no dialup (afaik), but for hosting of email, webspace, dns, you can't go far wrong imho.
they aren't as small as they used to be, but they still have a great touch. you used to be able to "write root" for immediate tech support;) still possible now, but as they have a better email handling system, response from them is great. i'll give you an example.
i am writing an app that's pretty DB intensive (mySQL), so i wrote to them asking for suggestions on how they'd recommend writing it to minimise the load on their servers. within 2 hours i had 2 responses from admins (the reply and a followup) covering different aspects of it. however that wasn't the best part. a *week* later, i get an email from an admin again, saying that as they've recompiled it and done some extra tweaks, what i would be doing shouldn't be a drain on resources anyway. now THAT's what i call service.
it's "web hosting for geeks". there wont be much help to "my internet is broken", you're left pretty much alone with a shell (but isn't that a dream come true?), but for any genuine problems, they're right on the ball. they've even written their own app for managing pop3 accounts, aliases, virtual domains, mysql databases and such.
ssh and telnet access, unlimited bandwidth, up to unlimited storage space, all linux or bsd servers... many more features, i'm not going to go on anymore, just go look at their website:)
AI Shell> Go North
Ok.
You see a troll.
AI Shell> Kill Troll
You hit the troll.
Troll says "p0uR h0t gr1tZ d0Wn mY pAnTz!"
Troll died.
You found one suspicious box of kleenex (used).
Which is an MSI-694D Pro-A. You can take a look at one here. There is also a RAID version, otherwise identical, here.
The only difference I can see is that mine has 4 DIMM slots as opposed to 5. I can't tell from the picture in this article whether it's a socket for PIII or Athlon though. Considering it's got a VIA chipset that looks just like mine, I'd say this motherboard is just a dual PIII board.
However, it totally rocks.:) To sum up a few of its features:
Dual IDE buses (yes, it does have 4 IDE ports), one at ATA 66, one at ATA 100.
Firewire and USB onboard
Nice clocking facilities
As well as the usual neat bits, and onboard sound. Recommended if you need a PIII board, specially dual processor.
Qix came out as an arcade in, err, 1982? Something like that. It got ported to practically every system in the 80s and several in the 90s as well. Most of the followups just added extra features, but didn't add much to the gameplay.
It is of course available on MAME, so that may be an option. And yes, it is a very good choice for this sort of thing - quick and easy to understand, but tests many areas of gaming, with a long skill curve:>
okay, the main question in this article seems to be asking for suggestions on what game, or even sort of game, to use. So a bit of analysis first...
What we seem to want to find out is whether an aptitude at academia equates to skill at gaming, or if the inverse is true.
The game required will need to be quick to pick up, but also quite challenging early on. For non-(regular) game players, I'd imagine this translates to something not too esoteric, with a simple interface.
What sort of game you choose depends really on what aptitude you're looking for. Puzzle/problem solving? Hand-eye coordination and reflexes? Adaptability to a new environment?
If you want to go for something puzzle-like, which would supposedly show an aptitude for problem solving, organisation, and forward-thinking, i'd recommend something tetris-y. try to choose one they probably haven't played before, what about Bejeweled?
For something more action-packed, it's got to be a first person shooter. This is both immersive and fast-paced. So Quake, or something similar - don't make it too complex with tons of weapons, environmental issues etc (eg, Unreal). If you're looking primarily for results on how people adapt to this sort of game quickly, i'd suggest just throwing everyone in a deathmatch and see how they perform. You could then correlate academic proficiency with their kill rate.
Hey, if only i'd been ble to use a "frags per minute" score instead of something like a GPA...:)
Games like simcity, starcraft, etc, have more complicated interfaces and more things to learn before you can properly play - to non-gamers this may be daunting and frustrating, so unless you're looking at how well they can *understand* games, as opposed to how well they can *play* them, i'd recommend steering clear of them. They also have a much longer learning curve, and can be influenced more by previous experience.
Best of luck, this sounds like a great project, and please let us know what the results are!
the situation in the UK pretty much resembles that in the states, complete with higher rates in the metropolis areas (london, manchester) and lower in less technologically-concentrated areas (though these tend to spring up and disappear every now and then, after all, it's a small country!)
one thing to note in the article is that in one case you cite what he is getting, in the other, what your company charges for you. i'm sure they don't pay you the same amount:> companies' markup is ludicrous. at one job, in england, several years ago, i was on a paltry $18k, and my time was being charged out at $55/hour.
apart from that... the us is (apart from possibly canada) the best place for IT contractors (programmers, specialists, etc, talking among the best of the best here) at the moment, paywise, given the very high contract rates, and the low cost of living - compared to the UK, as an example. over here the rates are in general slightly lower (salaried positions certainly are), and the cost of living substantially higher.
however, there is one distinct advantage to working abroad... if you're with a company who's posting you there from the US, insted of just happening to take a job in another country, they usually pay for your accomodation, and extra bonus per week/month, and keep your regular salary going. so take a 3 month contract, spend your weekends cruising round another country, get rid of your apartment back home and put your stuff into storage... you'll have a blast, get some great experience and make a fortune from it;)
Why oh why are they testing IA32 code on the Itanium? That is hardly likely to show the performance of the processor in a good light.
