How the hell does your computer score LOWER when it has better hardware than my laptop?
Something is seriously fucked up about Vista's rating system - and Microsoft needs to be taken to court over it, using our laptops as the examples. This is absolutely misleading advertising.
With 8 cores, I could dedicate 2 to Vista, 2 to XP, 2 to whatever Linux distro I want and then have another two cores for backup performance if required while doing stuff in one OS.
As a Texan living in California, I'd have to say Texas is worse. By far, they are dumber, the civil infringements are greater (you practically have no 4th amendment rights in Plano,) and it's the home to one of the biggest embarrassments on this planet.
MinuetOS. ZetaOS. I run both, and you couldn't TOUCH my MinuetOS machine unless you knew A. my assembler coding style and nuances and B. the exact hardware I have in my computer. Single-user OS, rock-solid and pretty much untouchable by hackers, social engineering, and drive-by malware.
I know very well what I'm talking about. You can go sit in the corner.
Offline mode has never worked in the two years I've used Steam and it's gotten annoying as fuck.
"Second, Gabe himself said that if steam were ever to go down, he would remove any and all restrictions from playing your game, without the steam servers."
Gabe's not a core programmer, so I doubt HE is going to do jack shit. Also, he's not in control of the games - the DEVELOPER is, not the Publisher/Distributor. If they say no, you're fucked.
"Become educated instead of braying along with the masses."
Yea. Take your 7-digit UID and go back to pre-school, child.
Offline mode is a piece of shit. It doesn't work half of the time with my games. I'm getting real fucking sick of needing to lug my desktop to an internet-enabled location just to play some of the games I paid for.
Almost to the point I'm going to ask for a full refund of the Orange Box.
"In my 25 years of computer use I've seen quite a few games, and based on that experience I'm going to call bullshit on that assessment."
Most FPS games store that data in a.CFG file in the game install directory. Has been that way since Quake and Duke Nukem 3D. Diablo as well, IIRC. UT3 changed that a bit, your progress is uploaded to their master server and not saved locally.
And how is my assessment over the top? In my 10+ years of IT I find most single-user systems quite safe data-wise, as there's not so many people using a system that might get social-engineered into doing something stupid. Backups are easier because instead of having to transfer multiple profiles over a network you just back up the entire file system. Oh, that reminds me - for the purpose of backups, REAL backup tools image the entire filesystem, not just stupid directory locations such as home/my documents/etc.
Any time I've had a MAJOR issue to fix it was because of someone doing something stupid in a multi-user system, usually caused by PEBCAK or ID10T that got socially-engineered.
You must not game - that feature you speak of has been around for the better part of a decade and a half. Hell nowdays games like UT3 back up your game data for you and tie it to a login account - hey, sounds like something that should've been implemented in Windows to begin with!
Most games come with loadable and savable user profiles - which are almost ALWAYS in the game's actual directory, and some games even backup your progress for you on their own servers so when you uninstall the game and come back a few months down the road you can pick right up where you left off.
And that would be the different part of the issue - if you're so worried about your data to begin with on a multi-user system then odds are you probably shouldn't be using the system in the first place, because your data is far safer on a single-user system than a multi-user system.
How does it not make sense? The data the program generates goes into its program folder, and nowhere else. In fact that's how the system should be designed to prevent malware hiding in random places - you can only write to your own directory and no where else. It makes backup that much simpler and it keeps shit organized to where it belongs, with the program that created it and can modify it.
Because that directory string is WAY TOO FUCKING LONG and I CONSTANTLY work under command line.
Back in the days of DOS - an application either made a directory for saving data to or it saved data in a save directory within it's own directory.
See, I expect the be able to organize my files the way I want them to be organized. You won't find one fucking thing in my user folder (except for my UT3 data which is forced to reside there.) See i hate this "program files/games/EPIC/Unreal" kind of bullshit. I want c:\games\UT3 and all save data put into the game directory, so when I remove the game, it's gone, all of it. (Besides that copy of your progress that gets saved to the GAME COMPANY SERVER if you're logged in.) No having to hunt around thru other folders to just backup what's scattered all over hell's creation.
If you looked at my directory structure, you'd go "Why can't everyone's computer be this organized?"
All application shortcuts go to Quick Launch. All applications go into C: (or D:)\program type\program so c:\games\UT3 or c:\musictools\cooledit etc etc etc.
