My university computer science graphics course was still pretty low level. We use OpenGL for 2D drawing primitives, but the assignments were: line drawing with anti-aliasing, 3D rendering, camera movement, adding light sources, and finally ray tracing. As I said before, we only got to use 2D drawing routines to project 3D data onto a 2D surface. Many people in the class complained because they thought the course would be using OpenGL 3D. Hell, most of the undergrads referred to OpenGL like it was a single library, not realizing that OpenGL is just an API that many companies reimplement to utilize specific hardware. Painfully obvious by questions like, "Well, how does OpenGL do it?"
What exactly are the 2D graphics problems you see in XP? I have never noticed any major problems. Are they caused by windows redrawing themselves? If so, then the new compositing window manager in Vista they have should fix this. Have you tried Vista with it turned on?
Do these bands ever do covers of popular music? If so, then do they always ask permission? I can understand two local bands having such a relationship because they are competing in the same market and probably are acquaintances. At some point, popular music breaks out of being just a piece of intellectual property and becomes part of the society is was contributed to. Any musician that wants to try to make all of their money off of licensing and album sales is sorely mistaken. As a musician, you make the most money providing the service of performance. That is the way it always has been. No cover band dreams of competing, as a cover band, against the artists they cover. Furthermore, the goodwill that you described would probably lead them to stop doing certain covers if they were somehow competing against and hurting the original artist. If you don't want your music/art to become a part of society, then keep it to yourself.
if you write a song and somebody else performs it, you ought to get paid Why? Next you are going to tell me that every time a first grade class has "story time" an author should be getting paid.
I am not sure what you are talking about, but the surface gravity of Jupiter is 24.79 m/s^2. That is quite a bit more that the 9.7 m/s^2 we experience here on earth.
The reason I do not like the touchpad is that you constantly have to take your finger off and reposition to move across the entire screen with any accuracy. It never feels like a very fluid experience. There are no such bounds when using a pointing stick. You just hold it in the direction you want to go. You never have to reposition your hand. Many people only have experience with the old "eraser head" pointing sticks, but they are now made with replaceable rubber tops. The tops also come in different styles to fit your preference. If you have not tried it in a while, you should give it a shot. I think CompUSA and some other stores are selling Thinkpads, so a stop in there could grant you a test drive.
Multi-touch or no multi-touch, it is still a touchpad. It amazes me that most laptops are made with the touchpad as the only pointing device. I have a Thinkpad with a TrackPoint pointing stick, and I could never go back to having just a touchpad. I don't care how you dress it up, touchpads are not a good interface.
If you read my post again, I wasn't saying they should absorb ATI. I was just asking because it seems people are using AMD quite a bit to refer to ATI. I personally think they should keep the ATI brand.
Is AMD planning on absorbing ATI or keeping it as a separate brand? People keep using "AMD" in place of "ATI". The products are called "ATI Radeon HD 2xxx". The ATI website is now green and AMD branded, but the ATI name is still used on the products. Has there been any word from AMD about the future of the ATI brand? Are they just in transition to absorbing ATI completely?
Wouldn't that be a bit redundant? It seems like the purpose of the Cell architecture was to take the ideas used to create these kinds of super-computers and put them on a single chip allowing for good parallel performance. Wasn't it being touted as a super-computer on a chip? To program for a BlueGene based on Cell, you would have to parellelize and specialize your already parallel tasks to get the full advantage. That is my understanding of it, but only time will tell what can be done, or what people will try to do, with Cell.
You don't seem to understand what I am saying. You don't "need those things" for a lot of sports. Looking again at football. All you need is at least something that hopefully, but not necessarily, resembles a football that can hopefully be thrown. In soccer, you need at least something that resembles a soccer ball that can be kicked. How is soccer any better than football in this regard? I would argue that football may have it a little better because more things can be effectively thrown than can be effectively kicked(i.e. You could play football with a soccer ball, but would have a hard time playing soccer with a football). Don't be so close-minded about this. Sports exist on many different levels. What you see on television is made for the entertainment of the audience, not the players. People find different ways to play when it is for the entertainment of the players.
Many sports can be played in small, restricted versions with less resources. Another poster has pointed out stickball as a restricted form of baseball. You don't need much to play football. You can play it in the middle of the street if you want to. My guess is that you never did that because where you grew up, kids played soccer instead. Let's look at soccer. Would you agree if someone said that you need special goals, a special ball, shin guards, and a huge playing surface with offsides lines to play soccer? Of course not, because those things are not needed for the small restricted form of the game that is casually played. Soccer is great, but don't be unfair and try to make it look like the game that God handed down to humanity. What do you think American children do during school recess?
