MP3?
Maybe because DVD audio isn't MP3?
You need hardware-accelerated MPEG-2 decoding in video, a processor fast enough to demultiplex and decode your preferred audio stream AND the video, and buses fast enough to shove all that data through, alongside the usual OS noise. I don't recall ever seeing a sound card that offers hardware AC3 decoding. Your biggest latency issue is going to be the sound buffer: if you can't fill it fast enough, the system has to use a bigger one, and it will desync.
I'd check your system before you start blaming that. I've owned a Pentium III 900 MHz, an AMD Athlon XP 1700+, and a Pentium 4 3.0GHz system, and neither had any trouble at all with synchronization. Maybe it's your software, also. On a Windows box, WinDVD, PowerDVD, Windows Media Player, and PCFriendly all seemed to work fine for me on both systems.
Yes, something like those multi-unit power supplies that electric guitarists use for their effects pedals would be great!
Isolation for devices that place a variable load on the power supply would be a concern, though... it's amazing what strange problems underpowering something can produce.
Are you a consultant or "support technician", or are these your hard drives? If they are yours, you might want to consider a few things.
1) Uninterruptible Power Supply. Is keeping your data if the power gets cut mid-write worth $80 or so?
2) Different file systems with more journaling support: I use ReiserFS. You may like JFS or something else exotic. Sure, it's a pain to convert a drive - you have to have another one with a lot of space to hold your files - but it's worth it if you're losing data due to a weakness in one file system.
3) Use only stable software in a production environment. By "production environment", I mean any environment where you produce useful data that you need to keep. The core of your primary OS - including the kernel and toolchain - should be stable release versions. If you're a developer for said core, then you should already know this and have a dedicated sandbox installation for development purposes and not be using that for other work.
If you want to be able to get into and repair your drive with a hex editor (weird), ext2 is one of the very few options for you. But if you take a few precautions, you shouldn't ever have to do that.
Well, if you don't have the standard toolchain's manpages installed because you're one of *those* people, you can always google "nohup manpage"... go ahead, try it.. it's there.
I'm pretty sure nohup does all that and more. In fact I've used it to do what you described. Do a "man nohup" at your local linux console for details. You might want to check it out even though you made your own, because you might just be reinventing a wheel someone else already invented... or you might be able to make it better?
Maybe we will someday see them, if the color quality improves, and they can make large enough OLEDs for a viable price.
To get new technology, regardless of manufacturing costs, you have to pay the 'new technology' price... so it's going to be a LONG time before we see them at Walmart, Circuit City, or BJs.
If you don't like it, here's an idea that isn't "STFU" or "move".
Write to your congressman or senators, who were elected to represent you and can only represent you if they hear from you, and politely tell them that you disagree with this. Ask them to consider changing their minds.
Let's be honest. Who's going to use this besides the porn people, and the occasional Hollywood blockbuster film's website? Last thing I need is to check my email, open something that looks like it's from a friend (spammers are getting good these days) and have to deal with DRM dialogs complaining about a licensed this or trusted that. I don't even care about either of those two, and if I wasn't, I'd still be totally against this. Besides: Making stuff without DRM is faster and therefore less expensive than making stuff with DRM.
Actually I got that information from a good friend of mine who worked in the ER and had all the horror stories I could stomach, and some I couldn't. You could, y'know, ask one some time before presenting your speculations as fact, or maybe even post non-anonymously. AC is the perfect description. Butter holds in the 400+ degrees Fahrenheit your skin rises to when you burn yourself on the oven, and most CPUs are rated for 150 degrees. Where did your comment come from??
By the way: You can leave butter out on the counter for weeks and it won't go bad or grow mold. Keeps it nice and soft, but are there health risks? No.
The point is, grease does not conduct heat well.
The idea of using dairy products, which are not even remotely good for anything in your computer save your hands, is ludicrous.
That's because grease (especially butter) is actually a decent heat insulator. Now, that is exactly why you should NEVER put butter on a burn... because it holds the heat IN. Ask a doctor or ER physician, they'll tell you horror stories about babies and old people.
Thermal grease is something else entirely. It's not "grease", it's a kind of heat-conducting paste. But you knew that already, right?
Of course there are advancements in "performance" if the minimum specifications are higher... mom and pop will have to buy a faster computer someday because their old one won't run it, so, they will notice some programs do things faster.
