> Why does the HTML5 spec care what codecs are used?
You somehow missed the whole discussion, didnt you? If a spec shouldnt care in what way content is encoded it is trying to show, what _should_ it actually care about?
Provide means to play and interact with the content? How is this any different from the IMG tag and multiple image formats? The only difference here is that video a degree of interaction a fixed image does not have (controls, position slider, etc).
Why does the standart limits to one video format is completely beyond me. Even more, this effectively ties the video format to the web standart... which means that if tomorrow someone comes with a much better video codec (think DVD MPEG2 vs HiDef H.264) we're stuck with the old one until the next HTML revision.
Oh wait hang on... does this mean that for complex applications the most important performance piece is normally actually the efficiency of the code rather than the efficiency of the base platform...
Yes....and therefore having a language in which it is easier to write efficient code is better than just having the one that is fastest to execute a for loop?
Mod parent up. This is my usual gripe with Sony products - top notch hardware, crap functionality. I've been burned so many times that nowadays i steer clear of anything Sony, even if it looks good on the surface. I've had Sony cellphones, Minidiscs, MP3 players, audio equipment and TVs and i always managed to screw me over with some simple thing that wasn't available for no apparent reason.
It was - someone already mentioned Pinouts.ru, for example. Still, it's a more than welcome adition. Searching for pinouts can be very frustrating sometimes, specially for discontinued hardware/parts.
Great point. Even more - the C64 binaries are executed in a virtual machine. This is not a modern VM, it's emulating a C64, what possible impact could it have on the rest of the iPhone apps? In that sense, a C64 emulator running binaries is way more secure than a browser running Javascript.
Seriously. I hear that argument with OSS games every time - "yeah, it might be fun", but it looks like crap". Now we have a relatively good looking game, and we get this. It's a fairly classic multiplayer FPS - if you liked Quake 3 or the UT series, you'll be enjoying it.
I find it funny no one seems to apply this argument to most commercial games lately. Most of them look glorious but are shit to play.
Kindergarten Cop was shit, but it gets partial credit for perhaps one of the best one-liners Arnie ever delivered. In the history of ever:
[Kimble knocks out two gang members with ease, then turns to two others standing by his car] Detective John Kimble: Oh, excuse me. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is John Kimble... [racks shotgun] Detective John Kimble: And I love my car! Street Tough #3: Yo, man, I'm just gonna keep a eye on it for you, all right? Street Tough #4: You got a beautiful ride. [as soon as Kimble is out of hearing range] Street Tough #3: Shit. Who he think he is? He's lucky I didn't kick his ass.
In all fairness, BioShock is to System Shock what Deus Ex 2 is to Deus Ex. It's ok, looks spiffy, but after the novelity wears off it's just another FPS with amazing presentation but shallow story and gameplay.
A key system that does phone home--but does the validation on the user side. If the key's not legitimate, i.e. a keygen result, it won't be in the server database, though the game still unlocks. It doesn't change the game at all, but instead displays a message that more or less says only "I know this key isn't legitimate, but I'm going to let you play the game anyway."
Some old Shareware games did this back in the 80s-90s, though i wouldn't know with what degree of success.
Incandescent bulbs are still very useful, if only because they still have advantages over their current low-cost replacement (fluorescent bulbs) - instant turn-on, stable color rendition, operation at very high or very low temperatures and unity power factor. Never mind the toxcity and disposal issues with CFBs. LEDs address most of these points though.
Incandescent may be loosing its relevance, but banning them altogether is stupid IMHO.
Fact: When someone says "I don't want to hear about [a gay person's] sexual orientation" what they are really saying is "Stop breaking my comfortable assumption that everyone is straight".
No, in my case it's a clear "i don't give a flying fuck about your sexual orientation". Replace "sexual orientation" with "favourite band", "religion" or "political views" if you want while we're at it.
Spending millions on a "star" personality marketing them to everyone and their dog seems to be the only way they expect to make money, while history shows that its the small-time surprise artists that make the enduring impact on the industry?
Sadly, it has never been about enduring impacts or quality of music. They create personalities because they're profitable during their lifespan.
For whatever is worth, the 1911 design is still very popular and has been copied by a gazillon gunmakers since its introduction; so is the.45ACP round, which is particularly popular in the US.
Oh, come on. The motto says it all... this was neiter news for nerds nor stuff that matters (TM), unlike the Chinese earthquake story. The fact that the story doesn't pertain our interests is irrelevant; it doesn't pertain to the site. I like mixed martial arts, could we have a story on/. every time a UFC event takes place?