You complain that your thumbs were sore, but what does the iPhone do to make that situation better? I don't see how this will compete with a Blackberry for texting and writing emails. Their solutions seems to be presenting the same type of keypad on a touchscreen. I can't buy into a true tablet device that does not fully utilize either handwriting recognition or at least a Palm style graffiti system.
Are readers supposed to be shocked or appalled by those numbers? They make perfect sense. The USA is predominantly monotheistic. Take the CIA world factbook numbers for the USA:
Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%, none 10% (2002 est.)
That leaves only a maximum of 20% of people being atheist, but it is probably more towards 10%-15%. It makes sense that a constituency would lean towards electing candidates who they identify with the most. You should be encouraged by the fact that 45% of people are still willing to vote for a candidate who does not share a fundamental belief about the universe. In the USA, voters are becoming very open minded. The only problem we have is our government has a seniority system. This means that all of the white men that got in long ago, will be hanging out at the top until they are dead or retired. It also means that the minorities and women making their way in today, will be around for the future. Once they get the seniority, they will have chances at higher offices. Today we have a woman third in line for the presidency. That is progress.
Thinkpads have great keyboards. Also, the trackpoint is amazing. I honestly do not think I could ever buy another brand of laptop. I do not know how people put up with touchpads. Hopefully the trackpoint will make a comeback.
This might be the reason that providers are offering different high-speed internet plans. My local provider offers "Preferred" 7Mbs down/512 Kbps up and a "Premier" 12 Mbps down/1 Mbps up plans. I would much rather see these throttled plans than any sort of pay per bit or pay per minute schemes, but it has it's downsides. We are finally getting to a point of wide-spread broadband adoption, but introduction of "budget" plans, could separate the Internet again. Instead of dial-up and broadband, it will be "web" plans and "media" plans. I see this as being the first way the ISPs will look in an effort to control bandwidth. Hopefully they will use that time to update some infrastructure. Question to/., would you rather have uncapped bandwidth with a transfer cap, or capped bandwidth with no transfer cap? (either way you are always capped somehow, but I am talking about true "personal use" limiting caps)
Canonical does have a business strategy with Ubuntu. They are offering paid support for the product (9x5 or 24x7). Furthermore, they seem to welcome any competition to their support by providing links to other companies offering Ubuntu support( see Canonical Marketplace ). In general it seems they have taken a slightly different approach than Red Hat. Canonical is trying to harness( or exploit, depends on how you view it ) the power of the ready and willing user, developer, and artist communities. I am not sure what kind of QA Canonical itself puts into each release, but it is enough for them to throw their name and business behind it. Red Hat seems to be more content with doing most of their own work. We have seen that the Red Hat model can work, but the jury is still out on Canonical. I think they might have a good future.
I am going to guess that you didn't RTFA. "Origami" is more of a true tablet experience(no keyboard) while Flipstart is just a midget laptop. Similar to what has been called palmtop computers.
I always had the feeling that the bad security reputation with PHP had less to do with technical bugs and more to do with how easy it is to write insecure code(especially when using the mysql module). Also at fault is the general lack of programming understanding by the amatuers who find their way to PHP because it is so easy to go from having a static HTML page to a dynamic PHP page. Are there a lot of vulnerabilities in the interpreter?
Re:Comment on Fedora in general.
on
Fedora Linux
·
· Score: 1
If the class were to study in detail the virtual memory system for the Linux kernel, would that compromise your ability to work on the virtual memory of another commercial operating system like Windows, OS X, VxWorks, or AIX? While most people might say 'no', the companies that own those operating systems might think otherwise. Look at the recent headlines for the SCO vs IBM case. The current controversy is whether or not IBM's Linux developers had copies of AIX source code on their workstations. That is just having a copy, not even indicating studying the code. The problem is, if you have studied the Linux kernel, you could, with or without knowing it, introduce code that is a derivative work from the Linux kernel into a non-GPL operating system. It does not have to be a copy and paste job to be a derivative work. I don't think I am wrong here, but if you could provide a sound argument against what I am saying, that might shed some light on the subject. As far as where I have encountered this type of stance, I work for one of the corporations that produces one of the operating systems listed above(but I do not work on the OS).
Re:Comment on Fedora in general.
on
Fedora Linux
·
· Score: 1
Your professor probably shouldn't be basing the curriculum around a GPL kernel. Something like that could affect your future job possibilities. I am guessing your professor picked the 2.4 kernel because it seems out of date, but that is not really important when it comes to legal matters like the GPL. It seems like concentrating on a more open kernel like a BSD would be a safer bet. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but that seems rather careless on the part of your professor.
