Do you know how much it costs to REWRITE GAMES to work properly and efficiently on 8 cores?
Those rewritten games will also run terribly on machines that have less than 8 cores (unless there's a separately programmed path for dual cores, and quad cores, and single cores)... so ignore the thousands of gamers with dual core systems that make up the majority of your enthusiast customer base and spend lots of money satisfying the 100 rich dudes that will buy the SkullTrail for gaming that really don't care as much about performance, than about bragging about what they bought.
Since one of the typical users the SkullTrail platform is aimed at is an ULTRA-High End Gamer, why not benchmark the machine against current games?
If no games can utilize the extra cores, then that should be presented.
Too bad LED lighting based DLP's don't use colour wheels anymore... BTW this product uses LED lighting. They use banks of different coloured LED's that flash on and off at the specified intervals, so the response time is no longer limited by colour wheel spinning speeds.
No PVR on the 360, eh? Maybe not a cablecard one, but software support for Microsoft's IPTV backend used by AT&T U-Verse in the United States.... that's old news.
Too bad Gates already announced IPTV support for the 360 at last year's CES and specifically mentioned PVR support.
http://telephonyonline.com/iptv/news/Microsoft_CES_IPTV_010707/
Congrats to slashdot for displaying a headline that's suitable for an announcement from CES 2007
Only if you can tell me what the best cellular phone is for my use: Apple's iPhone, LG's Prada II, and if not those two, then what?;-)
The only answer that is correct and is deserving of such an open ended question is:
"Whatever fulfills YOUR needs and wants, whatever they are since you didn't list any."
There are no details supplied in the question to even begin to gauge the intended use to give a proper answer without ASSUMING EVERYTHING. There's absolutely no guidance other than Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader, or other... Or OTHER!?! that *really* narrows it down.
What are some of the requirements of the user?
Does it need to be: Useable in Direct Sunlight: yes / no?
Display a miniminum amount of text per page, for example, no less than a paperback novel with the same text size?
DRM eBooks: okay / not okay?
If DRM eBooks are okay, is idiot proof purchase of DRM eBooks: needed / not needed?
Proprietary OS: okay / not okay?
Is Required Linking to a Computer to Transfer eBooks over to the device: acceptable / not acceptable?
If acceptable, what type of computers does it need to work with?
Is Required Linking to a Computer to BUY eBooks: acceptable / not acceptable?
Minimum Time Between Recharges?
Does the device need the capability to use commonly available batteries? yes/no
Portability? Does it have to smaller/lighter than a certain requirement?
Ruggedness? Does it have to splash proof/water proof? Does it need to survive being tossed in a backpack?
Price Range? For Hardware:, for subscriptions?, for ebooks?
eBook Formats Required to be supported?
Any existing eBooks needed to be transferred?
Does the eBook reader need to be able to:
Browse the web? yes / no
Play MP3's yes / no
Play Ogg's yes / no
Allow you to phone your friends and family yes/no ... ad nauseum
It's like asking the following:
What's the best OS? Mac OS or Windows Vista or any other? But I won't tell you what I intend to use the computer for, how much I'd like to spend, or what computer it needs to run on.
What's the best Car? Honda Civic, BMW 335i, or any other? But I won't tell you if I can drive a stick shift or not, or what I intend to do/haul with the car, or what fuel economy rating is necessary.
There's just not enough information in the question to give a valid answer without more clarification from the person asking the question. One can only guess as what the limitations of the intended user may be.
As a gEEk with a healthy respect for MIT, I was utterly disappointed at the crappy quality of the "Star" LED device.
Is this the level of gEEkitude that one can expect from the uber gEEks at MIT these days? I was not surprised at all by the fact that an MIT gEEk has the street smarts of a "mentally challeged" person, but how can one also have the wiring skills of a "mentally challenged" person as well?
Come on, any gEEk worthy of MIT would have at least etched a custom circuit board and soldered the components.
Sheesh, the wiring on the breadboard wasn't even routed at 90 degree angles.:-O Un-frickin-believable.
Funny, that's what I thought when they I heard that the shuttle Columbia had been "lost" during re-entry. The historical significance of the "original" Luke-skywalker lightsaber pales in comparison.
Are you aware that the Tabular data that the dailytech article references that was "quietly" updated were for "Figure D: Annual Mean Temperature Change in the United States"? Note the word "CHANGE".
Which means that the difference in average temperatures in 1934 and the previous year was more than any other year on record, NOT that 1934 was the hottest year on average.
