I hate ambiguity. Could someone please tell me if this is Washington state or Washington, D.C.? It's probably the latter, but it's annoying when people don't call it by its proper name... -----
Having worked a TON on software MPEG playback, I know that MPEG-2 playback in software is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE with readily-available software at, say, 700 MHz. Think videolan.org, XMovie, and OMS (linuxvideo.org).
And I've heard from a reliable source (who shall not be named) that some people have gotten an Athlon 800 to play four (FOUR!) broadcast-quality MPEG2 streams at once.
Hehehe. Pr0n sites wouldn't be dumb enough to restrict lots of potential income, just because the bible belt might not like pr0n as a category... -----
Please back up your statement that it's the same people who say two totally different things. I for one am NOT an advocate of "free" music, but I AM an advocate of abandonware.
And, never underestimate the power of the vocal minority to sound like the majority. -----
This is somewhat off topic, but this seems like the best place for a discussion...
Notice how the story submitter says "October is almost over"... meaning they submitted the story before November. It is now the 4th. Is the slashdot story backlog really 5 days, or is this an isolated incident? If it is, this seems like a good argument for K5-style story modding..... (I make no claims as to how that would change this site.) -----
I don't have any links, but I remember several projects shown on here over the years that essentially had pluggable audio formats -- they had like a StrongARM 233 or whatnot, so that future codecs (which require more decode power) could be implemented fairly easily.
K. whores, feel free to find and post links. -----
You realize that they've limited individual file size to like 100KB?
(Someone correct me if I'm wrong)
Now, of course, this just makes things HARDER, not IMPOSSIBLE, but it's a pretty big barrier against it having the same "point-and-click" ease that made Napster so popular... -----
I had REALLY wanted to buy a Crusoe Thinkpad, as opposed to, say, a Crusoe Vaio..... and we should all know why, Sony is one of the spawn of the devil. (RIAA, MPAA, etc.) Sure, I haven't bought yet, but I was planning to put my money where my mouth is. That'll be a little harder now....
*sigh* Oh well, maybe no new laptop for me for a while now.
Well, after calibrating my cat on a couple of Pop-Tarts boxes, I tried several scans on the diagrams on the web page... nothing! I can therefore conclusively answer this question with a big, fat NO. -----
You know, this would explain a lot. I think that the PPro, PII, PII, etc, are really all the same chip..... they've just upgraded the microcode! We never knew just how similiar they really all were.
I mean, this would certainly explain why you can't intermix FPU and MMX instructions....... -----
I realize this, I was commenting on speed only. For sure, I use networked X quite a bit myself. However, there are times when you don't care about networked graphics and just want speed, e.g. games. -----
The problems people cite with X are bloatedness (RAM) and slowness. If you look at QNX's GUI, it has none of these problems.... in fact, you can fit it on a floppy....
Now, SVGAlib sucks for speed too, but at least it's not RAM-hungry. -----
Oops. Forgot I wanted to post more. Here is the second part of my post. This is an actual review of "fast" cards on "slow" systems.
System 1: K6-2/350, 128MB PC100, Voodoo3 2000 AGP
OS: Slackware 7.0, Linux 2.2.16
XFree: 3.3.5 (i think; maybe.6)
Games: Solitaire under Wine, Doom2, Quake[123], Unreal Tournament
The non-3D accelerated games (Sol, Doom2, Quake1) were very fast, very playable. Nobody can have any complaints, except perhaps one: when you win the game in Solitaire, the cards-falling-down animation is *s*l*o*w* compared to the computer. Oh well.
The 3D accelerated games also worked pretty well. Quake2 looked just like it was supposed to -- nice and fast, smooth, no problems, very playable. Quake3, on the other hand, was taking a little long to load, but once you got in, it was pretty decent. It was NOT full-framerate by any means, but it was still enjoyable to play. Unreal Tournament I didn't get to try on there for very long, but what I saw looked good -- it was pretty smooth, and overall very nice. Keep in mind I used Glide on UT, not OGL.
Overall rating: 6 out of 10, mainly for playability.
System 2: K6-3/450, 128MB PC100, Voodoo3 3000 AGP (with TVout)
OS: Win98 (blech) && Slackware 7.1
XFree: 3.3.6
Games (Win98): Terminal Velocity, SW Pod Racer, Quake3, Parsec, Parsec LAN-test, Spear of Destiny
Games (Linux): Quake3, Unreal Tournament
All of the "older" games under Win98 were pretty kickass. Spear of Destiny looks good on a 486, so you can bet it looks good on a K6-3! Terminal Velocity maxes out around a P200, so same there. Parsec (and Parsec LAN-test) look very nice, especially at 1024x768, and there are no problems with speed, either. The two major Win98 games, then, are Quake3 and PodRacer.
