I know a lot of photographers have been saying the same thing for a few years now, almost invariably quoting resolutions a few megapixels ahead of the bleeding edge of available technology at the time.
Personally -- and I do want to make clear that this is just my opinion not a statement of undeniable fact -- I feel that digital surpassed 35mm film's capabilities (slide or otherwise) a couple years ago.
Disclosure: I'm a member of a ~200-member photo club where some members sport a bag of Nikon gear worth more than my car (which annoyingly has a lower depreciation than my wheels, too) so I see a lot of photos and slides taken on expensive rigs by seasoned photographers. I invariably see little more than a heck of a lot of grain at anything approaching your described resolution, which can easily be achieved by a very slight unsharpening of a crisp digital image, then applying a grain filter like Grain Surgery. A D30 would be more than adequate to create an image to cover a half-sheet of newsprint, or a full-page magazine photo -- which is sufficient (if not overkill) for this photographer's needs.
A lot of the "old school" crowd seem to have noticed this is the case -- which, combined with the relatively low "per-photo" cost once you own the equipment, is probably why so many of the old school 35mm crowd have been abandoning film in favour of digital in the past year or two.
I've seen a similar trend with press photographers lately as well, although this is undoubtedly primarily for other considerations -- such processing speed and time-to-press -- topics that remain unaddressed for the original poster's benefit, if he's sticking with a film camera and slogging through slow scans three or four images at a time (or less, if he's using a slide scanner).
So I look at the photo and think, "Hey, those cop uniforms look familiar. And the one with the wide-brimmed hat looks like it says 'OPP' on his shoulder. And that looks an awful lot like the crest of the City of Ottawa..."
And then I thought to myself, gee, the Ottawa/OPP cops don't look like they're enjoying Canada Day very much considering the amount of THC in the air. After that, I felt embarassed that I even questioned whether they were Canadian or not since they are obviously unhappy but not one of them has a hand on the butt of their sidearm.
Back on topic: It should be pointed out that while the general concensus regarding slide scanners vs. flatbeds is accurate, saying the flatbed scanner was a "fairly expensive HP" is redundant considering HP's scanners sell for at least twice the price of comparatively-featured, consumer-level competition and relatively miserable quality in my experience (which is why they aren't very widely carried anymore--just about any other brand is a better deal for both price and quality).
Anyway, unless there is a very specific reason for needing film (or slide) output, you're likely better off buying a gently used Canon D-30 or D-60 than you are dropping more money on a slide scanner. If your current camera and lenses are valuable then you can sell them on consignment and pick up more modern equivalents that work with your digital SLR easily; if they aren't, you can still buy cheaper optics (such as Tamron) and you still won't be far off from what you already have now in terms of lens-quality, with a drastic improvement in processing time.
I speak from experience; I own an Epson 2450 (which has been used to scan slides or negatives perhaps twice in ~2 years of ownership -- I used to shoot film, mainly black and white). On the 2450, 35mm slides take several minutes each to scan, and you can only do four at a time with the provided scanner template.
Comparatively, you could download a gigabyte digital of photos off a microdrive in the same amount of time; they will undoubtedly look phenominally clearer than flatbed scans of slide film, require less post-processing, and they will already have an ICM profile (sRGB) associated with them to boot, so they don't look even worse than they do on your screen when you have them printed.
No kidding. I figured I was in like Flynn with only a handful of replies to the thread. Maybe the American readers are too turkey-stuffed to type but can still manage to nudge a mouse around?
Being an Athlon 64 Socket 939 owner I tried to do just that -- unfortunately it didn't compile cleanly "out of the box" (at least, for me) just yet, it errors out on compiling file_stream.o because of something to do with libxutil.so.
You could probably compile it fine in a 32-bit chroot or something, but I'll leave that to someone else to try. I'm happy to wait for release 2.x for full AMD64 support.
Of course, don't let me stop you from trying. Anyone who does get it to compile, let us know what you did...
... And maybe even hacked information in someone's favour. Believe me, I'd like to be the first to say the electoral results just don't seem to make sense -- but is a post-mortem analysis going to do much to change matters now?
Please forgive my ignorance, but I was under the impression that for all the investigations that examined the "tricks" used to fudge the numbers (some of which we already know were repeated this time before the polls even opened yesterday) it still didn't mean the shrub was stripped of his presidency... And it doesn't look like it secured a more honest democratic process four years later, either.
Indeed; in the same vein, another perhaps less-recognised name (but in this humble poster's opinion, that which belongs to a more favourite artist than Nobuo Uematsu) would be Yasunori Mitsuda, most notably of Chrono Cross/Chrono Trigger and Xenogears (and the subsequent Xenosaga) fame (as well as a few little songs here and there, including several in Tobal No. 1).
