People keep saying that until MacOS X comes out, a multiprocessing machine won't be useful, however Apple recently released an updated SDK for multiprocessing development on MacOS 9, so perhaps this machine will see the light of day before the release of MacOS X next year. An announcement could even come as soon as two months from now, at Macworld New York in July.
Is the U.S. Post office liable for the content of mail it delivers? No. Are manufacturers of TV broadcast equipment liable for the content of programs broadcast using their equipment? No. Is Napster responsible for the contents of the files that it transferrs? According to this judge, yes. Ugh.
If people fall back to using FTP as a means of transferring MP3s, are the authors of all the FTP clients and servers ever written going to be held liable for that?
I would say that yes, musicians such as yourselves have enemies, but they are not the people doing the downloading. I would classify your enemies as follows:
The record companies They gouge the fans by overcharging for CDs, and then they turn around and stiff you, the artists, by keeping nearly all the profits for themselves.
The ticket companies Again, they stiff both you and the fans by overcharging for concert tickets and keeping the bulk of the profits for themselves.
I would contend that if you put as much energy into fighting your real enemies as you have so far put into fighting the Napster users, you would not have the problems you are having today. If you reduce or eliminate the role of the greedy middlemen, you would be making more money, and the fans would be paying less (thus eliminating the motivation for piracy), and everyone would be happy (except for the former middlemen, and who cares about them).
What do you think? Should the artists and fans get together and fight their common enemies, or would you prefer to continue fighting against the downloaders and ignoring the real problem?
Or what about putting a new twist on flight & driving simulations - inebriation levels?
Actually, inebriated driving been done, although just as a temporary powerup and not as an entire level. Remember the "drunk driving" powerup in Carmageddon 2? (Might even be in Carmageddon 1, but I never played it.) While it was in effect, it made the view constantly zoom in & out, and all the controls were reversed. There were even belching sound effects in the background. It's really surprising (and funny) the first time you encounter it!
Actually, IMAX movies are filmed and projected at 24 fps, just like regular 35mm movies. I do recall that the IMAX company did at one time have a double-speed, 48 fps option for filmmakers to use, but as far as I know, there have not been any IMAX films that use it. Their web site does not seem to have any information on it any more.
To answer the original poster's question:
The reason people care about fps is that when playing a fast-action game, you want as clear a view of the motion as possible. If you turn around really fast and there is another player standing there getting ready to kill you, it's much easier to notice him if there are 7 or 8 intervening frames instead of just 1 or 2. Having lots of frames can give a player an advantage in fast action games. I seem to recall a discussion about this on Tom's Hardware Guide a few months back, but I can't find it. Anybody remember the article I am talking about?
I really don't understand what the point of this article is. The premises (some unstated) behind it seem to be:
Interactivity is inherently better than non-interactivity
Any work that references itself (via "backstage" or "making of" information) is somehow "interactive"
"The Matrix" was somehow "interactive" because of its subject matter, even though the audience just sat there and watched it without any control over what was seen, just like every other movie out there
The awards won by "The Matrix" (a supposedly "interactive" movie) show that the big, bad boys in Hollywood are starting to "get it" when it comes to interactivity
When audiences have control over the content of entertainment it will automatically be made better
Ugh! Don't people realize that "interactive" entertainment could have been done during the days of pre-history? A storyteller sitting by the campfire could have simply asked the listeners what they wanted to happen next every once in a while. But people didn't and still don't do that because they know it would ruin the story!! The whole point of entertainment is to let a storyteller convey his or her vision to you. The content is supposed to come from the person telling the story, not the audience.
The MacOSRumors story is based on the bogus story posted on Slashdot a few days ago about VGS being bundled with RedHat. That story turned out to be wrong, but that didn't stop MacOSRumors from picking up on it as though it were true! As a side note, why on Earth do people assume that if a software company makes a Linux version of their product that it *must* be open source? There can be closed-source, commercial software for Linux. Just because someone is making a Linux version of their software doesn't mean they have to give up selling it!
First off, this is definitely patent abuse. As another poster pointed out, one should not be able to patent the act of communicating in a particular language. Secondly, lawsuits like this might actually help the patent situation. The more companies abuse the patent system, the more attention it brings to the patent system's flaws. And the more absurd these cases get, the better. It will just make the patent laws look that much more stupid. Third, I'm glad at least that it is a big company like 3Com that is the target of this, since they have deep pockets and can defend themselves. As long as the victims of patent abuse are coporations and not individuals, it's at least tolerable (until lawmakers finally wake up and change the law).
I agree that such consolodation might happen eventually, but it will take much longer than with sound cards. Sound cards aren't necessarily a good comparison, because they are primarily used for playback of pre-recorded media, whereas 3D cards are primarily used for real-time creation of interactive media. For playback, there isn't much that can distinguish one card from another, but for creation, there can be a big difference in quality from one card to the next.