Quake3 was noticeably improved from System 1. It loads much faster, and the gameplay is quite smooth -- even at 1024x768. (I usually play in 800x600.) If you're looking to make a gaming system from a K6-[23]/450 and play Q3, do it!
Pod Racer is the reason I had to have windblows on here in the first place. I cannot resist the temptation to run myself into walls at 800 Mph;-) It's the same story as Quake3, it looks darn good on a VD3 3K, even at 1024x768. In fact, I would go so far as to say it shines.
Linux games: Q3 and UT. Q3 is basically the same story as Q3 under windblows above. I couldn't tell you which is faster, as this is all perceptual, and there's not a whole lot of difference between win98 and linux 2.2 on the same hardware.
UT is where this hardware gets a gold medal -- there are no problems with speed to hinder your gameplay, it basically kicks ass. You will love it, if you try out this combo.
Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
System 3: dual celeron 366, 192MB PC100, Matrox G400 AGP single-headed 16MB
OS: Slackware 7.1, Linux 2.4.0-test[78] (oh yeah!)
XFree: 4.0.1 with supported DRI and GLX and XVideo and everything
Games: Quake[123], UnrealTournament
Quake 1 rocks. It absolutely rocks. There is no point in me saying any more, as it rocks on a lesser system anyway.
Quake 2 rocks as well. This is where an intel chip, as opposed to amd, really does you well. (celeron vs. k6, much better fpu). The graphics are SUPER-SWEET too.
Quake 3, perceptually, is every bit as fast as on System 2 (they're side-by-side), and it loads faster, to boot! This is a very strong system for gaming. If you're looking to play Q3, and have "only" two lower-end celerons, don't worry! Just get a good video card.
UnrealTournament: well, ummm, it crashes during the opening sequence. This is due to a combination of lots of not-so-well-tested software -- linux 2.4.0-test7, whatever kernel DRI module is included with that, some unknown version of XFree4.0.1, and the OpenGL rendering subsystem of UnrealTournament. (On the other systems, I always used Glide for UT.) So, while the part of the opening sequence I can see looks really good, do yourself a favor and try it on a more stable system.
Overall rating: 7 out of 10, because I couldn't play all my games. I was forced to use OpenGL exclusively by the MGA400.
That's all for now, and if you want to know any more, just e-mail me, or reply to the post. I check my responses.
1. As others have pointed out, 700 MHz is not low-end. My fastest computer, that I have ever had, is a K6-3/450. (Well, the dual Celeron 366 is kinda faster, but kinda not. It depends.)
2. Unlike what other posters have said, just because the chip makers no longer MAKE anything 700MHz doesn't mean you can't get a system with 700MHz. I bought both the K6-3 and the two Celerons this summer, new. It's called pricewatch.
So, neither is 700 MHz "low-end", nor is it even "low-end" in terms of systems you can make!
Geez. I've just been wishing and wishing for a T-Bird @ 800 Mhz... silly me, that's almost low end!
I'll have to second his post, I've used netapps before, and they're very kickass. They use a 250 MHz MIPS chip in them (speed might have gone up, but it's definitely MIPS, not alpha), and have gigabit or 100bT interfaces.
Everything jfrisby said is straight-up good. -----
Washington, D.C. - In a stunning development just announced today, the United States, along with twenty other European nations, will soon make 'yo mama' jokes illegal. Without any regard to issues of free speech or free thought, representatives at the meeting have decided to make the words 'yo mama', when used in a joking context, a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or a $100,000 (or 100.000 Euros) fine.
One stunned joker was quoted as saying "No way, dawg! Ain't no way they gonna take away my right to laugh at yo' mama!"
Neither US or European representatives from the summit could be reached for comment.
Please stay tuned for updates to this breaking story. -----
I was only giving those two examples because those are two things I've been trying to do with my system recently. A Matrox G400 can do YUV conversions in hardware, but not MPEG2 decoding..... as far as I know... -----
Well, let's see, sir. Would you like to try doing some software DVD playback on your 200 MHz pentium with MMX instructions there? Or how about your 200 MHz PowerPC 604e? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Or, tell you what, let's have a POV-ray race. You can have a gazillion P200s, and I'll have a gazillion Alphas at 750 MHz. Now, who do you think is going to win? That's what I thought.
Software bloat and new features (there's a fine distinction) will always expand to fill all available cycles.
Slashdot Mirror
I hate ambiguity. Could someone please tell me if this is Washington state or Washington, D.C.? It's probably the latter, but it's annoying when people don't call it by its proper name...
-----
Linux Media Labs
The LML33 would be great, but is also expensive. I don't know what you're aiming for though.
Disclaimer: I have NO connection with LML.
-----
Having worked a TON on software MPEG playback, I know that MPEG-2 playback in software is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE with readily-available software at, say, 700 MHz. Think videolan.org, XMovie, and OMS (linuxvideo.org).
