Hyperthreading more-or-less does this. Though if you use any kind of unix it's irrelevant - you can use the priority system and choose which programs get first call on processor resources - set everything that isn't your desktop/browser/other-app-you-interact-with-a-lot to run at low priority and your computer will feel snappy without any extra CPUs. It won't actually compute stuff any faster though.
(You can do something along those lines with windows too, but it pops up lots of warning messages...)
As for the 3d performance, GTA2 and quake 3 were fully playable. I think it got something like 10 frames per second on ut2004 (small map, minimum detail). This is on a 1ghz Epia under win98 (not my machine, ok). There was an issue of a third-party lcd monitor driver not supporting the chipset - still works but fancy features like portrait mode don't. Anyway, OK for a supposedly low-power chip - I say supposedly because the heatsink gets very hot if you use 3d for an hour or so.
Is there any form of an authoritative definition of internet addiction?
Yes. Its you. If you find that you cannot achieve other things in life that you want because you are online and you cannot stop being online, then there you go.
Well, what I'd really like to achieve is leetness in unreal tournament, but I can't because of all the time I spend offline! I can't stop it - sleep, my job, friends. They suck up time I could be learning maps and practicing with a sniper rifle.
"Speciality video stores in every city will have titles that will never be available on-line."
Well, if DVDs have been printed we can just rip them and P2P them legally when the copyright expires. Or any company that thinks it can make its distribution costs back can sell recordings to us. Sadly copyright law has been extended a lot way, and might well change to never expire by the time that happens for many classics.
"They have to be willing to accept that the vast majority of people who will see their work will see it on a video screen, not in a theater."
Computer screens are vastly superior displays to televisions. Even 1080i is unimpressive compared to what a cheap (relative to a HDTV set) monitor can do. They are a lot smaller, true, but I think film-makers would be a lot more artistically happy with computer-based rather than TV-based video, which is something video over the internet can provide.
Finally, who says broadband distribution has to be pay-per-view?
In my experience of that kind of site, it's commercials *with* boobies that get traded. Perhaps 50% boobies and 50% jokes. There's also a fair amount of trade in music videos, which are basically adverts for songs.
Anyway, my point is that for video advertising to survive into the next decade, it's going to have to be funny, with a good soundtrack, and have naked people in it. Hooray for the future!
Until the second time you watch the same bit of video... unless you mean streaming + local caching, in which case you might as well download at full speed instead of just fast enough to watch.
Finally, if you're using a bittorrent-type protocol to distribute your video (which is very efficient from the point of view of the uploader) streaming doesn't work too well since everyone requests the same packets at the same time from the seed.
Given the emphasis on HDTV, I'm hoping that at least one of the next-gen machines will have a DVI output that'll talk to a standard LCD monitor. That's the one I'll buy, assuming there are some worthwhile games.
p.s. I agree about the controllers, but learning to use asymmetric analogs isn't that hard. Those dual triggers are an incredibly good idea though; I was astonished that gc/xbox didn't copy them.
"But if you were writing a physics engine, a Physics degree would be useful."
I don't think that you need a whole physics degree to write a physics engine. They're just gravity, friction and momentum, stuff you've fully learnt by 16 or 17. If you can do CS you're presumably able to handle some vector equations, and no one is putting complicated stuff like fluid dynamics or relativity in their games (yet).
That said, physics is great. Astronomy is also really cool. If you're just interested in learning mind-expanding stuff, do physics. It's also fairly good for getting a job, but you might start considering most employment too mundane:)
1: User friendliness. Adding more options, especially when it's for something that is transparent to everyone but the most advanced users, is a bad thing.
2: There's no percentage for MS in making dual-booting with linux any easier.
Mind you, the new nvidia chipsets with the (rather basic) on-motherboard firewalls are nice.
Added bonus, a software firewall tells you when programs are phoning home, and lets you block it. Mine also tells me if a program I've been running has been changed, potentially useful if I get a virus. OK, the first is only relevant if you're using any closed-source software, and the second is only really important on windows, but that's 90% of systems out there...
It's easy now. If I have a computer and my new friend has a HD mp3 player (or a laptop), we can share music very easily and rapidly. It's possible that mp3 players in the not-very-distant future will be able to share with each other directly - the RIAA would have a fit, but most players aren't made in the USA...
Beware. I've tried this, and the new user always says "I want THAT linux, the one on the CD, because it's what I'm used to."
I point out that it's not really designed for a hard drive, and isn't as well supported as a version that is (i.e. no automatic updates, security fixes, comes with less software and the like). And they are unhappy about that.
I'd use a livecd based on an ground-up designed-to-be-installable distro rather than Knoppix. Ubuntu, maybe. Or I think SuSE does livecds.