You must not be a DOS gamer. See, before all the stuff you have now, we used pure command line. There were no user profiles, and there was barely anything that resembled a coherent directory structure. Since we didn't have stuff back then like "Program Files" or "Application Data" the game installed to c:\gamename and all data it generated was kept in that directory, because back then it made sense to do so. It still makes sense now.
That's all well and nice, but there's one problem with that.
I'm just your average user, not a developer. Intuitively, when something is saved, especially something like a game save, I EXPECT it to be written to the game's fucking application directory.
Your sense of organization clashes with common sense, however I do agree with forbidding the assholes to write to system/system32 and other system-critical directories and spewing DLLs all over the place.
Windows is so damned convoluted, that is what I said. ASLR is a good thing. I find it funny that the one thing that people tend to complain about - all the twists and turns in Windows and how sloppy and make-shift it is, ends up making it somewhat more secure in one form.
"2) There is no tape on the inside of a comparable HP laptop. If you have to disassemble it, it's pretty easy, and there are not 20 screws in the entire machine. The wiring is done far more intelligently."
This is not true. There is not a single HP laptop with less than 30 screws, and I've worked on them all from the touchscreen TC4200 line up to the DV9000 models. The least that I can recall was 32 screws for the entire disassembly of the machine, including unmounting the LCD screen from the rails.
But yes, HP laptops are better engineered. Can't say much about components, though. Thermal modules they use suck balls. Thermal pads instead of paste for conducting heat away.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's run this down...
I get a 4.5 on my DV9825NR.
1.83GHz Dual Core T5550
4GB PC-5300 DDR2
512MB GeForce 8600GS Mobile
320GB SATA-II 5400 RPM
17" 1440x900 16:10 widescreen
Dual-Layer 16X DVD+- RW Lightscribe drive.
How the hell does your computer score LOWER when it has better hardware than my laptop?
Something is seriously fucked up about Vista's rating system - and Microsoft needs to be taken to court over it, using our laptops as the examples. This is absolutely misleading advertising.
No he didn't.
And you know why they're realizing that treating their customers is not good business practice?
Because we're about to own their ass in court over their nonsense.
Oh, man, you haven't seen the shit that goes down in Texas.
Their Anti-littering campaign slogan "Don't Mess With Texas" took on a whole new meaning in the 90's when Bush Sr held office.
I'd rather be dead than have the loss of security you gain from living in Texas.
I had sigs turned off, forgot I even had one!!!!
I have to ask this - what kind of system are you running?
I've got:
AMD x2 5200+ @2.6 GHz
4GB PC-5300 DDR2
512MB GeForce 9800GTX+
Run XP Pro SP2. I get the hacked for XP ultra-high settings in Crysis going and I pull about 40 FPS at 1920x1080.
If your 280 is getting bogged down something's wrong with your silicon.
Why run virtual OSes with that much hardware?
With 8 cores, I could dedicate 2 to Vista, 2 to XP, 2 to whatever Linux distro I want and then have another two cores for backup performance if required while doing stuff in one OS.
Why couldn't they just build an OS KVM?
Wouldn't surprise me if they required you to get a license to take a shit.
They already require you to get a food handler's license even if you don't touch food in a restaurant (e.g. maintenance job.)
Half of their stuff is a scam, the other half looks like it's been designed to keep illegals at bay to a degree.
As a Texan living in California, I'd have to say Texas is worse. By far, they are dumber, the civil infringements are greater (you practically have no 4th amendment rights in Plano,) and it's the home to one of the biggest embarrassments on this planet.
God please get rid of LA. See the pollution doesn't stay in LA, it gets blown east, where it settles in the valleys.
Riverside, San Bernardino, and Yucaipa are smothering in the pollution.
That's ANCIENT laptop hardware!
MinuetOS. ZetaOS. I run both, and you couldn't TOUCH my MinuetOS machine unless you knew A. my assembler coding style and nuances and B. the exact hardware I have in my computer. Single-user OS, rock-solid and pretty much untouchable by hackers, social engineering, and drive-by malware.
I know very well what I'm talking about. You can go sit in the corner.
"First off, steam can be run in offline mode."
Offline mode has never worked in the two years I've used Steam and it's gotten annoying as fuck.
"Second, Gabe himself said that if steam were ever to go down, he would remove any and all restrictions from playing your game, without the steam servers."
Gabe's not a core programmer, so I doubt HE is going to do jack shit. Also, he's not in control of the games - the DEVELOPER is, not the Publisher/Distributor. If they say no, you're fucked.
"Become educated instead of braying along with the masses."
Yea. Take your 7-digit UID and go back to pre-school, child.