Because, judging by the pace of things, that's the code people will be running on it, when they get their brand spanking new Itanic^Hum machine (complete with two people to lift it, hehe)
Maybe they don't want to upgrade to the latest version of Windows, Office or whatever (we're talking generic windows lusers hre, okay?) What about all the other software companies? Adobe, Macromedia, Netscape? All the games companies? I doubt they'll be supporting it right from the word go. Especially with the problems it seems to have. At this point in time Intel is not the only way to go.
Sure, there's obviously a lot of work which needs to be done on the hardware/software emulation front, as their interpreter obviously sucks, if a multi-piplined cached-to-the-gills processor is clocking in slower than a P100. Hell, they even had to dig up a 486-DX50 for some of the tests, to give a realistic comparison! I urge you to go look at the MPEG encoding results for some hysterical stats. Athlon 1.46Mhz, about 15FPS encoding rate. Itanium 667Mhz, 0.2FPS.
Transmeta have shown that their extrapolation layer for emulation is fast as hell (compared to this!), so Intel really have to get thir act together for this. This wasn't an official or sanctioned benchmarking by any means, so pobviously Intel has been trying to keep things under wraps and this leaked out.
We'll see what happens. If it actually is this slow when it comes out, I'll be laughing my head off if my boss gets one.
i dont see the connection between this film and "nerds" or "stuff that matters". the only thing these guys would do to geeks is grind their face into the dirt. i just don't see why this movie gets frontpage, whereas many others don't even get a mention. i'd rather keep them off of/. unless they have proper geek value.
if you like this sort of humour and want to see something really funny, check out the sketch in this style on "the last fast show ever".:)
Well, Pentium 4s require RDRAM, but no one in their right mind would use a P4 in a server. P3s on the other hand, use PC133 SDRAM, same as Athlons.
IIRC, it's Intel i840 chipsets that need RDRAM, and that's a Coppermine chipset, has been since sometime in 99. Yes there are SDRAM chipsets for the PIII too, but a server would use the highest-end it could go, supposedly. I can't recall what the P4 chipset is, but yes that uses RDRAM too.
Also, I notice you didn't respond at all to the point that Althons need more power (about twice as much as an equivalent pentuim, I think). That in itself is a reason not to use them, especially if your server farm is in california
Anyone who houses a server farm in california, between the power shortages/brownouts and the ridiculous Silicon Valley rates, is not playing with a full deck, to put it mildly. I don't think the 10W extra consumption of the Athlons is anything to break thew bank though;)
Now in a serious server environment, it seems to me that money is probably not as big an issue, so this kind of negated one of Anthlon's main advantage over a Intel chip right off.
Not necessarily true... a saving of $100 per processor adds up when extended to a server farm, particularly when multiprocessor machines are (eventually!) added. given that in certain configurations the athlon outperforms the PIII Mhz per Mhz, that gains some more.
I think what is pushing the envelope here though is RDRAM - buying a Gig of SDRAM is much cheaper than RDRAM ($280 vs $1452, at a glance on pricewatch), as high-end Intel chipsets require it.
The best point about this happening is it may bring the Athlon in as the choice for the desktop machine as well, if the company sees it performs the same or better and is cheaper.
Secondly, assuming you have lots of servers in an enclosed area, heat is a big deal; you want good air condition system. A room full of Athlons is HOT. This further offset the "true" cost of using Athlon servers
I wouldn't agree. The only signs I've seen of Athlons generating lots of heat is when they're overclocked. A friend of mine runs his Thunderbird 850 at 950Mhz at 20 celsius (about 50F), with a decent cooling system.
Any company that is buying machines for use as servers is going to spend the extra $30 per machine to get a good cooling system, regardless of processor type. Those boxes come with 3 fan ports, a heat sink the size of a brick... usually a room with lots of servers in it is bloody cold because of all the airflow!
If someone walks into this open house, takes the gun you have in there and then kills someone with it, you are responsible for letting them obtain the gun. (Strange US gun state laws notwithstanding)
Likewise when someone abuses a site you've left unchecked, the site owner is responsible. You can bet your ass that if this was being directed at a business instead of at Undernet, that they would be suing the pants off everyone whose systems got rooted, for negligence, aiding and abetting, you name it.
You have the right to do whatever you want with your system, but if something bad happens with them, they are ultimately your responsibility.