As Mr. Mitsuda has shown, you can be a free agent and write music for Tsugunai but still come back to Square Enix should they ever decide to create a successor to the Chrono- series. Fingers crossed.
... You can't say there wasn't warning. In the past few games he's been passing off more and more of the music to other artists. The argument that this is so only because the games are becoming bigger isn't particularly true since you've been seeing four-disc Final Fantasy soundtracks since FF VII and three-disc soundtracks before that.
Frankly, I love Uematsu's work but I'm happy to see him move on to other things and pursue his own interests and goals; I think he's earned the ability to do it. Besides, I see him doing for Square Enix' Final Fantasy music what Amano has been doing all along for their character design: Inspirational pieces from which the main themes are based (particularly those melodies that recur throughout the game, like the Zanarkand theme from FFX or Melodies of Life from FFIX).
Here's to more "inspired by" or arranged albums like The Black Mages, Pray, Love Will Grow, and Celtic Moon, too (I was disappointed at the offering in this department for Final Fantasy X; maybe now it will come out of the woodwork). It sounds to me like Mr. Uematsu retains some rights -- or still has very good relationships with Square Enix -- to continue re-recording those old works, which suits me plenty fine.
I just picked up a Socket 939 Athlon64 this weekend myself (and have teased Gentoo into running just about everything I'd like it to do -- the last step is the Adaptec RAID array. I'm hoping the i2o support is 64-bit stable in 2.6.9 or I'm in deep doo-doo).
Anyway, code optimisation seems like natural progression as processors start to evolve to a new architecture -- but it's not going to really take off until 64-bit processors start overtaking the market and x86 is a legacy project (and not still the market dominator).
Here's a little example: I bought my processor at an "OEM" style outlet that runs its business on bulk parts instead of customer service; they said they had sold "a good 4-5 Socket 939 processors" after a couple weeks as compared to dozens of other types of processors every day. Of course, there are other 64-bit AMD processors in the lineup which I didn't ask about so that number may be better than represented in my little weak example -- but since people still buy Intel it more or less means that "half" of the market can't run 64-bit optimised code (Itanic aside)... Doesn't it?
That's what I was thinking -- I don't read the NY Times (although I appreciate that it is well-read around the globe, thanks for reinforcing that understanding everyone) however I do read the Globe & Mail every day.
The Guardian and the BBC website are also another couple chiefly British but also well-read resources I would probably personally sooner see the ad on than the NY Times (as I never read it online or off).
Not that New York is the only place on earth I'd want to advertise FireFox; I've been signing it from the mountaintops for months now and haven't looked back. Are there any further marketing plans by the Mozilla group to spread the good word?
Aside: I'm a little disappointed in myself for not having remembered to contribute. Oops. Guess it's T-Shirt time...
In Canada we call them 'Levies' and, in the same vein as the assumption that all storage media is presumed to be used for the storage and duplication of copyrighted music, it wouldn't surprise me to soon start paying an extra few cents on the gigabyte.
The practical upshoot is I'll proceed to pirate MS Software with impunity -- after all, I'm paying for the privelage whether I do or not, may as well get my money's worth.
Well, I already have a Gentoo file server (with a hardware RAID 5 -- the card is a years-old Adaptec from when I used to run it under Windows which continues to serve me well in Linux), but it runs fine on an 850MHz Duron with 512MB SDR.
I decided some time ago (obviously) it would be a waste of money to chuck hardware that still does its job reliably -- although this is admittedly an excercise in future preparedness for when something does eventually fail.
Anyway, I'm not particularly interested in upgrading the entire system for dual-role as a server and workstation because I don't want to run into stability issues (not that I'm certain I would, Linux obviously runs pretty solid -- but it remains a possiblity) -- and I'd be without a file server for a couple days while I rebuilt from stage 1, which seems like a pretty good idea if you want to take advantage of a modern 64-bit processor...
Would it not also be considerably more expensive hardware-wise to go with two completely separate PCs compared to one dual-processor system? I hadn't seen the MSRP for the IWill and admit the price is a little higher than I expected, so I obviously haven't sat down to tally and compare the numbers. The ongoing power costs might also differ significantly -- important, considering how high my power bill already is (I thought I read earlier in the year the IWill case's PS is only 350W?).
In any event, thanks for your feedback... Guess it will be a long time yet before I'm able to switch to Desktop Linux after all.
Some will and some won't -- the author of Gizmodo suggested the opposite (buying one for around the same price as a G5 -- but probably less, I would imagine).
I've been looking at this case for a good couple months now (before there were any pre-production versions available). The dual-processor aspect is definitely enticing; I'd like to run Gentoo on it with Windows installed on a virtual machine so I'm not up the creek when I need to use some Windows software.
What I have a harder time deciding is, do I want to go (dual) Opteron or (single) Athlon64. The market seems to favour the newer Athlon64s for desktop computers, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's what's right for me. If I wanted to use Opterons, this IWill case certainly presents the possibility attractively (tight package, quiet, etc.) but the price/performance/growth numbers are proving a little more difficult to get my head around.
