You forgot 1080p.
Anyway, "high definition" as a term has no distinct connection to video alone; It can also refer to how the video is presented, such as the lighting conditions of the room, as well as the audio and any other "immersive" features. For example, a 5.1 speaker setup would likely have more "definition" than a standard stereo setup, and a 96kHz sample rate would have a higher "definition" than 22kHz. Similarly, 24-bit audio has a higher dynamic range than 16-bit or 8-bit audio, which also could be considered "high definition".
In terms of a microphone for telecommunications, anything that records at a higher frequency than 8kHz could be considered high definition, since 8kHz is what our landlines and cellular phones use at the moment, which is also the reason why VoIP sounds so much better, sampling at (IIRC) 16kHz.
I've noticed the same, and as another mentioned, it's due to kmixer. However, there are times when Linux playback isn't great, either, like when being used with an aRts sound server for software mixing. Of course, this isn't necessary on a decent sound card, which brings me to my next point...
Not all sound cards are made equal. The outputs on your onboard audio are almost certainly very noisy, as are those on old ISA cards and the $20 cheapos you buy at your local computer store. Creative Labs sound cards are pretty decent for what they are (though "Crystallizer" in the X-Fi series seems to me like a cop-out), and AuzenTech is supposed to be the be-all-end-all for consumer audio right now (I won't get into professional). Both card brands typically have comparably to extremely low noise on their lines, and use high quality codecs and DACs. I personally have an old SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 OEM running on Windows with the kX drivers, and when using ASIO (after software resampling to 48kHz, the card's native sample rate, which it converts automatically if not matching (which sounds terrible)) with a decent decoder (I use Shibatch with Winamp for MP3), the sound output is extremely clear. I have, of course, swapped the front and rear channels using the kX drivers due to the rear channel's use of a less noisy DAC, and when using heaphones, it's amplified by a set of Altec Lansing 251's (which I realize introduces noise). Not the most powerful or even high-quality rig available, but it sure sounds good with decent headphones or via the speaker outputs.
You're telling me... It takes an almost innumerable number of passes with various noise filters to get it to sound even remotely like it's not being broadcast over AM radio (and then you need to make sure the levels are right and remove any screeching frequencies), and then when you factor in that most cassette recordings are amateur, you get even more mess.
I had to try and CD-ize a cassette a friend of the family made once. I used a fairly good cassette deck, but the tape quality was terrible. I'm guessing they recorded it with one of those handheld recorders. Yuck.
But I'm sure if I had actual, proper training with this sort of thing, I could have gotten the same or better result from a lesser time investment. But man, the "S" sound really doesn't survive being on tape. How did people listen to this stuff?
I had been under the impression that it was "standard" (read: common) to record at 48kHz/24-bit stereo, which in and of itself is highly superior to 44.1kHz/16-bit stereo, for which CD audio has been criticized by audiophiles in recent years (especially due to (honestly barely-audible) downmix artifacts).
Same could be said about Blizzard and StarCraft II. Their last game was WoW (2004), which was released before id's last published PC game, Quake 4 (and the same year as Doom 3, their last in-house developed game), and I don't consider an expansion pack (Burning Crusade), no matter how much content is added, to be anything remotely similar to a full game.
However, to threaten the WoW-subscribers... To speak ill of their beloved in such a way as you have id, even so little as you actually have, to insult their precious... It could be... Could be disastrous.
I understand what you're talking about, and I know the stereotype well, which, unfortunately, permeates all too widely with native groups as a whole. Unfortunately, there isn't much that anyone can do about that at this point but themselves, and I personally have no solution to the problem. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need this sort of special treatment for aborigines, nor would we (Canada) need hate and hate speech laws. I'm not saying it's fair, I'm saying that until something is done by someone, the prejudice isn't going to go away. I also understand that the government does these things (and indeed, most things it does, period) to further its own goals - To gain support from the people. One other example of the Canadian government bending over backwards for a people is Quebec, which is all but a sovereign nation as far as I can tell, while getting virtually free electricity from Newfoundland and taking money from Ottawa.