Hence for it to be required in hardware (and for all those sneaky sector-based things they want to do), it must be implemented in the chipset with the ATA interface.
Sure, Intel's in 4C, but they don't make the only chipsets out there. What about AMD? What about VIA? What about Apple, whose machines also use ATA?
I see no reason, if CPRM were ever to be enforced, that these other chipset manufacturers would refrain from splintering off and making their own standard, which would prove much more popular to consumer demand. After all, what happened with RAMBUS?
For a far superior product (in my eyes), the PJB-100 kicks the Nomad's ass all over the place. Here's a quick run down of what it is:
- 6 gig harddrive mp3 player, similar to Nomad
- Much smaller than the Nomad (cassette walkman size), and weighs under 10oz
- Upgradable HD (20 gig upgrade available in a couple of weeks, for $200 or so)
- Rechargable Li Ion battery, lasts 12 hours, recharges in Unit. No damn AAs:)
- Supports more bitrates than the Nomad
- Harddrive actually spins down wihle in use (Nomad's doesn't), so it's quieter, cooler and doesn't use as much power.
- Boots in 5 seconds max
- Interface is MUCH better, the Nomad's sucks. Also has a bigger display.
- SDK is OPEN SOURCE and is, of course, Linux Compatible:) There is huge support out there by people writing utilities and all sorts already. Compaq (the original designers) are being fully involved and giving a lot of support to it all along, too.
- Available in many colours;)
- Case has belt clip and openings for jacks;)
When i decided I needed a high-capacity portable player, it was between the Nomad and the PJB, and the PJB won hands-down after some research. It's a bit more expensive, ($800 retail for the 6 gig) but it's far more expandable, better designed, and imho better value-for-money. For sure, it's more geek-friendly than the Nomad.
As i mentioned above a 20 gig version is going to be available shortly, there will be an upgrade path from January turning a 6 gig into a 20 gig for just $200.
Best place to buy would be ThinkGeek (.com), not only are they great and groovy, they have it for $200 cheaper than usual.
Check out the site, www.pjbox.com, and reviews all over the place.
a) it's a sysadmin's job to know this. that's what he/she's there for.
b) it is not necessary to know all the components that are *not* needed. it is simply necessary to know the ones that are. extracting say ftpd from a filesystem with 100 packages as opposed to 10000 packages is no difference. this gives a stronger approach to building secure obxen, you don't install something unless you know what it is and that you need it. ie RTFM.
Hopefully people will take it further by writing their own, and it KParts can be what ActiveX wasn't - an extensible and portable standard, and actually trusted as a download (if security is handled properly!)
Most people's grievances on Linux distributions seems to do with convenience, ie "i dont want to change CDs". You lazy bastards.;)
1) This is a redundant argument, as very soon most Linux packages, Microsoft OSes, etc etc, will be distributed on DVD-ROM. 6G should be enough for a while.
2) Anyone who complains "i dont have the time to download 600 Megs" is a complete blithering idiot. READ THE MANUAL. Download the install disks. Do a remote ftp install. Get only what you want. You can get by on 100M if you need to.
apt-get (or equivalent) the rest.
3) Isn't ZDNet turning into something more akin to an agony aunt column for a bunch of journalists thinking they're techies because they stole a copy of RedHat 6.0 from the office and managed to kill their machine at home with it?
Microsoft for one, as stated in the article, is seriously opposed to this. So should be any OS or large application vendor, for the reasons described therein. They do have some big clout.:)
Not all the HD manufacturers are in this little committee, and I'm sure they'll do whatever will make them more money. If this means going against the committee and either persisting with ATA-100 or making their own version, if there is a market for this product, they will do it.
Now this is _very_ important - New standards need new chipsets - the interface for ATA is held on the motherboard. Intel is on this committee, sure, but what about AMD? VIA? Now, they wouldn't want to do something differently from Intel, would they?;) Without a chipset with these new ATA commands in it, the drives are useless. So here's a weak point.
I'm sure there'll be workarounds built as quickly as DeCSS was. Cables with de-protection dongles built in? Nice one.
There are more potential problem scenarios for this. If file X is "protected" in this manner, what about X.zip?:) What about downloading stuff off the Net? I'm sure programs will also be used to strip copyright information off a file as well, or some apps will be written to do filecopying by getting around this.
(this is a tangent from this - the new ATA standard would be a hardware check on the HD, i know, but from the article i gather it would be effectively on request of the file/application)
In short, I would keep a close eye on it, but I wouldn't worry. If it becomes a reality (as in, a major choice and in stores), tools will be all over Warez sites. Think of the volume of DeCSS out there, now multiply it by the number of Windows users there are - and this would be a hack for something REALLY annoying.