... Seems like a precusor to, "And that's the way it actually happened," 20 years from now. Which do you think kids will associate with better -- the history book they didn't read, or getting to pillage and rape in a village in glorious 3D?:|
It's 100% true. Even the company I work for seldom tested on other browsers because everyone uses MSIE and why on God's green earth would you want to use any of those other browsers?
Of course, I actually did a lot of reading up on web standards a year or so ago (oh how the world has changed since 1996, when I last did anything of the sort) and started to design/code based on standards then made corrections for MSIE. I should have done long ago, but better late than never.
Our tools are nowhere near 100% converted yet but at least we're finally moving in the right direction, and then something like this comes along -- over and over again. It's making me wonder how much of a priority shift I might see in the coming months to move away from IE entirely.
Don't take my word for it -- we're not the only corporation who has design problems because their code/css is designed solely for MSIE.
Avid game players use their computers mostly for playing games. If they can't do that in Linux, there's no point in switching to begin with. There's definitely no point in spending months to become adept enough to play the same games they were playing in Windows.
I completely agree with that statement. I feel sorry for your friend, who presumably saw an opinion about Linux being more stable than Windows somewhere -- maybe even here on Slashdot -- and assumed this meant Linux runs the same applications as Windows which of course, it does not (except perhaps 20-30 applications which run near-perfectly under WINE or CXO, and of course whatever games Cedega now supports).
My point is still as strong as ever: What was the target audience of this article? It clearly wasn't written for your friend either, because they don't know what Cedega/WineX, Wine, or CXO are, and besides didn't do any reading or asking questions before they rashly installed what they thought would be the solution to all of their OS woes. This article wouldn't have helped them -- a more educated, cautious and planned approach to a major software migration is what was required here.
Oh, absolutely. If games are on your top three list of things you need to be able to do, it's going to prevent you from switching to Linux.
But the article isn't directed at them -- it seems, more than anything, to be directed at the proverbial dummy-who-just-switched. The snake is eating its own tail.
It's for a publication called 'LinuxWorld' but she's writing it from the eyes of a newly switched Windows user. As someone in a similar boat right now (working toward switch my desktop/workstation to Linux) I can say non-technical magazine articles are probably the last place I'd look, but that's just one person's opinion.
That said, am I stupid for thinking that most people aren't going to switch to Linux primarily to play Windows games?
Sure, it might be nice to be able to play some games once you've already jumped ship (and you're probably either knowledgeable in Linux already or willing to work at it to make things happen, as with quite a bit else you might have taken for granted in Windows), but I'd think that by that time you've done your research and made a commitment to switch, you aren't about to run crying back to mommy because that mean Linux beat you up and took your quarter to play at the arcade after school.
As Othium says, 'Hard tasks need hard ways'. Cedega may be a commercial and Linux may be coming of age, but I'm a little surprised at the (lacking) level of effort here for something as complex and demanding as running recently developed games tailored for a completely different operating system.
Perhaps I unreasonably expect a seasoned veteran with ten years of Linux experience plus twelve books and over one-hundred articles beneath her belt to be made of a little sterner stuff and perhaps a touch more resourceful -- but what does a rube like me know -- I just post on the internet.
Difficult to say. I think a lot of people imagine a RAID (of any level, in some cases) is some kind of magic device that guarantees you'll never lose any data again nor suffer any downtime because of a drive failure; people are naturally drawn to RAID 5 because it offers an acceptable compromise between redundancy and efficiency, and it is commonly seen in business server environments (for similar reasons -- especially when you're paying the premium for SCSI disks).
The original poster isn't completely ignorant to the reality, I should think; his or her reason for implementing a RAID is clearly to reduce the chance of down-time and the bother of restoring a defunct volume from a (tape?) backup, and hopefully not to completely elimintate the need for backups entirely. Any hope of performance gain isn't mentioned, nor is any mention of volume size to suit a particular purpose.
That is to say, I see your ten and raise you fifteen: The original poster might have been better served had the discussion taken the opposite direction:
"What you're looking for is very probably not a RAID at all; you'd be better off investing in an external "backup" solution (where you are in fact automatically mirroring the drive contents on a regular schedule without actually creating an actual backup volume) or -- if the funds are there -- an rsync server (with or without the RAID 0) that accomplishes the same goal but with greater hardware independence and faster failover. Both would probably:
be similar or lower in cost compared to your proposed RAID solution,
feature similar or identical performance to your current file server implementation,
give you greater flexibility in terms of future growth,
offer better redundancy/accessibility in the event of catastrophic failure, and
reduce/eliminate specific hardware dependencies involved in running a hardware (or software) RAID array -- such as replacing failed controllers, replacing or adding geometrically identical drives to an array, etc.
