But that's the point isn't it? Sometimes those hits from the garbage collector simply don't matter and if they don't matter because performance in this respect isn't the greatest concern then you don't have to bother yourself with it, whilst in C++ you have to bother yourself with it whether performance is a concern or not - in other words C++ always has an inherently slower time to market because of this inherent underlying trait and that's the point of TFA.
If optimisation is more important than time to market then you're absolutely right, switch to C++ because then Java's time to market advantage might be lost.
It's about trade-offs and as I said, sometimes C++ is the right choice, sometimes it's Java, but your anecdote is merely a single case where C++ is the right choice not Java, a single anecdote doesn't disprove Java's worth for every case though.
This isn't really at all true. Orcas are whales, that particular suggestion otherwise is completely false.
But regarding feeding habits, they vary greatly in this species, some groupings dine entirely on smaller fish and hunt in packs to circle them, herd them up, and eat them, whilst others, particularly those in the Antarctic are solo hunters and hunt larger prey like seals and penguins. I believe Orcas off the coast of California work together differently again to attack calves of larger (Grey IIRC?) whales.
Whilst the example you give is a local population it cannot be extrapolated to the species as a whole which has very distinct populations with very distinct traits.
They're a versatile species with differing and complex feeding habits depending on where they live so it's not something that can be trivially generalised as to the habits.
If anything I'd wager this scenario as in TFA is an example of killer whales adapting their habits to another new habitat we've created for them - the artificial living area in which they're dependent on us for food and entertainment and if we can't fulfil that then it's not surprising they've decided to use us as food/entertainment.
"The number of people with the opportunity to come within 100 meters of a wild Orca would be extremely small, let alone within biting range."
Rubbish. I swam with them in the fjords of Norway. I was one of many tens of thousands of tourists that do this every year.
This is far more people than swim with them in captivity that only includes trainers and authorised personnel.
You're jumping to a conclusion based on a theory you've simply made up but that is false. If anything your point acts counter to the conclusion you've come to - I'd wager given the size of the tourist industry that far more people encounter them in the wild with far less experience of the animals than the experienced people who get injured and killed by them in captivity. If the threat was equivalent in the wild to how it is in captivity then tourists wouldn't even be allowed to swim with them because it'd almost certainly be deemed too dangerous, but that's not the case.
"I guess I do like the fact that they're going with someone who will probably be darker and less goofy than Smith."...and has a track record of you know, being able to actually act which is more than can be said for the amateur dramatics farce that was Smith.
Rather than making such a long post you could've just said "I'm a bigoted gay hater" and it would've come across in exactly the same way.
Pretty much everything you said was simply you trying to justify to yourself why it's okay for you to treat gay people as lesser beings and that's okay, most of those who hold such deep far right sentiment do like to think they're right despite knowing deep down they're not, but it doesn't wash with those of us who can see right through it. You're a fascist bigot and it shines through in what you say. If you at least had the courage to accept who you are and admit that it would be something, but don't try to pretend you hold the moral high ground when you don't. It just makes you look pathetic and your argument desperate and so it's no wonder you felt it necessary to post anonymously.
Well as I said in my other post, most countries in the world don't give special benefits to marriage and so yes maybe government involvement in marriage is a key part of the problem in countries where that happens.
In the UK there has been talk about changing this and offering tax breaks for the married but the underlying purpose is to increase marriages which as a proportion of which will occur in churches is a subtle way of the religious MPs backing it trying to get more people into religion.
I don't know if it'll pass, the other have of our governing coalition and the opposition are against it which I'm glad of because yes it should have nothing to do with government.
Oh god, not this again, this isn't the first time you've made this sort of comment about Java vs. C/C++ and had it pointed out to you how wrong you are.
Then you go on as usual and complain about how unfair it is that you can't get a software development job and claim it's about the unfairness of H1-B and how bad your country is and whatever other excuses you come up with. If you can't even get right what even a bottom of the pile H1-B hire would then what do you expect?
Please read the responses others have given you, they're examples of the few times Slashdot's comment system is great because they're full of people who know what they're on about explaining why you're wrong. Unless you're willing to learn from this sort of thing you're going to forever struggle to find that software engineering job and yes, H1-Bs are going to get them instead of you.
It's an interesting topic as to why Java performs so well now and well worth a read. If you really want to be a developer then you'll find it interesting educating yourself on this. If you don't then maybe software isn't really where your heart is at anyway?
Well you may be right, I don't intend to purchase either right at release so hopefully I'll have time to find out how honest they are before I do decide to make my purchase.
In fact, it sounds like here in the UK we're getting both consoles later than people in North America anyway so even if I was going to purchase at UK release that'd give at least a few weeks to see if there's any suggestion of backtracking.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, Sony haven't done much to earn people's trust but I do think there are a few signs suggesting they're turning things around a little and learning from their mistakes not just in terms of their console but in their smartphones, cameras, and other products too to be fair.
Yes, I'm a Microsoft shill, that's why I praised an Open Source IDE (NetBeans), a competitors proprietary IDE (JDeveloper) as well as the Java language and in another thread only about half an hour ago said good things about Sony, and Nintendo. Two days ago I was apparently a Samsung shill too.
