Today's PCs are pretty much guaranteed not to work in 50 years time, no matter what you do. In dry conditions some parts will dry out, in wet conditions other parts will rot.
In all conditions the magnetics/optics will suffer bit rot and the flash memory will fade (and there's flash memory in the motherboard, hard disk, optical drive and graphics card).
You might have more luck getting an old machine like a TRS-80 or C64 to last 50 years, but finding a working TV set in 2058 could be a problem.
| Aero needs pixel shader 2.0 hardware and 128+ RAM (I think), not Dx10.
So what graphics chips doesn't it run on?
I seem to remember Intel 815 being singled out but my Eee PC has an Intel 815 chip and meets those specs (under XP).
Still, the main point stands. Aero shouldn't need massive power and could degrade gracefully on lesser chips instead of being all/nothing.
While we're at it... is it just me or is Aero completely underwhelming anyway? All I see is transparent window borders, a 3D task switcher and a little zoom effect when windows appear. You could probably do that in software if you wanted to.
What's the fuss... and where does all the graphics requirement go?
No, it's the fault of Microsoft for setting such a ridiculously high hardware requirement for the "basic" desktop graphics.
It wasn't needed (eg. Mac/Compiz do much more with much less), it was a political move by an over-arrogant Microsoft believing the "DX10-only" thing would force upgrades from XP.
A window compositor only needs very basic hardware to do its thing, eg. Linux/Compiz can do it on a TNT2.
Vista was made "D3D10 only" for political reasons, not technical reasons - to try and force upgrades from XP via Vista-only games. Aero certainly didn't need such powerful hardware (Compiz does way more effects with less hardware).
The "force gamers to upgrade" thing didn't happen, most games companies are still writing for D3D9.
So... Aero is now coming back to bite Microsoft in the ass with a vengence. It's hard to find any sympathy for Microsoft, it's their own greed and arrogance which caused this.
Nope. This lawsuit refers to machines which were sold with XP installed but with a sticker saying "Vista Capable" on them (and often a voucher for the Vista upgrade).
Vista because it wasn't available at the time so they couldn't test machines with it.
Dunno, but whay can't we remove trafficonverter.biz from the DNS for a few weeks?
You might say it's bad for them and "all smappers need to do to shut down a web site is...blah, blah" but that's ignoring how spammers work. If spammers learn that websites will be removed from DNS at the first sign of trouble then they won't use websites.
Spammers don't do it for political reasons, they're thieves who are trying to get money.
It's actually quite a smart move. People will be looking for cars which qualify for the $4500 discount. If SUVs and pickup trucks don't qualify then it could take a lot of them off the road.
I say "if", because it doesn't say anywhere what the criteria are for "meets federal emissions standards" and this is America, so...
Please adjust your sarcasm-ometer, I was making a wry comment about the state of Windows.
Yes, this same OS which makes you type in your password twice when logging onto a network is incapable of showing the channels used by the others so you can set up your network nicely.
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Mod parent up...
Today's PCs are pretty much guaranteed not to work in 50 years time, no matter what you do. In dry conditions some parts will dry out, in wet conditions other parts will rot.
In all conditions the magnetics/optics will suffer bit rot and the flash memory will fade (and there's flash memory in the motherboard, hard disk, optical drive and graphics card).
You might have more luck getting an old machine like a TRS-80 or C64 to last 50 years, but finding a working TV set in 2058 could be a problem.
| Aero needs pixel shader 2.0 hardware and 128+ RAM (I think), not Dx10.
So what graphics chips doesn't it run on?
I seem to remember Intel 815 being singled out but my Eee PC has an Intel 815 chip and meets those specs (under XP).
Still, the main point stands. Aero shouldn't need massive power and could degrade gracefully on lesser chips instead of being all/nothing.
While we're at it ... is it just me or is Aero completely underwhelming anyway? All I see is transparent window borders, a 3D task switcher and a little zoom effect when windows appear. You could probably do that in software if you wanted to.
