If I've learned one thing in grad school it's that if you can't explain something simply then you don't really know what you're talking about. Whenever I have to teach something to somebody I usually end up understanding it better and figure out something new, right there standing at the white board
You're both right and wrong about that. Right because there are many things that can be explained with just a sentence or two. Wrong because there are also many things that you need a lifetime of experience to grasp the meaning of or follow.
Believe it or not - a lifetime of learning accepted theories can also limit your thinking, not daring to venture into new ways - or just simply plain can't do it because of all the noise that tells you that it cannot be done.
It's possible to conclude virtually *anything* with numbers such as we know them. It's a matter of finding a formula / sequence - call it what you want.
But here's the kicker:
Thinking beyond know numbers takes a mind that are capable of thinking beyond our existing collective knowledge. We tend to agree and pat each other on the back on every single connected discovery we make.
Imagine that we go beyond what we know - and if you have NO clue what I'm rambling about - picture this: You put two and two together as a child would do, you have two different objects and you combine them...to make a third object. This is logic at it's most basic. Now that we're on level - imagine that you take this a bit further and go beyond what you already know, can you do this?
This makes no sense at all. Yes metal expands and contracts, but you should be more worried about the solder connnections on the mobo, rather than connectors... Your hard drive is using a similar type of connector, without problems.Either you made this little story up, or you simply don't understand why your card actually failed.
No such luck! A 2.5" harddrive doesnt get very hot, but a 3d-graphics card however - gets incredibly hot, especially an ATI 9600 Radeon. Ok, it's an mobile edition, but it gets fanatically hot. I also have an Apple Powerbook with this GPU, but they have a better fan...and it's connected directly onto the mainboard itself.
Oh...and for the record...I'm a radio amateur (that's an electronics freak to you) and the only thing I'll make up is new plots for my cartoon animation;)
I would happily pay $300-400 for an external graphics card (USB or otherwise), that I can upgrade at will and use with my other computers. Is it technically impossible to do something like this?
Nothing is technically impossible to do really, it's always a matter of time. But at the moment it's not likely because of transfer-speeds.
Have you noticed the difference between SHARED memory and ONBOARD memory? Those laptops with onboard memory are WAY faster at handling 3D because the 3D card itself can access the memory directly without having to transfer content via bus/cpu/standard-ram. If you had an external graphics card it'd work just fine with Video-playback and such, even at pretty high speeds, heck...you could even playback HDTV 1920 without jitter - BUT 3D graphics with lots and LOTS of textures are an entirely different game. Imagine that you have several 1024 x 1024 bitmaps that are RAW (uncompressed) and imagine how many of these you need to build a real-time city. Now we're cooking. Before you know it..you realize why the graphics card-ads on the box always brag about their hefty GIGABYTE per frame transfer speeds, this speed is vital because you need to transfer such HUGE amount of textures realtime to the various polygons and you couldn't possibly fit them all on the card, so you need to do background-transfers while using the On-board memory on the GFX-card itself. Getting complicated? Well - it is! And that's why.
Then you might ask - why don't they make onboard GFX-cards interchangeable.
well - that has been tried too, but you're on a laptop mate! This means you'd be dragging the thing around half the planet and anything Wiggly that can potentially move and get disconnected during transfer should be avoided at all cost, so most of them dropped that idea (very VERY wisely so!) I've had such a machine itself, it got warm...the GFX card failed on the laptop simply because it got too hot and the mini-PCI connectors got heated...and if you remember your classroom physics you KNOW that METAL EXPANDS....and vice versa when cooled down....bad idea!
Are there any future solutions for this you might ask? Of course there is, you could potentially have it today if your laptop have the bus for it, but you also need a ton of customers wanting this. So...I don't think that will happen - after all...you're on a LAPTOP...you bought it to be portable....and if you want to drag along a huge powerful graphics card, external Audigy and a gazillion other parts..you might as well pack it all in a desktop pc;) seriously.
As many so correctly point out - we've seen this before, they come out, are expensive, the media at ludicrous prices and most of us play the waiting game until it actually pays to buy one.
Not a bad thing really. Those who wants to ride the "fast-tech-lane" and be first with the latest - pay for innovation and pave way for the normal people who wouldn't get caught dead paying 60 bucks for a CD.
Personally I was "first-with-the-latest" all the way in my early twenties
when the Commodore-64/Amiga was all the rave...and it stopped when I grew
older and prioritized differently. I then found out that instead of buying a DVD-Recorder at 500 dollars (plus 30 bucks each DVD-R) I'd use my trusty CD-recorder and bought CD's for 20 cents each, easily reaching 4.7 gb with just a few bucks, sure....I'd have to change discs a bit, but it was more practical for the time as no single file took 4.7 gb so I could have a neat archive with files and names.
Later on, the DVD recorders dropped to an astonishing 50 bucks, and an even more astonishing 50 cents pr. DVD if I bought these "overseas" which I certainly did. Because NOW it paid to buy DVD's instead of CD's.
Interestingly enough - the need for storage haven't been in sync with the expansion of program/file sizes, so we're in for a treat.
I can't for the life of me fill up my old 80 GB harddrives, even with multi-booting systems with Linux AND windows. I'm actually more likely to use the 80 GB harddrives as "2-year-milestone-swapdisks" just replacing them
with the need for change (new os/ new stuff etc.) and it's actually cheaper keeping my old stuff ready to use on those older drives, way safer too!
My old CD's peel after 5 years, some lasted 10...but I have 10 years old
harddisk I still can connect and get my old photos, documents etc.
Heard the phrase: If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself? Well, there's no doubt that with the right people - teamwork WILL work better, but as you point out, there's a LOT of crap out there. And...that's where technology comes to play!
