It's not a matter of whether they have the infrastructure, it's a matter of cost.
If the videos get distributed via bittorrent, then that reduces the government's total cost of distribution. The upload bandwidth can be paid for by the viewers of that high-quality video, rather than every single taxpayer.
I would contend that for the average user, spam is essentially a non-issue nowadays. IT departments still have to do quite a bit of work, but all that work means that the average amount of spam a user sees is nearing zero.
Ideally, I'd like to see the government distribute videos via bittorrent, so they don't have to have servers that are that good, OR use a commercial site. Have a direct link to a low-quality video, and have the high-quality one available as a torrent.
I beg to differ. I have a P4 3.2, 1GB DDR400, and a WD640 Black. So far as I know, the WD640 Black is still the fastest mechanical drive on the market, but it's still the bottleneck for most tasks I run. Level loads in games, CD/DVD ripping and burning, and Windows' boot all are disk-bound for me, and my system's not all that great. Ok, video encoding may be CPU-bound for me, but audio encoding is fairly evenly matched (it's CPU-bound, but the disk is working pretty hard), and I spend far more time ripping and burning CDs and DVDs than encoding them to other formats.
More perspective: Intel says that those jobs are "affected", not "terminated" or "cut".
Intel is actively trying to make sure those people aren't cut, but rather just moved to another facility. They're just temporarily consolidating their labor into fewer plants, since the need for production has been scaled back.
Disclaimer: I work for Intel, but I don't have any more information about this than the general public does. The only difference is that I knew about this last week, before it was made public.
My room at home got really cold in the winter, because it was diagonally across from the heater, so the air just didn't get that far before losing its heat.
So I overclock my video card, play Counterstrike for a couple hours, and my room was comfortable!
Overnight I'd leave BOINC running, for the same reason.
My point is that you have an 8 year old PC. If you buy a run-of-the-mill PC right now, you can get something for very cheap that will speed up your day-to-day computing tasks manyfold. As an added bonus, you'll be able to play Team Fortress 2 at high settings.
Then you won't have to buy another PC for several MORE years.
You can now buy a PC perfectly capable of playing TF2 on high settings for around $400-500, not including the OS or monitor.
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3486&p=3
Take that machine, and spend $100 on a video card, and you have a gaming PC. Now, if you spend a bit more for the "budget" system they have listed, then you'll have a complete, balanced computer. But spending "thousands of dollars" is no longer necessary for gaming; it's frivolous spending.
RAM is uber-cheap right now. You can get 2 or 4GB for VERY cheap. It's worth the upgrade, even just for everyday tasks. If you're running Vista, then 2GB is really the minimum now, with 4GB recommended.
That said, I think your issue with TF2 might actually be caused by the CPU, especially since you have a 7900. Most other games are very GPU-dependent, but Valve games are almost always CPU-bound.
My rig: P4 3.2, 1GB DDR400, GF 6600GT AGP. With that machine, I can play TF2, but I have to run it at 1024x768, and turn down most of the settings. But I can still get a decent framerate. That machine's about 5 years old not counting the video card, and about 3 years old if you do.
Your laptop seems like it has the specs to run all of the games out there, even if you have to settle on detail settings occasionally. If you want good gaming performance, and don't feel like you have to spend over $1000/year, then I suggest a desktop. You get more for your money, and it will stay current for longer. Right now you can get a pretty decent gaming machine, including an E8400 (or Q9400), 4GB RAM, and a 4850, for very cheap, and the performance will be great. Now's a good time to buy.
I don't believe that there's any type of spamming in TFC. Grenades offer an interesting strategy to the game. Grenades are in plenty of other FPSs. If you think grenades are "spam", perhaps FPSs aren't for you.
Obviously you've never played Dustbowl in TFC. The nadespam doesn't seem so bad if you usually play CTF maps (2fort, etc) instead of attack/defend.
and seem to be completely devoted to Microsoft for some crazy reason
Not so much that, as apparently the PS3 is very hard to code for, especially when you're used to Windows coding. Apparently the 360 is easier to port from Windows, or to code alongside Windows.
One of my friends told me that Cray built a facility in Minnesota. When they moved out, they failed to sell the building cause it wasn't heated. When they had their supercomputers running there, a separate heating system just wasn't necessary!
Probably because you use the terminal for things you know how to do there, even if there's a GUI option somewhere. Similar to how you're more likely to do Windows+R->cmd->ipconfig to find out your IP address in Windows than Start->Settings->Control Panel->Network Connections.
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In what way is the BitTorrent protocol inherently harmful to users, computers, or the Internet?
It's not a matter of whether they have the infrastructure, it's a matter of cost.
If the videos get distributed via bittorrent, then that reduces the government's total cost of distribution. The upload bandwidth can be paid for by the viewers of that high-quality video, rather than every single taxpayer.
I would contend that for the average user, spam is essentially a non-issue nowadays. IT departments still have to do quite a bit of work, but all that work means that the average amount of spam a user sees is nearing zero.