I'm not trying to defend the groups as a whole, but rather I'd like to dispel the myth that all Native Americans, or all Indian-Americans, or all African-Americans, or all (insert nationality here) aren't a certain way, and I also feel that, while I've never been the target of it, racism and prejudice as a whole, though not entirely avoidable, should not be a factor in modern, civilized life. Pointing and staring at people who look or speak differently from yourself is, to me, akin to behavior one might expect chimps to engage in.
Hostile? If someone invaded US soil, would you sit back and say "Hello, have some food and rest a while"? According to actual US history, the first immigrants to America at Plymouth Rock were treated that way. Y'know, that whole thanksgiving thing?
Not a direct reply to the AC, but rather to anyone who thinks like him:
I am a member of a First Nations group, and I have many clues about how this stuff works. I am not an idiot, nor are the rest of the First Nations of North America. I know a good bit about wireless networks and information technology as a whole, and I feel that this sort of thinking is one of the major stumbling blocks facing both the United States and Canada, not only in regard to the First Nations, but also to people of Middle Eastern descent, people of Mediterranean descent, European, Asian, African, or any other heraldry. There exists the same potential in all humankind to grow and expand, and the best example of that is that we come from different parts of the world. The cultural differences between Russia and Japan, India and Canada, England and the United States, Australia and China, are vast and for many, innumerable, but the fact that society has advanced on to this point, has branched out and fluorished in such a way, that's how we know, truly, that we all have the same potential. Just because one country is wealthier than another due to natural resources or any other reason, doesn't mean that the people of another are any less intelligent, or any less capable.
We should be celebrating our differences, celebrating humanity as a whole, rather than waging personal racial wars against each other, simply because one was fortunate enough to be born in an affluent part of the world, and another was not. In the example of America, there is nothing more in tune with the American ideal than a person landing on the shore from another country, penniless and seasick, looking to make a living.
When we were learning the continents in school, we were taught that Australia was actually a country in the continent of Oceania (sorry for the Wikipedia reference).
What? It's not the Microsoft Bob support forum? I wanted to get help on running it on my new Mac, but it won't run on this Linux thing you all keep suggesting. Can anyone help me? What am I doing wrong?
Excellent idea! We'll call it the MR-HI-CAMES, Multi-Role High-Intensity Communications And Moisture Expulsion System. I smell a winning defense contract. If only you Americans had such versatility in your designs!
Gen: Thanks, son. Hey, why is it telling me that the connection strength is low?
Cousin Timmy: That's nothing to worry about. Also, you need to reconnect every ten minutes, because the router's a little weird, and I don't know how to flash the firmware. That's what the tech support forum said I should do.
Gen:... What?
Cousin Timmy: Don't worry about that, there's nothing to the workaround. You just right-click on this icon here, click "repair" and you're done. Every ten minutes. Oh, and you won't get speeds over 1mbps, and your firewall won't let you share files. Also, your email sometimes doesn't work. It's a weird issue, I'm not in the mood to fix it.
Gen: Now wait a minute, I don't think-
Cousin Timmy: Like I said, everything's set up, and I've gotta get to class. Ciao!
We just a couple of years ago bought (lease-to-own) a few state of the art diesel submarines from Great Britain circa 1990, with very few leaks. Due to their leak-free nature, Pringles cans are allowed on board to replace the excess water normally stored in the crew cabins, and the high-powered, top-secret nature of the new cans allow for internet connectivity at depths as low as two inches, nearing the maximum dive depth.
Not an actual one. The closest thing (in name) is the MiG-25 Foxbat and MiG-31 Foxhound. The plane in the movie, IIRC (been a while since I've seen it), looks like a cross between the MiG-31 Foxhound and the MiG 1.44/1.42 MFI ("Raptor Killer").
But hell, this one's got Clint Eastwood at the controls, who lands it on a freaking ice floe. Neither of the two real-world planes can compete with that.
$500 in parts could mean anything - A $500 brand-name, bottom of the barrel, toaster PC will definitely be incapable of playing most anything recent. MAYBE if it has a GMA, but a lot of the stuff I'm seeing has VIA chipsets with SiS graphics, which are far inferior in terms of graphics performance.
