But a $50 copy of Suse or CorelLinux retail will not get you a Red Hat technician on site for all support to guarantee 24/7 avalability for an entire year.
My Samsung SCH-3500 has an up/down button on the side that cycles through ringers with the following options: "Loud, Medium, Low, Silent, Vibrate." No menus:)
There's an obvious problem with this: there is no central authority who has the power to hand these guys a cease-and-desist order or risk prosecution.
With MS and others, they have the power to actually tell those companies "take off our certified logo or we'll sue you." If someone indicates linux compatibility and the product doesn't quite work and you can't get support, there's no company or organization you can go to and say "look what they did! make them take it off!"
I think it would be very beneficial for linux in general if some of the large, more trusted names in Linux got together to organize a Linux Certification system. The whole linux name would gain some credibility if Red Hat, Corel, Mandrake, Suse, VA Linux, etc., formed something by which they would have the power to give and take "Linux Certified" stickers or something and give out "Linux Certified System Administrator" certifications.
This way, people might eventually recognize a little penguin means nothing, but the nice pretty logo branded with Red Hat and Debian logos actually means something. Those friends who are studying for their LCSA's are doing something useful and profitable too.
Until we get enough linux companies together to agree on such a certification system, it will remain totally out of our reach to make sure that companies who claim to "Support Linux" really do.
Because iTari has the simplest interface around-- one joystick (or paddle), two buttons.
Man, my 2600 didn't have two buttons.
Are they going to be releasing new "software applications" for the iTari? It could be great for marketing..check out the cool NEW games that come in the transparent orange and blueberry cases!
When the Mindcraft benchmarks came out, every Linux zealot screamed and cried that there were problems with the benchmark. They were right. Some sensible people pointed out something interesting I remember..
They said that when someone performs a benchmark in the future and it shows Linux outperforming Windows NT or 2000 by a sizeable margin, the Linux zealots will claim that THIS benchmark is the correct one and Mindcraft will be PROVEN wrong.
This post seems to me like exactly that behavior. Mindcraft doesn't tune Linux the right way and WinNT trounces it. Linux zealots scream bloody murder and inspect the process with a microscope. Someone else does a benchmark that shows Linux 3 times faster than Win 2k, and they are content that the Mindcraft fiasco has been avenged.
Take a look at yourselves. I'm not a Linux lover. I think it has a long long way to go before the mainstream starts to take it seriously. There are so many problems with it right now..installing programs, removing them, x windows interface complexity, simple text editors..the list goes on. Honestly, I don't think it will ever become mainstream - it will get replaced by something else that will before long.
I don't love Windows either. There are of course many problems with it. However, it's not the spawn of Satan and Linux is not the Great Hope or messiah.
Be objective, people. Please. You'll do your "cause" some good.
For the drug testing thing....you don't need microbots. There's already a company which deals in this sort of thing using chemicals. Check out this site.
I think it's kinda revolting and saddening, but they're not doing anything illegal it seems, so more power to them.
Everyone is forgetting that in 6-12 months, a PC that will be able to turn out the performance of the X-box will still be over $1000. Plus, you have to factor in the cost of a monitor.
No one will ever have a few friends over playing some action game on a 17" monitor hooked up to the computer. My friends and I have a blast playing the N64, where I just drag my controller and plug it in to the box, on a 20" TV. Plus there are few things nicer than playing Ridge Racer with my friend Carl on his 55" Hitachi.
Fact is, most PC games are single user (multiplayer through the net at best). The PC has never been a good platform for having a few people play at once - just look at how hard it is to hook up the controllers. Unless everyone happens to have an MS Sidewinder or some other controller that can be daisy chained, it's impossible. Even given that, its a pain to configure and set up to even start playing the game. Look at the N64: plug it in the TV, plug in however many controllers you want, hit power. THAT'S IT.
It doesn't matter if PC's are faster. My PC is sure as hell an order of magnitude faster than the Dreamcast, and it cost me about $1500 with a 19" monitor. Has that stopped the DC from selling? Hell no.
Read my other post: consoles are all about simplicity of hardware. People who buy and enjoy them usually want to just plug in and go. They don't want to have to read manuals and figure out how to get the damned controllers to even be recognized by the game, or tweak performance based on your current hardware. They want to plug into the TV and go.
Performance vs. PC is not an issue at all - they're totally different platforms that don't compete much. Performance vs. other consoles is what's important, and it seems like the X-box is going to kick the ass of whatever else is out there come launch time. This, MS' name, and massive developer support will make it a winner, provided they can release it on schedule at a decent price.