The article is incorrect in interpreting the data in the table. Yes, Figure D was updated, but that figure doesn't say anything about the absolute hottest average temperature... that would be Figure A... and the tabular data behind that figure http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A.txt did not have its data updated and still indicates that 2005 is the hottest year on record.
You think there'd be a more humane way of killing any animal than to insert (i.e. shoot) a bomb inside its body. Yeah, like shooting a couple of dozen of non-explosive harpoons into it and waiting a couple of days while it slowly bleeds to death.;-)
Honestly, if you're going to kill something, it should be as quick and painless as possible... when the explosive harpoon works the way it was meant to, it instantly kills the whale and reduces its suffering.
Of course it would definitely be more humane NOT to kill the animal in the first place.
Microsoft do XBox 360, Sony do PS3, XBox 360 hasn't gone for either HD-DVD or Blu-ray. If HD-DVD was so real why didn't they pick it for XBox 360?
Well, you are right that Microsoft has not "officially" committed to putting an HD-DVD into an Xbox360, but Bill Gates said on 06-28-05 at joint event with Toshiba in Tokyo "The initial shipments of Xbox360 will be based on today's DVD format," and "We are looking at whether future versions of Xbox 360 will incorporate an additional capability of an HD DVD player or something else." (from gamesindustry.biz) and at the same event, Kevin Eagan, general manager of Microsoft's OEM division said "Our partnership really doesn't represent Microsoft endorsing one format or another" (from ecommercetimes.com).
Then on 09-26-2005 Microsoft releases a press release entitled "Microsoft and Intel Back HD DVD as Next-Generation High-Definition DVD Format of Choice". Do hint at which type of drive may be going into a future version of the Xbox360.
So there are still no firm statements that a future version Xbox360 *will* have an HD-DVD capable drive in it, but the smart money is that of the two formats, HD-DVD has a higher probability of being in a future version of the Xbox360. But knowing how Microsoft can flip-flop on decisions (remember how Bill Gates once said that the MSN was the way to go, not the Internet... then later he launches the.net blitz.) I won't bet the farm on it.;-)
Why I Started:
1. I was forced to learn EMACS as the *only* text editor for CPSC200 by a Nazi like professor and his TA henchmen eons ago.
1a. I was a unix newbie, so when told to use emacs and told nothing about vi... guess which one I'll use. Anyways when one is clueless [ESC]:q! is as incomprehensible as [CTRL]x-c. (Anyways cursor movement without using cursor keys sucked with both vi and emacs: the vi "hjkl" movement keys that worked only in certain modes vs. emacs' mnemonic [CTRL]bnpf movement keys... thank {place a deity here, or "DEC" you're athiest or an uber gEEk} for creating VT100 terminals and with it the defacto standard for cursor keycodes, and full screen cursor placement.)
2. I actually used Wordstar before learning emacs, so incomprehensible control key commands were nothing new.
Why I Continued to Use EMACS after CPSC 200 while in University:
1. Unix boxes actually had a control button in a place that made control commands almost ergonomic.
2. One only has so much time to learn other editors when one's busy trying to avoid studying by playing/tweaking MUD's, xtrek, xtank, compiling and trying out beta versions of NCSA Mosaic.
Why I Still Use Emacs Today in an Embedded Development Environment Hosted Off MS Windoze:
1. Same reason I use Linux, Firefox, etc:
It's Open Source software so there are alot of gEEks smarter and have more spare time than me developing plugins, extensions, Emacs major modes, etc, etc, so as a result
a) I have access to extensions that would take me forever to write myself, that's assuming I could even come close to implementing such feats of software prowess even if given an infinite number of monkeys to work with,
b) I have the source code for the tool and the extensions, so I can modify and reconfigure them as I like if they don't exactly fit my needs,
c) I don't have to beg to get some purchase order from the accountants to avoid getting the company into trouble with lawsuits for using *my* favourite commercial editor and conversely can use the same editor at home.
2. I have the evolved my.emacs configuration from my university days and have transmuted from apollo Domain to SunOS to HP/UX to VMS and finally to Windoze XP with linux slotted in there for home use.
3. It's entertaining watching your coworkers get all pissed off when trying to cut and paste on your Windoze computer because you've swapped the key mapping for CAPS LOCK and CTRL on the Windoze Keyboard and didn't bother to relabel the keys. Note it can get dangerous if your coworkers are near the end of their ropes because everybody's been working way too many hours to meet some artificial deadline that management has decreed upon the peons.
4. Last but not least, Has anybody mentioned the easy macro programming? Without learning a line of lisp, one can create complex macros... and by just learning a smattering of lisp, make macros that will amaze your co-workers (except the unix gods that use only "ed" because they believe that "vi" is not light weight enough, let alone an editor that includes a lisp interpreter and many megabytes of elisp scripts... anyways who needs to see more than one line of text at a time.)