No, it means (to me) "forever persevere in the fight for freedom (against any enemy), and those who would forsake it, forsake as well those who fought and lost their lives to preserve it; may the weight of their sacrifice haunt them forever and crush them underfoot". In other words, "fight the good fight". The literal meaning is obviously not meant to be observed.
The poem is quite less wordy than that, obviously, and the imagery is much better.
Ahem. Not only is the GMA 950 more powerful and more popular these days, but ever heard of the X3000/X3100? You know, the up-and-coming Intel chip with hardware TnL, pixel shaders, vertex shaders, actual rendering pipelines, and a 667MHz dedicated core? That'll probably do it if you turn the settings down.
But let's face it here. People who buy PC's for games know what they're buying. People who buy PC's for $500 and expect it to play the latest games don't know what they're doing, buying, or even using, half the time. The problem is, in order for said PC's to be $500, they need to cut them down to be as bare as possible - A decently powerful system will probably cost someone upwards to $1000, which will be adequate to at least run newer games.
If you're just going for the games, you're fine with a console, though I personally vastly prefer the keyboard/mouse style of control. You'll save yourself some money with a console, though (well, that's the idea), and you'll get a few years out of it. If you're looking to do games, rip DVD's, browse the internet properly, use IM, e-mail, newsgroups, and generally multitask, you're looking at a better value out of a PC. For something that does both, $1000 isn't too far off the mark for the cost of a low-end PC and a game console.
Re:How long must a number be to be copyrightable?
on
Censoring a Number
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· Score: 1
Inasmuch as Intel was unsuccessful in trademarking a number (80586/i586 ("Pentium")), the MPAA will, hopefully, never be allowed to trademark/copyright/fornicate with theirs, either.
As another poster in the same grouping as yours pointed out, AK-47's are still great for close quarters/urban warfare, where ranges are typically anywhere between 15 - 20 meters or less (effective range on the AK-47 is 300 meters), and where stopping power is an absolute must. The larger rounds hit harder than the NATO rounds, and since not many of the insurgents carry protective armour, the piercing action of the NATO round is more or less rendered a non-issue. Though recoil definitely IS an issue, its lower rate of fire compensates for that to an extent, and full auto fire is usually not sustained for long. For longer range combat, an M-16/M-4 would likely be quite a step up in accuracy and versatility, but then one must account for the lack of ammunition while in the field, away from camp.
All of this is without mention of the AK's reliability, which is demonstrated quite vividly, I think, by Vietnam veteran David Hackworth:
One of the bulldozers uncovered the decomposing body of an enemy soldier, complete with AK-47. I happened to be standing right there, looking down into the hole and pulled the AK out of the bog. 'Watch this, guys,' I said, 'and I will show you how a real infantry weapon works.' I pulled the bolt back and fired 30 rounds -- the AK could have been cleaned that day rather than buried in glug for a year or so. That was the kind of weapon our soldiers needed, not the confidence-sapping M-16.
I could see an urban-based NATO soldier taking up an AK-47 for those reasons; Stopping power, reliability, ammunition availability, and good-enough accuracy for the setting, with the added effect of the larger bullet being able to penetrate certain types of walls, not to mention full-auto capability (M-16A2's don't have such a setting ; M-4's do). Plus, it leaves their more expensive NATO counterparts in conditions of less wear and tear for future battles while they're making use of the Kalashnikov's in urban combat.
The GMA 950 is actually pretty good for what it is, and it was designed from the ground up to be an affordable solution for Windows Vista (or so they say). That said, I've been under the impression that the eye candy is actually faster than the CPU hell that is the non-Aero UI (which, having used Vista on both, is definitely the case). Offloading the UI to the GPU definitely makes a massive difference in both speed and responsiveness, and as far as I can tell, the reliability of the system, as well. The only problem is that most of the high-end vendors don't have working drivers at the moment, which indeed does cause crashes and other anomalies (hello, nVidia).