Consoles are popular and fun exactly BECAUSE they aren't upgradable. People want to go buy the newest racing sim, pop it in their living room game system, and be off and running. This doesn't happen if their are RAM/CPU upgrades possible.
If it were, games would have to have performance options....too slow on your system? Too bad, turn the texture detail a little lower or spend money to buy some more RAM. Well...should I turn down texture detail and give up a little prettiness or keep the lower frame rates? How far should I turn it down? What about color depth?
This is what PC's are for. Read the article - the guy waxes ecstatic about how great it is programming for a static system. The developers get comfortable with that exact system, and the games get prettier and faster as we go due to code optimization and getting the quirks right.
There is no way in hell the PS would be as popular and household as it is now if it were upgradable. People would have stopped buying games a long time ago if they had to purchase a new GPU or something to make them look as good as they can. Consoles are meant to be as simple as possible, like, say, a VCR. Pop your new cassette/cd/dvd and hit power. Boom, it starts up, runs perfectly. It's an entertainment box for the mass market.
What you're describing is a PC. Fine, use your PC for games, add your new shiny NVidia gpu's and compile your new kernels to your heart's content, and be happy. Not everyone wants that. The typical console buyer is looking for simplicity, not figuring out settings to make the newest game run decently on your specific set of hardware.
BTW, you might say something like "well program the settings to detect what you have and run accordingly." If you plan to use cheap aftermarket PC style upgrades, you can count that out. There's no way programmers could account for the millions of possible configurations, not to mention the impossibility of predicting future developments. And if they sell parts specifically for the consoles to keep them simple, the upgrades would cost astronomical amounts of money.
There's a reason consoles have never been upgradable. The Dreamcast does this to the max extent possible - choose your 'net connection. Maybe add a newer HD to your PS to keep more saved games or something, but never, never, never let the user upgrade the console in a fashion that will allow him/her to increase performance. This just creates massive problems for PR and developers.
They did an insane amount of user testing on the iMac, including its mouse. Apparently it was designed more for women and children-sized hands.
Have you ever seen a woman sit down with an MS Intellimouse and struggle, then see her grab the little hockey puck and just smile because can actually _use_ the damn thing? It's quite amazing. In my experience, big mice is one of the cheif complaints women have had about computers. The little puck is something I have universally seen women and children relish.
It's not ergonomic, but I am extremely fond of the Logitech FirstMouse+. It's a little smaller than an MS Intellimouse, but it's also a wee bit more slender, and I like the weel and click feedback more. It's nicely shaped and doesnt curve to the side like the MS mouse.
It's damned comfortable and perfectly symmetrical.
And of course the grey with a hint of purple is such a nice color:)
I currently run an Athlon I built myself a few months ago. I can't imagine building a new Intel system anytime soon, especially with the Duron's release.
Because we like AMD and support them doesn't mean their products are faster than all of Intel's.
1) THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE ATHLON. Apparently, according to the article, there is a problem with Gateway's MB or power supply. There is no indication of AMD's engineers warning against a damn thing. There is no indication that there is any problem whatsoever with the Athlon.
2) On what grounds is the AMD chip better than anything Intel has? Most of the benchmarks I've seen have the high-MHz P III's handily defeating the Athlon in just about everything, especially games like Q3A. How is the AMD good enough for an unqualified "superior" to anything Intel has?
I don't think so. At some point between the digital format on the computer and the sound that reaches your ear, some D/A conversion must take place, as a sound wave sure ain't digital.
The conversion has to take place before the speaker, because the speaker itself is a purely analog item (it moves air back and forth!) At the least, we can hook our sound in to the leads of our speakers and we're all set. How can you get around that?
I know you're more or less trolling for a laugh, but the speed of your personal net connection is totally irrelevant.
What the article is pointing out is that the total amount of traffic flowing over the web doubles every nine months. That means that if we assume everyone on the net has a 56k connection and will never have a faster one, there will be twice as many people, and hence twice the volume (assuming everyone surfs the same amount) over the internet backbones.