Has it really come to this? If you dare praise any company or one of it's products for absolutely anything then you're a shill?
The worst part is because I'm not a fanboy and I praise any company that does something good and criticise any that doesn't I must be a shill for every tech company on earth because even those I least like such as Apple I've praised sometimes (i.e. for shaking up the smartphone market and forcing innovation) and Facebook though I have a mostly negative view of it produced a nice clean site relative to the social networks that came before it (MySpace) crushing them as a result.
If only I really was collecting all those paycheques from the entire who's who list of wealthy silicon valley firms...
I don't really care what consenting adults do. Marrying a sibling may not be my cup of tea but it's not as if that didn't happen historically.
Fundamentally that taboo for example came about largely because of the lobby that decided marriage should be about reproduction rather than love but they're separate issues. It's possible to ban such reproduction because of the effects it can have on the child without banning marriage.
At the end of the day if there's consent, capability to give consent (i.e. maturity to make that decision, no mental impairment preventing it and so forth) and it doesn't harm anyone else then I really couldn't give a shit.
It sounds like the real problem is that you believe that some groups of consenting adults should be treated differently not me.
"Wouldn't a C++ programmer generate an applicable program effectively as quickly as a Java programmer?"
No, some languages simply are slower to develop with and debug. The problem is also made worse depending on the frameworks and IDEs available. As an example, you're going to get your work done way quicker writing an application manipulating dates and times using C# and Visual Studio than you are Java and Eclipse because until Java 8 Java's date time functionality is shit and Eclipse is a dog slow IDE. With Java 8 and say NetBeans or JDeveloper though things will be pretty similar.
At the end of the day with C/C++ you have to deal with memory management and that's just one additional piece of work that you don't have to be so concerned with with Java. C/C++ give you more scope for optimisation and more control over memory management as a benefit of that though. It's about trade-offs and figuring out what matters.
But it's possible to be great at both C++ and Java without having to descend into petty arguments as to which is better and know when to use each in response to a specific task, and that's the sort of great programmer these institutions will be looking for and this is really what they're talking about - both have their place but in some cases getting a trading application to market a day earlier than the competition even at slight latency trade-off may be enough to net your company a few million dollars advantage. In other cases, the latency improvements of a highly optimised C++ application may instead be the key to scooping up those extra millions.
I'm not sure, Sony is being more open than ever, a complete u-turn from it's past where it's actually banning online passes and such DRM from it's system and forcing Microsoft to follow suit.
We'll see greater plurality of platforms but increased compatibility with the new console hardware being largely compatible with PC hardware which means we should see far less of the low quality ports of the last generation - porting between the XBox One, PS4, Wii U, and PC will be way easier than between the 360, PS3, Wii, and PC due to the plague of fundamental architecture differences with the existing generation.
Sony realised their biggest fuckup last generation initially was abysmal developer tools and they're working on that.
So yes I think he's spot on, for gamers things are better - less DRM, more platform choices, better quality cross platform titles, easier publishing for indie developers across all platforms now announced. For developers they have better tools, far fewer and much simpler differences between platforms making porting a breeze in comparison and again easier publishing for indie devs.
I'll probably end up buying every platform this generation again (well, I only have the XBox One and PS4 to go anyway) and I'm frankly looking forward to all of them. The XBox One was my only concern but since the DRM u-turn and the announcement of indie publishing and development on consumer consoles, coupled with removal of chief idiot Don Mattrick my concerns have been removed. I was never one for the Kinect/NSA conspiracy theory, really, the NSA isn't going to be able to sneak a live stream of video over my networking hardware without me spotting it and even if they wanted to they could do the same with my webcam or my phone or tablet or plethora of other camera integrated devices that exist nowadays anyway.
It wasn't looking that great a round at first with Microsoft's braindead initial announcement, and the Wii U looking a little pointless but now I have a Wii U and played through Lego City Undercover and Pikmin 3 coupled with the above mentioned policy changes by Microsoft, as well as some decent PC releases at last this last year or so (Diablo 3, Starcraft, Wargame: Airland Battle to name a few) I'm content right now providing nothing stupid happens in the meantime to change that.
What exactly do you think is happening that we should all be concerned about? I still have concerns, I still want way less DRM on PC and yes that includes Valve but things right now are looking better than they were previous gen - the Wii U looks set to have less titles but more quality titles unlike the Wii which was a software crap fest, the PS4 will hopefully be more consumer friendly and is hopefully more polished than the anti-consumer patch-fest that was the PS3, the XBox One is due to run quiet and cooler than the aeroplane sounding radiator that was the 360 and has had to follow Sony's lead in DRM removal and the PC is becoming more competitive in terms of games on offer. I know the fanboys will bitch and moan about opposing systems but if a system has something I like I don't intend to artificially limit myself from not being able to enjoy it based on something as petty as that.
I'm not talking about special treatment for being married, that's country specific so pointless to talk about as if tax breaks for being married or whatever are some inherent trait of marriage everywhere - they're not.