Vista's actually pretty solid on good hardware (even a Celeron with a gig of RAM and a GMA 950 will run it fairly efficiently), but I still don't see a point in upgrading to it, mainly due to the incompatibilities with certain applications, lower benchmark scores, and massive memory usage. If you've got in excess of 2GB of RAM and a dual core CPU, though, the system is more responsive than any I've ever seen.
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I believe he means the Sturmgewehr-44, which, while similar in external design, differs greatly internally.
You forgot 1080p. Anyway, "high definition" as a term has no distinct connection to video alone; It can also refer to how the video is presented, such as the lighting conditions of the room, as well as the audio and any other "immersive" features. For example, a 5.1 speaker setup would likely have more "definition" than a standard stereo setup, and a 96kHz sample rate would have a higher "definition" than 22kHz. Similarly, 24-bit audio has a higher dynamic range than 16-bit or 8-bit audio, which also could be considered "high definition". In terms of a microphone for telecommunications, anything that records at a higher frequency than 8kHz could be considered high definition, since 8kHz is what our landlines and cellular phones use at the moment, which is also the reason why VoIP sounds so much better, sampling at (IIRC) 16kHz.
I've noticed the same, and as another mentioned, it's due to kmixer. However, there are times when Linux playback isn't great, either, like when being used with an aRts sound server for software mixing. Of course, this isn't necessary on a decent sound card, which brings me to my next point...
Not all sound cards are made equal. The outputs on your onboard audio are almost certainly very noisy, as are those on old ISA cards and the $20 cheapos you buy at your local computer store. Creative Labs sound cards are pretty decent for what they are (though "Crystallizer" in the X-Fi series seems to me like a cop-out), and AuzenTech is supposed to be the be-all-end-all for consumer audio right now (I won't get into professional). Both card brands typically have comparably to extremely low noise on their lines, and use high quality codecs and DACs. I personally have an old SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 OEM running on Windows with the kX drivers, and when using ASIO (after software resampling to 48kHz, the card's native sample rate, which it converts automatically if not matching (which sounds terrible)) with a decent decoder (I use Shibatch with Winamp for MP3), the sound output is extremely clear. I have, of course, swapped the front and rear channels using the kX drivers due to the rear channel's use of a less noisy DAC, and when using heaphones, it's amplified by a set of Altec Lansing 251's (which I realize introduces noise). Not the most powerful or even high-quality rig available, but it sure sounds good with decent headphones or via the speaker outputs.
You're telling me... It takes an almost innumerable number of passes with various noise filters to get it to sound even remotely like it's not being broadcast over AM radio (and then you need to make sure the levels are right and remove any screeching frequencies), and then when you factor in that most cassette recordings are amateur, you get even more mess.
I had to try and CD-ize a cassette a friend of the family made once. I used a fairly good cassette deck, but the tape quality was terrible. I'm guessing they recorded it with one of those handheld recorders. Yuck.
But I'm sure if I had actual, proper training with this sort of thing, I could have gotten the same or better result from a lesser time investment. But man, the "S" sound really doesn't survive being on tape. How did people listen to this stuff?
I had been under the impression that it was "standard" (read: common) to record at 48kHz/24-bit stereo, which in and of itself is highly superior to 44.1kHz/16-bit stereo, for which CD audio has been criticized by audiophiles in recent years (especially due to (honestly barely-audible) downmix artifacts).
Same could be said about Blizzard and StarCraft II. Their last game was WoW (2004), which was released before id's last published PC game, Quake 4 (and the same year as Doom 3, their last in-house developed game), and I don't consider an expansion pack (Burning Crusade), no matter how much content is added, to be anything remotely similar to a full game.
However, to threaten the WoW-subscribers... To speak ill of their beloved in such a way as you have id, even so little as you actually have, to insult their precious... It could be... Could be disastrous .