Rationalize your actions however you like. I'm not going to get into some grammar-flaming war with you (that would certainly be a first, no?), but I do feel the need to comment here. I may indeed have a sever inferiority complex which I place upon you, but that doesn't have anything to do with your actual grammar errors. If moderation breeds meta-moderation, cannot grammar trolling breed meta-grammar trolling? How can you claim to be "keeping/. grammar free for 3 years" when you are doing nothing to point out mistakes? I've noticed that a good number of the times you point out "mistakes," your corrections are as flawed as the original. Besides, how can anyone trust you for pointing out grammar mistakes when you know _no_ grammar yourself? I certainly do not want you proofing my papers.
I find little of interest on Slashdot, but it is quite an amusing place to hang around and read. Your posts are pretty funny and give me something to smile at on a pretty regular basis, so do not get me wrong. But...come on. "It's about an improved and grammatically pure Slashdot community." Where does this grammatical purity hide? I have yet to see it, and your posts are far (far, far, far) from grammatically pure.
Malda is a pretty cool guy - I talked to him pretty casually over a game of quake at the Boston Geek Pride Festival a couple of months back (the quake tournament which I should've won, but was defeated in the second to last round by a 13 year old we found in the crowd to set up our servers who cheated rather flagrantly). However, I'm not going to trust Rob with assigning us a grammar nazi:). Don't ever trust him to watch your back in Q III either; he's one of the worst players I've ever seen (at least he's honest and good spirited about it).
Hmm..this strayed quite a bit off-topic:).
You point out the mistakes other people make, and I'll point out yours. It's still a free Slashdot, no? If you really care about an "improved and gramatically pure Slashdot community," you wouldn't mind;)
BTW, my name is Jonathan Cousins. I live in New Orleans in the summer and spend the rest of my year at an engineering school in upstate New York. So, if you want to send the Grammar Youth after me, you know where to find me .
Slashdot Mirror
But a $50 copy of Suse or CorelLinux retail will not get you a Red Hat technician on site for all support to guarantee 24/7 avalability for an entire year.
LOL
:)
;)
Thank you for pointing out my abject stupidity
I honestly didn't even see the title of the article at all
Thanks for being a smart-ass
hehe...oh my :)
:)
i don't think i laughed that hard in so long..
*giggle*
it was perfectly timed too, i jsut got in a silly mood.
thanks man, hehe
geez
I assume you're trolling, but it's Rain Man.
My Samsung SCH-3500 has an up/down button on the side that cycles through ringers with the following options: "Loud, Medium, Low, Silent, Vibrate." :)
No menus
Lovely phone, btw
There's an obvious problem with this: there is no central authority who has the power to hand these guys a cease-and-desist order or risk prosecution.
With MS and others, they have the power to actually tell those companies "take off our certified logo or we'll sue you." If someone indicates linux compatibility and the product doesn't quite work and you can't get support, there's no company or organization you can go to and say "look what they did! make them take it off!"
I think it would be very beneficial for linux in general if some of the large, more trusted names in Linux got together to organize a Linux Certification system. The whole linux name would gain some credibility if Red Hat, Corel, Mandrake, Suse, VA Linux, etc., formed something by which they would have the power to give and take "Linux Certified" stickers or something and give out "Linux Certified System Administrator" certifications.
This way, people might eventually recognize a little penguin means nothing, but the nice pretty logo branded with Red Hat and Debian logos actually means something. Those friends who are studying for their LCSA's are doing something useful and profitable too.
Until we get enough linux companies together to agree on such a certification system, it will remain totally out of our reach to make sure that companies who claim to "Support Linux" really do.
Man, my 2600 didn't have two buttons.
Are they going to be releasing new "software applications" for the iTari? It could be great for marketing..check out the cool NEW games that come in the transparent orange and blueberry cases!
When the Mindcraft benchmarks came out, every Linux zealot screamed and cried that there were problems with the benchmark. They were right. Some sensible people pointed out something interesting I remember..
They said that when someone performs a benchmark in the future and it shows Linux outperforming Windows NT or 2000 by a sizeable margin, the Linux zealots will claim that THIS benchmark is the correct one and Mindcraft will be PROVEN wrong.
This post seems to me like exactly that behavior. Mindcraft doesn't tune Linux the right way and WinNT trounces it. Linux zealots scream bloody murder and inspect the process with a microscope. Someone else does a benchmark that shows Linux 3 times faster than Win 2k, and they are content that the Mindcraft fiasco has been avenged.
Take a look at yourselves. I'm not a Linux lover. I think it has a long long way to go before the mainstream starts to take it seriously. There are so many problems with it right now..installing programs, removing them, x windows interface complexity, simple text editors..the list goes on. Honestly, I don't think it will ever become mainstream - it will get replaced by something else that will before long.