By equal rights I'm referring to the ability to marry someone you love. Currently only gay people are denied that right.
If you jumped off your ethnocentric horse of American marriage benefits for a moment you'd realise that there is an underlying equality issue there that's far more important than whinging about tax break inequality and the like.
"So when Google/MS/etc. etc. all were heaping money on for the pro-gay marriage debate why was protest by company employees not allowed while this is seen as being a "moral' thing to do?"
Was it not allowed or is it simply that Google employees are smart enough to realise that laws supporting equal rights for gay people are as important as equal rights for women and equal rights for people of different race and that only bigoted idiots take issue with them?
"I'm not taking a position either way on either topic"
I actually like it (and I hated my Wii, was the biggest dissapointment ever). It's very comfortable to hold and offers some pretty cool new gameplay features in games like Lego City Undercover.
I don't really care if it's resistive of capacitive, multitouch or not, if it adds fun new gameplay features and is comfortable then that's fine and it really does do exactly that.
Perhaps the only complaint I'd have is battery life, you only seem to get about 8 hours out of it, that is a bit more and I prefer to use it cable free so it's annoying having to plug it in sometimes.
I know where you're coming from regarding games because I'd place myself as a hardcore gamer so am really not into the party games that plagued the Wii and for which seem to make up the bulk of Wii U games even now but as I say if just a few AAA titles like Pikmin, Mario 3D, Mario Kart and such make it through then that'll be enough for me.
I think I know somewhat what you're referring to with load times because loading software or between levels in for example Lego City Undercover takes a bit longer than is ideal so if that's what you're referring to then I certainly sympathise but I don't for example get any slow downs when using the menus or anything or changing pages on the menu - all that I find to be a real pleasure. For what it's worth though the PS3 is much much slower again where you can sit for ages waiting for things to load so perhaps I'm used to it somewhat from that because even the Wii U's load times aren't so bad compared to the PS3's. Of the currently released consoles the 360 definitely has far and away the fastest load times though for sure.
I believe this loading issue is due to high capacity optical drives like that in the PS3 and Wii U and hence why the 360 doesn't suffer the problem because it still uses DVDs - this is why the PS3 gets you to install much more to disc than the 360 because it's Bluray drive was always too slow for streaming game content on the fly I believe- I seem to remember comments to that effect from the GTA devs IIRC. I don't know if much has been done to resolve this issue in high capacity optical drives because if it hasn't then I suspect the XBox One and PS4 will suffer equally slow load times, it may well be the price of having more or more detailed content right now sadly. I don't know the technical reason, perhaps it's simply the cost of seeking specific data on such a high capacity medium - i.e. I suspect the technology for seeking the required data on a 25gb disc instead of a 4.7gb disc hasn't improved as quickly as the change in capacity has so whilst we have a 5x increase in capacity we may not have a 5x increase in the speed at which we can seek data on optical discs to match that. I'm sure someone here may be able to explain in a bit more detail but there's definitely a loading time issue with high capacity optical discs in current consoles compared to DVD.
I'm not sure it's that bad. I picked up a pro bundled for £199 on Amazon the other day and Sony and Microsoft's competing consoles for the new generation are going to cost £349 and £429 respectively. The 360 and PS3 are cheaper in comparison right now but they're on the verge of being completely wound down in terms of cutting edge game support - give it a year or two and the Wii U pro I suspect will be £179 whilst the XBox One and PS3 will still both be over £300. At that point in the generation when hopefully Nintendo have actually got some more games released I suspect it'll look way more attractive to people.
The problem right now is the bargain basement prices on Microsoft and Sony's last gen coupled with the lack of games for the Wii U.
I picked mine up for £199 (premium version) which to me isn't a particularly bad price and I'm fortunate enough that it's in impulse buy territory. I got a few games for it, Mario Bros U, Pikmin 3, and Lego City Undercover and they've all been excellent. I've not seen the slow UI you mention, the UI has been one of the most pleasant experiences about it for me being much nicer to use than both my XBox 360 and way better than my PS3. It has some annoyances like massive updates but the updates still aren't anywhere near as big as the few hundred mb every time you want to fucking doing anything perma-update situation with the PS3, yet still way worse than the XBox 360s relatively infrequent and normally extremely small updates. All in all I'd say the UI is actually a really nice experience - maybe this is because there have been some patches since you've had yours? I've only had mine just over a week.
I'm not fussed about the emulators running old stuff in full HD, I'm not sure how that's supposed to work, you're just going to use some smoothing algorithm at best anyway, or pixel doubling or whatever at worst and I've never felt graphics matter over gameplay - if I play an old game it's because it was fun, not because I want it to look better than it used to.
But far and away the biggest problem is the lack of games, whilst it has a number of excellent games, that number is way too small and they really don't help themselves by having a virtually empty virtual console - that's something there's little excuse for, I can sympathise with the time of development of retail games, but the time to port over more than a handful of virtual console games? That's just stupid.