Do I want to pay 20-40 million for a star actor? OR could I possibly create the actor myself on the computer. Sure, technology up until today have been less than desireable, but we ARE improving, and as they say in the Matrix...it's inevitable. And with the Matrix came amazing modeling and animation. We've just seen the tip of the iceberg. Today, I'm sitting here creating true-to-life characters that can fully replace actors, sure - motion technology is needed, and improvements could be made (Guess what... I'm an indie-hobby-tech/radioamateur as well) that came in handy when making the garage-motion capturing gear. The many years in animation education makes it possible to know HOW human motions should be - not to mention the years of acting classes.
But that's just me, no reason to believe there aren't others like me out there, probably quite a lot. We're in for a HUGE surprise. The technology HAVE been the limit until now, but it's going to happen.
A little history to enlighten those of you who haven't lived my life.
For many years ago a revolution in video-graphics took place. It started with the PaintBox (Huge video painter) to make special effects, and then it continued into the private sector with Amiga and PAR (personal Animation Recorder). Many extra cool units came to the indie moviemaker such as PVD and the famous Video-Toaster. All this wonderful gear made it possible for individuals to persuade a dream of moviemaking in a garage on a household budget.
That made a LOT of moviemakers bloom (just look at Quentin Tarantino and his "one-man-movie-farm") and many more
Today its getting even closer. Did you know that I might be the next Pixar? (yes - you read it right, you just might be reading a sentence from the next "Pixar" like indie animation moviemaker). I have a long background in both traditional Animation and Computer Animation, and have been waiting forever for the computers to evolve to what they're at today.
It's finally happening, computers are at blazing mad speeds and rock-bottom prices, it's possible to have a HUGE renderfarm on a budget and even OpenSource software like Blender 3d are getting so powerfull...it's actually possible to make full feature high-quality movies with these.
What I mean to say is - no longer is both the software and the required hardware for the privileged few, now they're for YOU and ME. Good ol'George knows this, he's no fool.
Normally I'm the no.1 Google Skeptic (just check my record and You'll see that I'm on google like a tick on a dog)
But for once I have to take my hat off for them.
So many rich people, Michael Jackson, Bill Gates, Donald Thrump - No one got it right - no one understood that our planet is in grave danger of planetary loss of vegetation.
Who better to understand this than the Global search engine?
Interesting... I'll keep my eyes peeled on this, wont you?
We learn from anything in life. Games reflect our feelings
our sense of action, our sense of adventure, our sense of wanting
to be the "hero" of our boring every-day. Why do you think
you go to the movies? Same thing! We want to be entertained!
The Good thing about videogames compared to videos/movies is that
you're not a passive audience - your're watching and participating
and you're solving PUZZLES! This increases your IQ and it also
CAN increase you responce to unknown situations.
Several tests indicate that video-game players increase their
awareness and responce time compared to those who don't!
most likely at some point ISPs will require DRM in order to connect to the internet.
Interesting, and scary! I hope youre not right about that, ever.
If that happens - maybe some other ISPs will compete at being DRM free? Or maybe some ISPs will be driven by organizations. Of course one could forsee a coming "war" against the rebels (OS, GPL, Freedom-of-speech) etc. and the Corporates - which is a pity really, because I have absolutely NOTHING against corporates, and I doubth that other GPL supporters have anything against them either, its usually the other way around and its that we must protect ourselves from. Freedom is important. In the old days freedom where a simple definition, you fought for the rights to vote and educate yourself to anything you wanted, owning the rights to your country to do so.
Today we still fight this battle, but it has become more high-tech - and has a different shape, same battle though.
But there is nothing UNlawful about putting DRM into every product.
You couldnt be more wrong even if you intended to (no offence). If the products are capable of putting outside powers to control your own purchased product - then that in itself is wrong. We create the law, if we find something sinister to what corporate does to us - we protest, such is the way of democracy.
Take the Recent Sony battle as an example on how good intentions (for themselves) could go horribly wrong.
There are plenty of things that you are not allowed to do with your computer by the law. You are not allowed to crack into other computers (either with intent to steal or for learning something new.) You are not allowed to say, download child-porn, etc.
I think that kind of goes without saying, I assumed that you - the reader - know how to follow the law. You have knifes to cut your food but you could potentially KILL someone with it, but of course most of us will never do that. So your point falls to the ground with a boom. I do however believe that in order to fight cybercrimes - better investigation software, filters etc. are better tools for protecting each other, and not the very least...better education rather than enforcement.
You think you have some kind of a natural right, to be sold computer hardware without built in DRM? Nope, you do not.
Im starting to believe that Im falling victim to a TROLL here...Of course we all have a NATURAL right to be sold any products without whatever we dont want - we are the customers - we have the money. Duh!
You are going to spend all of your time cracking your hardware and software? It is going to be very time consuming, if at all possible.
*cough* Linux *cough* GPL...hello, where have you been the last 10 years? Under a rock? We have plenty of free alternatives programmed by ourselves and our GPL friends in our spare time. This is all about the freedom of controlling our own hardware / software. No need for cracking of any kind.
Companies are going to pay? No. Companies are going to get paid better now.
How can you be so sure? You are assuming everyone is a pirate. Guess what? There are thousands, if not - millions of alternatives to everything you can buy - largely thanks to the effective communication of the internet. Do I need to buy the latest hit from Madonna? Do I need the collective hits of Michael Jackson? No - At least not me.... I do just fine with thousands of remakes and independent music made by independent artists who have placed their music in the open and free for everyone (LEGALLY mind you) from their own bedroom or garage band, there are more quality alternatives than you might think.
Same goes for software really... I have made a living out of using Blender 3D software, the Gimp and much more to produce high end advertising, packaging art etc. All free - legal - alternatives. No use being blinded by what someone WANTS you to do, there are other ways.