5. Anyways it's gEEky to use Gnu Emacs ([flame suit on] not XEmacs, only weirdo's use that [flame suit off]). What other reason does a nerd need to do anything?
Like no MS Windows Thread can exist without somebody saying Linux or Mac OS is better.
Or a graphics card thread without the ATI and NVIDIA "psycophants" duking it out. Or x86 cpu threads without the AMD and Intel camps beating each other out.
The moral to this story is when you talk religion you always get burned.
What I *am* saying is that it is at least marginally surprising or at the very least deliciously ironic that Microsoft is using Apple computers at the premier electronic entertainment expo of the year to demonstrate its multi-billion dollar new console less than 2 quarters from ship. And no, these days, R&D and manufacturing isn't *that* "just-in-time". It's pretty startling, actually, that they don't have a shitload of final or near-final test Xbox 360s, and that they're still doing everything with Power Macs.
You've contradicted yourself already. *If* Microsoft's schedule for the Xbox360 weren't *that* "just-in-time" they would have had plenty of pre-production protypes available for E3, but alas, only ATI had a working prototype (not even running at full speed.) But they didn't, so I guess MS's "just-in-time" schedule is *that* agressive. Don't you think that Microsoft would have run the demos on working XBOX360 prototypes with the three processors and the custom ATI GPU if they had unbuggy versions?
Microsoft may be heartless, but they're not moronic.
See Extremetech's Interview with XBOX360's VP, Todd Holmdahl (He's responsible for all the hardware development, hardware and semiconductor teams, manufacturing, and test teams.) http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1817022,00.asp for more details about how the demos on the Alpha dev kits (the Macs) are running at approx half speed compared the proposed actual hardware. Page 6 has the details.
Anyways, have you considered that one reason that MS could not use x86 Intel and x86 AMD cores (regardless of their technical weaknesses/strengths) is because MS couldn't get the rights use Intel's modern X86 architecture as the core of their own CPU? Remember the *big* thing for MS this go around was that it *owned* the design for the GPU and the CPU as opposed to contracting NVidia and Intel to supply those chips in the original XBOX. IBM is willing to supply leading edge PowerPC cores to anybody who wants to integrate them into their custom CPU designs; Intel will not supply their leading edge cores for integration into custom CPUs.
I've got to say that I do find it slightly amusing that MS was running demo's on G5 PowerMac HW at E3, but it doesn't necessarily have any correlation with the superiority of the Apple Hardware over the Intel X86 architecture that Microsoft's Bread and Butter software runs on.
Remember we're talking about HD channels, (which is after all the subject of DirecTV's press release this article is based on) satellite holds no advantage over OTA or cable since all HD signals are digital.
Come Jan 1, 2007 (curiously enough approx. the same time DirecTV has scheduled the availibiliy of all of its channels), the OTA Analog shut off date, it won't make a difference if it's OTA or satellite, it will all be digital.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you know how much it costs to REWRITE GAMES to work properly and efficiently on 8 cores? Those rewritten games will also run terribly on machines that have less than 8 cores (unless there's a separately programmed path for dual cores, and quad cores, and single cores)... so ignore the thousands of gamers with dual core systems that make up the majority of your enthusiast customer base and spend lots of money satisfying the 100 rich dudes that will buy the SkullTrail for gaming that really don't care as much about performance, than about bragging about what they bought. Since one of the typical users the SkullTrail platform is aimed at is an ULTRA-High End Gamer, why not benchmark the machine against current games? If no games can utilize the extra cores, then that should be presented.
Too bad LED lighting based DLP's don't use colour wheels anymore... BTW this product uses LED lighting. They use banks of different coloured LED's that flash on and off at the specified intervals, so the response time is no longer limited by colour wheel spinning speeds.
No PVR on the 360, eh? Maybe not a cablecard one, but software support for Microsoft's IPTV backend used by AT&T U-Verse in the United States.... that's old news. Too bad Gates already announced IPTV support for the 360 at last year's CES and specifically mentioned PVR support. http://telephonyonline.com/iptv/news/Microsoft_CES_IPTV_010707/ Congrats to slashdot for displaying a headline that's suitable for an announcement from CES 2007
Only if you can tell me what the best cellular phone is for my use: Apple's iPhone, LG's Prada II, and if not those two, then what? ;-)
/no /no
... ad nauseum
The only answer that is correct and is deserving of such an open ended question is:
"Whatever fulfills YOUR needs and wants, whatever they are since you didn't list any."