Slashdot Mirror
My university computer science graphics course was still pretty low level. We use OpenGL for 2D drawing primitives, but the assignments were: line drawing with anti-aliasing, 3D rendering, camera movement, adding light sources, and finally ray tracing. As I said before, we only got to use 2D drawing routines to project 3D data onto a 2D surface. Many people in the class complained because they thought the course would be using OpenGL 3D. Hell, most of the undergrads referred to OpenGL like it was a single library, not realizing that OpenGL is just an API that many companies reimplement to utilize specific hardware. Painfully obvious by questions like, "Well, how does OpenGL do it?"
What exactly are the 2D graphics problems you see in XP? I have never noticed any major problems. Are they caused by windows redrawing themselves? If so, then the new compositing window manager in Vista they have should fix this. Have you tried Vista with it turned on?
Do these bands ever do covers of popular music? If so, then do they always ask permission? I can understand two local bands having such a relationship because they are competing in the same market and probably are acquaintances. At some point, popular music breaks out of being just a piece of intellectual property and becomes part of the society is was contributed to. Any musician that wants to try to make all of their money off of licensing and album sales is sorely mistaken. As a musician, you make the most money providing the service of performance. That is the way it always has been. No cover band dreams of competing, as a cover band, against the artists they cover. Furthermore, the goodwill that you described would probably lead them to stop doing certain covers if they were somehow competing against and hurting the original artist. If you don't want your music/art to become a part of society, then keep it to yourself.
Because we all know that is how it worked with the Jeep.
I am not sure what you are talking about, but the surface gravity of Jupiter is 24.79 m/s^2. That is quite a bit more that the 9.7 m/s^2 we experience here on earth.
The reason I do not like the touchpad is that you constantly have to take your finger off and reposition to move across the entire screen with any accuracy. It never feels like a very fluid experience. There are no such bounds when using a pointing stick. You just hold it in the direction you want to go. You never have to reposition your hand. Many people only have experience with the old "eraser head" pointing sticks, but they are now made with replaceable rubber tops. The tops also come in different styles to fit your preference. If you have not tried it in a while, you should give it a shot. I think CompUSA and some other stores are selling Thinkpads, so a stop in there could grant you a test drive.
Multi-touch or no multi-touch, it is still a touchpad. It amazes me that most laptops are made with the touchpad as the only pointing device. I have a Thinkpad with a TrackPoint pointing stick, and I could never go back to having just a touchpad. I don't care how you dress it up, touchpads are not a good interface.
If you read my post again, I wasn't saying they should absorb ATI. I was just asking because it seems people are using AMD quite a bit to refer to ATI. I personally think they should keep the ATI brand.
Is AMD planning on absorbing ATI or keeping it as a separate brand? People keep using "AMD" in place of "ATI". The products are called "ATI Radeon HD 2xxx". The ATI website is now green and AMD branded, but the ATI name is still used on the products. Has there been any word from AMD about the future of the ATI brand? Are they just in transition to absorbing ATI completely?
Wouldn't that be a bit redundant? It seems like the purpose of the Cell architecture was to take the ideas used to create these kinds of super-computers and put them on a single chip allowing for good parallel performance. Wasn't it being touted as a super-computer on a chip? To program for a BlueGene based on Cell, you would have to parellelize and specialize your already parallel tasks to get the full advantage. That is my understanding of it, but only time will tell what can be done, or what people will try to do, with Cell.
You don't seem to understand what I am saying. You don't "need those things" for a lot of sports. Looking again at football. All you need is at least something that hopefully, but not necessarily, resembles a football that can hopefully be thrown. In soccer, you need at least something that resembles a soccer ball that can be kicked. How is soccer any better than football in this regard? I would argue that football may have it a little better because more things can be effectively thrown than can be effectively kicked(i.e. You could play football with a soccer ball, but would have a hard time playing soccer with a football). Don't be so close-minded about this. Sports exist on many different levels. What you see on television is made for the entertainment of the audience, not the players. People find different ways to play when it is for the entertainment of the players.
Many sports can be played in small, restricted versions with less resources. Another poster has pointed out stickball as a restricted form of baseball. You don't need much to play football. You can play it in the middle of the street if you want to. My guess is that you never did that because where you grew up, kids played soccer instead. Let's look at soccer. Would you agree if someone said that you need special goals, a special ball, shin guards, and a huge playing surface with offsides lines to play soccer? Of course not, because those things are not needed for the small restricted form of the game that is casually played. Soccer is great, but don't be unfair and try to make it look like the game that God handed down to humanity. What do you think American children do during school recess?
You complain that your thumbs were sore, but what does the iPhone do to make that situation better? I don't see how this will compete with a Blackberry for texting and writing emails. Their solutions seems to be presenting the same type of keypad on a touchscreen. I can't buy into a true tablet device that does not fully utilize either handwriting recognition or at least a Palm style graffiti system.