...," and so on.
Do you figure Dredd2Kad is still reading the discussion?:P
My little Adaptec 2400A controller has never had any failure-related problems. The only thing that -did- cause two drive failures at once was a bunch of cheaper Lian Li enclosures which resulted in two drives being marked as having failed -- in the end everything was restored by zapping the RAID table then undeleting the partition using partition management software (thank you, Adaptec technical support). I firmly believe that the enclosures were to blame here as the drives failed immediately when attached but had no such problem when they were subsequently removed from the enclosures and reconnected directly to the controller card. The card has seen about 20000 hours of continuous operation so it hasn't been running for a decade or anything -- but I'd consider it to be relatively well-made (compared to a number of inferior/poorly designed computer products that I've had the misfortune of losing over the past couple years -- I hear you loud and clear, there).
I've survived without data or functionality loss through two (single) drive failures on the RAID 5 so I can attest that it does work for me -- but this isn't always the case. My mother had a RAID 1+0 set up where the motherboard failed and I had to read the blocks off the disks connected to an ATA controller using recovery software for the purpose (fortunately nothing was lost). I have since bitched at her to install a Firewire or USB 2.0 drive for the purpose of data backup and what do you know, she listened to me this time and runs it on a regular schedule.
Your solution highlights my conclusion after years of experience running my own file server -- the best defence is multiple, decentralised copies. I personally don't feel extra redundancy isn't worth the investment as it has saved my skin a couple of times when drives failed -- but as you say, it's not worth playing the odds with your data, and a RAID shouldn never be your last line of defence against data failure.
I use two external firewire backup drives (which together total close to the available size of my RAID 5 array; I split the data between them), but something completely separate like your rsync solution would be even better. My greatest challenges there would be the space and power requirements (I live in an apartment with electric heat/AC, so my energy bills are already quite painful). There is also the matter of existing investments with the external firewire drives.
Better still (in terms of data security) would be a removable or offsite backup solution, but these are currently beyond my means, and probably beyond the means of most home users. I only make a couple overnight copies a week (I don't tarball anything or use backup software) so as not to stress the hardware out. I don't know whether it makes any difference or not, but there you are.
Eventually I'd like to implement a solution like yours to a backup server located in a secure enclosure somewhere in my house -- that is, when I own a house to do it in.
You're right about that -- nobody would want to check off 50 boxes. It's also a good bet that somewhere between the several hundred choices, a pretty high percentage of people are going to invalidate their vote by doing something stupid.
The idea has merit though -- I'd like to be able to vote on "mini-referendums" regarding all kinds of issues so I'm not voting for "whoever's policies I disagree with the least," like you mention doing against Harper (and I'm behind you 100% on that tip).
It'd be nice to think that technology could make this possible in our future, but frankly I don't see it happening: Politicians clearly aim to wield more power, not give it up to the stupid voters; this somewhat socialistic/anachistic approach would be quick to draw negative criticism as the words themselves are generally though of as pejorative to failure, poverty, destruction, etc.
In the meanwhile, we're stuck making an X in the little white circle. At least Canada isn't eager to repeat Florida's mistake.
Well, Slashdot is a good first start, but I didn't see the project actually mentioned in the article.
I'm part designer, part 3D artist by day, and at night (when I have any energy left) I "just draw" on the old Wacom tablet, usually.
What grabs me? Well, money is nice but frankly, I don't need it. What I'd like to contribute to is a project I see value in. Something that will let me learn the ropes of what it's like to work with other people through the OSS model, because I never have before; I've only ever been a corporate monkey where the dynamics are presumably quite different.
That said, there aren't many projects that have grabbed me by the collar and said, "WE NEED YOU TO HELP US MAKE IT LOOK GOOD." The only apps that I've ever considered helping out with were Inkscape which shows a lot of promise for a vector graphics drawing package -- but isn't looking for designers as their road map is mostly replete with "stuff needs to be reprogrammed"; and Freevo, which blatently advertises that they're looking for (skin) designers. I think I'll be helping design a few skins for Freevo, because they look like they really want it, and I love the package and want to give something back to that community.
Since your project isn't done yet, selling on the basis of "giving back" because people like your project is pretty unlikely. That doesn't mean you might not gain a little interest by publicising what it's all about, though. Worst-case scenario, it's really dull and the requests are few -- at least the people that do volunteer will be in for the long haul, whereas signing up sight-unseen might result in a few people abandoning ship early on.
That's about the size of it. If one went by the headlines (I couldn't stay awake for 10 minutes of live debates if I tried) it sounds like the big ticket issues are exactly those: gay rights, foreign policy (particularly vis-a-vis America), and fund abuse/scandals.
Even when the levies were imposed some time ago on recordable media they went through without much more than a whisper, despite a good number of people protesting by writing their letters.