And as for Companies getting better paid after DRM? I dont think so. here is why: Remember the radio days? People used to exchange tunes they listen to on the radio on tapes etc. and finally sales boomed because people wanted the real thing on vinyl (or later...cds). The music industry have NO clue if they could earn less or more with less exchange of MP3s on the net, they just think they could - but there are countless articles FOR and AGAINST this all over - in an endless debate.
To cut it out in carboard paper why I think Hardware DRM is wrong:
- The ability of any corporate to control your computer are
borderline dictatorship. No corporate in a democracy are allowed to breach your privacy - for ANY reason - period!
- No company with money as the no.1 priority have the rights
to decide what you shall read, use, develop, sell, give, share
unless its their own product. Initially DRM is made to protect their property which in itself is fair enough - until YOU the CUSTOMER are made to pay for the chip or FORCED to have such a chip installed in YOUR paid for computer, then it all goes wrong!
I really hate the way DRM and hardware DRM now gets fully integrated into our own lawfully purchased computers.
I have the right to use my computer to whatever I feel like and it is of no concern to anyone but me. If the companies disagrees with this they can take a hike for all that I care.
All this will contribute to - is to further alienate Linux and users of alternate operating systems and demean our hard efforts to get legal DVD-playback software etc. for our chosen platforms. I am so put down by this Ill probably never run anything with DRM on it again just for the opposition of it. I will not purchase DRM enabled mp3-players, I will NOT purchase DRM harddisks or any hardware with DRM on it.
If I am forced to do it because of the fact that every hardware producer is forced by Microsoft to do so... I will do anything I can in my power to make sure that my system will be rid of such hardware, modding, jacking, compiling - I really dont care. Its my hardware and NO one shall take that right away from me! No one shall control my software or my computers or what I will be doing with them.
I fully and completely agree with the companies about piracy, I dont support piracy in any way. That said - I also support my own freedom to chose, and past experience shows us that businesses will always do whats best for them FIRST before the customers, the customers are just milking-cows to them - which is fair enough if you give us what we pay for. When you decide to mess with our hardware and deprecate our already paid for services and hardware - then I am putting my foot down and say - Enough already!
All this will probably further feed a grassroot "linux-like" organization that will form an alternate OS that will NOT conform to DRM - even if by law (god forbid it goes that far). DRM and control of customers hardware is a CRIME against the public!
Biggest problem today such as I see it - is the garbage you have to fight with Google. I am not a scientist per see, but an avid hobbyist that loves information, and when I do my experiments as the neighbourhood mad-wannabee-scientist, I have to sift trough gazillions of annoying websites that "wants" to be no.1 for everything.
What I want is:
- A SPAM free search engine (Spam = pr0n ads, ads, look-ma-its-me-on-the-web) etc.
- An research search engine with ONLY useful documentation
No. They're run by people, and they're unpredictable, and they could one day decide to do something pretty bad.
They could indeed. Given the facts of history of any long-standing company and the shift in management, ownership etc. the policies also change with new owners, new management. Im pretty sure that the original founder of Google is a nice man with a sturdy moral...especially if you study Googles policies and work-ethings for their staff, Ive yet to come across a person working for Google complaining about anything really. So kudos to them - for now!
But all that *WILL* Change, it is a matter of time, Google management will grow tired, at least grow older...new management will come in place - and policies will almost certainly change no matter how warm and promising that handshake where. Who in this greedy world can say no to full and uncensored access to all information about YOU? The truth? No one with a sane business oriented mind would say no. You can use this information to find the so called "perfect" staff...
Nightmare scenario:
Imagine that mr. Curious Geek does something he should NOT do... look at underaged porn. Guess what? That porn site just happens to have Gooooooogle ADS on it, and guess what...that cookie is now effectly brought on to your Gmail account - and you are now in the register as a possible child-offender even if you dont have the slightest interest in such stuff. (Yeah - right...so whyd ya surf there in the first place? No smoke without fire they say). Anyway - every person will get less secure with this, and the freedom to check out the Good, bad and Ugly on the net will endanger your entire future - and Google in bad hands...almost certainly will screw your life.
It could even end up worse...
Imagine further - that we now want a totally clean society, that Googles do-no-evil policy also means less freedom to think, express, learn anything about everything because it will be censored in the fight against *evil*. Yeah...evil knowledge...you and your children are now prohibited from watching all that bad stuff from the real world out there because we want to breed "healthy, morally constructed"
perfect citizens (gets scarier). And some of the nazi-clean
of you may ask whats wrong with that?
Everything is wrong about that - no one shall or should ever
have this much control over anything. You dont know whos good or bad side youll be on in the future, and it should not restrict you to find about the truth such as you yourself will see it, not the way the owners of Google wants you to see it (China-sensored Google anyone?..its the beginning boys!)
Ever heard about natural medicine? Our body is amazing, it
have the ability to HEAL itself.
And how in the heck has that got to do with learning you ask?
It is the same thing. You tell yourself to be negative and that you are unable to complete this task...you will most likely be unable to complete it - even if you know your stuff.
Let me take myself as an example, Ive failed many a test in my younger years and that made me quite sad as a kid. Other factors that made me even sadder was the fact that other kids thought I was a moron for failing all those tests, that did NOT add to my self esteem at all and thus I was bound for further failure.
And here comes the touchdown...
I finally grew up, came away from all the "bad" elements in my life. Bad elements = friends who doesnt really believe in you & family that constantly complain about your existence.
A year later after coming to myself again - all alone, I got much more self confident and what other said about me didnt matter anymore because they could not hurt me where I was - because I had a sanctuary...namely the privacy of my own home.
No matter what test or school or course I attended after that I passed with flying colors. I was happy - It was even so easy that I hardly had to study, well - of course I studied - but it did not FEEL like I was studying - it was too much fun being successful so I had all the confidence I needed to go on to whatever test came my way.
I think you are really discounting the effect of punishment in our system of jurisprudence. Ethics and morality aside, logic and wisdom tell you that you will be hunted down and/or caught then punished. That, for most people, is a strong deterrent; as is evidenced by our orderly society.