This reminds me of that frontpage story about the ending of The Sopranos. Interesting? Maybe. But why was it ever posted here is beyond me...
On a semi related note, I once was told that on some very early Commodore models (with embedded display), you could control the CRT drawing hardware pretty much directly - which means you could reduce the electron beam to a single pixel and scan the whole display with it. Presto! Burnt display!
I always took that anecdote with a grain of salt, but could anyone confirm (or deny) this? A web search turned up with pretty much nothing...
I won't be popular, but it's still true. The whole idea of a cheap, low power, code morphing, software-upgradeable x86 CPU sounded great on paper... until actual benchmarks that it performed rather poorly, with marginal power consumption improvement.
Another spectacular failure, IMHO, was the transputer - an amazing concept, specially for its time.
The way i see it, nVidia has become aware that the GPU market (as we know it today) is going the way of the dodo, just like it happened with the soundcard market - we're reaching a point where onboard offerings are more than enough for 99% of the users, and i'm talking about low cost solutions from the likes of VIA and Intel. I've recently built myself a system using the AMD 680 chipset (budget line), and it surprised me how well the onboard GPU handled modern games. If you're not a hardcore gamer nor need a specialized GPU for working you'll do just fine.
If nVidia wants to stay competitive as a company, they have to diversify - developing x86 CPUs was a logical step. Still, we're talking about a VERY competitive market, where newcomers so far have failed become a viable alternative to AMD or Intel outside niche applications (low power CPUs, for example). What they need is a well performing x86 CPU, perhaps with an integrated GPU - something that can bite in the mid-range segment.
Funny thing is, on every single game i've tried available both on Linux and Windows, the Linux version always ran much smoother.
I recall once showing a friend of mine how fast UT2004 loaded new levels and he was floored. Doom 3 did the same thing for example, and the framerate was also higher to boot.
> Why does the HTML5 spec care what codecs are used?
You somehow missed the whole discussion, didnt you? If a spec shouldnt care in what way content is encoded it is trying to show, what _should_ it actually care about?
Provide means to play and interact with the content? How is this any different from the IMG tag and multiple image formats? The only difference here is that video a degree of interaction a fixed image does not have (controls, position slider, etc).
Why does the standart limits to one video format is completely beyond me. Even more, this effectively ties the video format to the web standart... which means that if tomorrow someone comes with a much better video codec (think DVD MPEG2 vs HiDef H.264) we're stuck with the old one until the next HTML revision.
Oh wait hang on... does this mean that for complex applications the most important performance piece is normally actually the efficiency of the code rather than the efficiency of the base platform...
Yes. ...and therefore having a language in which it is easier to write efficient code is better than just having the one that is fastest to execute a for loop?
No.
Infidel. Turn your geek badge on the way out.
Fuck it. Fuck it up their stupid asses!
Sorry. Got carried away.
Mod parent up. This is my usual gripe with Sony products - top notch hardware, crap functionality. I've been burned so many times that nowadays i steer clear of anything Sony, even if it looks good on the surface. I've had Sony cellphones, Minidiscs, MP3 players, audio equipment and TVs and i always managed to screw me over with some simple thing that wasn't available for no apparent reason.
It was - someone already mentioned Pinouts.ru, for example. Still, it's a more than welcome adition. Searching for pinouts can be very frustrating sometimes, specially for discontinued hardware/parts.
Great point. Even more - the C64 binaries are executed in a virtual machine. This is not a modern VM, it's emulating a C64, what possible impact could it have on the rest of the iPhone apps? In that sense, a C64 emulator running binaries is way more secure than a browser running Javascript.
Seriously. I hear that argument with OSS games every time - "yeah, it might be fun", but it looks like crap". Now we have a relatively good looking game, and we get this. It's a fairly classic multiplayer FPS - if you liked Quake 3 or the UT series, you'll be enjoying it.
I find it funny no one seems to apply this argument to most commercial games lately. Most of them look glorious but are shit to play.
Had beautiful graphics and ran on a 386sx with a 128 MB VGA card and a 2D GPU.
As beautiful as any prerendered game back in the day.
Great post - very well presented points!
Kindergarten Cop was shit, but it gets partial credit for perhaps one of the best one-liners Arnie ever delivered. In the history of ever:
[Kimble knocks out two gang members with ease, then turns to two others standing by his car]
Detective John Kimble: Oh, excuse me. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is John Kimble...