I doubt very much if there's going to be any serious discussion between the Liberals and Conservatives with respect to any kind of technology issues unless at least 80% of their prospective voters will understand it clearly or care enough to make a voting decision based on their position. Sure there are other parties that may have policies surrounding the issue -- but the grits seem to be neck and neck with the tories, and the other parties are barely given credit in the news as they are presumably expected to win no more than 7-10 seats between them.
Thank you all for the keen observations -- after living here for my entire life I had no idea Canada wasn't a utopian country whose proverbial feet don't touch the ground. Much appreciation to those who have "shown me the light".
I never claimed Canada was a haven of anonymity, safety, or displayed perfect domestic/foreign politics; nor did I offer to interpret Canadian (or American) law on that or any other matter, or go into diatribes regarding the annals Canadian history.
I made a short statement about my opinion of the current state of affairs south of the border because it's something I have to deal with on a daily basis, working as a contractor for an American firm, and having an American wife.
I state fact -- My wife feels more comfortable here than she did in the States. She is scared of returning in a country where citizen's rights are being waived/dissolved on a regular basis [insert image of all-male senators sporting shit-eating grins signing away Women's rights to govern their own bodies here], and government agencies are being given increasingly wide-ranging power. I wouldn't suggest that I'm not bound by similar laws (particularly this one, because I genuinely don't know), although I suspect Canadian and American interpretations vary; laws may appear similar on paper or in principle while differing greatly in implementation (for example, I don't recall the last time a drug dealing Canadian was accused of 'bioterrorism' in their own country).
My wife isn't the only one with misgivings for travel to the States -- I feel nervous when I cross the border too. I am frequently grilled by Customs officials when crossing the border, particularly when travelling by air (but have also had identity checks run while crossing by car, too). Many of my friends and colleagues feel the same way, and/or have had similar experiences to my own.
If you live in the States -- as so many of you evidently do -- and are satisfied with the changes happening there, then I strongly encourage you to stay there and let Canada sort out the problems I am already perfectly aware it already has.
Additionally, I apologise if I slammed your president for taking away imaginary civil liberties (such as the proposed "Except for homos" amendment); alternatively you can blame yourselves for electing him, or allowing him ascendancy despite not being elected, or... whatever.
Conversely, those that are unhappy enough to want to leave (and there are evidently plenty of indivdiuals in this camp, because CIC is busier than ever) are, as ever, welcome to consider their alternatives and find somewhere else to live.
Slashdot Mirror
Personally -- and I do want to make clear that this is just my opinion not a statement of undeniable fact -- I feel that digital surpassed 35mm film's capabilities (slide or otherwise) a couple years ago.
Disclosure: I'm a member of a ~200-member photo club where some members sport a bag of Nikon gear worth more than my car (which annoyingly has a lower depreciation than my wheels, too) so I see a lot of photos and slides taken on expensive rigs by seasoned photographers. I invariably see little more than a heck of a lot of grain at anything approaching your described resolution, which can easily be achieved by a very slight unsharpening of a crisp digital image, then applying a grain filter like Grain Surgery. A D30 would be more than adequate to create an image to cover a half-sheet of newsprint, or a full-page magazine photo -- which is sufficient (if not overkill) for this photographer's needs.
A lot of the "old school" crowd seem to have noticed this is the case -- which, combined with the relatively low "per-photo" cost once you own the equipment, is probably why so many of the old school 35mm crowd have been abandoning film in favour of digital in the past year or two.
I've seen a similar trend with press photographers lately as well, although this is undoubtedly primarily for other considerations -- such processing speed and time-to-press -- topics that remain unaddressed for the original poster's benefit, if he's sticking with a film camera and slogging through slow scans three or four images at a time (or less, if he's using a slide scanner).
And then I thought to myself, gee, the Ottawa/OPP cops don't look like they're enjoying Canada Day very much considering the amount of THC in the air. After that, I felt embarassed that I even questioned whether they were Canadian or not since they are obviously unhappy but not one of them has a hand on the butt of their sidearm.
Back on topic: It should be pointed out that while the general concensus regarding slide scanners vs. flatbeds is accurate, saying the flatbed scanner was a "fairly expensive HP" is redundant considering HP's scanners sell for at least twice the price of comparatively-featured, consumer-level competition and relatively miserable quality in my experience (which is why they aren't very widely carried anymore--just about any other brand is a better deal for both price and quality).
Anyway, unless there is a very specific reason for needing film (or slide) output, you're likely better off buying a gently used Canon D-30 or D-60 than you are dropping more money on a slide scanner. If your current camera and lenses are valuable then you can sell them on consignment and pick up more modern equivalents that work with your digital SLR easily; if they aren't, you can still buy cheaper optics (such as Tamron) and you still won't be far off from what you already have now in terms of lens-quality, with a drastic improvement in processing time.