It'll be tried and will fail - there is no law _requiring_ copyright control on harddrives, or anywhere, so the fight will be on, with people boycotting the new drives and sticking with ATA-100 or SCSI-UW, or hacking them. Until the next standard comes along, which won't have this control on it, and will sell like hotcakes.
Get our yer mirror sites.
Fross
Re:Come on, get the article right...
on
Nazis on Napster
·
· Score: 2
As napster is now a business, their "transactions" in those countries are likewise part of this business. This is why you can't use eBay to buy Nazi memorabilia in Germany (or kiddie porn, for that matter), or, for another example, you couldn't download IE with SSL until recently in France, because of their encryption laws. (either that or the encryption was heavily reduced, i can't recall)
the difference with the example above re: IE and kiddie porn is that Napster is not only the client software but is also the search mechanism.
Come on, get the article right...
on
Nazis on Napster
·
· Score: 3
Germany, France and some other European countries (i think?) have laws about the distribution of Nazi-related material, ie that it is criminal activity. Think what you will about this "limitation" of freedom of speech, this is the law in these countries, and if a company wants to exist or trade there, they have to abide by their rules. As now does Napster.
A good parallel to look into this would be eBay - they have people selling war relics, for historical/collectible value. Items at all connected to the Nazi party are prohibited for sale to users in these countries - I imagine they do some sort of lookup between keywords and user's details.
Certainly this isn't too difficult to evade if one is intent on it, but it covers their asses. And this is what it is about, Napster has to put in place some similar safeguard, for instance IP ranges which are not allowed to download songs with any such keywords in the title, or to force the user to set a country of residence in registration.
This won't fix the problem 100%, but if the countries want this as their law, they can't expect Napster et al to do all their work for them. I'm sure they know how to put their own content filters in place at their ISPs if they're serious about it:>
Geez, there's a lot of hot air and FUD going on here at the moment, so here's a few facts. Most of these can be gleaned from just looking through their website.
- 3ivX is/will be a codec for encoding audio and video, based on MPEG-4. Hopefully it will be better than most other MPEG-4 codecs out there, the player, at least, will be open source.
- it is still VERY much in development! all the stuff out there on 3ivx.com is *test*. it is certainly not ready for public scrutiny or evaluation. Why this got posted to/. (or accepted) i dont know, as it's certainly nowhere near ready for release.
- to quote from their site:
As explained in the previous report, we would like to remind you that the code contains absolutely no optimization. Nothing is assumed about the hardware - and this is to facilitate the ports to other platforms.
...emphasis their own. The purpose is to get this product 100% MPEG-4 compatible and stable, and then to speed it up.
- In terms of multiplatformability, 3ivx runs under Quicktime, but also runs under XAnim. So now you know.
- One of the performance targets of 3ivx is to get fast encoding, as well as decoding. So far, it has encoded up to almost 3 times as fast as the Sorenson encoder. And this is still in development, with no optimisations.
- i dont know what planet people are on who are saying the codec is poor quality. Screenshots on the 3ivx site show it positively kicking Sorenson's ass at the same bitrates.
- the support page lists all sorts of other technology bits going into 3ivx, so check it out.
So there you have it. It's a free, multiplatform open source and hopefully high quality audio/video codec. It looks to be good, especially if it can be better than Div X;-) (which in terms of piracy is the format of choice, which says a lot about its quality), and beats waiting around for MS to port WMP to Linux. Ha!
Though given everyone whining about the lack of a good codec for Linux for the past year or two, I'm surprised why everyone has suddenly attacked it without doing some research beyond reading the first line of the article. Get involved.:)
Are you sure you mean bucks and not quid? The offering from Demon -- one of the UK's largest ISPs -- is priced at £175 per month, i.e. £2,100 pa or around $3,000 for 2M/256k 20:1 access.
I'm sure. I go with Easynet. As you can see from this pricing page their 2M line costs just 120 pcm. The nice thing about them is the fully routed option is no extra charge. Their installation is more than most, but it's worth it in the long run i think. So far, no problems with them.
I don't know of any windows requirements for it, and afaik you can open any port you want at this time - in the future i imagine they'll close some off if they start eating traffic, but it's fine for now:>
BT's trial started in late 98 as well, iirc. I certainly had it by March 99, and i was one of the last to join. But to use the Kingston connection, didn't you have to live in some little town on the south coast, ie it was extremely limited availability?
Slashdot Mirror
no dialup (afaik), but for hosting of email, webspace, dns, you can't go far wrong imho.
;) still possible now, but as they have a better email handling system, response from them is great. i'll give you an example.