And I've heard from a reliable source (who shall not be named) that some people have gotten an Athlon 800 to play four (FOUR!) broadcast-quality MPEG2 streams at once.
I shit you not.
-----
Hehehe. Pr0n sites wouldn't be dumb enough to restrict lots of potential income, just because the bible belt might not like pr0n as a category...
-----
Please back up your statement that it's the same people who say two totally different things. I for one am NOT an advocate of "free" music, but I AM an advocate of abandonware.
And, never underestimate the power of the vocal minority to sound like the majority.
-----
This is somewhat off topic, but this seems like the best place for a discussion...
Notice how the story submitter says "October is almost over"... meaning they submitted the story before November. It is now the 4th. Is the slashdot story backlog really 5 days, or is this an isolated incident? If it is, this seems like a good argument for K5-style story modding..... (I make no claims as to how that would change this site.)
-----
I don't have any links, but I remember several projects shown on here over the years that essentially had pluggable audio formats -- they had like a StrongARM 233 or whatnot, so that future codecs (which require more decode power) could be implemented fairly easily.
K. whores, feel free to find and post links.
-----
You realize that they've limited individual file size to like 100KB?
(Someone correct me if I'm wrong)
Now, of course, this just makes things HARDER, not IMPOSSIBLE, but it's a pretty big barrier against it having the same "point-and-click" ease that made Napster so popular...
-----
I had REALLY wanted to buy a Crusoe Thinkpad, as opposed to, say, a Crusoe Vaio..... and we should all know why, Sony is one of the spawn of the devil. (RIAA, MPAA, etc.) Sure, I haven't bought yet, but I was planning to put my money where my mouth is. That'll be a little harder now....
*sigh* Oh well, maybe no new laptop for me for a while now.
-----
Give it a break, already! This is what, the fifth or sixth PS2 article in the past 72 hours?
Really, Taco, we need a PS2 icon so that some of us can add it to the "ignore" list...
-----
from the can-a-cue-cat-read-these? dept.
Well, after calibrating my cat on a couple of Pop-Tarts boxes, I tried several scans on the diagrams on the web page... nothing! I can therefore conclusively answer this question with a big, fat NO.
-----
You know, this would explain a lot. I think that the PPro, PII, PII, etc, are really all the same chip..... they've just upgraded the microcode! We never knew just how similiar they really all were.
I mean, this would certainly explain why you can't intermix FPU and MMX instructions.......
-----
I realize this, I was commenting on speed only. For sure, I use networked X quite a bit myself. However, there are times when you don't care about networked graphics and just want speed, e.g. games.
-----
Anyone have a copy of these documents that I could have? See my .sig for the reason.
-----
wow... hehe, okay. perhaps older ones use MIPS, newer ones Alpha...
-----
Ai thinked thit Ai had kizzed Mir a sveet goodbye fur thee last taime! Bit alas, Ai shall hav teu go bak ind feex it once moore....
-----
The problems people cite with X are bloatedness (RAM) and slowness. If you look at QNX's GUI, it has none of these problems.... in fact, you can fit it on a floppy....
Now, SVGAlib sucks for speed too, but at least it's not RAM-hungry.
-----
I've always known that SVGAlib is way better than X ;-)
-----
Oops. Forgot I wanted to post more. Here is the second part of my post. This is an actual review of "fast" cards on "slow" systems.
.6)
;-) It's the same story as Quake3, it looks darn good on a VD3 3K, even at 1024x768. In fact, I would go so far as to say it shines.
System 1: K6-2/350, 128MB PC100, Voodoo3 2000 AGP
OS: Slackware 7.0, Linux 2.2.16
XFree: 3.3.5 (i think; maybe
Games: Solitaire under Wine, Doom2, Quake[123], Unreal Tournament
The non-3D accelerated games (Sol, Doom2, Quake1) were very fast, very playable. Nobody can have any complaints, except perhaps one: when you win the game in Solitaire, the cards-falling-down animation is *s*l*o*w* compared to the computer. Oh well.
The 3D accelerated games also worked pretty well. Quake2 looked just like it was supposed to -- nice and fast, smooth, no problems, very playable. Quake3, on the other hand, was taking a little long to load, but once you got in, it was pretty decent. It was NOT full-framerate by any means, but it was still enjoyable to play. Unreal Tournament I didn't get to try on there for very long, but what I saw looked good -- it was pretty smooth, and overall very nice. Keep in mind I used Glide on UT, not OGL.
Overall rating: 6 out of 10, mainly for playability.