I don't love Windows either. There are of course many problems with it. However, it's not the spawn of Satan and Linux is not the Great Hope or messiah.
Be objective, people. Please. You'll do your "cause" some good.
For the drug testing thing....you don't need microbots.
There's already a company which deals in this sort of thing using chemicals. Check out this site.
I think it's kinda revolting and saddening, but they're not doing anything illegal it seems, so more power to them.
Everyone is forgetting that in 6-12 months, a PC that will be able to turn out the performance of the X-box will still be over $1000. Plus, you have to factor in the cost of a monitor.
No one will ever have a few friends over playing some action game on a 17" monitor hooked up to the computer. My friends and I have a blast playing the N64, where I just drag my controller and plug it in to the box, on a 20" TV. Plus there are few things nicer than playing Ridge Racer with my friend Carl on his 55" Hitachi.
Fact is, most PC games are single user (multiplayer through the net at best). The PC has never been a good platform for having a few people play at once - just look at how hard it is to hook up the controllers. Unless everyone happens to have an MS Sidewinder or some other controller that can be daisy chained, it's impossible. Even given that, its a pain to configure and set up to even start playing the game. Look at the N64: plug it in the TV, plug in however many controllers you want, hit power. THAT'S IT.
It doesn't matter if PC's are faster. My PC is sure as hell an order of magnitude faster than the Dreamcast, and it cost me about $1500 with a 19" monitor. Has that stopped the DC from selling? Hell no.
Read my other post: consoles are all about simplicity of hardware. People who buy and enjoy them usually want to just plug in and go. They don't want to have to read manuals and figure out how to get the damned controllers to even be recognized by the game, or tweak performance based on your current hardware. They want to plug into the TV and go.
Performance vs. PC is not an issue at all - they're totally different platforms that don't compete much. Performance vs. other consoles is what's important, and it seems like the X-box is going to kick the ass of whatever else is out there come launch time. This, MS' name, and massive developer support will make it a winner, provided they can release it on schedule at a decent price.
Consoles are popular and fun exactly BECAUSE they aren't upgradable. People want to go buy the newest racing sim, pop it in their living room game system, and be off and running. This doesn't happen if their are RAM/CPU upgrades possible.
If it were, games would have to have performance options....too slow on your system? Too bad, turn the texture detail a little lower or spend money to buy some more RAM. Well...should I turn down texture detail and give up a little prettiness or keep the lower frame rates? How far should I turn it down? What about color depth?
This is what PC's are for. Read the article - the guy waxes ecstatic about how great it is programming for a static system. The developers get comfortable with that exact system, and the games get prettier and faster as we go due to code optimization and getting the quirks right.
There is no way in hell the PS would be as popular and household as it is now if it were upgradable. People would have stopped buying games a long time ago if they had to purchase a new GPU or something to make them look as good as they can. Consoles are meant to be as simple as possible, like, say, a VCR. Pop your new cassette/cd/dvd and hit power. Boom, it starts up, runs perfectly. It's an entertainment box for the mass market.
What you're describing is a PC. Fine, use your PC for games, add your new shiny NVidia gpu's and compile your new kernels to your heart's content, and be happy. Not everyone wants that. The typical console buyer is looking for simplicity, not figuring out settings to make the newest game run decently on your specific set of hardware.
BTW, you might say something like "well program the settings to detect what you have and run accordingly." If you plan to use cheap aftermarket PC style upgrades, you can count that out. There's no way programmers could account for the millions of possible configurations, not to mention the impossibility of predicting future developments. And if they sell parts specifically for the consoles to keep them simple, the upgrades would cost astronomical amounts of money.
There's a reason consoles have never been upgradable. The Dreamcast does this to the max extent possible - choose your 'net connection. Maybe add a newer HD to your PS to keep more saved games or something, but never, never, never let the user upgrade the console in a fashion that will allow him/her to increase performance. This just creates massive problems for PR and developers.
They did an insane amount of user testing on the iMac, including its mouse. Apparently it was designed more for women and children-sized hands.
Have you ever seen a woman sit down with an MS Intellimouse and struggle, then see her grab the little hockey puck and just smile because can actually _use_ the damn thing? It's quite amazing. In my experience, big mice is one of the cheif complaints women have had about computers. The little puck is something I have universally seen women and children relish.