So if £199 is a lot of money to someone I can see why they'd be dissapointed and want to recoup at least some of their investment by selling it, but personally it's a low enough figure for me that I'm still happy with the purchase even if I only get the current games plus a new mario kart, the new mario 3D game, the new donkey kong and one or two others. I'll be spending most my time on the XBox One/PS4 from later in the year anyway, for me the Wii U is just there to fill in the gap where I fancy something different to Call of Battlefield Halo 73 because whilst I love those sorts of games it is nice to switch to something like Pikmin, Mario or Lego City Undercover once in a while.
So it's really that question of perceived relative value as to why you'd keep it - Nintendo's problem is that if their only market is people like myself who are happy to blow £200 for only a handful of games then that market isn't very big and that's the problem they need to solve.
I actually fucking hated the Wii for what it's worth (I got one on release, it's gathered dust for 99% of the time since), it looked like a good idea at first but I soon realised that I play games because I want to sit back and relax not jump around getting RSI by shaking my wrist frantically in some dumb party game and the Wii Motes were simply fucking awful for sit back and relax games. This is the one thing that I like most about the Wii U - Nintendo learnt that lesson and both it's tablet controller and pro controllers are extremely comfy to hold and are excellent for just sitting back and relaxing with. It's like a Wii, but with all the things I hated about it fixed (underpowered, shit controllers).
"If I run a normal app (say, a game), does the GPU get this "most high performance profile" as well?"
Depends on the app, for some yes, for most no.
"The point of a benchmark is to give a benchmark of REALISTIC performance on a device, as a user would get under normal daily usage."
I think this is where the real problem is, there's no real consistent definition of what benchmarks are meant to represent and I agree with other posters in this thread that the best option is to stop caring about benchmarks at all and just focus on how well the device works in practice. If you mostly just use Samsung's apps that do run at 533mhz then the benchmarks would be realistic for you, if you use a bunch of 3rd party apps that only run at 480mhz then this benchmark wont be representative and that's the problem with figuring out what a benchmark even means in practice.
It started getting awkward enough with cores/multiple CPUs where the type of processing can be effected drastically by concurrency, but when you have specific optimisation options too then it just becomes too messy to extract any meaningful comparisons from benchmarks. Even years ago this could be a problem where processors could be compared directly with benchmark applications but some benchmark applications didn't check for and make use of SIMD optimisations when they first came about meaning the result simply weren't fair because the processors with SIMD instructions weren't being used to their greatest extent. It's only got worse since then as we have ever more optional optimisations.
"But I wouldn't want to buy a Delorean advertised to be capable of going 95 mph, only to find out that it can go 95 mph when it's being timed on a closed course; when normally used, it can only physically run at 86mph."
You jest but to be fair that's how it usually works. Mine has something like 150mph on the clock but I'm pretty sure if I even approached 130mph in it it'd probably start breaking up.
"They're universally hated across all spectrum of Slashdot users."
I don't think this is true any more. All it took was the XBox One DRM fiasco for half the site to forget everything and declare their intention to buy a PS4 suggesting that maybe Sony aren't so bad now. Sadly nowadays most Slashdot users are those consumers you refer to in your last sentence.
"How much does Samsung pay you to spread this misinformation?"
Most likely the same as Apple pays you, nothing, because I'm not a shill and presumably neither are you. Unless you are of course, in which case then they still pay me nothing.
"This thread is littered with multiple posts from you spreading the same misinformation that is clearly wrong to anyone who's read the article - the 533MHZ speed is ONLY available to benchmark apps"
What is it about Samsung's official response that confuses you so much? I think it's quite easy to understand from their simple response that they do this for more than just benchmark apps and also do it for a number of other every day apps:
"Meanwhile, a maximum GPU frequency of 533MHz is applicable for running apps that are usually used in full-screen mode, such as the S Browser, Gallery, Camera, Video Player, and certain benchmarking apps, which also demand substantial performance."
"What is the going rate for spreading misinformation in a Slashdot discussion?"
Now I've explained that I'm not a shill and that I've explained why you're wrong I have a question for you instead - what is the going rate for attacking Samsung despite being wrong? Nothing? I thought so, so why exactly do you insist on doing it?
If you really want to see someone spamming this thread go look at your fan Sockatume, who has posted many more posts backing up your incorrect position than I have correcting the both of you. I don't think he's a shill though, I just think he refuses to back down when he's clearly and demonstrably wrong and instead just likes to witter on even more as if if he posts enough he'll somehow become right, even though that wont happen because you can't change reality.
If you can prove to me that it's all a lie, and that Samsung's other apps listed above don't run at 533mhz, and that no other apps can utilise this feature other than benchmarking apps, and that all the quotes of the GPU in the S4 running at 533mhz are lies and that this was never the case and it's simply being overclocked for benchmarking then I'll gladly concede defeat and agree that Samsung are in the wrong.
Good luck with that though, but kudos if you can in fact somehow uncover such a massive deception campaign dating back to articles all the way from March.
Protip: Just because you disagree with someone doesn't make that other person a shill.