More wishful thinking in an ideal world I would say. What is one mans reality is not nessesarily the reality for another.
I commend you for your honesty, and really wish other people would be just like you - belive me I REALLY WISH people where like you. Unfortunately I have experienced otherwise, and the justice system you say? While we all are somewhat responsible for the justice system - we are still all humans, and humans are known for their strong convictions and personal beliefs, thats sometimes what drives us forward, its also the same stuff that drives us over the edge.
Sometimes I fiddle with the thoughts of what I would do if I had infinite access to information about everyone and if I where also incredibly wealthy... would I still be the caring person I "hope" that I am today. I have experienced much about myself - seen the scary side of my humanity and the human side as well. Therefor I know I am not without flaws, I could easily make the mistake of abusing my powers.
You, my friend - assume too much, naive? I dont know - I like you, but I am afraid not many have the same high moral standards.
Google is all about information. This is worth a lot of money, and can be used to just about anything, what else is new?
My worry is not related to Google being evil, its more in the power of the individual. No man should have access to all information about another man. Personally I dont believe in Google being Evil as such, but experience and history shows that if you put man into a position where he has the choice of being all powerful ruling and controlling the other party or just sticking to morality and ethics he will chose control over ethics in the blink of an eye.
Its good to see the general public so concerned about what Google does, this means you are not willingly giving up your privacy just like that and wont let anyone get away with bullying your life around. Now this sounds awful paranoid and crusader-like... but its really not. The action we take today - will affect everyone tomorrow, so better be safe, take precautions now rather than say "oh...its probably all okay" and have a disaster unforseen in the future.
Every time Ive been paraniod Ive been right, that doesnt mean that Im right about everything - it simply means - if you can think it - its probably feasible and doable. So better safe than sorry.
Isn't it obvious? Microsoft aren't in the business of marketing, Google are. What are MS going to do with your information? Sell it to someone?
You are joking, right? Microsoft is indeed all about marketing. Any company as big (or wanting to be as big) as Microsoft would have to deal with marketing on a global scale to get results on a global scale. Microsoft would LOVE to get to know their customers, and you think they dont? How do you know?
With Google's habit of tracking and recording every bit of information it can get it's hands on (it's actually their *mission*), why would anyone trust a Google provided OS to allow privacy?
Youll also have to ask yourself - why trust Microsoft with your privacy? Why trust anyone? Its healthy to be skeptical with anything big that will change the way you handle your data.
Personally I saw Google OS coming WAY before screenshoots where posted, but I had NO IDEA that Google would take Linux and create a Googlux (phun intended) out of it, that was kind of a surprise to me.
I must admit Id rather have Google becoming the next Major Operating System/platform than Microsoft, and my reasons for this are simple - more freedom in licensing because Google respect GPL and in fact support it. That doesnt make me less skeptical of the privacy issues surrounding Google though, you can trust that Ill always be breathing down their neck - and hopefully...so will you.
A lot of the replies in this thread scares me a bit. Are a lot of you guys taking this as an American VS Europe thing? If so - then this is REALLY bad. That is usually how simple misunderstandings lead to big problems.
Please keep in mind that Europe is a close FRIEND of America and an ally as well.
The ongoing Microsoft issues are related to our individual
freedom and compatibility issues with other similar system.
No company in the world has any rights to control our
freedom, Americans of all people should both understand and
appreciate this more than anyone if you look at their
history and belief that every individual has rights and
that forms our democracy.
While it is perfectly natural for any company to protect their intellectual property - this isnt entirely as easy and straightforward as it might seem in Microsofts case.
I will explain. Imagine that you develop a gadget that
catches on everywhere, people really like your gadget for
what it does. As a matter of fact - so much so..that they
wish that it had extra functionality. Being the smart savy
business people that we are - we naturally give in to the
peoples wishes and even throw in some of our own innovations
to make it that much better.
Now...Imagine that this gadget not only is super popular
amongst everyone, but it can be used for nearly everything
as well. It now gets used in critical environments like
hospitals, police stations, research and much more.
Lets say for arguments sake something goes terribly wrong
somewhere...we try to help these poor unfortunates of course
being the professional company we are... but for some reason
failed to do so. Why that is could be argued to death amongst
the victims of this flaw and our company.
Now - again imagine, there is no real competitor to our
products and our customers are literally forced to use our
products, a dream for any company or an individuals loss
of freedom - you decide! Well - nothing is stopping you from
developing a similar product, is there? And here is what
happens when greed becomes a factor. How safe are you and
I really? What if our only competitor turns out a real neath
product? Ok - we buy it, but they wont sell - so we make it
real hard for them to compete. After all - we OWN the
standards for most of our innovations...or those that we
have bought from others. But it is fortunately not as
straightforward as that - heres where your freedom comes
into the picture. If you have been sold a product that
enslaves you so much so - that you can no longer control
it yourself, you are being deprived of your freedom.
No company in this world should have so much power that it can control nearly everything you do, what you sell and whom you sell it to. Imagine that you owned all telephone cables in the world....and imagine that a million companies where dependent on your cables...and further imagine if they changed the copper to light (fiberglass cables) without asking you because they could. All of a sudden - these million companies would have to RE-invest all of their equipment into newer and different equipment rendering their old stuff useless just because the cable company wanted it. It would KILL small companies and they would not have a living breathing chance of survival because....there is no other cablenet.
Belive me - Europe is NOT evil, we are as hearty and friendly as our American allies, but we dont have to agree about EVERYTHING;)
Slashdot Mirror
If I've learned one thing in grad school it's that if you can't explain something simply then you don't really know what you're talking about. Whenever I have to teach something to somebody I usually end up understanding it better and figure out something new, right there standing at the white board
You're both right and wrong about that. Right because there are many things that can be explained with just a sentence or two. Wrong because there are also many things that you need a lifetime of experience to grasp the meaning of or follow.
