I use it, but I can't right now, as I still can't log in. So it seems MS is full of crap when claiming that there are just "delays" in logging in. It's not working from my Win2000 box using the MS client or my iBook running Fire on OS X...
There are legitimate uses for this, it's quite handy for sending quick messages to my co-workers who are on the other side of the building from my office... ---
I use all four of them as well, and generally agree with your comments, here are my thoughts:
Yahoo: Not bad, but I hardly know anyone who uses it, and it seems lightweight.
MSN: My favorite, it stores buddy lists server-side, which is great for moving between machines. It has the least annoying sound effects, and a pretty simple interface, as well as the ability for people to send a message to my pager quite easily.
ICQ: Used to be my favorite, but now there is too much clutter to the program. Your buddy list isn't stored on a server, so you've got to carry the data around between machines with you, which is a pain. It has annoying sound effects, but lots of powerful features.
AIM: Not bad, slightly annoying sound effects, large number of users, and cool buddy icons.
The other thing that makes me like MSN the most is that people generally tie it to their hotmail address, which they aren't likely to forget. Most of my ICQ friends have forgotten their # or password at some point, and have just made a new account, so some of them are on my list three or four times. People aren't too likely to forget their e-mail address or password if they even use it semi-regularly... ---
I had AT&T @Home for two years before getting my new locally owned and run cable modem service in my new place.
The level one support people are clueless, and like to blame your machine or hardware for every problem, even if you haven't changed anything, and you wake up some morning to find all three of your computers no longer connecting to the network, and you've swapped out your hub and every network cable. I am not making this up, it happened to me, and it took two and a half weeks for them to diagnose that there was a problem in the cable box outside my apartment building. One tech had come out, but didn't bother to actually TEST the line, just installed a new modem and left saying "it should work in a couple of hours".
What I want, is for ISPs to take providing service more seriously. If you do convince them that there is an actual problem with your line or modem, @Home always schedules someone to come to your house in two weeks, not the next day, not even that week.
Would I accept that from the phone company or the power company? Hell no! Maybe access to the internet isn't important to them, but it is important to me, as it can save me several trips to the office to fix minor glitches or help out computer-challenged users.
Now, I understand that cable modems can go down, but for the love-of-god, have a free dial-up number locally for when it does, so that those of us who have phone modems at least have a backup that we can use for those two weeks while we wait for help. AT&T has a modem pool that their subscribers can use, FOR FIFTY CENTS PER MINUTE. That's adding insult to injury.
What is the average cluelss user supposed to do for two weeks without access? You can generate an awful lot of negative eBay feedback for unpaid auctions and unsent goods if you can't get to your e-mail for two weeks...
I know that if you really NEED Internet access 24/7, you should be using something more expensive than a $30/month cable modem, but it's time that @Home actually showed some concern for the experience of the end users... ---
I sent in my $10, just hoping others will do the same...
If everyone posts an "I donated $xx" amount message, we can raise money for them at the same time as we break the previous Slashdot postings record.:) ---
Wow, I can't believe the amount of cynicism already appearing in this story. I just chipped in $10 towards the project because I'd like to see it be developed further.
That's what separates the people who use Linux because it's free (as in beer) from the people who believe in free (as in speech) software, and are willing to fund further development of it.
Sure, ten bucks isn't a lot, it's about two lunches for me, but hopefully if more Slashdotters contribute a few bucks, they can come out with better FreeNet servers & clients. ---
No, he could have set the clock himself, all he had to do was plug a serial line into the port on the back of the TiVo. I don't think that TiVo is obligated to provide you with a clock-setting feature, since you're obviously not interested in making the device function properly, because you're not using the service which usually accompanies the device.
It was ReplayTV that inserted the commercials during pause, not TiVo. ---
There's a LOT of FUD flying around this discussion, and really, I expected better from the Slashdot crowd. I own two TiVos, just having hooked up my second one yesterday, and the guy who submitted this story is not exactly an unbiased source of information.
First of all, why would you WANT to use your TiVo without the TiVo service? Even in version 1.3, that made the TiVo a slightly more annoying version of a VCR, sans video tape. A few features worked, but it's really not doing what it's intended to do. There are also other options besides paying $10/month, you can pay $99/year, or $249 for lifetime (of the unit) subscriptions to their service.
Second of all, how did he get the updated software, unless he was dialing in to TiVo? If he really wanted to use the box without TiVo service, why was he dialing in with the modem? If he was happy with his boat-anchor mode 1.3 box, why not just yank the modem cable out of the back? Why? Because he wanted the clock set by TiVo, so, he basically wanted to dial-in to their service for free. This costs TiVo money, of course, they don't make much (if anything) on the sale of a box, as the units are manufactured by Phillips or Sony, TiVo the company only makes money on the subscriptions.