Slashdot Mirror
Can't say I've ever had that problem with ATI's drivers on my machine. That sounds to me (because of my experiences and those of all the people I talk to) more like a story that gets passed around more for the shock value, rather than the truth value. Things just improve all around the board with new releases, especially 5.13 - I suspect it's an incompatibility between the ATI card and the bargain bin refurbished factory seconds that a lot of people put into their computers because they can save five dollars. Seriously, just buy good hardware for the extra $5 and your weird problems will go away. I've built, upgraded, and fixed computers for my customers for a long time now and it's mind boggling how crappy of a component some companies will sell to ignorant people. You wouldn't believe what that goes (or doesn't) into some stuff... crappy solders, low quality PCBs, no cache, extra high latency, inconsistent timings, shaky power conditioning, under-performing power supplies, etc. It's not like generic medication, folks. You get what you pay for, and if you try too hard to save money, you get garbage and weird errors.
Bad pull, man!! Hope you can tank that kind of aggro.
Murlocs? Imagine what that would look like if your character doesn't grok the Murloc language.
Ineedgils: [Murloc] MRGLRRGLRGLGRGLL! RGL! MRGL! GRGLGLGL!!! GRG!
No thanks. I mean, I love the Murlocs as much as anyone, especially when they give me the good drops. But playing as or with one really doesn't sound like a good time. The noises, man! THE NOISES!
When I say "Your Python solution is 4x slower than my Java solution!" I mean to say that I want to use my Java solution on my servers, because I don't want to (or can't because the technology just doesn't physically exist) upgrade to something 4x faster to run your Python solution. I don't care if it makes me breakfast and sings a song and dances around, and it's got all these cool knobs, levers and blinking lights. Suppose I'm forced to run my Java solution on a dedicated dual-3 GHz machine just to get it to keep up with my needs. If I am to consider a scripted language replacement for a tool I already have, I must observe that it works at least as well as what I already have. I need to break even, not tell all my bosses, users and clients that the new system is exactly the same as the old one except 4x slower. I won't use a slow solution when a much faster solution meets or exceeds my needs. It has nothing to do with personal preference, it has to do with the people who make my job exist.
This is why we care about speed. Optimization is not for the little guys at home tinkering with their cron jobs or 100-hits-per-week webservers. Optimization is for the corporations, who benefit from that
Yeah, I know you might only have been writing about the speed factor. But it's important that people understand that just because it CAN be used for something doesn't mean that it SHOULD be used in place of the other solutions.
Yikes, I disagree about the selfishness. Look at the AH, all the LS drama (especially HNMLS's), and the party scene. Maybe I just played on a bad server, but it was terrible.
I played both games (WoW since September and almost two years of FFXI+both expansions) and there is so much drama in either game that you just can't enjoy it if you're playing without your RL friends.
WoW is more rewarding for your time. There's no match for the party machine in FFXI, but then again, when you've made the 30th trip back to Valkurm Dunes from your home town for new gear/spells/food/AH crap and you're still level 17, WoW starts to look really good. And when you wait two hours for a party at level 30, and the level 40 players tell you to stop whining because they wait four hours, and the 50s tell them to stop whining because they've been waiting all week, etc etc. and you can't solo past 15 or so... well, FFXI looks a lot less appealing. But if you find a huge LS that plays together, or get five of your friends to play on a schedule with you, then maybe you can enjoy the game.
My suggestion is play something slightly more soloable than FFXI.
But dang, is FFXI cool when you *can* play it.
Playing LORD! I remember that game, wow!
Good times.
So, you're going to try to single-handedly start a boycott right during the Christmas shopping season, when all the kids are begging their parents for the PS3 and all those PlayStation games, music CDs, DVDs, TVs, DVD players, headphones, digital cameras, movie tickets, and miscellaneous electronics devices they've been wanting, so that Sony execs will say "Oh, how wrong we have been to value our money so much"? How exactly did you plan for this to work, and who do you think is going to listen that will make any sort of significant impact on Sony's finances?
Remember, they blame their losses on piracy, rather than more probable causes, so if people suddenly stop buying from them... guess who takes the blame: Pirates! Arr, those horrible scallywags!
As long as the courts adhere to the proper practices, we should be alright. Think there will be a transcription of the tapes made at the trial?
You know, that whole "think about your breathing" (or sometimes other additions) thing you do in your posts is really irritating... I don't care about the attention being drawn to breathing, but I do care about extra text in an article that doesn't belong. Please, when you copy and paste the article, don't add to it, especially not in the middle. That's not witty or clever, it's stupid. What's next? Think about the size of your tongue in your mouth, how huge and weird it is?
Ever wonder why the dialog doesn't sync with the actors' lips when you watch a DVD on your computer? Even if you have [dedicated] hardware-accelerated MP3?
Maybe because DVD audio isn't MP3?
You need hardware-accelerated MPEG-2 decoding in video, a processor fast enough to demultiplex and decode your preferred audio stream AND the video, and buses fast enough to shove all that data through, alongside the usual OS noise. I don't recall ever seeing a sound card that offers hardware AC3 decoding. Your biggest latency issue is going to be the sound buffer: if you can't fill it fast enough, the system has to use a bigger one, and it will desync.