What's the fuss ... and where does all the graphics requirement go?
[shrug]
The summary says $155. How is that "unreasonable" for a DIMM and an el-cheapo graphics card?
Laptops would need the motherboard replacing. Good luck with that...
But ... the sticker on the box said it would. If you bought a TV with a "Hi-Def" sticker which turned out not to be hi-def then you'd be pissed too.
No, it's the fault of Microsoft for setting such a ridiculously high hardware requirement for the "basic" desktop graphics.
It wasn't needed (eg. Mac/Compiz do much more with much less), it was a political move by an over-arrogant Microsoft believing the "DX10-only" thing would force upgrades from XP.
Which didn't happen.
A window compositor only needs very basic hardware to do its thing, eg. Linux/Compiz can do it on a TNT2.
Vista was made "D3D10 only" for political reasons, not technical reasons - to try and force upgrades from XP via Vista-only games. Aero certainly didn't need such powerful hardware (Compiz does way more effects with less hardware).
The "force gamers to upgrade" thing didn't happen, most games companies are still writing for D3D9.
So ... Aero is now coming back to bite Microsoft in the ass with a vengence. It's hard to find any sympathy for Microsoft, it's their own greed and arrogance which caused this.
Things like working graphics drivers were few and far between even after Vista was launched.
Nope. This lawsuit refers to machines which were sold with XP installed but with a sticker saying "Vista Capable" on them (and often a voucher for the Vista upgrade).
Vista because it wasn't available at the time so they couldn't test machines with it.
If they're right the benefit to humanity could be enormous.
If they're wrong then it's the end of the economic crisis, unemployment, conflict in the Middle East and world hunger.
So, on balance ... I think they should do it.
Bad IDE cable can also cause this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3426367.stm
That's the reason I stopped watching it...
The shark leaping episode was the one about ovaries, women's right to their ovaries, ovaries, ovaries, ovaries.
Gimme a break. If I wanted that I'd watch Oprah.
I just mute the TV sound when the adverts come on, you'd be amazed at the difference it makes.
(Obviously this doesn't work too well with radio...)
The Internet shaped them, the Internet can break them. Look at what happened to Napster.
...but how many PCs sold this year didn't have it pre-installed.
Now there's Windows 7 which is "Vista, but finished". I'd say Microsoft haven't got anything to worry about - they're not competing on a level field.
Care to elaborate...?
How can blacklists which block a few servers in Russia suck more than a worldwide botnet sending out spam and trojans?
Dunno, but whay can't we remove trafficonverter.biz from the DNS for a few weeks?
You might say it's bad for them and "all smappers need to do to shut down a web site is...blah, blah" but that's ignoring how spammers work. If spammers learn that websites will be removed from DNS at the first sign of trouble then they won't use websites.
Spammers don't do it for political reasons, they're thieves who are trying to get money.
Nope, I RTA and it isn't. It's for new-ish cars.
It's actually quite a smart move. People will be looking for cars which qualify for the $4500 discount. If SUVs and pickup trucks don't qualify then it could take a lot of them off the road.
I say "if", because it doesn't say anywhere what the criteria are for "meets federal emissions standards" and this is America, so...
I think the credit only applies to purchase of *new* cars.
We're on Silverlight 2.0 already....?
What was wrong with Silverlight 1? It worked at Beijing, why can't it do the job here? Oh, it's not about functionality, is it?
Please adjust your sarcasm-ometer, I was making a wry comment about the state of Windows.
Yes, this same OS which makes you type in your password twice when logging onto a network is incapable of showing the channels used by the others so you can set up your network nicely.
Well done, Redmond.
Oh, wait, no it doesn't...you have to guess.
Nope, I still don't know what it is.
Maybe the Norton 30-day trial has expired.
Yep ... I was going to put in a Star Trek reference but that would just have been karma-whoring.