I speak from experience; I own an Epson 2450 (which has been used to scan slides or negatives perhaps twice in ~2 years of ownership -- I used to shoot film, mainly black and white). On the 2450, 35mm slides take several minutes each to scan, and you can only do four at a time with the provided scanner template.
Comparatively, you could download a gigabyte digital of photos off a microdrive in the same amount of time; they will undoubtedly look phenominally clearer than flatbed scans of slide film, require less post-processing, and they will already have an ICM profile (sRGB) associated with them to boot, so they don't look even worse than they do on your screen when you have them printed.
No kidding. I figured I was in like Flynn with only a handful of replies to the thread. Maybe the American readers are too turkey-stuffed to type but can still manage to nudge a mouse around?
You could probably compile it fine in a 32-bit chroot or something, but I'll leave that to someone else to try. I'm happy to wait for release 2.x for full AMD64 support.
Of course, don't let me stop you from trying. Anyone who does get it to compile, let us know what you did ...
Please forgive my ignorance, but I was under the impression that for all the investigations that examined the "tricks" used to fudge the numbers (some of which we already know were repeated this time before the polls even opened yesterday) it still didn't mean the shrub was stripped of his presidency ... And it doesn't look like it secured a more honest democratic process four years later, either.
As Mr. Mitsuda has shown, you can be a free agent and write music for Tsugunai but still come back to Square Enix should they ever decide to create a successor to the Chrono- series. Fingers crossed.
Frankly, I love Uematsu's work but I'm happy to see him move on to other things and pursue his own interests and goals; I think he's earned the ability to do it. Besides, I see him doing for Square Enix' Final Fantasy music what Amano has been doing all along for their character design: Inspirational pieces from which the main themes are based (particularly those melodies that recur throughout the game, like the Zanarkand theme from FFX or Melodies of Life from FFIX).
Here's to more "inspired by" or arranged albums like The Black Mages, Pray, Love Will Grow, and Celtic Moon, too (I was disappointed at the offering in this department for Final Fantasy X; maybe now it will come out of the woodwork). It sounds to me like Mr. Uematsu retains some rights -- or still has very good relationships with Square Enix -- to continue re-recording those old works, which suits me plenty fine.
Anyway, code optimisation seems like natural progression as processors start to evolve to a new architecture -- but it's not going to really take off until 64-bit processors start overtaking the market and x86 is a legacy project (and not still the market dominator).
Here's a little example: I bought my processor at an "OEM" style outlet that runs its business on bulk parts instead of customer service; they said they had sold "a good 4-5 Socket 939 processors" after a couple weeks as compared to dozens of other types of processors every day. Of course, there are other 64-bit AMD processors in the lineup which I didn't ask about so that number may be better than represented in my little weak example -- but since people still buy Intel it more or less means that "half" of the market can't run 64-bit optimised code (Itanic aside) ... Doesn't it?
The Guardian and the BBC website are also another couple chiefly British but also well-read resources I would probably personally sooner see the ad on than the NY Times (as I never read it online or off).
Not that New York is the only place on earth I'd want to advertise FireFox; I've been signing it from the mountaintops for months now and haven't looked back. Are there any further marketing plans by the Mozilla group to spread the good word? Aside: I'm a little disappointed in myself for not having remembered to contribute. Oops. Guess it's T-Shirt time ...
In Canada we call them 'Levies' and, in the same vein as the assumption that all storage media is presumed to be used for the storage and duplication of copyrighted music, it wouldn't surprise me to soon start paying an extra few cents on the gigabyte.
The practical upshoot is I'll proceed to pirate MS Software with impunity -- after all, I'm paying for the privelage whether I do or not, may as well get my money's worth.
I decided some time ago (obviously) it would be a waste of money to chuck hardware that still does its job reliably -- although this is admittedly an excercise in future preparedness for when something does eventually fail.
Anyway, I'm not particularly interested in upgrading the entire system for dual-role as a server and workstation because I don't want to run into stability issues (not that I'm certain I would, Linux obviously runs pretty solid -- but it remains a possiblity) -- and I'd be without a file server for a couple days while I rebuilt from stage 1, which seems like a pretty good idea if you want to take advantage of a modern 64-bit processor...
Would it not also be considerably more expensive hardware-wise to go with two completely separate PCs compared to one dual-processor system? I hadn't seen the MSRP for the IWill and admit the price is a little higher than I expected, so I obviously haven't sat down to tally and compare the numbers. The ongoing power costs might also differ significantly -- important, considering how high my power bill already is (I thought I read earlier in the year the IWill case's PS is only 350W?).
In any event, thanks for your feedback ... Guess it will be a long time yet before I'm able to switch to Desktop Linux after all.