Believe it or not - a lifetime of learning accepted theories can also limit your thinking, not daring to venture into new ways - or just simply plain can't do it because of all the noise that tells you that it cannot be done.
True,
;)
I'm still working on that
It's possible to conclude virtually *anything* with numbers such as we know them. It's a matter of finding a formula / sequence - call it what you want.
But here's the kicker:
Thinking beyond know numbers takes a mind that are capable of thinking beyond our existing collective knowledge. We tend to agree and pat each other on the back on every single connected discovery we make.
Imagine that we go beyond what we know - and if you have NO clue what I'm rambling about - picture this: You put two and two together as a child would do, you have two different objects and you combine them...to make a third object. This is logic at it's most basic. Now that we're on level - imagine that you take this a bit further and go beyond what you already know, can you do this?
This makes no sense at all. Yes metal expands and contracts, but you should be more worried about the solder connnections on the mobo, rather than connectors... Your hard drive is using a similar type of connector, without problems.Either you made this little story up, or you simply don't understand why your card actually failed.
;)
No such luck! A 2.5" harddrive doesnt get very hot, but a 3d-graphics card however - gets incredibly hot, especially an ATI 9600 Radeon. Ok, it's an mobile edition, but it gets fanatically hot. I also have an Apple Powerbook with this GPU, but they have a better fan...and it's connected directly onto the mainboard itself.
Oh...and for the record...I'm a radio amateur (that's an electronics freak to you) and the only thing I'll make up is new plots for my cartoon animation
I would happily pay $300-400 for an external graphics card (USB or otherwise), that I can upgrade at will and use with my other computers. Is it technically impossible to do something like this?
...I don't think that will happen - after all ...you're on a LAPTOP...you bought it to be portable....and if you want to drag along a huge powerful graphics card, external Audigy and a gazillion other parts..you might as well pack it all in a desktop pc ;) seriously.
Nothing is technically impossible to do really, it's always a matter of time. But at the moment it's not likely because of transfer-speeds.
Have you noticed the difference between SHARED memory and ONBOARD memory? Those laptops with onboard memory are WAY faster at handling 3D because the 3D card itself can access the memory directly without having to transfer content via bus/cpu/standard-ram. If you had an external graphics card it'd work just fine with Video-playback and such, even at pretty high speeds, heck...you could even playback HDTV 1920 without jitter - BUT 3D graphics with lots and LOTS of textures are an entirely different game. Imagine that you have several 1024 x 1024 bitmaps that are RAW (uncompressed) and imagine how many of these you need to build a real-time city. Now we're cooking. Before you know it..you realize why the graphics card-ads on the box always brag about their hefty GIGABYTE per frame transfer speeds, this speed is vital because you need to transfer such HUGE amount of textures realtime to the various polygons and you couldn't possibly fit them all on the card, so you need to do background-transfers while using the On-board memory on the GFX-card itself. Getting complicated? Well - it is! And that's why.
Then you might ask - why don't they make onboard GFX-cards interchangeable. well - that has been tried too, but you're on a laptop mate! This means you'd be dragging the thing around half the planet and anything Wiggly that can potentially move and get disconnected during transfer should be avoided at all cost, so most of them dropped that idea (very VERY wisely so!) I've had such a machine itself, it got warm...the GFX card failed on the laptop simply because it got too hot and the mini-PCI connectors got heated...and if you remember your classroom physics you KNOW that METAL EXPANDS....and vice versa when cooled down....bad idea!
Are there any future solutions for this you might ask? Of course there is, you could potentially have it today if your laptop have the bus for it, but you also need a ton of customers wanting this. So
As many so correctly point out - we've seen this before, they come out, are expensive, the media at ludicrous prices and most of us play the waiting game until it actually pays to buy one.
Not a bad thing really. Those who wants to ride the "fast-tech-lane" and be first with the latest - pay for innovation and pave way for the normal people who wouldn't get caught dead paying 60 bucks for a CD.
Personally I was "first-with-the-latest" all the way in my early twenties when the Commodore-64/Amiga was all the rave...and it stopped when I grew older and prioritized differently. I then found out that instead of buying a DVD-Recorder at 500 dollars (plus 30 bucks each DVD-R) I'd use my trusty CD-recorder and bought CD's for 20 cents each, easily reaching 4.7 gb with just a few bucks, sure....I'd have to change discs a bit, but it was more practical for the time as no single file took 4.7 gb so I could have a neat archive with files and names.
Later on, the DVD recorders dropped to an astonishing 50 bucks, and an even more astonishing 50 cents pr. DVD if I bought these "overseas" which I certainly did. Because NOW it paid to buy DVD's instead of CD's.
Interestingly enough - the need for storage haven't been in sync with the expansion of program/file sizes, so we're in for a treat.
I can't for the life of me fill up my old 80 GB harddrives, even with multi-booting systems with Linux AND windows. I'm actually more likely to use the 80 GB harddrives as "2-year-milestone-swapdisks" just replacing them with the need for change (new os/ new stuff etc.) and it's actually cheaper keeping my old stuff ready to use on those older drives, way safer too!
My old CD's peel after 5 years, some lasted 10...but I have 10 years old harddisk I still can connect and get my old photos, documents etc.
Food for thoughts...
...Considering the standard theme on his Fischer-Price PlaySkool os.
Indeed it does!
Heard the phrase: If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself? Well, there's no doubt that with the right people - teamwork WILL work better, but as you point out, there's a LOT of crap out there. And...that's where technology comes to play!