Ideally, I'd like to see the government distribute videos via bittorrent, so they don't have to have servers that are that good, OR use a commercial site. Have a direct link to a low-quality video, and have the high-quality one available as a torrent.
Problem solved.
So far as I know, the WD640 Black is still the fastest 7200rpm drive on the market
Most tasks are not disk IO-bound
I beg to differ. I have a P4 3.2, 1GB DDR400, and a WD640 Black. So far as I know, the WD640 Black is still the fastest mechanical drive on the market, but it's still the bottleneck for most tasks I run. Level loads in games, CD/DVD ripping and burning, and Windows' boot all are disk-bound for me, and my system's not all that great. Ok, video encoding may be CPU-bound for me, but audio encoding is fairly evenly matched (it's CPU-bound, but the disk is working pretty hard), and I spend far more time ripping and burning CDs and DVDs than encoding them to other formats.
More perspective: Intel says that those jobs are "affected", not "terminated" or "cut".
Intel is actively trying to make sure those people aren't cut, but rather just moved to another facility. They're just temporarily consolidating their labor into fewer plants, since the need for production has been scaled back.
Disclaimer: I work for Intel, but I don't have any more information about this than the general public does. The only difference is that I knew about this last week, before it was made public.
Eh...
My room at home got really cold in the winter, because it was diagonally across from the heater, so the air just didn't get that far before losing its heat.
So I overclock my video card, play Counterstrike for a couple hours, and my room was comfortable!
Overnight I'd leave BOINC running, for the same reason.
My point is that you have an 8 year old PC. If you buy a run-of-the-mill PC right now, you can get something for very cheap that will speed up your day-to-day computing tasks manyfold. As an added bonus, you'll be able to play Team Fortress 2 at high settings.
Then you won't have to buy another PC for several MORE years.
You remind me of this comic:
http://xkcd.com/166/
You can now buy a PC perfectly capable of playing TF2 on high settings for around $400-500, not including the OS or monitor.
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3486&p=3
Take that machine, and spend $100 on a video card, and you have a gaming PC. Now, if you spend a bit more for the "budget" system they have listed, then you'll have a complete, balanced computer. But spending "thousands of dollars" is no longer necessary for gaming; it's frivolous spending.
RAM is uber-cheap right now. You can get 2 or 4GB for VERY cheap. It's worth the upgrade, even just for everyday tasks. If you're running Vista, then 2GB is really the minimum now, with 4GB recommended.
That said, I think your issue with TF2 might actually be caused by the CPU, especially since you have a 7900. Most other games are very GPU-dependent, but Valve games are almost always CPU-bound.
My rig: P4 3.2, 1GB DDR400, GF 6600GT AGP. With that machine, I can play TF2, but I have to run it at 1024x768, and turn down most of the settings. But I can still get a decent framerate. That machine's about 5 years old not counting the video card, and about 3 years old if you do.
Your laptop seems like it has the specs to run all of the games out there, even if you have to settle on detail settings occasionally. If you want good gaming performance, and don't feel like you have to spend over $1000/year, then I suggest a desktop. You get more for your money, and it will stay current for longer. Right now you can get a pretty decent gaming machine, including an E8400 (or Q9400), 4GB RAM, and a 4850, for very cheap, and the performance will be great. Now's a good time to buy.
I don't believe that there's any type of spamming in TFC. Grenades offer an interesting strategy to the game. Grenades are in plenty of other FPSs. If you think grenades are "spam", perhaps FPSs aren't for you.
Obviously you've never played Dustbowl in TFC. The nadespam doesn't seem so bad if you usually play CTF maps (2fort, etc) instead of attack/defend.
and seem to be completely devoted to Microsoft for some crazy reason
Not so much that, as apparently the PS3 is very hard to code for, especially when you're used to Windows coding. Apparently the 360 is easier to port from Windows, or to code alongside Windows.
Take a look at "How To Go From PC to Cross Platform Development Without Killing Your Studio" here:
http://valvesoftware.com/publications.html
but by the time of Pearl Harbor, our economy was stronger than it was before the depression.
At least partly because we were mass-producing war materiel for Britain...
One of my friends told me that Cray built a facility in Minnesota. When they moved out, they failed to sell the building cause it wasn't heated. When they had their supercomputers running there, a separate heating system just wasn't necessary!
test the potential
Solar Power
I see what you did there...
No.
Hey, that's mine!
Anyone who uses slide transitions should be shot.
Wow, you've had XP installed for 10 years?! Impressive!
s/mother/Linux/
Put the message inside an Excel spreadsheet that uses weird macros. If they can see it, then they're still using MS Office, and they should switch.
Probably because you use the terminal for things you know how to do there, even if there's a GUI option somewhere. Similar to how you're more likely to do Windows+R->cmd->ipconfig to find out your IP address in Windows than Start->Settings->Control Panel->Network Connections.
Either I suck at humor, or you didn't pick it up. Either way, it was supposed to be funny; I don't blame IE/FF incompatibilities on Javascript. ;)