Except (until I picked up an agp radeon 9500 pro) I was using the Intel 895 desktop chipset. Runs Q3, Urban Terror, UT2K4 just fine. Not at max resolution or texture detail, but it does run.
"laptop with 4 gigs of ram, a 250 gig hd, AND built-in display,"
It's a fucking LAPTOP, it BETTER have a built-in display.
"Shouldn't a box that isn't a laptop, has lower specs, no battery, no display, less ram, smaller disk capacity on a cheaper hard drive, no webcam, no M$TAX, etc., be CHEAPER? "
No, because the money spent miniaturizing the components into a single form factor isn't there.
Ever spend time doing R&D? I'm neck-deep in it right now. You'd be amazed at what little things can do to severely inflate cost, literally.
"For the same cost as that thing, I could build a pretty high powered gaming-class PC that would still work with Linux."
And you'd be paying into the subsidies for Norton and other software, yes, for the cheaper hardware?
Remember that cheap hardware comes with some software taxes on it usually, especially if you buy a computer with a Microsoft OS pre-installed.
This hardware is about equivalent market price without the Microsoft Tax. It's a *LITTLE* underpowered, but it can still do HD video, and it can still do some minor gaming (UT2k4/Q3 type stuff) It's not that lacking. Really if you could get Windows98 to see 3GB of RAM and work with those processor extensions it'd be one blazing fast machine.
"I have a few PC's laying around though and just today decided to put XP on an AMD 3000+ with a 9800GT Nvidia video card in it for shits and giggles and to have a Windows "lab" laying around for comparison. My fucking God is that thing slow. It's like I poured molasses onto the motherboard. You click on explorer and just navigating from directory to directory involves a click and a wait and a click and a wait."
I'm going to have to say you likely didn't have at least a gig of RAM installed, because even on my old 64-bit AMD 3000+ with 2GB of PC2-5300 and a GeForce 6800NX was pretty damned fast. Ubuntu had issues getting Enemy Territory or Scorched3D to work properly for longer than 2 minutes. I tried it the other day with my dual-core AMD X@ 5200+ 64-bit with 4GB PC2-5300 and a GeForce 9800GTX+, still got the same issues even though both software packages had been updated, and I had installed all necessary packages and drivers for the games to work properly.
Just like Linux, it's only slow AT FIRST. Once you've run thru your regular slew of programs, if you don't shut down, loading those programs is a snap and breeze, because there's a precache file of vital information pre-built. Now having the OS save the pre-caches for RAM is another thing entirely. It would be nice to have that all pre-loadable after first run to significantly speed up the process of loading, which is just now being done at the OS level (you 'shut down' by literally restarting the OS clean, suspend it, and you boot up by restarting from suspend)
"Can we replicate this and add information to the current to transport information faster than the speed of light? (The real problem.)"
It is theorized that perhaps quantum entanglement is the answer to this, with some theories suggesting 10,000x FTL potential.
I've thought of quantum-entangled radios, use those for communication between planets. The easiest way to test would just be building a 1-bit pair of quantum-entangled devices, and then use the alteration of spin to represent a 1 or 0. Should be viable for voice transmission, and high-bandwidth data transmission should be not far behind that. Problem is it would likely be only for those two devices, I don't know the details of quantum physics and mechanics.
The female navy Admiral that was responsible for FORTRAN (I think) says that every nanosecond a pulse of electricity can travel down one foot of copper wire.
No hedge fund for payment. I get money from each selling product I design, I get paid also in stock and property. I'll be getting my own research facility built soon enough for my work. I also get paid in raw materials to play with/test and I get to keep all manufactured prototypes. IP rights are split equally.
"I worked at a pretty big corporation. And I’ll never do it again.
The simple reason it, that humans are not made for such big social/power structures"
Please define "pretty big." I work for a corporation of about 35 people, yet they rake in about 100 million a year in profit. The money amount suggests pretty big, the personnel count does not.
And I *LOVE* working for these guys. Minus staying up late to coordinate skype conversations between Europe and Australia, it's swank. All I do is come up with an idea, make a rough sketch of it, explain how it works, get a prototype made, and test it in house, and deliver results back! I get paid in many ways, too.