Slashdot Mirror
But that's the point isn't it? Sometimes those hits from the garbage collector simply don't matter and if they don't matter because performance in this respect isn't the greatest concern then you don't have to bother yourself with it, whilst in C++ you have to bother yourself with it whether performance is a concern or not - in other words C++ always has an inherently slower time to market because of this inherent underlying trait and that's the point of TFA.
If optimisation is more important than time to market then you're absolutely right, switch to C++ because then Java's time to market advantage might be lost.
It's about trade-offs and as I said, sometimes C++ is the right choice, sometimes it's Java, but your anecdote is merely a single case where C++ is the right choice not Java, a single anecdote doesn't disprove Java's worth for every case though.
This isn't really at all true. Orcas are whales, that particular suggestion otherwise is completely false.
But regarding feeding habits, they vary greatly in this species, some groupings dine entirely on smaller fish and hunt in packs to circle them, herd them up, and eat them, whilst others, particularly those in the Antarctic are solo hunters and hunt larger prey like seals and penguins. I believe Orcas off the coast of California work together differently again to attack calves of larger (Grey IIRC?) whales.
Whilst the example you give is a local population it cannot be extrapolated to the species as a whole which has very distinct populations with very distinct traits.
They're a versatile species with differing and complex feeding habits depending on where they live so it's not something that can be trivially generalised as to the habits.
If anything I'd wager this scenario as in TFA is an example of killer whales adapting their habits to another new habitat we've created for them - the artificial living area in which they're dependent on us for food and entertainment and if we can't fulfil that then it's not surprising they've decided to use us as food/entertainment.
"The number of people with the opportunity to come within 100 meters of a wild Orca would be extremely small, let alone within biting range."
Rubbish. I swam with them in the fjords of Norway. I was one of many tens of thousands of tourists that do this every year.
This is far more people than swim with them in captivity that only includes trainers and authorised personnel.
You're jumping to a conclusion based on a theory you've simply made up but that is false. If anything your point acts counter to the conclusion you've come to - I'd wager given the size of the tourist industry that far more people encounter them in the wild with far less experience of the animals than the experienced people who get injured and killed by them in captivity. If the threat was equivalent in the wild to how it is in captivity then tourists wouldn't even be allowed to swim with them because it'd almost certainly be deemed too dangerous, but that's not the case.
"I guess I do like the fact that they're going with someone who will probably be darker and less goofy than Smith." ...and has a track record of you know, being able to actually act which is more than can be said for the amateur dramatics farce that was Smith.
Or an out-of-his-depth middle manager.
Rather than making such a long post you could've just said "I'm a bigoted gay hater" and it would've come across in exactly the same way.
Pretty much everything you said was simply you trying to justify to yourself why it's okay for you to treat gay people as lesser beings and that's okay, most of those who hold such deep far right sentiment do like to think they're right despite knowing deep down they're not, but it doesn't wash with those of us who can see right through it. You're a fascist bigot and it shines through in what you say. If you at least had the courage to accept who you are and admit that it would be something, but don't try to pretend you hold the moral high ground when you don't. It just makes you look pathetic and your argument desperate and so it's no wonder you felt it necessary to post anonymously.
Well as I said in my other post, most countries in the world don't give special benefits to marriage and so yes maybe government involvement in marriage is a key part of the problem in countries where that happens.
In the UK there has been talk about changing this and offering tax breaks for the married but the underlying purpose is to increase marriages which as a proportion of which will occur in churches is a subtle way of the religious MPs backing it trying to get more people into religion.
I don't know if it'll pass, the other have of our governing coalition and the opposition are against it which I'm glad of because yes it should have nothing to do with government.
Oh god, not this again, this isn't the first time you've made this sort of comment about Java vs. C/C++ and had it pointed out to you how wrong you are.
Then you go on as usual and complain about how unfair it is that you can't get a software development job and claim it's about the unfairness of H1-B and how bad your country is and whatever other excuses you come up with. If you can't even get right what even a bottom of the pile H1-B hire would then what do you expect?
Please read the responses others have given you, they're examples of the few times Slashdot's comment system is great because they're full of people who know what they're on about explaining why you're wrong. Unless you're willing to learn from this sort of thing you're going to forever struggle to find that software engineering job and yes, H1-Bs are going to get them instead of you.
It's an interesting topic as to why Java performs so well now and well worth a read. If you really want to be a developer then you'll find it interesting educating yourself on this. If you don't then maybe software isn't really where your heart is at anyway?
Well you may be right, I don't intend to purchase either right at release so hopefully I'll have time to find out how honest they are before I do decide to make my purchase.
In fact, it sounds like here in the UK we're getting both consoles later than people in North America anyway so even if I was going to purchase at UK release that'd give at least a few weeks to see if there's any suggestion of backtracking.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, Sony haven't done much to earn people's trust but I do think there are a few signs suggesting they're turning things around a little and learning from their mistakes not just in terms of their console but in their smartphones, cameras, and other products too to be fair.
Yes, I'm a Microsoft shill, that's why I praised an Open Source IDE (NetBeans), a competitors proprietary IDE (JDeveloper) as well as the Java language and in another thread only about half an hour ago said good things about Sony, and Nintendo. Two days ago I was apparently a Samsung shill too.