I've been looking at this case for a good couple months now (before there were any pre-production versions available). The dual-processor aspect is definitely enticing; I'd like to run Gentoo on it with Windows installed on a virtual machine so I'm not up the creek when I need to use some Windows software.
What I have a harder time deciding is, do I want to go (dual) Opteron or (single) Athlon64. The market seems to favour the newer Athlon64s for desktop computers, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's what's right for me. If I wanted to use Opterons, this IWill case certainly presents the possibility attractively (tight package, quiet, etc.) but the price/performance/growth numbers are proving a little more difficult to get my head around.
Congratulations, all of your Solaris and Linux boxes have been infected with MyDoom.
... Seems like a precusor to, "And that's the way it actually happened," 20 years from now. Which do you think kids will associate with better -- the history book they didn't read, or getting to pillage and rape in a village in glorious 3D? :|
Of course, I actually did a lot of reading up on web standards a year or so ago (oh how the world has changed since 1996, when I last did anything of the sort) and started to design/code based on standards then made corrections for MSIE. I should have done long ago, but better late than never.
Our tools are nowhere near 100% converted yet but at least we're finally moving in the right direction, and then something like this comes along -- over and over again. It's making me wonder how much of a priority shift I might see in the coming months to move away from IE entirely.
Don't take my word for it -- we're not the only corporation who has design problems because their code/css is designed solely for MSIE.
I completely agree with that statement. I feel sorry for your friend, who presumably saw an opinion about Linux being more stable than Windows somewhere -- maybe even here on Slashdot -- and assumed this meant Linux runs the same applications as Windows which of course, it does not (except perhaps 20-30 applications which run near-perfectly under WINE or CXO, and of course whatever games Cedega now supports).
My point is still as strong as ever: What was the target audience of this article? It clearly wasn't written for your friend either, because they don't know what Cedega/WineX, Wine, or CXO are, and besides didn't do any reading or asking questions before they rashly installed what they thought would be the solution to all of their OS woes. This article wouldn't have helped them -- a more educated, cautious and planned approach to a major software migration is what was required here.
But the article isn't directed at them -- it seems, more than anything, to be directed at the proverbial dummy-who-just-switched. The snake is eating its own tail.
That said, am I stupid for thinking that most people aren't going to switch to Linux primarily to play Windows games?
Sure, it might be nice to be able to play some games once you've already jumped ship (and you're probably either knowledgeable in Linux already or willing to work at it to make things happen, as with quite a bit else you might have taken for granted in Windows), but I'd think that by that time you've done your research and made a commitment to switch, you aren't about to run crying back to mommy because that mean Linux beat you up and took your quarter to play at the arcade after school.
As Othium says, 'Hard tasks need hard ways'. Cedega may be a commercial and Linux may be coming of age, but I'm a little surprised at the (lacking) level of effort here for something as complex and demanding as running recently developed games tailored for a completely different operating system.
Perhaps I unreasonably expect a seasoned veteran with ten years of Linux experience plus twelve books and over one-hundred articles beneath her belt to be made of a little sterner stuff and perhaps a touch more resourceful -- but what does a rube like me know -- I just post on the internet.
The original poster isn't completely ignorant to the reality, I should think; his or her reason for implementing a RAID is clearly to reduce the chance of down-time and the bother of restoring a defunct volume from a (tape?) backup, and hopefully not to completely elimintate the need for backups entirely. Any hope of performance gain isn't mentioned, nor is any mention of volume size to suit a particular purpose.
That is to say, I see your ten and raise you fifteen: The original poster might have been better served had the discussion taken the opposite direction:
"What you're looking for is very probably not a RAID at all; you'd be better off investing in an external "backup" solution (where you are in fact automatically mirroring the drive contents on a regular schedule without actually creating an actual backup volume) or -- if the funds are there -- an rsync server (with or without the RAID 0) that accomplishes the same goal but with greater hardware independence and faster failover. Both would probably:
Do you figure Dredd2Kad is still reading the discussion? :P
I've survived without data or functionality loss through two (single) drive failures on the RAID 5 so I can attest that it does work for me -- but this isn't always the case. My mother had a RAID 1+0 set up where the motherboard failed and I had to read the blocks off the disks connected to an ATA controller using recovery software for the purpose (fortunately nothing was lost). I have since bitched at her to install a Firewire or USB 2.0 drive for the purpose of data backup and what do you know, she listened to me this time and runs it on a regular schedule.
Your solution highlights my conclusion after years of experience running my own file server -- the best defence is multiple, decentralised copies. I personally don't feel extra redundancy isn't worth the investment as it has saved my skin a couple of times when drives failed -- but as you say, it's not worth playing the odds with your data, and a RAID shouldn never be your last line of defence against data failure.
I use two external firewire backup drives (which together total close to the available size of my RAID 5 array; I split the data between them), but something completely separate like your rsync solution would be even better. My greatest challenges there would be the space and power requirements (I live in an apartment with electric heat/AC, so my energy bills are already quite painful). There is also the matter of existing investments with the external firewire drives.