Well, show me an *implementation* of the standard that does the things I suggest and I wouldn't dislike it. However, since this is proprietary, the implementation is tied to the standard - they are the same thing. So I feel free to dislike both.
"I mean, what do people actually do with a client PC that you couldn't, in theory, do with a browser and some plug-ins?"
Uh, games? Video at a higher bitrate than your net connection? There's certainly a great number of tasks that work better as a local app, even if they don't actually have to be local. I suspect that by the time we're living in your infinite-bandwidth-everywhere utopia we'll have come up with some other things to do with full-fat computers that won't work so well with thin clients...if we'd all switched to thin clients in 1999 would we have Skype?
Hey, great! Does this mean I could run bittorrent(/emule/irc dcc server) on google's machines instead of mine? Download it when it's done... Seeding would no longer be a chore:)
Well, they could a) bundle their tool with flashblock (and some IE equivalent) and b) make it automatically generate an html fallback version, so site navigation and search doesn't get broken.
As it stands now Flash is like other people using my hammer to pound their nails. And, to add insult to injury, they're building something pointless.
I think he was suggesting that anyone who'd played or researched Smash Bros. would be aware that it's fine for the average 10 year old. But the average parent probably just reads the letter on the box and puts it back on the shelf.
Seriously though, unless your kids are actually mentally deficient they should be fine playing (and watching) whatever they want from ~12 or so. Children generally aren't as stupid as most people think.
"Finally, meh. It just means that the Xbox's successor will finally offer at least a few more Japanese-style games like those that have been available on PS2 and GameCube for years."
As far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. But I'm not sure it is for Microsoft. I think a fair part of their marketshare is parents worried and confused by their ten-year-old's love of Pokemon and Beyblade getting him a console that doesn't expose him to more quirky and inexplicable Japanese memes. Xbox's white-bread nature is a selling point in some quarters.
I can imagine the scene in the XBX frat now: "Dude! You're playing 'Final Fantasy'? Oh, it's not porno? It's a roleplaying game!? Why not just put on a dress and run round campus pretending you're a flower fairy?"
Slashdot Mirror
Hyperthreading more-or-less does this. Though if you use any kind of unix it's irrelevant - you can use the priority system and choose which programs get first call on processor resources - set everything that isn't your desktop/browser/other-app-you-interact-with-a-lot to run at low priority and your computer will feel snappy without any extra CPUs. It won't actually compute stuff any faster though.
(You can do something along those lines with windows too, but it pops up lots of warning messages...)
As for the 3d performance, GTA2 and quake 3 were fully playable. I think it got something like 10 frames per second on ut2004 (small map, minimum detail). This is on a 1ghz Epia under win98 (not my machine, ok).
There was an issue of a third-party lcd monitor driver not supporting the chipset - still works but fancy features like portrait mode don't.
Anyway, OK for a supposedly low-power chip - I say supposedly because the heatsink gets very hot if you use 3d for an hour or so.
Well, if you aren't changing jobs every 20 seconds, you're camping. And camp-frags don't count.
Well, what I'd really like to achieve is leetness in unreal tournament, but I can't because of all the time I spend offline! I can't stop it - sleep, my job, friends. They suck up time I could be learning maps and practicing with a sniper rifle.
I'm addicted to being offline! Noooo!
"Speciality video stores in every city will have titles that will never be available on-line."
Well, if DVDs have been printed we can just rip them and P2P them legally when the copyright expires. Or any company that thinks it can make its distribution costs back can sell recordings to us. Sadly copyright law has been extended a lot way, and might well change to never expire by the time that happens for many classics.
"They have to be willing to accept that the vast majority of people who will see their work will see it on a video screen, not in a theater."
Computer screens are vastly superior displays to televisions. Even 1080i is unimpressive compared to what a cheap (relative to a HDTV set) monitor can do. They are a lot smaller, true, but I think film-makers would be a lot more artistically happy with computer-based rather than TV-based video, which is something video over the internet can provide.
Finally, who says broadband distribution has to be pay-per-view?
In my experience of that kind of site, it's commercials *with* boobies that get traded. Perhaps 50% boobies and 50% jokes. There's also a fair amount of trade in music videos, which are basically adverts for songs.
Anyway, my point is that for video advertising to survive into the next decade, it's going to have to be funny, with a good soundtrack, and have naked people in it. Hooray for the future!
Until the second time you watch the same bit of video... unless you mean streaming + local caching, in which case you might as well download at full speed instead of just fast enough to watch.
Finally, if you're using a bittorrent-type protocol to distribute your video (which is very efficient from the point of view of the uploader) streaming doesn't work too well since everyone requests the same packets at the same time from the seed.
What's it like working in Redmond?