If I understood the article correctly, this museum was built by an Australian.
":syn off"
To make it permanent add "syn off" to your ~/.vimrc file.
Or, if you only want to turn it off only when using view or vim on readonly, then put this in:
if &readonly
syn off
endif
Are readers supposed to be shocked or appalled by those numbers? They make perfect sense. The USA is predominantly monotheistic. Take the CIA world factbook numbers for the USA:
Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%, none 10% (2002 est.)
That leaves only a maximum of 20% of people being atheist, but it is probably more towards 10%-15%. It makes sense that a constituency would lean towards electing candidates who they identify with the most. You should be encouraged by the fact that 45% of people are still willing to vote for a candidate who does not share a fundamental belief about the universe. In the USA, voters are becoming very open minded. The only problem we have is our government has a seniority system. This means that all of the white men that got in long ago, will be hanging out at the top until they are dead or retired. It also means that the minorities and women making their way in today, will be around for the future. Once they get the seniority, they will have chances at higher offices. Today we have a woman third in line for the presidency. That is progress.
Thinkpads have great keyboards. Also, the trackpoint is amazing. I honestly do not think I could ever buy another brand of laptop. I do not know how people put up with touchpads. Hopefully the trackpoint will make a comeback.
Thank you, that was the first "In Soviet Russia ..." comment that has ever made me bust out laughing.
This might be the reason that providers are offering different high-speed internet plans. My local provider offers "Preferred" 7Mbs down/512 Kbps up and a "Premier" 12 Mbps down/1 Mbps up plans. I would much rather see these throttled plans than any sort of pay per bit or pay per minute schemes, but it has it's downsides. We are finally getting to a point of wide-spread broadband adoption, but introduction of "budget" plans, could separate the Internet again. Instead of dial-up and broadband, it will be "web" plans and "media" plans. I see this as being the first way the ISPs will look in an effort to control bandwidth. Hopefully they will use that time to update some infrastructure. Question to /., would you rather have uncapped bandwidth with a transfer cap, or capped bandwidth with no transfer cap? (either way you are always capped somehow, but I am talking about true "personal use" limiting caps)
Canonical does have a business strategy with Ubuntu. They are offering paid support for the product (9x5 or 24x7). Furthermore, they seem to welcome any competition to their support by providing links to other companies offering Ubuntu support( see Canonical Marketplace ). In general it seems they have taken a slightly different approach than Red Hat. Canonical is trying to harness( or exploit, depends on how you view it ) the power of the ready and willing user, developer, and artist communities. I am not sure what kind of QA Canonical itself puts into each release, but it is enough for them to throw their name and business behind it. Red Hat seems to be more content with doing most of their own work. We have seen that the Red Hat model can work, but the jury is still out on Canonical. I think they might have a good future.
a ce
Ubuntu Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid
Canonical Marketplace: http://www.ubuntu.com/support/commercial/marketpl
Canonical Services: http://canonical.com/services
I am going to guess that you didn't RTFA. "Origami" is more of a true tablet experience(no keyboard) while Flipstart is just a midget laptop. Similar to what has been called palmtop computers.
I always had the feeling that the bad security reputation with PHP had less to do with technical bugs and more to do with how easy it is to write insecure code(especially when using the mysql module). Also at fault is the general lack of programming understanding by the amatuers who find their way to PHP because it is so easy to go from having a static HTML page to a dynamic PHP page. Are there a lot of vulnerabilities in the interpreter?
If the class were to study in detail the virtual memory system for the Linux kernel, would that compromise your ability to work on the virtual memory of another commercial operating system like Windows, OS X, VxWorks, or AIX? While most people might say 'no', the companies that own those operating systems might think otherwise. Look at the recent headlines for the SCO vs IBM case. The current controversy is whether or not IBM's Linux developers had copies of AIX source code on their workstations. That is just having a copy, not even indicating studying the code. The problem is, if you have studied the Linux kernel, you could, with or without knowing it, introduce code that is a derivative work from the Linux kernel into a non-GPL operating system. It does not have to be a copy and paste job to be a derivative work. I don't think I am wrong here, but if you could provide a sound argument against what I am saying, that might shed some light on the subject. As far as where I have encountered this type of stance, I work for one of the corporations that produces one of the operating systems listed above(but I do not work on the OS).
Your professor probably shouldn't be basing the curriculum around a GPL kernel. Something like that could affect your future job possibilities. I am guessing your professor picked the 2.4 kernel because it seems out of date, but that is not really important when it comes to legal matters like the GPL. It seems like concentrating on a more open kernel like a BSD would be a safer bet. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but that seems rather careless on the part of your professor.