:)
:)
they aren't as small as they used to be, but they still have a great touch. you used to be able to "write root" for immediate tech support
i am writing an app that's pretty DB intensive (mySQL), so i wrote to them asking for suggestions on how they'd recommend writing it to minimise the load on their servers. within 2 hours i had 2 responses from admins (the reply and a followup) covering different aspects of it. however that wasn't the best part. a *week* later, i get an email from an admin again, saying that as they've recompiled it and done some extra tweaks, what i would be doing shouldn't be a drain on resources anyway. now THAT's what i call service.
it's "web hosting for geeks". there wont be much help to "my internet is broken", you're left pretty much alone with a shell (but isn't that a dream come true?), but for any genuine problems, they're right on the ball. they've even written their own app for managing pop3 accounts, aliases, virtual domains, mysql databases and such.
ssh and telnet access, unlimited bandwidth, up to unlimited storage space, all linux or bsd servers... many more features, i'm not going to go on anymore, just go look at their website
http://www.csoft.net
Fross
- a satisfied customer
AI Shell> Go North
Ok.
You see a troll.
AI Shell> Kill Troll
You hit the troll.
Troll says "p0uR h0t gr1tZ d0Wn mY pAnTz!"
Troll died.
You found one suspicious box of kleenex (used).
The only difference I can see is that mine has 4 DIMM slots as opposed to 5. I can't tell from the picture in this article whether it's a socket for PIII or Athlon though. Considering it's got a VIA chipset that looks just like mine, I'd say this motherboard is just a dual PIII board.
However, it totally rocks. :) To sum up a few of its features:
- Dual IDE buses (yes, it does have 4 IDE ports), one at ATA 66, one at ATA 100.
- Firewire and USB onboard
- Nice clocking facilities
As well as the usual neat bits, and onboard sound. Recommended if you need a PIII board, specially dual processor.Fross
Qix came out as an arcade in, err, 1982? Something like that. It got ported to practically every system in the 80s and several in the 90s as well. Most of the followups just added extra features, but didn't add much to the gameplay.
:>
It is of course available on MAME, so that may be an option. And yes, it is a very good choice for this sort of thing - quick and easy to understand, but tests many areas of gaming, with a long skill curve
/Fross
okay, the main question in this article seems to be asking for suggestions on what game, or even sort of game, to use. So a bit of analysis first...
:)
What we seem to want to find out is whether an aptitude at academia equates to skill at gaming, or if the inverse is true.
The game required will need to be quick to pick up, but also quite challenging early on. For non-(regular) game players, I'd imagine this translates to something not too esoteric, with a simple interface.
What sort of game you choose depends really on what aptitude you're looking for. Puzzle/problem solving? Hand-eye coordination and reflexes? Adaptability to a new environment?
If you want to go for something puzzle-like, which would supposedly show an aptitude for problem solving, organisation, and forward-thinking, i'd recommend something tetris-y. try to choose one they probably haven't played before, what about Bejeweled?
For something more action-packed, it's got to be a first person shooter. This is both immersive and fast-paced. So Quake, or something similar - don't make it too complex with tons of weapons, environmental issues etc (eg, Unreal). If you're looking primarily for results on how people adapt to this sort of game quickly, i'd suggest just throwing everyone in a deathmatch and see how they perform. You could then correlate academic proficiency with their kill rate.
Hey, if only i'd been ble to use a "frags per minute" score instead of something like a GPA...
Games like simcity, starcraft, etc, have more complicated interfaces and more things to learn before you can properly play - to non-gamers this may be daunting and frustrating, so unless you're looking at how well they can *understand* games, as opposed to how well they can *play* them, i'd recommend steering clear of them. They also have a much longer learning curve, and can be influenced more by previous experience.
Best of luck, this sounds like a great project, and please let us know what the results are!
/Fross
the situation in the UK pretty much resembles that in the states, complete with higher rates in the metropolis areas (london, manchester) and lower in less technologically-concentrated areas (though these tend to spring up and disappear every now and then, after all, it's a small country!)
:> companies' markup is ludicrous. at one job, in england, several years ago, i was on a paltry $18k, and my time was being charged out at $55/hour.
;)
one thing to note in the article is that in one case you cite what he is getting, in the other, what your company charges for you. i'm sure they don't pay you the same amount
apart from that... the us is (apart from possibly canada) the best place for IT contractors (programmers, specialists, etc, talking among the best of the best here) at the moment, paywise, given the very high contract rates, and the low cost of living - compared to the UK, as an example. over here the rates are in general slightly lower (salaried positions certainly are), and the cost of living substantially higher.
however, there is one distinct advantage to working abroad... if you're with a company who's posting you there from the US, insted of just happening to take a job in another country, they usually pay for your accomodation, and extra bonus per week/month, and keep your regular salary going. so take a 3 month contract, spend your weekends cruising round another country, get rid of your apartment back home and put your stuff into storage... you'll have a blast, get some great experience and make a fortune from it
/Fross
Because, judging by the pace of things, that's the code people will be running on it, when they get their brand spanking new Itanic^Hum machine (complete with two people to lift it, hehe)
Maybe they don't want to upgrade to the latest version of Windows, Office or whatever (we're talking generic windows lusers hre, okay?) What about all the other software companies? Adobe, Macromedia, Netscape? All the games companies? I doubt they'll be supporting it right from the word go. Especially with the problems it seems to have. At this point in time Intel is not the only way to go.