There are no details supplied in the question to even begin to gauge the intended use to give a proper answer without ASSUMING EVERYTHING. There's absolutely no guidance other than Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader, or other... Or OTHER!?! that *really* narrows it down.
What are some of the requirements of the user?
Does it need to be: Useable in Direct Sunlight: yes / no?
Display a miniminum amount of text per page, for example, no less than a paperback novel with the same text size? DRM eBooks: okay / not okay?
If DRM eBooks are okay, is idiot proof purchase of DRM eBooks: needed / not needed?
Proprietary OS: okay / not okay?
Is Required Linking to a Computer to Transfer eBooks over to the device: acceptable / not acceptable?
If acceptable, what type of computers does it need to work with?
Is Required Linking to a Computer to BUY eBooks: acceptable / not acceptable?
Minimum Time Between Recharges?
Does the device need the capability to use commonly available batteries? yes
Portability? Does it have to smaller/lighter than a certain requirement?
Ruggedness? Does it have to splash proof/water proof? Does it need to survive being tossed in a backpack?
Price Range? For Hardware:, for subscriptions?, for ebooks?
eBook Formats Required to be supported?
Any existing eBooks needed to be transferred?
Does the eBook reader need to be able to:
Browse the web? yes / no
Play MP3's yes / no
Play Ogg's yes / no
Allow you to phone your friends and family yes
It's like asking the following:
What's the best OS? Mac OS or Windows Vista or any other? But I won't tell you what I intend to use the computer for, how much I'd like to spend, or what computer it needs to run on.
What's the best Car? Honda Civic, BMW 335i, or any other? But I won't tell you if I can drive a stick shift or not, or what I intend to do/haul with the car, or what fuel economy rating is necessary.
There's just not enough information in the question to give a valid answer without more clarification from the person asking the question. One can only guess as what the limitations of the intended user may be.
As a gEEk with a healthy respect for MIT, I was utterly disappointed at the crappy quality of the "Star" LED device.
:-O
Is this the level of gEEkitude that one can expect from the uber gEEks at MIT these days? I was not surprised at all by the fact that an MIT gEEk has the street smarts of a "mentally challeged" person, but how can one also have the wiring skills of a "mentally challenged" person as well?
Come on, any gEEk worthy of MIT would have at least etched a custom circuit board and soldered the components.
Sheesh, the wiring on the breadboard wasn't even routed at 90 degree angles.
Un-frickin-believable.
Oh, how the mighty MIT has fallen...
Funny, that's what I thought when they I heard that the shuttle Columbia had been "lost" during re-entry. The historical significance of the "original" Luke-skywalker lightsaber pales in comparison.
Are you aware that the Tabular data that the dailytech article references that was "quietly" updated were for "Figure D: Annual Mean Temperature Change in the United States"? Note the word "CHANGE".
t did not have its data updated and still indicates that 2005 is the hottest year on record.
Which means that the difference in average temperatures in 1934 and the previous year was more than any other year on record, NOT that 1934 was the hottest year on average.
The article is incorrect in interpreting the data in the table. Yes, Figure D was updated, but that figure doesn't say anything about the absolute hottest average temperature... that would be Figure A... and the tabular data behind that figure http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A.tx
Honestly, if you're going to kill something, it should be as quick and painless as possible... when the explosive harpoon works the way it was meant to, it instantly kills the whale and reduces its suffering.
Of course it would definitely be more humane NOT to kill the animal in the first place.
Well, you are right that Microsoft has not "officially" committed to putting an HD-DVD into an Xbox360, but Bill Gates said on 06-28-05 at joint event with Toshiba in Tokyo "The initial shipments of Xbox360 will be based on today's DVD format," and "We are looking at whether future versions of Xbox 360 will incorporate an additional capability of an HD DVD player or something else." (from gamesindustry.biz) and at the same event, Kevin Eagan, general manager of Microsoft's OEM division said "Our partnership really doesn't represent Microsoft endorsing one format or another" (from ecommercetimes.com). Then on 09-26-2005 Microsoft releases a press release entitled "Microsoft and Intel Back HD DVD as Next-Generation High-Definition DVD Format of Choice". Do hint at which type of drive may be going into a future version of the Xbox360.
So there are still no firm statements that a future version Xbox360 *will* have an HD-DVD capable drive in it, but the smart money is that of the two formats, HD-DVD has a higher probability of being in a future version of the Xbox360. But knowing how Microsoft can flip-flop on decisions (remember how Bill Gates once said that the MSN was the way to go, not the Internet... then later he launches the
Sources:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/GNhLA12fAusnZ
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/sep
Why I Started:
.emacs configuration from my university days and have transmuted from apollo Domain to SunOS to HP/UX to VMS and finally to Windoze XP with linux slotted in there for home use.