Better still (in terms of data security) would be a removable or offsite backup solution, but these are currently beyond my means, and probably beyond the means of most home users. I only make a couple overnight copies a week (I don't tarball anything or use backup software) so as not to stress the hardware out. I don't know whether it makes any difference or not, but there you are.
Eventually I'd like to implement a solution like yours to a backup server located in a secure enclosure somewhere in my house -- that is, when I own a house to do it in.
Thanks for your suggestions!
The idea has merit though -- I'd like to be able to vote on "mini-referendums" regarding all kinds of issues so I'm not voting for "whoever's policies I disagree with the least," like you mention doing against Harper (and I'm behind you 100% on that tip).
It'd be nice to think that technology could make this possible in our future, but frankly I don't see it happening: Politicians clearly aim to wield more power, not give it up to the stupid voters; this somewhat socialistic/anachistic approach would be quick to draw negative criticism as the words themselves are generally though of as pejorative to failure, poverty, destruction, etc.
In the meanwhile, we're stuck making an X in the little white circle. At least Canada isn't eager to repeat Florida's mistake.
I'm part designer, part 3D artist by day, and at night (when I have any energy left) I "just draw" on the old Wacom tablet, usually.
What grabs me? Well, money is nice but frankly, I don't need it. What I'd like to contribute to is a project I see value in. Something that will let me learn the ropes of what it's like to work with other people through the OSS model, because I never have before; I've only ever been a corporate monkey where the dynamics are presumably quite different.
That said, there aren't many projects that have grabbed me by the collar and said, "WE NEED YOU TO HELP US MAKE IT LOOK GOOD." The only apps that I've ever considered helping out with were Inkscape which shows a lot of promise for a vector graphics drawing package -- but isn't looking for designers as their road map is mostly replete with "stuff needs to be reprogrammed"; and Freevo, which blatently advertises that they're looking for (skin) designers. I think I'll be helping design a few skins for Freevo, because they look like they really want it, and I love the package and want to give something back to that community.
Since your project isn't done yet, selling on the basis of "giving back" because people like your project is pretty unlikely. That doesn't mean you might not gain a little interest by publicising what it's all about, though. Worst-case scenario, it's really dull and the requests are few -- at least the people that do volunteer will be in for the long haul, whereas signing up sight-unseen might result in a few people abandoning ship early on.
Even when the levies were imposed some time ago on recordable media they went through without much more than a whisper, despite a good number of people protesting by writing their letters.
I doubt very much if there's going to be any serious discussion between the Liberals and Conservatives with respect to any kind of technology issues unless at least 80% of their prospective voters will understand it clearly or care enough to make a voting decision based on their position. Sure there are other parties that may have policies surrounding the issue -- but the grits seem to be neck and neck with the tories, and the other parties are barely given credit in the news as they are presumably expected to win no more than 7-10 seats between them.
I never claimed Canada was a haven of anonymity, safety, or displayed perfect domestic/foreign politics; nor did I offer to interpret Canadian (or American) law on that or any other matter, or go into diatribes regarding the annals Canadian history.
I made a short statement about my opinion of the current state of affairs south of the border because it's something I have to deal with on a daily basis, working as a contractor for an American firm, and having an American wife.
I state fact -- My wife feels more comfortable here than she did in the States. She is scared of returning in a country where citizen's rights are being waived/dissolved on a regular basis [insert image of all-male senators sporting shit-eating grins signing away Women's rights to govern their own bodies here], and government agencies are being given increasingly wide-ranging power. I wouldn't suggest that I'm not bound by similar laws (particularly this one, because I genuinely don't know), although I suspect Canadian and American interpretations vary; laws may appear similar on paper or in principle while differing greatly in implementation (for example, I don't recall the last time a drug dealing Canadian was accused of 'bioterrorism' in their own country).
My wife isn't the only one with misgivings for travel to the States -- I feel nervous when I cross the border too. I am frequently grilled by Customs officials when crossing the border, particularly when travelling by air (but have also had identity checks run while crossing by car, too). Many of my friends and colleagues feel the same way, and/or have had similar experiences to my own.
If you live in the States -- as so many of you evidently do -- and are satisfied with the changes happening there, then I strongly encourage you to stay there and let Canada sort out the problems I am already perfectly aware it already has.
Additionally, I apologise if I slammed your president for taking away imaginary civil liberties (such as the proposed "Except for homos" amendment); alternatively you can blame yourselves for electing him, or allowing him ascendancy despite not being elected, or ... whatever.
Conversely, those that are unhappy enough to want to leave (and there are evidently plenty of indivdiuals in this camp, because CIC is busier than ever) are, as ever, welcome to consider their alternatives and find somewhere else to live.