Do I want to pay 20-40 million for a star actor? OR could I possibly create the actor myself on the computer. Sure, technology up until today have been less than desireable, but we ARE improving, and as they say in the Matrix...it's inevitable. And with the Matrix came amazing modeling and animation. We've just seen the tip of the iceberg. Today, I'm sitting here creating true-to-life characters that can fully replace actors, sure - motion technology is needed, and improvements could be made (Guess what... I'm an indie-hobby-tech/radioamateur as well) that came in handy when making the garage-motion capturing gear. The many years in animation education makes it possible to know HOW human motions should be - not to mention the years of acting classes.
But that's just me, no reason to believe there aren't others like me out there, probably quite a lot. We're in for a HUGE surprise. The technology HAVE been the limit until now, but it's going to happen.
A little history to enlighten those of you who haven't lived my life.
...it's actually possible to make full feature high-quality movies with these.
For many years ago a revolution in video-graphics took place. It started with the PaintBox (Huge video painter) to make special effects, and then it continued into the private sector with Amiga and PAR (personal Animation Recorder). Many extra cool units came to the indie moviemaker such as PVD and the famous Video-Toaster. All this wonderful gear made it possible for individuals to persuade a dream of moviemaking in a garage on a household budget.
That made a LOT of moviemakers bloom (just look at Quentin Tarantino and his "one-man-movie-farm") and many more
Today its getting even closer. Did you know that I might be the next Pixar? (yes - you read it right, you just might be reading a sentence from the next "Pixar" like indie animation moviemaker). I have a long background in both traditional Animation and Computer Animation, and have been waiting forever for the computers to evolve to what they're at today.
It's finally happening, computers are at blazing mad speeds and rock-bottom prices, it's possible to have a HUGE renderfarm on a budget and even OpenSource software like Blender 3d are getting so powerfull
What I mean to say is - no longer is both the software and the required hardware for the privileged few, now they're for YOU and ME. Good ol'George knows this, he's no fool.
And it will happen - This I promise you!
This might come as a surprise to you...
...but age has something to do with that too.
Doesn't anyone worry about kids being tracked by childabusers?
Nice. I'll sleep better tonight for once
Normally I'm the no.1 Google Skeptic (just check my record and You'll see that I'm on google like a tick on a dog)
But for once I have to take my hat off for them.
So many rich people, Michael Jackson, Bill Gates, Donald Thrump - No one got it right - no one understood that our planet is in grave danger of planetary loss of vegetation.
Who better to understand this than the Global search engine?
Interesting... I'll keep my eyes peeled on this, wont you?
Of course we learn from games.
We learn from anything in life. Games reflect our feelings
our sense of action, our sense of adventure, our sense of wanting
to be the "hero" of our boring every-day. Why do you think
you go to the movies? Same thing! We want to be entertained!
The Good thing about videogames compared to videos/movies is that
you're not a passive audience - your're watching and participating
and you're solving PUZZLES! This increases your IQ and it also
CAN increase you responce to unknown situations.
Several tests indicate that video-game players increase their
awareness and responce time compared to those who don't!
most likely at some point ISPs will require DRM in order to connect to the internet.
Interesting, and scary! I hope youre not right about that, ever.
If that happens - maybe some other ISPs will compete at being DRM free? Or maybe some ISPs will be driven by organizations. Of course one could forsee a coming "war" against the rebels (OS, GPL, Freedom-of-speech) etc. and the Corporates - which is a pity really, because I have absolutely NOTHING against corporates, and I doubth that other GPL supporters have anything against them either, its usually the other way around and its that we must protect ourselves from. Freedom is important. In the old days freedom where a simple definition, you fought for the rights to vote and educate yourself to anything you wanted, owning the rights to your country to do so.
Today we still fight this battle, but it has become more high-tech - and has a different shape, same battle though.
But there is nothing UNlawful about putting DRM into every product.
...cds). The music industry have NO clue if they could earn less or more with less exchange of MP3s on the net, they just think they could - but there are countless articles FOR and AGAINST this all over - in an endless debate.
You couldnt be more wrong even if you intended to (no offence). If the products are capable of putting outside powers to control your own purchased product - then that in itself is wrong. We create the law, if we find something sinister to what corporate does to us - we protest, such is the way of democracy.
Take the Recent Sony battle as an example on how good
intentions (for themselves) could go horribly wrong.
There are plenty of things that you are not allowed to do with your computer by the law. You are not allowed to crack into other computers (either with intent to steal or for learning something new.) You are not allowed to say, download child-porn, etc.
I think that kind of goes without saying, I assumed that you - the reader - know how to follow the law. You have knifes to cut your food but you could potentially KILL someone with it, but of course most of us will never do that. So your point falls to the ground with a boom. I do however believe that in order to fight cybercrimes - better investigation software, filters etc. are better tools for protecting each other, and not the very least...better education rather than enforcement.
You think you have some kind of a natural right, to be sold computer hardware without built in DRM? Nope, you do not.
Im starting to believe that Im falling victim to a TROLL here...Of course we all have a NATURAL right to be sold any products without whatever we dont want - we are the customers - we have the money. Duh!
You are going to spend all of your time cracking your hardware and software? It is going to be very time consuming, if at all possible.
*cough* Linux *cough* GPL...hello, where have you been the last 10 years? Under a rock? We have plenty of free alternatives programmed by ourselves and our GPL friends in our spare time. This is all about the freedom of controlling our own hardware / software. No need for cracking of any kind.
Companies are going to pay? No. Companies are going to get paid better now.
How can you be so sure? You are assuming everyone is a pirate. Guess what? There are thousands, if not - millions of alternatives to everything you can buy - largely thanks to the effective communication of the internet. Do I need to buy the latest hit from Madonna? Do I need the collective hits of Michael Jackson? No - At least not me.... I do just fine with thousands of remakes and independent music made by independent artists who have placed their music in the open and free for everyone (LEGALLY mind you) from their own bedroom or garage band, there are more quality alternatives than you might think.
