It's neither. This is simply the natural next step in the 3D graphics world. Once a standard high-level GPU programming language is adopted, programmers can spend a LOT more time doing stuff that makes for better games, while keeping the eye candy at a very high level (across any decent piece of hardware and 3D API). When I saw this PR, I wept with joy at the thought of being able to forget all the ASM-level tuning that needs to be done currently to get high performance from this generation of 3D HW. And I don't even have to wait 10 years for OpenGL 2.0!
In today's Corporate America, the only loyalty upper management has is to the Almighty Buck. Why should it be any different for the laborers? If you are valuable to the company, you will get paid. If you are not, it doesn't matter whether you accept a counter-offer or not, because you could be replaced by someone with the "same" skills that will work for cheaper at any time.
As for asking for the counter-offering employer to sign a labor contract, good luck with that! IMHO, that could cause them to retract their counter-offer and say, "Hit the road."
If you don't ask for a REAL raise, you won't get one, unless you are horribly underpaid in the first place.
It could be a simple matter that surface tension is strong enough to hold the plug in place. A droplet of water stuck in such a small place would be difficult to disturb.
"cramming as much as 25 million printed textbook pages of data on a surface the size of a postage stamp"
What is up with the system of measurements that journalists use? I'd rather see units like "25 billion clay tablets per cubic cubit..."
Back in 1986, my middle school in a suburb of Washington, DC did this. The math teacher that
ran the computer lab stayed after school until about 5 PM once a week, keeping our lab open for
the students to do whatever they liked. Of course, back then the lab consisted of Apple
II's, and the games we played were either public domain "learning" software (Oregon Trail,
anyone?), or games that we brought in ourselves
(Moebius!). As far as I know, the program ended only when the teacher got too busy in her personal life to babysit us kids. It was great
fun, and gave me an extra push to go into the computer business.
To sum it up, I think it's a great idea. My wife is a former elementary school teacher, and she did
this with her students occasionally as well. In her case, the games were all "edutainment" titles
that the school already owned... but it's still gaming, right? Not to mention that the kids DO
love it!
What you are forgetting is that by rendering as many frames as possible, the frame that the user actually gets to see is a closer representation of what is "current" in the game space. I know that the difference is only a few milliseconds, but there is a difference.
Also, many games (iirc) use a simplistic integrator for their physics models, so they are more accurate at smaller timeslices (faster framerates).
Dropping frames isn't a bad thing (except for the use of "too many" CPU/GPU cycles) as long as you dont see the same frame on two or more consecutive monitor refreshes.
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It's neither. This is simply the natural next step in the 3D graphics world. Once a standard high-level GPU programming language is adopted, programmers can spend a LOT more time doing stuff that makes for better games, while keeping the eye candy at a very high level (across any decent piece of hardware and 3D API). When I saw this PR, I wept with joy at the thought of being able to forget all the ASM-level tuning that needs to be done currently to get high performance from this generation of 3D HW. And I don't even have to wait 10 years for OpenGL 2.0!
They are letting other vendors build their own backend. Think gcc for GPUs...
In today's Corporate America, the only loyalty upper management has is to the Almighty Buck. Why should it be any different for the laborers? If you are valuable to the company, you will get paid. If you are not, it doesn't matter whether you accept a counter-offer or not, because you could be replaced by someone with the "same" skills that will work for cheaper at any time.
As for asking for the counter-offering employer to sign a labor contract, good luck with that! IMHO, that could cause them to retract their counter-offer and say, "Hit the road."
If you don't ask for a REAL raise, you won't get one, unless you are horribly underpaid in the first place.
Do I smell IPO??? Fibre-optic drinking straws, fun for the whole family!
It could be a simple matter that surface tension is strong enough to hold the plug in place. A droplet of water stuck in such a small place would be difficult to disturb.
"cramming as much as 25 million printed textbook pages of data on a surface the size of a postage stamp" What is up with the system of measurements that journalists use? I'd rather see units like "25 billion clay tablets per cubic cubit..."
Back in 1986, my middle school in a suburb of Washington, DC did this. The math teacher that ran the computer lab stayed after school until about 5 PM once a week, keeping our lab open for the students to do whatever they liked. Of course, back then the lab consisted of Apple II's, and the games we played were either public domain "learning" software (Oregon Trail, anyone?), or games that we brought in ourselves (Moebius!). As far as I know, the program ended only when the teacher got too busy in her personal life to babysit us kids. It was great fun, and gave me an extra push to go into the computer business. To sum it up, I think it's a great idea. My wife is a former elementary school teacher, and she did this with her students occasionally as well. In her case, the games were all "edutainment" titles that the school already owned... but it's still gaming, right? Not to mention that the kids DO love it!
What you are forgetting is that by rendering as many frames as possible, the frame that the user actually gets to see is a closer representation of what is "current" in the game space. I know that the difference is only a few milliseconds, but there is a difference.
Also, many games (iirc) use a simplistic integrator for their physics models, so they are more accurate at smaller timeslices (faster framerates).
Dropping frames isn't a bad thing (except for the use of "too many" CPU/GPU cycles) as long as you dont see the same frame on two or more consecutive monitor refreshes.