Sure, there's obviously a lot of work which needs to be done on the hardware/software emulation front, as their interpreter obviously sucks, if a multi-piplined cached-to-the-gills processor is clocking in slower than a P100. Hell, they even had to dig up a 486-DX50 for some of the tests, to give a realistic comparison! I urge you to go look at the MPEG encoding results for some hysterical stats. Athlon 1.46Mhz, about 15FPS encoding rate. Itanium 667Mhz, 0.2FPS.
Transmeta have shown that their extrapolation layer for emulation is fast as hell (compared to this!), so Intel really have to get thir act together for this. This wasn't an official or sanctioned benchmarking by any means, so pobviously Intel has been trying to keep things under wraps and this leaked out.
We'll see what happens. If it actually is this slow when it comes out, I'll be laughing my head off if my boss gets one.
i dont see the connection between this film and "nerds" or "stuff that matters". the only thing these guys would do to geeks is grind their face into the dirt. i just don't see why this movie gets frontpage, whereas many others don't even get a mention. i'd rather keep them off of /. unless they have proper geek value.
:)
if you like this sort of humour and want to see something really funny, check out the sketch in this style on "the last fast show ever".
Fross
will it translate l33+?
maybe arabic leet?
"ph00l1sH am3r1cAn p1gd0gz! 3y3 sp1t 0n j00r fLaG!!!! nAtAl13 p0rtmAn 1z A h0t cH1x0r i g1v3 j00 3 cAm3lZ f0r h3r!!!!!!"
/Fross
That was also shit RDRAM. Not like i'm going to go scour pricewatch just to make a /. comment. :)
if you'd like a better comparison, using figures taken from around 3/4 of the way up the list in pricewatch (ie the top 25% most expensive):
1gig PC133 SDRAM: $800 (4x256M)
1gig RDRAM: $3200 (4x256M)
you pays your money, you makes your choice.
Fross
Well, Pentium 4s require RDRAM, but no one in their right mind would use a P4 in a server. P3s on the other hand, use PC133 SDRAM, same as Athlons.
;)
IIRC, it's Intel i840 chipsets that need RDRAM, and that's a Coppermine chipset, has been since sometime in 99. Yes there are SDRAM chipsets for the PIII too, but a server would use the highest-end it could go, supposedly. I can't recall what the P4 chipset is, but yes that uses RDRAM too.
Also, I notice you didn't respond at all to the point that Althons need more power (about twice as much as an equivalent pentuim, I think). That in itself is a reason not to use them, especially if your server farm is in california
Anyone who houses a server farm in california, between the power shortages/brownouts and the ridiculous Silicon Valley rates, is not playing with a full deck, to put it mildly. I don't think the 10W extra consumption of the Athlons is anything to break thew bank though
Fross
Now in a serious server environment, it seems to me that money is probably not as big an issue, so this kind of negated one of Anthlon's main advantage over a Intel chip right off.
Not necessarily true... a saving of $100 per processor adds up when extended to a server farm, particularly when multiprocessor machines are (eventually!) added. given that in certain configurations the athlon outperforms the PIII Mhz per Mhz, that gains some more.
I think what is pushing the envelope here though is RDRAM - buying a Gig of SDRAM is much cheaper than RDRAM ($280 vs $1452, at a glance on pricewatch), as high-end Intel chipsets require it.
The best point about this happening is it may bring the Athlon in as the choice for the desktop machine as well, if the company sees it performs the same or better and is cheaper.
Secondly, assuming you have lots of servers in an enclosed area, heat is a big deal; you want good air condition system. A room full of Athlons is HOT. This further offset the "true" cost of using Athlon servers
I wouldn't agree. The only signs I've seen of Athlons generating lots of heat is when they're overclocked. A friend of mine runs his Thunderbird 850 at 950Mhz at 20 celsius (about 50F), with a decent cooling system.
Any company that is buying machines for use as servers is going to spend the extra $30 per machine to get a good cooling system, regardless of processor type. Those boxes come with 3 fan ports, a heat sink the size of a brick... usually a room with lots of servers in it is bloody cold because of all the airflow!
Fross
If someone walks into this open house, takes the gun you have in there and then kills someone with it, you are responsible for letting them obtain the gun. (Strange US gun state laws notwithstanding)
Likewise when someone abuses a site you've left unchecked, the site owner is responsible. You can bet your ass that if this was being directed at a business instead of at Undernet, that they would be suing the pants off everyone whose systems got rooted, for negligence, aiding and abetting, you name it.