System 2: K6-3/450, 128MB PC100, Voodoo3 3000 AGP (with TVout)
OS: Win98 (blech) && Slackware 7.1
XFree: 3.3.6
Games (Win98): Terminal Velocity, SW Pod Racer, Quake3, Parsec, Parsec LAN-test, Spear of Destiny
Games (Linux): Quake3, Unreal Tournament
All of the "older" games under Win98 were pretty kickass. Spear of Destiny looks good on a 486, so you can bet it looks good on a K6-3! Terminal Velocity maxes out around a P200, so same there. Parsec (and Parsec LAN-test) look very nice, especially at 1024x768, and there are no problems with speed, either. The two major Win98 games, then, are Quake3 and PodRacer.
Quake3 was noticeably improved from System 1. It loads much faster, and the gameplay is quite smooth -- even at 1024x768. (I usually play in 800x600.) If you're looking to make a gaming system from a K6-[23]/450 and play Q3, do it!
Pod Racer is the reason I had to have windblows on here in the first place. I cannot resist the temptation to run myself into walls at 800 Mph
Linux games: Q3 and UT. Q3 is basically the same story as Q3 under windblows above. I couldn't tell you which is faster, as this is all perceptual, and there's not a whole lot of difference between win98 and linux 2.2 on the same hardware.
UT is where this hardware gets a gold medal -- there are no problems with speed to hinder your gameplay, it basically kicks ass. You will love it, if you try out this combo.
Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
System 3: dual celeron 366, 192MB PC100, Matrox G400 AGP single-headed 16MB
OS: Slackware 7.1, Linux 2.4.0-test[78] (oh yeah!)
XFree: 4.0.1 with supported DRI and GLX and XVideo and everything
Games: Quake[123], UnrealTournament
Quake 1 rocks. It absolutely rocks. There is no point in me saying any more, as it rocks on a lesser system anyway.
Quake 2 rocks as well. This is where an intel chip, as opposed to amd, really does you well. (celeron vs. k6, much better fpu). The graphics are SUPER-SWEET too.
Quake 3, perceptually, is every bit as fast as on System 2 (they're side-by-side), and it loads faster, to boot! This is a very strong system for gaming. If you're looking to play Q3, and have "only" two lower-end celerons, don't worry! Just get a good video card.
UnrealTournament: well, ummm, it crashes during the opening sequence. This is due to a combination of lots of not-so-well-tested software -- linux 2.4.0-test7, whatever kernel DRI module is included with that, some unknown version of XFree4.0.1, and the OpenGL rendering subsystem of UnrealTournament. (On the other systems, I always used Glide for UT.) So, while the part of the opening sequence I can see looks really good, do yourself a favor and try it on a more stable system.
Overall rating: 7 out of 10, because I couldn't play all my games. I was forced to use OpenGL exclusively by the MGA400.
That's all for now, and if you want to know any more, just e-mail me, or reply to the post. I check my responses.
-----
[read the subject]
1. As others have pointed out, 700 MHz is not low-end. My fastest computer, that I have ever had, is a K6-3/450. (Well, the dual Celeron 366 is kinda faster, but kinda not. It depends.)
2. Unlike what other posters have said, just because the chip makers no longer MAKE anything 700MHz doesn't mean you can't get a system with 700MHz. I bought both the K6-3 and the two Celerons this summer, new. It's called pricewatch.
So, neither is 700 MHz "low-end", nor is it even "low-end" in terms of systems you can make!
Geez. I've just been wishing and wishing for a T-Bird @ 800 Mhz... silly me, that's almost low end!
-----
I'll have to second his post, I've used netapps before, and they're very kickass. They use a 250 MHz MIPS chip in them (speed might have gone up, but it's definitely MIPS, not alpha), and have gigabit or 100bT interfaces.
Everything jfrisby said is straight-up good.
-----
Washington, D.C. - In a stunning development just announced today, the United States, along with twenty other European nations, will soon make 'yo mama' jokes illegal. Without any regard to issues of free speech or free thought, representatives at the meeting have decided to make the words 'yo mama', when used in a joking context, a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or a $100,000 (or 100.000 Euros) fine.
One stunned joker was quoted as saying "No way, dawg! Ain't no way they gonna take away my right to laugh at yo' mama!"
Neither US or European representatives from the summit could be reached for comment.
Please stay tuned for updates to this breaking story.
-----
I was only giving those two examples because those are two things I've been trying to do with my system recently. A Matrox G400 can do YUV conversions in hardware, but not MPEG2 decoding..... as far as I know...
-----
I'm sure that the "corporate V.P. type" would endorse the bill a lot more if it wasn't his competitor getting the deal...
[it's humor. laugh.]
-----
Well, let's see, sir. Would you like to try doing some software DVD playback on your 200 MHz pentium with MMX instructions there? Or how about your 200 MHz PowerPC 604e? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Or, tell you what, let's have a POV-ray race. You can have a gazillion P200s, and I'll have a gazillion Alphas at 750 MHz. Now, who do you think is going to win? That's what I thought.
Software bloat and new features (there's a fine distinction) will always expand to fill all available cycles.
-----