[racks shotgun]
Detective John Kimble: And I love my car!
Street Tough #3: Yo, man, I'm just gonna keep a eye on it for you, all right?
Street Tough #4: You got a beautiful ride.
[as soon as Kimble is out of hearing range]
Street Tough #3: Shit. Who he think he is? He's lucky I didn't kick his ass.
In all fairness, BioShock is to System Shock what Deus Ex 2 is to Deus Ex. It's ok, looks spiffy, but after the novelity wears off it's just another FPS with amazing presentation but shallow story and gameplay.
A key system that does phone home--but does the validation on the user side. If the key's not legitimate, i.e. a keygen result, it won't be in the server database, though the game still unlocks. It doesn't change the game at all, but instead displays a message that more or less says only "I know this key isn't legitimate, but I'm going to let you play the game anyway."
Some old Shareware games did this back in the 80s-90s, though i wouldn't know with what degree of success.
Can you name these "many applications"?
Incandescent bulbs are still very useful, if only because they still have advantages over their current low-cost replacement (fluorescent bulbs) - instant turn-on, stable color rendition, operation at very high or very low temperatures and unity power factor. Never mind the toxcity and disposal issues with CFBs. LEDs address most of these points though.
Incandescent may be loosing its relevance, but banning them altogether is stupid IMHO.
Mod parent up. Really places things in perspective.
Fact: When someone says "I don't want to hear about [a gay person's] sexual orientation" what they are really saying is "Stop breaking my comfortable assumption that everyone is straight".
No, in my case it's a clear "i don't give a flying fuck about your sexual orientation". Replace "sexual orientation" with "favourite band", "religion" or "political views" if you want while we're at it.
Why does this man hate blind people?
Because he loves money, you silly!
Spending millions on a "star" personality marketing them to everyone and their dog seems to be the only way they expect to make money, while history shows that its the small-time surprise artists that make the enduring impact on the industry?
Sadly, it has never been about enduring impacts or quality of music. They create personalities because they're profitable during their lifespan.
For whatever is worth, the 1911 design is still very popular and has been copied by a gazillon gunmakers since its introduction; so is the .45ACP round, which is particularly popular in the US.
Oh, come on. The motto says it all... this was neiter news for nerds nor stuff that matters (TM), unlike the Chinese earthquake story. The fact that the story doesn't pertain our interests is irrelevant; it doesn't pertain to the site. I like mixed martial arts, could we have a story on /. every time a UFC event takes place?
This reminds me of that frontpage story about the ending of The Sopranos. Interesting? Maybe. But why was it ever posted here is beyond me...
On a semi related note, I once was told that on some very early Commodore models (with embedded display), you could control the CRT drawing hardware pretty much directly - which means you could reduce the electron beam to a single pixel and scan the whole display with it. Presto! Burnt display!
I always took that anecdote with a grain of salt, but could anyone confirm (or deny) this? A web search turned up with pretty much nothing...
I won't be popular, but it's still true. The whole idea of a cheap, low power, code morphing, software-upgradeable x86 CPU sounded great on paper... until actual benchmarks that it performed rather poorly, with marginal power consumption improvement.
Another spectacular failure, IMHO, was the transputer - an amazing concept, specially for its time.
Sure it can using WINE, most games run at the same speed under wine.
WINE only runs on x86 and x64 architectures.
The way i see it, nVidia has become aware that the GPU market (as we know it today) is going the way of the dodo, just like it happened with the soundcard market - we're reaching a point where onboard offerings are more than enough for 99% of the users, and i'm talking about low cost solutions from the likes of VIA and Intel. I've recently built myself a system using the AMD 680 chipset (budget line), and it surprised me how well the onboard GPU handled modern games. If you're not a hardcore gamer nor need a specialized GPU for working you'll do just fine.
If nVidia wants to stay competitive as a company, they have to diversify - developing x86 CPUs was a logical step. Still, we're talking about a VERY competitive market, where newcomers so far have failed become a viable alternative to AMD or Intel outside niche applications (low power CPUs, for example). What they need is a well performing x86 CPU, perhaps with an integrated GPU - something that can bite in the mid-range segment.
Funny thing is, on every single game i've tried available both on Linux and Windows, the Linux version always ran much smoother.
I recall once showing a friend of mine how fast UT2004 loaded new levels and he was floored. Doom 3 did the same thing for example, and the framerate was also higher to boot.