1. I was forced to learn EMACS as the *only* text editor for CPSC200 by a Nazi like professor and his TA henchmen eons ago.
1a. I was a unix newbie, so when told to use emacs and told nothing about vi... guess which one I'll use. Anyways when one is clueless [ESC]:q! is as incomprehensible as [CTRL]x-c. (Anyways cursor movement without using cursor keys sucked with both vi and emacs: the vi "hjkl" movement keys that worked only in certain modes vs. emacs' mnemonic [CTRL]bnpf movement keys... thank {place a deity here, or "DEC" you're athiest or an uber gEEk} for creating VT100 terminals and with it the defacto standard for cursor keycodes, and full screen cursor placement.)
2. I actually used Wordstar before learning emacs, so incomprehensible control key commands were nothing new.
Why I Continued to Use EMACS after CPSC 200 while in University:
1. Unix boxes actually had a control button in a place that made control commands almost ergonomic.
2. One only has so much time to learn other editors when one's busy trying to avoid studying by playing/tweaking MUD's, xtrek, xtank, compiling and trying out beta versions of NCSA Mosaic.
Why I Still Use Emacs Today in an Embedded Development Environment Hosted Off MS Windoze:
1. Same reason I use Linux, Firefox, etc: It's Open Source software so there are alot of gEEks smarter and have more spare time than me developing plugins, extensions, Emacs major modes, etc, etc, so as a result
a) I have access to extensions that would take me forever to write myself, that's assuming I could even come close to implementing such feats of software prowess even if given an infinite number of monkeys to work with,
b) I have the source code for the tool and the extensions, so I can modify and reconfigure them as I like if they don't exactly fit my needs,
c) I don't have to beg to get some purchase order from the accountants to avoid getting the company into trouble with lawsuits for using *my* favourite commercial editor and conversely can use the same editor at home.
2. I have the evolved my
3. It's entertaining watching your coworkers get all pissed off when trying to cut and paste on your Windoze computer because you've swapped the key mapping for CAPS LOCK and CTRL on the Windoze Keyboard and didn't bother to relabel the keys. Note it can get dangerous if your coworkers are near the end of their ropes because everybody's been working way too many hours to meet some artificial deadline that management has decreed upon the peons.
4. Last but not least, Has anybody mentioned the easy macro programming? Without learning a line of lisp, one can create complex macros... and by just learning a smattering of lisp, make macros that will amaze your co-workers (except the unix gods that use only "ed" because they believe that "vi" is not light weight enough, let alone an editor that includes a lisp interpreter and many megabytes of elisp scripts... anyways who needs to see more than one line of text at a time.)
5. Anyways it's gEEky to use Gnu Emacs ([flame suit on] not XEmacs, only weirdo's use that [flame suit off]). What other reason does a nerd need to do anything?
Like no MS Windows Thread can exist without somebody saying Linux or Mac OS is better. Or a graphics card thread without the ATI and NVIDIA "psycophants" duking it out. Or x86 cpu threads without the AMD and Intel camps beating each other out. The moral to this story is when you talk religion you always get burned.
See Extremetech's Interview with XBOX360's VP, Todd Holmdahl (He's responsible for all the hardware development, hardware and semiconductor teams, manufacturing, and test teams.) http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,181702
Anyways, have you considered that one reason that MS could not use x86 Intel and x86 AMD cores (regardless of their technical weaknesses/strengths) is because MS couldn't get the rights use Intel's modern X86 architecture as the core of their own CPU? Remember the *big* thing for MS this go around was that it *owned* the design for the GPU and the CPU as opposed to contracting NVidia and Intel to supply those chips in the original XBOX. IBM is willing to supply leading edge PowerPC cores to anybody who wants to integrate them into their custom CPU designs; Intel will not supply their leading edge cores for integration into custom CPUs.
I've got to say that I do find it slightly amusing that MS was running demo's on G5 PowerMac HW at E3, but it doesn't necessarily have any correlation with the superiority of the Apple Hardware over the Intel X86 architecture that Microsoft's Bread and Butter software runs on.
Remember we're talking about HD channels, (which is after all the subject of DirecTV's press release this article is based on) satellite holds no advantage over OTA or cable since all HD signals are digital.
Come Jan 1, 2007 (curiously enough approx. the same time DirecTV has scheduled the availibiliy of all of its channels), the OTA Analog shut off date, it won't make a difference if it's OTA or satellite, it will all be digital.