"A viewfinder even in an SLR only shows what strikes the film."
Let's see what I can see through the viewfinder of my Minolta X-700:
Light level Aperture In-focus/out-of focus prism. Whether or not I need to go up in exposure or down in exposure Battery low warning Operation Mode: Perfect Picture, Manual, Aperture Priority
"actually it sounds more like patent squatting. the idea of previewing a picture before taking it should not be patentable"
EXACTLY. It is an idea anybody familiar with an SLR camera would know about.
The hardware, controlling software, and exact design specification should be patentable. The idea itself, should not.
And that's one thing that fucked our patent system. That goddamned commercial on TV "Have an idea? Patent it!" No. It should be "Have a unique invention/device? Patent it!" Ideas should not be patentable, as anybody with enough experience in the field should be able to come up with the same idea.
FWIW, an immune reaction is a form of physiological reaction, just like a knee-jerk from a rubber mallet to the nerve behind the patella is a form of physiological reaction.
They introduced Betamax in 74, and Beta II (longer time) in 76 along with Beta III. DOA was made in '81, before I was born. I only have it because I inherited it from one of my mothers husbands - not my father. I just kept it as a curiosity, it's the only Beta thing I own and it's what inspired me to learn about Betamax.
Slashdot Mirror
"What is to prevent someone from putting higher HP electric motors?'
aerodynamic drag and thermodynamics, duh.
Typical /. bullshit.
Those that have scaled Everest are the people that set the standard.
If this story can't compensate for that, fuck citations - go back to school.
Only until their heart explodes from the stress. :)
Except (until I picked up an agp radeon 9500 pro) I was using the Intel 895 desktop chipset. Runs Q3, Urban Terror, UT2K4 just fine. Not at max resolution or texture detail, but it does run.
950 should do relatively better.
"systems built like this typically DO NOT come with software included"
Bet that videocard came with a couple of games. There's some software tax somewhere.
My farts are deadly up to 100 miles away.
How's that for a sonic cannon?
I wonder if this happens to work on the 64-bit DEC Alpha version of NT4?
Shit, it's been a year since he died?
Damn that truck accident fucked me up worse than I realized. I though he died years ago.
"laptop with 4 gigs of ram, a 250 gig hd, AND built-in display,"
It's a fucking LAPTOP, it BETTER have a built-in display.
"Shouldn't a box that isn't a laptop, has lower specs, no battery, no display, less ram, smaller disk capacity on a cheaper hard drive, no webcam, no M$TAX, etc., be CHEAPER? "
No, because the money spent miniaturizing the components into a single form factor isn't there.
Ever spend time doing R&D? I'm neck-deep in it right now. You'd be amazed at what little things can do to severely inflate cost, literally.
my firewire camera is still going strong.
"For the same cost as that thing, I could build a pretty high powered gaming-class PC that would still work with Linux."
And you'd be paying into the subsidies for Norton and other software, yes, for the cheaper hardware?
Remember that cheap hardware comes with some software taxes on it usually, especially if you buy a computer with a Microsoft OS pre-installed.
This hardware is about equivalent market price without the Microsoft Tax. It's a *LITTLE* underpowered, but it can still do HD video, and it can still do some minor gaming (UT2k4/Q3 type stuff) It's not that lacking. Really if you could get Windows98 to see 3GB of RAM and work with those processor extensions it'd be one blazing fast machine.
"I have a few PC's laying around though and just today decided to put XP on an AMD 3000+ with a 9800GT Nvidia video card in it for shits and giggles and to have a Windows "lab" laying around for comparison. My fucking God is that thing slow. It's like I poured molasses onto the motherboard. You click on explorer and just navigating from directory to directory involves a click and a wait and a click and a wait."
I'm going to have to say you likely didn't have at least a gig of RAM installed, because even on my old 64-bit AMD 3000+ with 2GB of PC2-5300 and a GeForce 6800NX was pretty damned fast. Ubuntu had issues getting Enemy Territory or Scorched3D to work properly for longer than 2 minutes. I tried it the other day with my dual-core AMD X@ 5200+ 64-bit with 4GB PC2-5300 and a GeForce 9800GTX+, still got the same issues even though both software packages had been updated, and I had installed all necessary packages and drivers for the games to work properly.