Same goes for software really... I have made a living out of using Blender 3D software, the Gimp and much more to produce high end advertising, packaging art etc. All free - legal - alternatives. No use being blinded by what someone WANTS you to do, there are other ways.
And as for Companies getting better paid after DRM? I dont think so. here is why: Remember the radio days? People used to exchange tunes they listen to on the radio on tapes etc. and finally sales boomed because people wanted the real thing on vinyl (or later
To cut it out in carboard paper why I think Hardware DRM is wrong:
- The ability of any corporate to control your computer are borderline dictatorship. No corporate in a democracy are allowed to breach your privacy - for ANY reason - period!
- No company with money as the no.1 priority have the rights
to decide what you shall read, use, develop, sell, give, share unless its their own product. Initially DRM is made to protect their property which in itself is fair enough - until YOU the CUSTOMER are made to pay for the chip or FORCED to have such a chip installed in YOUR paid for computer, then it all goes wrong!
I really hate the way DRM and hardware DRM now gets fully integrated into our own lawfully purchased computers.
I have the right to use my computer to whatever I feel like and it is of no concern to anyone but me. If the companies disagrees with this they can take a hike for all that I care.
All this will contribute to - is to further alienate Linux and users of alternate operating systems and demean our hard efforts to get legal DVD-playback software etc. for our chosen platforms. I am so put down by this Ill probably never run anything with DRM on it again just for the opposition of it. I will not purchase DRM enabled mp3-players, I will NOT purchase DRM harddisks or any hardware with DRM on it.
If I am forced to do it because of the fact that every hardware producer is forced by Microsoft to do so... I will do anything I can in my power to make sure that my system will be rid of such hardware, modding, jacking, compiling - I really dont care. Its my hardware and NO one shall take that right away from me! No one shall control my software or my computers or what I will be doing with them.
I fully and completely agree with the companies about piracy, I dont support piracy in any way. That said - I also support my own freedom to chose, and past experience shows us that businesses will always do whats best for them FIRST before the customers, the customers are just milking-cows to them - which is fair enough if you give us what we pay for. When you decide to mess with our hardware and deprecate our already paid for services and hardware - then I am putting my foot down and say - Enough already!
All this will probably further feed a grassroot "linux-like" organization that will form an alternate OS that will NOT conform to DRM - even if by law (god forbid it goes that far). DRM and control of customers hardware is a CRIME against the public!
We would finally have something useful.
Biggest problem today such as I see it - is the garbage you have to fight with Google. I am not a scientist per see, but an avid hobbyist that loves information, and when I do my experiments as the neighbourhood mad-wannabee-scientist, I have to sift trough gazillions of annoying websites that "wants" to be no.1 for everything.
What I want is:
- A SPAM free search engine (Spam = pr0n ads, ads, look-ma-its-me-on-the-web) etc.
- An research search engine with ONLY useful documentation
Darn...Im dreaming.
No. They're run by people, and they're unpredictable, and they could one day decide to do something pretty bad.
They could indeed. Given the facts of history of any long-standing company and the shift in management, ownership etc. the policies also change with new owners, new management. Im pretty sure that the original founder of Google is a nice man with a sturdy moral...especially if you study Googles policies and work-ethings for their staff, Ive yet to come across a person working for Google complaining about anything really. So kudos to them - for now!
But all that *WILL* Change, it is a matter of time, Google management will grow tired, at least grow older...new management will come in place - and policies will almost certainly change no matter how warm and promising that handshake where. Who in this greedy world can say no to full and uncensored access to all information about YOU? The truth? No one with a sane business oriented mind would say no. You can use this information to find the so called "perfect" staff...
Nightmare scenario:
Imagine that mr. Curious Geek does something he should NOT do... look at underaged porn. Guess what? That porn site just happens to have Gooooooogle ADS on it, and guess what...that cookie is now effectly brought on to your Gmail account - and you are now in the register as a possible child-offender even if you dont have the slightest interest in such stuff. (Yeah - right...so whyd ya surf there in the first place? No smoke without fire they say). Anyway - every person will get less secure with this, and the freedom to check out the Good, bad and Ugly on the net will endanger your entire future - and Google in bad hands...almost certainly will screw your life.
It could even end up worse...
Imagine further - that we now want a totally clean society, that Googles do-no-evil policy also means less freedom to think, express, learn anything about everything because it will be censored in the fight against *evil*. Yeah...evil knowledge...you and your children are now prohibited from watching all that bad stuff from the real world out there because we want to breed "healthy, morally constructed" perfect citizens (gets scarier). And some of the nazi-clean of you may ask whats wrong with that?
Everything is wrong about that - no one shall or should ever have this much control over anything. You dont know whos good or bad side youll be on in the future, and it should not restrict you to find about the truth such as you yourself will see it, not the way the owners of Google wants you to see it (China-sensored Google anyone?..its the beginning boys!)
Yeah...go ahead...just call me paranoid!
oh wait... Theyre like 40 year old by now
Ever heard about natural medicine? Our body is amazing, it have the ability to HEAL itself.
And how in the heck has that got to do with learning you ask? It is the same thing. You tell yourself to be negative and that you are unable to complete this task...you will most likely be unable to complete it - even if you know your stuff.
Let me take myself as an example, Ive failed many a test in my younger years and that made me quite sad as a kid. Other factors that made me even sadder was the fact that other kids thought I was a moron for failing all those tests, that did NOT add to my self esteem at all and thus I was bound for further failure.
And here comes the touchdown...
I finally grew up, came away from all the "bad" elements in my life. Bad elements = friends who doesnt really believe in you & family that constantly complain about your existence.
A year later after coming to myself again - all alone, I got much more self confident and what other said about me didnt matter anymore because they could not hurt me where I was - because I had a sanctuary...namely the privacy of my own home.