Offline mode is a piece of shit. It doesn't work half of the time with my games. I'm getting real fucking sick of needing to lug my desktop to an internet-enabled location just to play some of the games I paid for.
Almost to the point I'm going to ask for a full refund of the Orange Box.
"In my 25 years of computer use I've seen quite a few games, and based on that experience I'm going to call bullshit on that assessment."
Most FPS games store that data in a .CFG file in the game install directory. Has been that way since Quake and Duke Nukem 3D. Diablo as well, IIRC. UT3 changed that a bit, your progress is uploaded to their master server and not saved locally.
And how is my assessment over the top? In my 10+ years of IT I find most single-user systems quite safe data-wise, as there's not so many people using a system that might get social-engineered into doing something stupid. Backups are easier because instead of having to transfer multiple profiles over a network you just back up the entire file system. Oh, that reminds me - for the purpose of backups, REAL backup tools image the entire filesystem, not just stupid directory locations such as home/my documents/etc.
Any time I've had a MAJOR issue to fix it was because of someone doing something stupid in a multi-user system, usually caused by PEBCAK or ID10T that got socially-engineered.
You must not game - that feature you speak of has been around for the better part of a decade and a half. Hell nowdays games like UT3 back up your game data for you and tie it to a login account - hey, sounds like something that should've been implemented in Windows to begin with!
Most games come with loadable and savable user profiles - which are almost ALWAYS in the game's actual directory, and some games even backup your progress for you on their own servers so when you uninstall the game and come back a few months down the road you can pick right up where you left off.
And that would be the different part of the issue - if you're so worried about your data to begin with on a multi-user system then odds are you probably shouldn't be using the system in the first place, because your data is far safer on a single-user system than a multi-user system.
A real backup tool would image the entire filesystem, wouldn't you think?
How does it not make sense? The data the program generates goes into its program folder, and nowhere else. In fact that's how the system should be designed to prevent malware hiding in random places - you can only write to your own directory and no where else. It makes backup that much simpler and it keeps shit organized to where it belongs, with the program that created it and can modify it.
Because that directory string is WAY TOO FUCKING LONG and I CONSTANTLY work under command line.
Back in the days of DOS - an application either made a directory for saving data to or it saved data in a save directory within it's own directory.
See, I expect the be able to organize my files the way I want them to be organized. You won't find one fucking thing in my user folder (except for my UT3 data which is forced to reside there.) See i hate this "program files/games/EPIC/Unreal" kind of bullshit. I want c:\games\UT3 and all save data put into the game directory, so when I remove the game, it's gone, all of it. (Besides that copy of your progress that gets saved to the GAME COMPANY SERVER if you're logged in.) No having to hunt around thru other folders to just backup what's scattered all over hell's creation.
If you looked at my directory structure, you'd go "Why can't everyone's computer be this organized?"
All application shortcuts go to Quick Launch. All applications go into C: (or D:)\program type\program so c:\games\UT3 or c:\musictools\cooledit etc etc etc.
You must not be a DOS gamer. See, before all the stuff you have now, we used pure command line. There were no user profiles, and there was barely anything that resembled a coherent directory structure. Since we didn't have stuff back then like "Program Files" or "Application Data" the game installed to c:\gamename and all data it generated was kept in that directory, because back then it made sense to do so. It still makes sense now.
My boss is still stuck at 3 decahertz.
Hey Al! Say hi to the Slashdot crowd!
"What???"
That's all well and nice, but there's one problem with that.
I'm just your average user, not a developer. Intuitively, when something is saved, especially something like a game save, I EXPECT it to be written to the game's fucking application directory.
Your sense of organization clashes with common sense, however I do agree with forbidding the assholes to write to system/system32 and other system-critical directories and spewing DLLs all over the place.
Windows is so damned convoluted, that is what I said. ASLR is a good thing. I find it funny that the one thing that people tend to complain about - all the twists and turns in Windows and how sloppy and make-shift it is, ends up making it somewhat more secure in one form.
"2) There is no tape on the inside of a comparable HP laptop. If you have to disassemble it, it's pretty easy, and there are not 20 screws in the entire machine. The wiring is done far more intelligently."
This is not true. There is not a single HP laptop with less than 30 screws, and I've worked on them all from the touchscreen TC4200 line up to the DV9000 models. The least that I can recall was 32 screws for the entire disassembly of the machine, including unmounting the LCD screen from the rails.
But yes, HP laptops are better engineered. Can't say much about components, though. Thermal modules they use suck balls. Thermal pads instead of paste for conducting heat away.