Just like Linux, it's only slow AT FIRST. Once you've run thru your regular slew of programs, if you don't shut down, loading those programs is a snap and breeze, because there's a precache file of vital information pre-built. Now having the OS save the pre-caches for RAM is another thing entirely. It would be nice to have that all pre-loadable after first run to significantly speed up the process of loading, which is just now being done at the OS level (you 'shut down' by literally restarting the OS clean, suspend it, and you boot up by restarting from suspend)
... raging at people, I swear I've got enough typing finger strength to tap so hard on a fretboard as to leave my fingerprints in the wood!
"Can we replicate this and add information to the current to transport information faster than the speed of light? (The real problem.)"
It is theorized that perhaps quantum entanglement is the answer to this, with some theories suggesting 10,000x FTL potential.
I've thought of quantum-entangled radios, use those for communication between planets. The easiest way to test would just be building a 1-bit pair of quantum-entangled devices, and then use the alteration of spin to represent a 1 or 0. Should be viable for voice transmission, and high-bandwidth data transmission should be not far behind that. Problem is it would likely be only for those two devices, I don't know the details of quantum physics and mechanics.
"Most importantly, I think it's the only video player out there that supports vsync to avoid horrible 'tearing' while playing video."
Zoom Player does full vsync, at least in the top-notch version. Lower versions I am not sure of.
Zoom Player knocks most anything else out. Zoom Player + CCCP = everything works FAST. VLC has gotten SLOW and clunky.
The female navy Admiral that was responsible for FORTRAN (I think) says that every nanosecond a pulse of electricity can travel down one foot of copper wire.
No hedge fund for payment. I get money from each selling product I design, I get paid also in stock and property. I'll be getting my own research facility built soon enough for my work. I also get paid in raw materials to play with/test and I get to keep all manufactured prototypes. IP rights are split equally.
"I worked at a pretty big corporation. And I’ll never do it again.
The simple reason it, that humans are not made for such big social/power structures"
Please define "pretty big." I work for a corporation of about 35 people, yet they rake in about 100 million a year in profit. The money amount suggests pretty big, the personnel count does not.
And I *LOVE* working for these guys. Minus staying up late to coordinate skype conversations between Europe and Australia, it's swank. All I do is come up with an idea, make a rough sketch of it, explain how it works, get a prototype made, and test it in house, and deliver results back! I get paid in many ways, too.
A decent LCDTV has built-in smoothing when you drop to lower resolutions. My Samsung S550 does it. It's like a built in 2xSAI filter.
Only with the Wii MotionPlus. Regular Wiimote SUCKS for such things.
"A viewfinder even in an SLR only shows what strikes the film."
Let's see what I can see through the viewfinder of my Minolta X-700:
Light level
Aperture
In-focus/out-of focus prism.
Whether or not I need to go up in exposure or down in exposure
Battery low warning
Operation Mode: Perfect Picture, Manual, Aperture Priority
Plenty of features in the decent SLRs.
"actually it sounds more like patent squatting. the idea of previewing a picture before taking it should not be patentable"
EXACTLY. It is an idea anybody familiar with an SLR camera would know about.
The hardware, controlling software, and exact design specification should be patentable. The idea itself, should not.
And that's one thing that fucked our patent system. That goddamned commercial on TV "Have an idea? Patent it!" No. It should be "Have a unique invention/device? Patent it!" Ideas should not be patentable, as anybody with enough experience in the field should be able to come up with the same idea.
Machine or Transformation, not thoughts.
FWIW, an immune reaction is a form of physiological reaction, just like a knee-jerk from a rubber mallet to the nerve behind the patella is a form of physiological reaction.
They introduced Betamax in 74, and Beta II (longer time) in 76 along with Beta III. DOA was made in '81, before I was born. I only have it because I inherited it from one of my mothers husbands - not my father. I just kept it as a curiosity, it's the only Beta thing I own and it's what inspired me to learn about Betamax.
"here in Slovakia Asus RMA means 8 days without a laptop..."
Longer if they plant explosives in your hard drive or battery bay and don't notify anybody until it's too late. ;)