I understand what you're talking about, and I know the stereotype well, which, unfortunately, permeates all too widely with native groups as a whole. Unfortunately, there isn't much that anyone can do about that at this point but themselves, and I personally have no solution to the problem. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need this sort of special treatment for aborigines, nor would we (Canada) need hate and hate speech laws. I'm not saying it's fair, I'm saying that until something is done by someone, the prejudice isn't going to go away. I also understand that the government does these things (and indeed, most things it does, period) to further its own goals - To gain support from the people. One other example of the Canadian government bending over backwards for a people is Quebec, which is all but a sovereign nation as far as I can tell, while getting virtually free electricity from Newfoundland and taking money from Ottawa.
I'm not trying to defend the groups as a whole, but rather I'd like to dispel the myth that all Native Americans, or all Indian-Americans, or all African-Americans, or all (insert nationality here) aren't a certain way, and I also feel that, while I've never been the target of it, racism and prejudice as a whole, though not entirely avoidable, should not be a factor in modern, civilized life. Pointing and staring at people who look or speak differently from yourself is, to me, akin to behavior one might expect chimps to engage in.
I've often asked the same about Quebec.
Hostile? If someone invaded US soil, would you sit back and say "Hello, have some food and rest a while"? According to actual US history, the first immigrants to America at Plymouth Rock were treated that way. Y'know, that whole thanksgiving thing?
Then the imperialists came.
Not a direct reply to the AC, but rather to anyone who thinks like him:
I am a member of a First Nations group, and I have many clues about how this stuff works. I am not an idiot, nor are the rest of the First Nations of North America. I know a good bit about wireless networks and information technology as a whole, and I feel that this sort of thinking is one of the major stumbling blocks facing both the United States and Canada, not only in regard to the First Nations, but also to people of Middle Eastern descent, people of Mediterranean descent, European, Asian, African, or any other heraldry. There exists the same potential in all humankind to grow and expand, and the best example of that is that we come from different parts of the world. The cultural differences between Russia and Japan, India and Canada, England and the United States, Australia and China, are vast and for many, innumerable, but the fact that society has advanced on to this point, has branched out and fluorished in such a way, that's how we know, truly, that we all have the same potential. Just because one country is wealthier than another due to natural resources or any other reason, doesn't mean that the people of another are any less intelligent, or any less capable.
We should be celebrating our differences, celebrating humanity as a whole, rather than waging personal racial wars against each other, simply because one was fortunate enough to be born in an affluent part of the world, and another was not. In the example of America, there is nothing more in tune with the American ideal than a person landing on the shore from another country, penniless and seasick, looking to make a living.
Wow. So Canada isn't sovereign in any way, then, since it was formed by democratic process and mutual agreements between the colonies and the Crown.
Dur. Not every country has a civil war.
When we were learning the continents in school, we were taught that Australia was actually a country in the continent of Oceania (sorry for the Wikipedia reference).
What? It's not the Microsoft Bob support forum? I wanted to get help on running it on my new Mac, but it won't run on this Linux thing you all keep suggesting. Can anyone help me? What am I doing wrong?
Excellent idea! We'll call it the MR-HI-CAMES, Multi-Role High-Intensity Communications And Moisture Expulsion System. I smell a winning defense contract. If only you Americans had such versatility in your designs!
Cousin Timmy: OK, General, you're all set.
... What?
Gen: Thanks, son. Hey, why is it telling me that the connection strength is low?
Cousin Timmy: That's nothing to worry about. Also, you need to reconnect every ten minutes, because the router's a little weird, and I don't know how to flash the firmware. That's what the tech support forum said I should do.
Gen:
Cousin Timmy: Don't worry about that, there's nothing to the workaround. You just right-click on this icon here, click "repair" and you're done. Every ten minutes. Oh, and you won't get speeds over 1mbps, and your firewall won't let you share files. Also, your email sometimes doesn't work. It's a weird issue, I'm not in the mood to fix it.
Gen: Now wait a minute, I don't think-
Cousin Timmy: Like I said, everything's set up, and I've gotta get to class. Ciao!
We just a couple of years ago bought (lease-to-own) a few state of the art diesel submarines from Great Britain circa 1990, with very few leaks. Due to their leak-free nature, Pringles cans are allowed on board to replace the excess water normally stored in the crew cabins, and the high-powered, top-secret nature of the new cans allow for internet connectivity at depths as low as two inches, nearing the maximum dive depth.