Has it really come to this? If you dare praise any company or one of it's products for absolutely anything then you're a shill?
The worst part is because I'm not a fanboy and I praise any company that does something good and criticise any that doesn't I must be a shill for every tech company on earth because even those I least like such as Apple I've praised sometimes (i.e. for shaking up the smartphone market and forcing innovation) and Facebook though I have a mostly negative view of it produced a nice clean site relative to the social networks that came before it (MySpace) crushing them as a result.
If only I really was collecting all those paycheques from the entire who's who list of wealthy silicon valley firms...
Do you? Where?
I don't really care what consenting adults do. Marrying a sibling may not be my cup of tea but it's not as if that didn't happen historically.
Fundamentally that taboo for example came about largely because of the lobby that decided marriage should be about reproduction rather than love but they're separate issues. It's possible to ban such reproduction because of the effects it can have on the child without banning marriage.
At the end of the day if there's consent, capability to give consent (i.e. maturity to make that decision, no mental impairment preventing it and so forth) and it doesn't harm anyone else then I really couldn't give a shit.
It sounds like the real problem is that you believe that some groups of consenting adults should be treated differently not me.
"Wouldn't a C++ programmer generate an applicable program effectively as quickly as a Java programmer?"
No, some languages simply are slower to develop with and debug. The problem is also made worse depending on the frameworks and IDEs available. As an example, you're going to get your work done way quicker writing an application manipulating dates and times using C# and Visual Studio than you are Java and Eclipse because until Java 8 Java's date time functionality is shit and Eclipse is a dog slow IDE. With Java 8 and say NetBeans or JDeveloper though things will be pretty similar.
At the end of the day with C/C++ you have to deal with memory management and that's just one additional piece of work that you don't have to be so concerned with with Java. C/C++ give you more scope for optimisation and more control over memory management as a benefit of that though. It's about trade-offs and figuring out what matters.
But it's possible to be great at both C++ and Java without having to descend into petty arguments as to which is better and know when to use each in response to a specific task, and that's the sort of great programmer these institutions will be looking for and this is really what they're talking about - both have their place but in some cases getting a trading application to market a day earlier than the competition even at slight latency trade-off may be enough to net your company a few million dollars advantage. In other cases, the latency improvements of a highly optimised C++ application may instead be the key to scooping up those extra millions.
I'm not sure, Sony is being more open than ever, a complete u-turn from it's past where it's actually banning online passes and such DRM from it's system and forcing Microsoft to follow suit.
We'll see greater plurality of platforms but increased compatibility with the new console hardware being largely compatible with PC hardware which means we should see far less of the low quality ports of the last generation - porting between the XBox One, PS4, Wii U, and PC will be way easier than between the 360, PS3, Wii, and PC due to the plague of fundamental architecture differences with the existing generation.
Sony realised their biggest fuckup last generation initially was abysmal developer tools and they're working on that.
So yes I think he's spot on, for gamers things are better - less DRM, more platform choices, better quality cross platform titles, easier publishing for indie developers across all platforms now announced. For developers they have better tools, far fewer and much simpler differences between platforms making porting a breeze in comparison and again easier publishing for indie devs.
I'll probably end up buying every platform this generation again (well, I only have the XBox One and PS4 to go anyway) and I'm frankly looking forward to all of them. The XBox One was my only concern but since the DRM u-turn and the announcement of indie publishing and development on consumer consoles, coupled with removal of chief idiot Don Mattrick my concerns have been removed. I was never one for the Kinect/NSA conspiracy theory, really, the NSA isn't going to be able to sneak a live stream of video over my networking hardware without me spotting it and even if they wanted to they could do the same with my webcam or my phone or tablet or plethora of other camera integrated devices that exist nowadays anyway.
It wasn't looking that great a round at first with Microsoft's braindead initial announcement, and the Wii U looking a little pointless but now I have a Wii U and played through Lego City Undercover and Pikmin 3 coupled with the above mentioned policy changes by Microsoft, as well as some decent PC releases at last this last year or so (Diablo 3, Starcraft, Wargame: Airland Battle to name a few) I'm content right now providing nothing stupid happens in the meantime to change that.
What exactly do you think is happening that we should all be concerned about? I still have concerns, I still want way less DRM on PC and yes that includes Valve but things right now are looking better than they were previous gen - the Wii U looks set to have less titles but more quality titles unlike the Wii which was a software crap fest, the PS4 will hopefully be more consumer friendly and is hopefully more polished than the anti-consumer patch-fest that was the PS3, the XBox One is due to run quiet and cooler than the aeroplane sounding radiator that was the 360 and has had to follow Sony's lead in DRM removal and the PC is becoming more competitive in terms of games on offer. I know the fanboys will bitch and moan about opposing systems but if a system has something I like I don't intend to artificially limit myself from not being able to enjoy it based on something as petty as that.
I'm not talking about special treatment for being married, that's country specific so pointless to talk about as if tax breaks for being married or whatever are some inherent trait of marriage everywhere - they're not.
By equal rights I'm referring to the ability to marry someone you love. Currently only gay people are denied that right.