It's not ergonomic, but I am extremely fond of the Logitech FirstMouse+. It's a little smaller than an MS Intellimouse, but it's also a wee bit more slender, and I like the weel and click feedback more. It's nicely shaped and doesnt curve to the side like the MS mouse.
:)
It's damned comfortable and perfectly symmetrical.
And of course the grey with a hint of purple is such a nice color
lol
:)
;)
oh my god
hehehehe
I haven't laughed so hard in weeks
I think I split something
heh
good day
Copy: ctrl+c Cut: ctrl+x Paste: ctrl+v I always liked those :)
Speaking of qualifiers, here's one :)
I currently run an Athlon I built myself a few months ago. I can't imagine building a new Intel system anytime soon, especially with the Duron's release.
Because we like AMD and support them doesn't mean their products are faster than all of Intel's.
Two things:
1) THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE ATHLON. Apparently, according to the article, there is a problem with Gateway's MB or power supply. There is no indication of AMD's engineers warning against a damn thing. There is no indication that there is any problem whatsoever with the Athlon.
2) On what grounds is the AMD chip better than anything Intel has? Most of the benchmarks I've seen have the high-MHz P III's handily defeating the Athlon in just about everything, especially games like Q3A. How is the AMD good enough for an unqualified "superior" to anything Intel has?
I don't think so. At some point between the digital format on the computer and the sound that reaches your ear, some D/A conversion must take place, as a sound wave sure ain't digital.
The conversion has to take place before the speaker, because the speaker itself is a purely analog item (it moves air back and forth!) At the least, we can hook our sound in to the leads of our speakers and we're all set. How can you get around that?
"unrippable media"?? That's like saying "unbreakable plastic" or something. Give us an example of an unrippable media. Please.
My SB Live! MP3+ has an option for recording called "What U Hear" that does this :)
A couple things. What's the story here? Maybe I'm oblivious, but I failed to understand what was going on from the two links you posted.
Secondly, "Mr. Malda" does not equal "Andover.net," so be careful to whom you're addressing your questions.
Did you read anything? Next Generation Amiga OS is backwardly and maybe forwardly compatible with Amiga "classic."
That's pretty cool if you ask me, and it definitely indicates some similarity
I know you're more or less trolling for a laugh, but the speed of your personal net connection is totally irrelevant.
What the article is pointing out is that the total amount of traffic flowing over the web doubles every nine months. That means that if we assume everyone on the net has a 56k connection and will never have a faster one, there will be twice as many people, and hence twice the volume (assuming everyone surfs the same amount) over the internet backbones.
toucheé ;)
Rationalize your actions however you like. I'm not going to get into some grammar-flaming war with you (that would certainly be a first, no?), but I do feel the need to comment here. I may indeed have a sever inferiority complex which I place upon you, but that doesn't have anything to do with your actual grammar errors. If moderation breeds meta-moderation, cannot grammar trolling breed meta-grammar trolling? How can you claim to be "keeping /. grammar free for 3 years" when you are doing nothing to point out mistakes? I've noticed that a good number of the times you point out "mistakes," your corrections are as flawed as the original. Besides, how can anyone trust you for pointing out grammar mistakes when you know _no_ grammar yourself? I certainly do not want you proofing my papers.
:). Don't ever trust him to watch your back in Q III either; he's one of the worst players I've ever seen (at least he's honest and good spirited about it).
:).
;)
I find little of interest on Slashdot, but it is quite an amusing place to hang around and read. Your posts are pretty funny and give me something to smile at on a pretty regular basis, so do not get me wrong. But...come on. "It's about an improved and grammatically pure Slashdot community." Where does this grammatical purity hide? I have yet to see it, and your posts are far (far, far, far) from grammatically pure.
Malda is a pretty cool guy - I talked to him pretty casually over a game of quake at the Boston Geek Pride Festival a couple of months back (the quake tournament which I should've won, but was defeated in the second to last round by a 13 year old we found in the crowd to set up our servers who cheated rather flagrantly). However, I'm not going to trust Rob with assigning us a grammar nazi
Hmm..this strayed quite a bit off-topic
You point out the mistakes other people make, and I'll point out yours. It's still a free Slashdot, no? If you really care about an "improved and gramatically pure Slashdot community," you wouldn't mind
BTW, my name is Jonathan Cousins. I live in New Orleans in the summer and spend the rest of my year at an engineering school in upstate New York. So, if you want to send the Grammar Youth after me, you know where to find me .