No matter what test or school or course I attended after that I passed with flying colors. I was happy - It was even so easy that I hardly had to study, well - of course I studied - but it did not FEEL like I was studying - it was too much fun being successful so I had all the confidence I needed to go on to whatever test came my way.
Proof right there!
I think you are really discounting the effect of punishment in our system of jurisprudence. Ethics and morality aside, logic and wisdom tell you that you will be hunted down and/or caught then punished. That, for most people, is a strong deterrent; as is evidenced by our orderly society.
... would I still be the caring person I "hope" that I am today. I have experienced much about myself - seen the scary side of my humanity and the human side as well. Therefor I know I am not without flaws, I could easily make the mistake of abusing my powers.
More wishful thinking in an ideal world I would say. What is one mans reality is not nessesarily the reality for another.
I commend you for your honesty, and really wish other people would be just like you - belive me I REALLY WISH people where like you. Unfortunately I have experienced otherwise, and the justice system you say? While we all are somewhat responsible for the justice system - we are still all humans, and humans are known for their strong convictions and personal beliefs, thats sometimes what drives us forward, its also the same stuff that drives us over the edge.
Sometimes I fiddle with the thoughts of what I would do if I had infinite access to information about everyone and if I where also incredibly wealthy
You, my friend - assume too much, naive? I dont know - I like you, but I am afraid not many have the same high moral standards.
Google is all about information. This is worth a lot of money, and can be used to just about anything, what else is new?
My worry is not related to Google being evil, its more in the power of the individual. No man should have access to all information about another man. Personally I dont believe in Google being Evil as such, but experience and history shows that if you put man into a position where he has the choice of being all powerful ruling and controlling the other party or just sticking to morality and ethics he will chose control over ethics in the blink of an eye.
Its good to see the general public so concerned about what Google does, this means you are not willingly giving up your privacy just like that and wont let anyone get away with bullying your life around. Now this sounds awful paranoid and crusader-like... but its really not. The action we take today - will affect everyone tomorrow, so better be safe, take precautions now rather than say "oh...its probably all okay" and have a disaster unforseen in the future.
Every time Ive been paraniod Ive been right, that doesnt mean that Im right about everything - it simply means - if you can think it - its probably feasible and doable. So better safe than sorry.
Isn't it obvious? Microsoft aren't in the business of marketing, Google are. What are MS going to do with your information? Sell it to someone?
You are joking, right? Microsoft is indeed all about marketing. Any company as big (or wanting to be as big) as Microsoft would have to deal with marketing on a global scale to get results on a global scale. Microsoft would LOVE to get to know their customers, and you think they dont? How do you know?
With Google's habit of tracking and recording every bit of information it can get it's hands on (it's actually their *mission*), why would anyone trust a Google provided OS to allow privacy?
Youll also have to ask yourself - why trust Microsoft with your privacy? Why trust anyone? Its healthy to be skeptical with anything big that will change the way you handle your data.
Personally I saw Google OS coming WAY before screenshoots where posted, but I had NO IDEA that Google would take Linux and create a Googlux (phun intended) out of it, that was kind of a surprise to me.
I must admit Id rather have Google becoming the next Major Operating System/platform than Microsoft, and my reasons for this are simple - more freedom in licensing because Google respect GPL and in fact support it. That doesnt make me less skeptical of the privacy issues surrounding Google though, you can trust that Ill always be breathing down their neck - and hopefully...so will you.
Basically - I welcome Google OS.
A lot of the replies in this thread scares me a bit. Are a lot of you guys taking this as an American VS Europe thing? If so - then this is REALLY bad. That is usually how simple misunderstandings lead to big problems.
..that they
wish that it had extra functionality. Being the smart savy
business people that we are - we naturally give in to the
peoples wishes and even throw in some of our own innovations
to make it that much better.
;)
Please keep in mind that Europe is a close FRIEND of America and an ally as well.
The ongoing Microsoft issues are related to our individual freedom and compatibility issues with other similar system. No company in the world has any rights to control our freedom, Americans of all people should both understand and appreciate this more than anyone if you look at their history and belief that every individual has rights and that forms our democracy.
While it is perfectly natural for any company to protect their intellectual property - this isnt entirely as easy and straightforward as it might seem in Microsofts case.
I will explain. Imagine that you develop a gadget that
catches on everywhere, people really like your gadget for what it does. As a matter of fact - so much so
Now...Imagine that this gadget not only is super popular amongst everyone, but it can be used for nearly everything as well. It now gets used in critical environments like hospitals, police stations, research and much more. Lets say for arguments sake something goes terribly wrong somewhere...we try to help these poor unfortunates of course being the professional company we are... but for some reason failed to do so. Why that is could be argued to death amongst the victims of this flaw and our company.
Now - again imagine, there is no real competitor to our products and our customers are literally forced to use our products, a dream for any company or an individuals loss of freedom - you decide! Well - nothing is stopping you from developing a similar product, is there? And here is what happens when greed becomes a factor. How safe are you and I really? What if our only competitor turns out a real neath product? Ok - we buy it, but they wont sell - so we make it real hard for them to compete. After all - we OWN the standards for most of our innovations...or those that we have bought from others. But it is fortunately not as straightforward as that - heres where your freedom comes into the picture. If you have been sold a product that enslaves you so much so - that you can no longer control it yourself, you are being deprived of your freedom.
No company in this world should have so much power that it can control nearly everything you do, what you sell and whom you sell it to. Imagine that you owned all telephone cables in the world....and imagine that a million companies where dependent on your cables...and further imagine if they changed the copper to light (fiberglass cables) without asking you because they could. All of a sudden - these million companies would have to RE-invest all of their equipment into newer and different equipment rendering their old stuff useless just because the cable company wanted it. It would KILL small companies and they would not have a living breathing chance of survival because....there is no other cablenet.
Belive me - Europe is NOT evil, we are as hearty and friendly as our American allies, but we dont have to agree about EVERYTHING