If you jumped off your ethnocentric horse of American marriage benefits for a moment you'd realise that there is an underlying equality issue there that's far more important than whinging about tax break inequality and the like.
"So when Google/MS/etc. etc. all were heaping money on for the pro-gay marriage debate why was protest by company employees not allowed while this is seen as being a "moral' thing to do?"
Was it not allowed or is it simply that Google employees are smart enough to realise that laws supporting equal rights for gay people are as important as equal rights for women and equal rights for people of different race and that only bigoted idiots take issue with them?
"I'm not taking a position either way on either topic"
Your sig suggests otherwise.
I actually like it (and I hated my Wii, was the biggest dissapointment ever). It's very comfortable to hold and offers some pretty cool new gameplay features in games like Lego City Undercover.
I don't really care if it's resistive of capacitive, multitouch or not, if it adds fun new gameplay features and is comfortable then that's fine and it really does do exactly that.
Perhaps the only complaint I'd have is battery life, you only seem to get about 8 hours out of it, that is a bit more and I prefer to use it cable free so it's annoying having to plug it in sometimes.
I know where you're coming from regarding games because I'd place myself as a hardcore gamer so am really not into the party games that plagued the Wii and for which seem to make up the bulk of Wii U games even now but as I say if just a few AAA titles like Pikmin, Mario 3D, Mario Kart and such make it through then that'll be enough for me.
I think I know somewhat what you're referring to with load times because loading software or between levels in for example Lego City Undercover takes a bit longer than is ideal so if that's what you're referring to then I certainly sympathise but I don't for example get any slow downs when using the menus or anything or changing pages on the menu - all that I find to be a real pleasure. For what it's worth though the PS3 is much much slower again where you can sit for ages waiting for things to load so perhaps I'm used to it somewhat from that because even the Wii U's load times aren't so bad compared to the PS3's. Of the currently released consoles the 360 definitely has far and away the fastest load times though for sure.
I believe this loading issue is due to high capacity optical drives like that in the PS3 and Wii U and hence why the 360 doesn't suffer the problem because it still uses DVDs - this is why the PS3 gets you to install much more to disc than the 360 because it's Bluray drive was always too slow for streaming game content on the fly I believe- I seem to remember comments to that effect from the GTA devs IIRC. I don't know if much has been done to resolve this issue in high capacity optical drives because if it hasn't then I suspect the XBox One and PS4 will suffer equally slow load times, it may well be the price of having more or more detailed content right now sadly. I don't know the technical reason, perhaps it's simply the cost of seeking specific data on such a high capacity medium - i.e. I suspect the technology for seeking the required data on a 25gb disc instead of a 4.7gb disc hasn't improved as quickly as the change in capacity has so whilst we have a 5x increase in capacity we may not have a 5x increase in the speed at which we can seek data on optical discs to match that. I'm sure someone here may be able to explain in a bit more detail but there's definitely a loading time issue with high capacity optical discs in current consoles compared to DVD.
I'm not sure it's that bad. I picked up a pro bundled for £199 on Amazon the other day and Sony and Microsoft's competing consoles for the new generation are going to cost £349 and £429 respectively. The 360 and PS3 are cheaper in comparison right now but they're on the verge of being completely wound down in terms of cutting edge game support - give it a year or two and the Wii U pro I suspect will be £179 whilst the XBox One and PS3 will still both be over £300. At that point in the generation when hopefully Nintendo have actually got some more games released I suspect it'll look way more attractive to people.
The problem right now is the bargain basement prices on Microsoft and Sony's last gen coupled with the lack of games for the Wii U.
I do but I can understand why others wouldn't.
I picked mine up for £199 (premium version) which to me isn't a particularly bad price and I'm fortunate enough that it's in impulse buy territory. I got a few games for it, Mario Bros U, Pikmin 3, and Lego City Undercover and they've all been excellent. I've not seen the slow UI you mention, the UI has been one of the most pleasant experiences about it for me being much nicer to use than both my XBox 360 and way better than my PS3. It has some annoyances like massive updates but the updates still aren't anywhere near as big as the few hundred mb every time you want to fucking doing anything perma-update situation with the PS3, yet still way worse than the XBox 360s relatively infrequent and normally extremely small updates. All in all I'd say the UI is actually a really nice experience - maybe this is because there have been some patches since you've had yours? I've only had mine just over a week.
I'm not fussed about the emulators running old stuff in full HD, I'm not sure how that's supposed to work, you're just going to use some smoothing algorithm at best anyway, or pixel doubling or whatever at worst and I've never felt graphics matter over gameplay - if I play an old game it's because it was fun, not because I want it to look better than it used to.
But far and away the biggest problem is the lack of games, whilst it has a number of excellent games, that number is way too small and they really don't help themselves by having a virtually empty virtual console - that's something there's little excuse for, I can sympathise with the time of development of retail games, but the time to port over more than a handful of virtual console games? That's just stupid.