Another important point to keep in mind (another poster mentioned this) is that visual media provides so much more information than audio media that there are many more ways in which the quality can vary. The consolodation into commodity-style components for 3D cards probably won't happen as long as manufacturers can still come up with that extra "Wow!" factor that sets their stuff apart from the competition. There are enough possiblities with visual media to keep the 3D market going for quite a while yet.
Slashdot Mirror
People keep saying that until MacOS X comes out, a multiprocessing machine won't be useful, however Apple recently released an updated SDK for multiprocessing development on MacOS 9, so perhaps this machine will see the light of day before the release of MacOS X next year. An announcement could even come as soon as two months from now, at Macworld New York in July.
If people fall back to using FTP as a means of transferring MP3s, are the authors of all the FTP clients and servers ever written going to be held liable for that?
They gouge the fans by overcharging for CDs, and then they turn around and stiff you, the artists, by keeping nearly all the profits for themselves.
Again, they stiff both you and the fans by overcharging for concert tickets and keeping the bulk of the profits for themselves.
I would contend that if you put as much energy into fighting your real enemies as you have so far put into fighting the Napster users, you would not have the problems you are having today. If you reduce or eliminate the role of the greedy middlemen, you would be making more money, and the fans would be paying less (thus eliminating the motivation for piracy), and everyone would be happy (except for the former middlemen, and who cares about them).
What do you think? Should the artists and fans get together and fight their common enemies, or would you prefer to continue fighting against the downloaders and ignoring the real problem?
Actually, inebriated driving been done, although just as a temporary powerup and not as an entire level. Remember the "drunk driving" powerup in Carmageddon 2? (Might even be in Carmageddon 1, but I never played it.) While it was in effect, it made the view constantly zoom in & out, and all the controls were reversed. There were even belching sound effects in the background. It's really surprising (and funny) the first time you encounter it!
To answer the original poster's question:
The reason people care about fps is that when playing a fast-action game, you want as clear a view of the motion as possible. If you turn around really fast and there is another player standing there getting ready to kill you, it's much easier to notice him if there are 7 or 8 intervening frames instead of just 1 or 2. Having lots of frames can give a player an advantage in fast action games. I seem to recall a discussion about this on Tom's Hardware Guide a few months back, but I can't find it. Anybody remember the article I am talking about?
- Interactivity is inherently better than non-interactivity
- Any work that references itself (via "backstage" or "making of" information) is somehow "interactive"
- "The Matrix" was somehow "interactive" because of its subject matter, even though the audience just sat there and watched it without any control over what was seen, just like every other movie out there
- The awards won by "The Matrix" (a supposedly "interactive" movie) show that the big, bad boys in Hollywood are starting to "get it" when it comes to interactivity
- When audiences have control over the content of entertainment it will automatically be made better
Ugh! Don't people realize that "interactive" entertainment could have been done during the days of pre-history? A storyteller sitting by the campfire could have simply asked the listeners what they wanted to happen next every once in a while. But people didn't and still don't do that because they know it would ruin the story!! The whole point of entertainment is to let a storyteller convey his or her vision to you. The content is supposed to come from the person telling the story, not the audience.The MacOSRumors story is based on the bogus story posted on Slashdot a few days ago about VGS being bundled with RedHat. That story turned out to be wrong, but that didn't stop MacOSRumors from picking up on it as though it were true! As a side note, why on Earth do people assume that if a software company makes a Linux version of their product that it *must* be open source? There can be closed-source, commercial software for Linux. Just because someone is making a Linux version of their software doesn't mean they have to give up selling it!
Patents are for particular instances of an invention, not the entire class of inventions.
First off, this is definitely patent abuse. As another poster pointed out, one should not be able to patent the act of communicating in a particular language. Secondly, lawsuits like this might actually help the patent situation. The more companies abuse the patent system, the more attention it brings to the patent system's flaws. And the more absurd these cases get, the better. It will just make the patent laws look that much more stupid. Third, I'm glad at least that it is a big company like 3Com that is the target of this, since they have deep pockets and can defend themselves. As long as the victims of patent abuse are coporations and not individuals, it's at least tolerable (until lawmakers finally wake up and change the law).
I agree that such consolodation might happen eventually, but it will take much longer than with sound cards. Sound cards aren't necessarily a good comparison, because they are primarily used for playback of pre-recorded media, whereas 3D cards are primarily used for real-time creation of interactive media. For playback, there isn't much that can distinguish one card from another, but for creation, there can be a big difference in quality from one card to the next.
Another important point to keep in mind (another poster mentioned this) is that visual media provides so much more information than audio media that there are many more ways in which the quality can vary. The consolodation into commodity-style components for 3D cards probably won't happen as long as manufacturers can still come up with that extra "Wow!" factor that sets their stuff apart from the competition. There are enough possiblities with visual media to keep the 3D market going for quite a while yet.