Not an actual one. The closest thing (in name) is the MiG-25 Foxbat and MiG-31 Foxhound. The plane in the movie, IIRC (been a while since I've seen it), looks like a cross between the MiG-31 Foxhound and the MiG 1.44/1.42 MFI ("Raptor Killer").
But hell, this one's got Clint Eastwood at the controls, who lands it on a freaking ice floe. Neither of the two real-world planes can compete with that.
$500 in parts could mean anything - A $500 brand-name, bottom of the barrel, toaster PC will definitely be incapable of playing most anything recent. MAYBE if it has a GMA, but a lot of the stuff I'm seeing has VIA chipsets with SiS graphics, which are far inferior in terms of graphics performance.
Is that because every nation has its share of complete idiots?
No, it means (to me) "forever persevere in the fight for freedom (against any enemy), and those who would forsake it, forsake as well those who fought and lost their lives to preserve it; may the weight of their sacrifice haunt them forever and crush them underfoot". In other words, "fight the good fight". The literal meaning is obviously not meant to be observed.
The poem is quite less wordy than that, obviously, and the imagery is much better.
Ahem. Not only is the GMA 950 more powerful and more popular these days, but ever heard of the X3000/X3100? You know, the up-and-coming Intel chip with hardware TnL, pixel shaders, vertex shaders, actual rendering pipelines, and a 667MHz dedicated core? That'll probably do it if you turn the settings down.
But let's face it here. People who buy PC's for games know what they're buying. People who buy PC's for $500 and expect it to play the latest games don't know what they're doing, buying, or even using, half the time. The problem is, in order for said PC's to be $500, they need to cut them down to be as bare as possible - A decently powerful system will probably cost someone upwards to $1000, which will be adequate to at least run newer games.
If you're just going for the games, you're fine with a console, though I personally vastly prefer the keyboard/mouse style of control. You'll save yourself some money with a console, though (well, that's the idea), and you'll get a few years out of it. If you're looking to do games, rip DVD's, browse the internet properly, use IM, e-mail, newsgroups, and generally multitask, you're looking at a better value out of a PC. For something that does both, $1000 isn't too far off the mark for the cost of a low-end PC and a game console.
Inasmuch as Intel was unsuccessful in trademarking a number (80586/i586 ("Pentium")), the MPAA will, hopefully, never be allowed to trademark/copyright/fornicate with theirs, either.
All of this is without mention of the AK's reliability, which is demonstrated quite vividly, I think, by Vietnam veteran David Hackworth:
I could see an urban-based NATO soldier taking up an AK-47 for those reasons; Stopping power, reliability, ammunition availability, and good-enough accuracy for the setting, with the added effect of the larger bullet being able to penetrate certain types of walls, not to mention full-auto capability (M-16A2's don't have such a setting ; M-4's do). Plus, it leaves their more expensive NATO counterparts in conditions of less wear and tear for future battles while they're making use of the Kalashnikov's in urban combat.
The GMA 950 is actually pretty good for what it is, and it was designed from the ground up to be an affordable solution for Windows Vista (or so they say). That said, I've been under the impression that the eye candy is actually faster than the CPU hell that is the non-Aero UI (which, having used Vista on both, is definitely the case). Offloading the UI to the GPU definitely makes a massive difference in both speed and responsiveness, and as far as I can tell, the reliability of the system, as well. The only problem is that most of the high-end vendors don't have working drivers at the moment, which indeed does cause crashes and other anomalies (hello, nVidia).
Vista's actually pretty solid on good hardware (even a Celeron with a gig of RAM and a GMA 950 will run it fairly efficiently), but I still don't see a point in upgrading to it, mainly due to the incompatibilities with certain applications, lower benchmark scores, and massive memory usage. If you've got in excess of 2GB of RAM and a dual core CPU, though, the system is more responsive than any I've ever seen.
SCUMM - Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion
This is why people care so much for it - It was the first to use the engine, which has gone on to be used in such games as you mention.