Given the emphasis on HDTV, I'm hoping that at least one of the next-gen machines will have a DVI output that'll talk to a standard LCD monitor. That's the one I'll buy, assuming there are some worthwhile games.
p.s. I agree about the controllers, but learning to use asymmetric analogs isn't that hard. Those dual triggers are an incredibly good idea though; I was astonished that gc/xbox didn't copy them.
"But if you were writing a physics engine, a Physics degree would be useful."
:)
I don't think that you need a whole physics degree to write a physics engine. They're just gravity, friction and momentum, stuff you've fully learnt by 16 or 17. If you can do CS you're presumably able to handle some vector equations, and no one is putting complicated stuff like fluid dynamics or relativity in their games (yet).
That said, physics is great. Astronomy is also really cool. If you're just interested in learning mind-expanding stuff, do physics. It's also fairly good for getting a job, but you might start considering most employment too mundane
the "17 Meg file" troll
It's funny because it's true, this time.
1: User friendliness. Adding more options, especially when it's for something that is transparent to everyone but the most advanced users, is a bad thing.
2: There's no percentage for MS in making dual-booting with linux any easier.
I don't believe they edited me out! I was the trooper in the back row saying "who the hell is that guy in black?"
E.E. "Doc" Smith was way ahead of his time - he wasn't writing bad seventies sci-fi, he was writing excellent 21st century comedy!
Doctor Who was on (in the UK) for decades, and is being brought back again. Who says sci-fi has to have short runs?
I'll leave the argument over if it was _good_ sci-fi tv or not to someone else. I'll second that it doesn't compare to reading a Greg Egan...
Will save you $50. Reason enough for me.
Mind you, the new nvidia chipsets with the (rather basic) on-motherboard firewalls are nice.
Added bonus, a software firewall tells you when programs are phoning home, and lets you block it. Mine also tells me if a program I've been running has been changed, potentially useful if I get a virus. OK, the first is only relevant if you're using any closed-source software, and the second is only really important on windows, but that's 90% of systems out there...
It's easy now. If I have a computer and my new friend has a HD mp3 player (or a laptop), we can share music very easily and rapidly. It's possible that mp3 players in the not-very-distant future will be able to share with each other directly - the RIAA would have a fit, but most players aren't made in the USA...
Beware. I've tried this, and the new user always says "I want THAT linux, the one on the CD, because it's what I'm used to."
I point out that it's not really designed for a hard drive, and isn't as well supported as a version that is (i.e. no automatic updates, security fixes, comes with less software and the like). And they are unhappy about that.
I'd use a livecd based on an ground-up designed-to-be-installable distro rather than Knoppix. Ubuntu, maybe. Or I think SuSE does livecds.
Well, show me an *implementation* of the standard that does the things I suggest and I wouldn't dislike it. However, since this is proprietary, the implementation is tied to the standard - they are the same thing. So I feel free to dislike both.
"I mean, what do people actually do with a client PC that you couldn't, in theory, do with a browser and some plug-ins?"
Uh, games? Video at a higher bitrate than your net connection?
There's certainly a great number of tasks that work better as a local app, even if they don't actually have to be local.
I suspect that by the time we're living in your infinite-bandwidth-everywhere utopia we'll have come up with some other things to do with full-fat computers that won't work so well with thin clients...if we'd all switched to thin clients in 1999 would we have Skype?
Hey, great! Does this mean I could run bittorrent(/emule/irc dcc server) on google's machines instead of mine? Download it when it's done... Seeding would no longer be a chore :)
Well, they could a) bundle their tool with flashblock (and some IE equivalent) and b) make it automatically generate an html fallback version, so site navigation and search doesn't get broken. As it stands now Flash is like other people using my hammer to pound their nails. And, to add insult to injury, they're building something pointless.
I think he was suggesting that anyone who'd played or researched Smash Bros. would be aware that it's fine for the average 10 year old. But the average parent probably just reads the letter on the box and puts it back on the shelf.
Seriously though, unless your kids are actually mentally deficient they should be fine playing (and watching) whatever they want from ~12 or so. Children generally aren't as stupid as most people think.
"Finally, meh. It just means that the Xbox's successor will finally offer at least a few more Japanese-style games like those that have been available on PS2 and GameCube for years."
:)
As far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. But I'm not sure it is for Microsoft. I think a fair part of their marketshare is parents worried and confused by their ten-year-old's love of Pokemon and Beyblade getting him a console that doesn't expose him to more quirky and inexplicable Japanese memes. Xbox's white-bread nature is a selling point in some quarters.
I can imagine the scene in the XBX frat now:
"Dude! You're playing 'Final Fantasy'? Oh, it's not porno? It's a roleplaying game!? Why not just put on a dress and run round campus pretending you're a flower fairy?"
No offense...
I hear Visual Studio is to blame for a lot of "illegal operations".