I'd check your system before you start blaming that. I've owned a Pentium III 900 MHz, an AMD Athlon XP 1700+, and a Pentium 4 3.0GHz system, and neither had any trouble at all with synchronization. Maybe it's your software, also. On a Windows box, WinDVD, PowerDVD, Windows Media Player, and PCFriendly all seemed to work fine for me on both systems.
Yes, something like those multi-unit power supplies that electric guitarists use for their effects pedals would be great!
Isolation for devices that place a variable load on the power supply would be a concern, though... it's amazing what strange problems underpowering something can produce.
Are you a consultant or "support technician", or are these your hard drives? If they are yours, you might want to consider a few things.
1) Uninterruptible Power Supply. Is keeping your data if the power gets cut mid-write worth $80 or so?
2) Different file systems with more journaling support: I use ReiserFS. You may like JFS or something else exotic. Sure, it's a pain to convert a drive - you have to have another one with a lot of space to hold your files - but it's worth it if you're losing data due to a weakness in one file system.
3) Use only stable software in a production environment. By "production environment", I mean any environment where you produce useful data that you need to keep. The core of your primary OS - including the kernel and toolchain - should be stable release versions. If you're a developer for said core, then you should already know this and have a dedicated sandbox installation for development purposes and not be using that for other work.
If you want to be able to get into and repair your drive with a hex editor (weird), ext2 is one of the very few options for you. But if you take a few precautions, you shouldn't ever have to do that.
Well, if you don't have the standard toolchain's manpages installed because you're one of *those* people, you can always google "nohup manpage"... go ahead, try it.. it's there.
e &btnG=Google+Search
How about a link? Okay, here you go. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=nohup+manpag
I'm pretty sure nohup does all that and more. In fact I've used it to do what you described. Do a "man nohup" at your local linux console for details. You might want to check it out even though you made your own, because you might just be reinventing a wheel someone else already invented... or you might be able to make it better?
The full roster of Legend of Zelda characters in Super Smash Brothers is:
:)
N64 / Super Smash Brothers: Link
Gamecube / Super Smash Brothers Melee: Link, Young Link, Princess Zelda / Sheik, Ganondorf (sans sword)
Just so you know
You're the man.
At RIT... we did that too.
Maybe we will someday see them, if the color quality improves, and they can make large enough OLEDs for a viable price.
To get new technology, regardless of manufacturing costs, you have to pay the 'new technology' price... so it's going to be a LONG time before we see them at Walmart, Circuit City, or BJs.
Don't forget about MAngband!
http://www.mangband.org/
It's pseudo-open source, so you can make your own variant if you're so inclined. And also insane.
If you don't like it, here's an idea that isn't "STFU" or "move".
Write to your congressman or senators, who were elected to represent you and can only represent you if they hear from you, and politely tell them that you disagree with this. Ask them to consider changing their minds.
A letter can make a difference.
Let's be honest. Who's going to use this besides the porn people, and the occasional Hollywood blockbuster film's website? Last thing I need is to check my email, open something that looks like it's from a friend (spammers are getting good these days) and have to deal with DRM dialogs complaining about a licensed this or trusted that. I don't even care about either of those two, and if I wasn't, I'd still be totally against this. Besides: Making stuff without DRM is faster and therefore less expensive than making stuff with DRM.
Actually I got that information from a good friend of mine who worked in the ER and had all the horror stories I could stomach, and some I couldn't. You could, y'know, ask one some time before presenting your speculations as fact, or maybe even post non-anonymously. AC is the perfect description. Butter holds in the 400+ degrees Fahrenheit your skin rises to when you burn yourself on the oven, and most CPUs are rated for 150 degrees. Where did your comment come from??
By the way: You can leave butter out on the counter for weeks and it won't go bad or grow mold. Keeps it nice and soft, but are there health risks? No.
The point is, grease does not conduct heat well.
The idea of using dairy products, which are not even remotely good for anything in your computer save your hands, is ludicrous.
That's because grease (especially butter) is actually a decent heat insulator. Now, that is exactly why you should NEVER put butter on a burn... because it holds the heat IN. Ask a doctor or ER physician, they'll tell you horror stories about babies and old people.
Thermal grease is something else entirely. It's not "grease", it's a kind of heat-conducting paste. But you knew that already, right?
Or you could just go somewhere with cobblestone pavement and go for a run...
Seriously, you could even make a real cobblestone-covered treadmill if you tried. That would be interesting.
Of course there are advancements in "performance" if the minimum specifications are higher... mom and pop will have to buy a faster computer someday because their old one won't run it, so, they will notice some programs do things faster.
Thanks, I almost fell out of my chair!
Great stuff!