You have the right to do whatever you want with your system, but if something bad happens with them, they are ultimately your responsibility.
Fross
This CPRM code is part of the ATA specification.
Hence for it to be required in hardware (and for all those sneaky sector-based things they want to do), it must be implemented in the chipset with the ATA interface.
Sure, Intel's in 4C, but they don't make the only chipsets out there. What about AMD? What about VIA? What about Apple, whose machines also use ATA?
I see no reason, if CPRM were ever to be enforced, that these other chipset manufacturers would refrain from splintering off and making their own standard, which would prove much more popular to consumer demand. After all, what happened with RAMBUS?
Fross
For a far superior product (in my eyes), the PJB-100 kicks the Nomad's ass all over the place. Here's a quick run down of what it is:
:)
:) There is huge support out there by people writing utilities and all sorts already. Compaq (the original designers) are being fully involved and giving a lot of support to it all along, too.
;)
;)
- 6 gig harddrive mp3 player, similar to Nomad
- Much smaller than the Nomad (cassette walkman size), and weighs under 10oz
- Upgradable HD (20 gig upgrade available in a couple of weeks, for $200 or so)
- Rechargable Li Ion battery, lasts 12 hours, recharges in Unit. No damn AAs
- Supports more bitrates than the Nomad
- Harddrive actually spins down wihle in use (Nomad's doesn't), so it's quieter, cooler and doesn't use as much power.
- Boots in 5 seconds max
- Interface is MUCH better, the Nomad's sucks. Also has a bigger display.
- SDK is OPEN SOURCE and is, of course, Linux Compatible
- Available in many colours
- Case has belt clip and openings for jacks
When i decided I needed a high-capacity portable player, it was between the Nomad and the PJB, and the PJB won hands-down after some research. It's a bit more expensive, ($800 retail for the 6 gig) but it's far more expandable, better designed, and imho better value-for-money. For sure, it's more geek-friendly than the Nomad.
As i mentioned above a 20 gig version is going to be available shortly, there will be an upgrade path from January turning a 6 gig into a 20 gig for just $200.
Best place to buy would be ThinkGeek (.com), not only are they great and groovy, they have it for $200 cheaper than usual.
Check out the site, www.pjbox.com, and reviews all over the place.
Fross
Just a couple of points on this:
:)
a) it's a sysadmin's job to know this. that's what he/she's there for.
b) it is not necessary to know all the components that are *not* needed. it is simply necessary to know the ones that are. extracting say ftpd from a filesystem with 100 packages as opposed to 10000 packages is no difference. this gives a stronger approach to building secure obxen, you don't install something unless you know what it is and that you need it. ie RTFM.
but this really is getting offtopic.
Fross
...ActiveX?
admittedly open, and a first for Unix/Linux.
Hopefully people will take it further by writing their own, and it KParts can be what ActiveX wasn't - an extensible and portable standard, and actually trusted as a download (if security is handled properly!)
Fross
Most people's grievances on Linux distributions seems to do with convenience, ie "i dont want to change CDs". You lazy bastards. ;)
1) This is a redundant argument, as very soon most Linux packages, Microsoft OSes, etc etc, will be distributed on DVD-ROM. 6G should be enough for a while.
2) Anyone who complains "i dont have the time to download 600 Megs" is a complete blithering idiot. READ THE MANUAL. Download the install disks. Do a remote ftp install. Get only what you want. You can get by on 100M if you need to.
apt-get (or equivalent) the rest.
3) Isn't ZDNet turning into something more akin to an agony aunt column for a bunch of journalists thinking they're techies because they stole a copy of RedHat 6.0 from the office and managed to kill their machine at home with it?
Fross
Microsoft for one, as stated in the article, is seriously opposed to this. So should be any OS or large application vendor, for the reasons described therein. They do have some big clout. :)
;) Without a chipset with these new ATA commands in it, the drives are useless. So here's a weak point.
:) What about downloading stuff off the Net? I'm sure programs will also be used to strip copyright information off a file as well, or some apps will be written to do filecopying by getting around this.
Not all the HD manufacturers are in this little committee, and I'm sure they'll do whatever will make them more money. If this means going against the committee and either persisting with ATA-100 or making their own version, if there is a market for this product, they will do it.
Now this is _very_ important - New standards need new chipsets - the interface for ATA is held on the motherboard. Intel is on this committee, sure, but what about AMD? VIA? Now, they wouldn't want to do something differently from Intel, would they?
I'm sure there'll be workarounds built as quickly as DeCSS was. Cables with de-protection dongles built in? Nice one.
There are more potential problem scenarios for this. If file X is "protected" in this manner, what about X.zip?