So if £199 is a lot of money to someone I can see why they'd be dissapointed and want to recoup at least some of their investment by selling it, but personally it's a low enough figure for me that I'm still happy with the purchase even if I only get the current games plus a new mario kart, the new mario 3D game, the new donkey kong and one or two others. I'll be spending most my time on the XBox One/PS4 from later in the year anyway, for me the Wii U is just there to fill in the gap where I fancy something different to Call of Battlefield Halo 73 because whilst I love those sorts of games it is nice to switch to something like Pikmin, Mario or Lego City Undercover once in a while.
So it's really that question of perceived relative value as to why you'd keep it - Nintendo's problem is that if their only market is people like myself who are happy to blow £200 for only a handful of games then that market isn't very big and that's the problem they need to solve.
I actually fucking hated the Wii for what it's worth (I got one on release, it's gathered dust for 99% of the time since), it looked like a good idea at first but I soon realised that I play games because I want to sit back and relax not jump around getting RSI by shaking my wrist frantically in some dumb party game and the Wii Motes were simply fucking awful for sit back and relax games. This is the one thing that I like most about the Wii U - Nintendo learnt that lesson and both it's tablet controller and pro controllers are extremely comfy to hold and are excellent for just sitting back and relaxing with. It's like a Wii, but with all the things I hated about it fixed (underpowered, shit controllers).
Try Pikmin 3 now it's out too. I really enjoyed it, defo joint best game on the console alongside Lego City Undercover.
All the ones Samsung listed for a start:
S Browser, Gallery, Camera, Video Player
"If I run a normal app (say, a game), does the GPU get this "most high performance profile" as well?"
Depends on the app, for some yes, for most no.
"The point of a benchmark is to give a benchmark of REALISTIC performance on a device, as a user would get under normal daily usage."
I think this is where the real problem is, there's no real consistent definition of what benchmarks are meant to represent and I agree with other posters in this thread that the best option is to stop caring about benchmarks at all and just focus on how well the device works in practice. If you mostly just use Samsung's apps that do run at 533mhz then the benchmarks would be realistic for you, if you use a bunch of 3rd party apps that only run at 480mhz then this benchmark wont be representative and that's the problem with figuring out what a benchmark even means in practice.
It started getting awkward enough with cores/multiple CPUs where the type of processing can be effected drastically by concurrency, but when you have specific optimisation options too then it just becomes too messy to extract any meaningful comparisons from benchmarks. Even years ago this could be a problem where processors could be compared directly with benchmark applications but some benchmark applications didn't check for and make use of SIMD optimisations when they first came about meaning the result simply weren't fair because the processors with SIMD instructions weren't being used to their greatest extent. It's only got worse since then as we have ever more optional optimisations.
"But I wouldn't want to buy a Delorean advertised to be capable of going 95 mph, only to find out that it can go 95 mph when it's being timed on a closed course; when normally used, it can only physically run at 86mph."
You jest but to be fair that's how it usually works. Mine has something like 150mph on the clock but I'm pretty sure if I even approached 130mph in it it'd probably start breaking up.
"They're universally hated across all spectrum of Slashdot users."
I don't think this is true any more. All it took was the XBox One DRM fiasco for half the site to forget everything and declare their intention to buy a PS4 suggesting that maybe Sony aren't so bad now. Sadly nowadays most Slashdot users are those consumers you refer to in your last sentence.
"How much does Samsung pay you to spread this misinformation?"
Most likely the same as Apple pays you, nothing, because I'm not a shill and presumably neither are you. Unless you are of course, in which case then they still pay me nothing.
"This thread is littered with multiple posts from you spreading the same misinformation that is clearly wrong to anyone who's read the article - the 533MHZ speed is ONLY available to benchmark apps"
What is it about Samsung's official response that confuses you so much? I think it's quite easy to understand from their simple response that they do this for more than just benchmark apps and also do it for a number of other every day apps:
"Meanwhile, a maximum GPU frequency of 533MHz is applicable for running apps that are usually used in full-screen mode, such as the S Browser, Gallery, Camera, Video Player, and certain benchmarking apps, which also demand substantial performance."
"What is the going rate for spreading misinformation in a Slashdot discussion?"
Now I've explained that I'm not a shill and that I've explained why you're wrong I have a question for you instead - what is the going rate for attacking Samsung despite being wrong? Nothing? I thought so, so why exactly do you insist on doing it?
If you really want to see someone spamming this thread go look at your fan Sockatume, who has posted many more posts backing up your incorrect position than I have correcting the both of you. I don't think he's a shill though, I just think he refuses to back down when he's clearly and demonstrably wrong and instead just likes to witter on even more as if if he posts enough he'll somehow become right, even though that wont happen because you can't change reality.
If you can prove to me that it's all a lie, and that Samsung's other apps listed above don't run at 533mhz, and that no other apps can utilise this feature other than benchmarking apps, and that all the quotes of the GPU in the S4 running at 533mhz are lies and that this was never the case and it's simply being overclocked for benchmarking then I'll gladly concede defeat and agree that Samsung are in the wrong.
Good luck with that though, but kudos if you can in fact somehow uncover such a massive deception campaign dating back to articles all the way from March.
Protip: Just because you disagree with someone doesn't make that other person a shill.