(this is a tangent from this - the new ATA standard would be a hardware check on the HD, i know, but from the article i gather it would be effectively on request of the file/application)
In short, I would keep a close eye on it, but I wouldn't worry. If it becomes a reality (as in, a major choice and in stores), tools will be all over Warez sites. Think of the volume of DeCSS out there, now multiply it by the number of Windows users there are - and this would be a hack for something REALLY annoying.
It'll be tried and will fail - there is no law _requiring_ copyright control on harddrives, or anywhere, so the fight will be on, with people boycotting the new drives and sticking with ATA-100 or SCSI-UW, or hacking them. Until the next standard comes along, which won't have this control on it, and will sell like hotcakes.
Get our yer mirror sites.
Fross
As napster is now a business, their "transactions" in those countries are likewise part of this business. This is why you can't use eBay to buy Nazi memorabilia in Germany (or kiddie porn, for that matter), or, for another example, you couldn't download IE with SSL until recently in France, because of their encryption laws. (either that or the encryption was heavily reduced, i can't recall)
the difference with the example above re: IE and kiddie porn is that Napster is not only the client software but is also the search mechanism.
Germany, France and some other European countries (i think?) have laws about the distribution of Nazi-related material, ie that it is criminal activity. Think what you will about this "limitation" of freedom of speech, this is the law in these countries, and if a company wants to exist or trade there, they have to abide by their rules. As now does Napster.
:>
A good parallel to look into this would be eBay - they have people selling war relics, for historical/collectible value. Items at all connected to the Nazi party are prohibited for sale to users in these countries - I imagine they do some sort of lookup between keywords and user's details.
Certainly this isn't too difficult to evade if one is intent on it, but it covers their asses. And this is what it is about, Napster has to put in place some similar safeguard, for instance IP ranges which are not allowed to download songs with any such keywords in the title, or to force the user to set a country of residence in registration.
This won't fix the problem 100%, but if the countries want this as their law, they can't expect Napster et al to do all their work for them. I'm sure they know how to put their own content filters in place at their ISPs if they're serious about it
Fross
Geez, there's a lot of hot air and FUD going on here at the moment, so here's a few facts. Most of these can be gleaned from just looking through their website.
/. (or accepted) i dont know, as it's certainly nowhere near ready for release.
...emphasis their own. The purpose is to get this product 100% MPEG-4 compatible and stable, and then to speed it up.
;-) (which in terms of piracy is the format of choice, which says a lot about its quality), and beats waiting around for MS to port WMP to Linux. Ha!
:)
- 3ivX is/will be a codec for encoding audio and video, based on MPEG-4. Hopefully it will be better than most other MPEG-4 codecs out there, the player, at least, will be open source.
- it is still VERY much in development! all the stuff out there on 3ivx.com is *test*. it is certainly not ready for public scrutiny or evaluation. Why this got posted to
- to quote from their site:
As explained in the previous report, we would like to remind you that the code contains absolutely no optimization. Nothing is assumed about the hardware - and this is to facilitate the ports to other platforms.
- In terms of multiplatformability, 3ivx runs under Quicktime, but also runs under XAnim. So now you know.
- One of the performance targets of 3ivx is to get fast encoding, as well as decoding. So far, it has encoded up to almost 3 times as fast as the Sorenson encoder. And this is still in development, with no optimisations.
- i dont know what planet people are on who are saying the codec is poor quality. Screenshots on the 3ivx site show it positively kicking Sorenson's ass at the same bitrates.
- the support page lists all sorts of other technology bits going into 3ivx, so check it out.
So there you have it. It's a free, multiplatform open source and hopefully high quality audio/video codec. It looks to be good, especially if it can be better than Div X
Though given everyone whining about the lack of a good codec for Linux for the past year or two, I'm surprised why everyone has suddenly attacked it without doing some research beyond reading the first line of the article. Get involved.
Fross
Are you sure you mean bucks and not quid? The offering from Demon -- one of the UK's largest ISPs -- is priced at £175 per month, i.e. £2,100 pa or around $3,000 for 2M/256k 20:1 access.
:>
I'm sure. I go with Easynet. As you can see from this pricing page their 2M line costs just 120 pcm. The nice thing about them is the fully routed option is no extra charge. Their installation is more than most, but it's worth it in the long run i think. So far, no problems with them.
I don't know of any windows requirements for it, and afaik you can open any port you want at this time - in the future i imagine they'll close some off if they start eating traffic, but it's fine for now
Fross
So the kingston one was a trial? I assumed from your post it was commercially available in November 98.
The BT one was limited to certain parts of London only, but it was not limited to 400 - it started at 1000 and was later expanded to 1500 or so.
BT's trial started in late 98 as well, iirc. I certainly had it by March 99, and i was one of the last to join. But to use the Kingston connection, didn't you have to live in some little town on the south coast, ie it was extremely limited availability?