It's not like TiVo came to his house, ripped open his box, and installed the software, NOR DO THEY DIAL IN TO YOUR BOX, which is a common misconception, for those of you who didn't read the article. Your TiVo will simply dial-in to the nearest UUNet access number with it's built-in modem. His box had to dial-in to get the software, and if he's dialing in, it's hard to blame TiVo.
There's a lot of good TiVo information on the AVSForum boards over at:
The shipment I got was all mini-towers, and the one sitting next to my desk is also a minitower, and they're absolutely quiet. I've also used the small desktop model, and that one is quiet as well. I haven't seen the ridiculously slim one in person yet, but I imagine it's also quiet, but it has about as much room for expansion as an Apple Cube, so it's not much good for the average hardware lovin' geek. ---
Or, get a Dell OptiPlex GX150. Dell only sells these to Corporate/Educational institutions, but they're the quietest PCs that I've ever used. I just got a shipment of 15 in here at work, and it's too bad that none of them are for me...
I couldn't even hear it running over the noise of my PC and the air conditioning in my office, it's that quiet. If they had SCSI 160 hard drives in them, I'd probably swap out my Micron workstation for one... ---
As a long-time PC user, I just ordered my first Mac last week. I've used them before at many jobs, but never owned one of my very own. I chose to get the new iBook.
Why? Because Apple actually has the x86 world beat in the notebook category. The cost of my iBook (I work in education) was $1545 + $237 for the AppleCare warranty. Try and configure a PC laptop the same way for $1545. My iBook has an XGA display (12" yeah, but still XGA) AirPort card, built in ethernet and 56K modem, as well as DVD. I swear by Dell systems, but I couldn't come close to touching the iBook for the same price, and I would have had to tolerate an external wireless antenna, as you can't have ethernet and 802.11b in a laptop yet...
I think that the G4 desktops are still overpriced, but the iBook line is very reasonable. The iMacs are okay, but the 15" CRT is dead, Apple. If they came out with a 17" version, they'd see a renewed interest in them... ---
I like to fill out all of the e-mail address boxes with "postmaster@domain.com" where the domain is the site I'm downloading from. I bet postmaster@real.com is getting really tired of the spam from his own company by now, as is postmaster@iomega.com, postmaster@apple.com, postmaster@novell.com, etc. etc.:) ---
There's more realistic-sounding information available on this site:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/#990980645
Aw hell, I'll just post it here:
Although Matrox does its best to keep all the details about the upcoming G550 top secret and doesn't provide any info even under NDAs, they still can't withstand very unpleasant leaks. Our reliable sources close to Matrox told us some credible details about G550, which will be officially announced on June 19, as we have told you before.
Judging by the set of features the upcoming G550 will have, we can conclude that this solution will not be targeted for gamers. Matrox will pay special attention to DualHead technology and 2D graphics, while 3D performance will remain mediocre. So, G550 seems to be just an enhanced version of the G450.
As for 2D, just as in the previous solution, G550 core will have 2 RAMDACs. Primary RAMDAC will work at 360MHz, while the secondary RAMDAC will work at 230MHz. So, the highest resolution on the primary monitor will make 2048x1536 and on the secondary monitor - 1600x1200, at 32bit color mode.
As for DualHead technology, it will work in the following modes: multi-display, DVDMax, zoom, clone, TV-Out, Snapshot, and will feature eDualHead browser enhancements. Also G550 will support dual-DVI.
Speaking about 3D, G550 architecture will undergo some slight changes. G550 will have 2 pixel pipelines with 2 texturing unit each. However, the performance will be greatly limited by 64bit DDR SDRAM, which Matrox considered to be the best choice for its G550 for some reason. So, 3D performance of G550 will be comparable with GeForce2 MX 200 or RADEON VE or even lower.
But G550 3D core will also have some nice things. It will be DirectX 8 compliant due to Matrox's brand HeadCasting engine. This engine is none other but a T&L unit supporting extended Vertex Shaders and matrix palette skinning. G550 will also support EMBM.
G550 will be made with 0.18micron technology and have dual integrated CRTCs, RAMDACs, TMDS and one integrated TV encoder. The cards based on G550 will be equipped with 16MB or 32MB DDR SDRAM with 64bit interface. G550 based cards with 32MB memory are expected to cost around $140.
Also our sources told us that 3D gamers shouldn't forget about Matrox, because the company also keeps working on a new gaming solution. ---
Re:High Warp Restriction?
on
Voyager Eulogy
·
· Score: 2
Star Trek is always way off in the amount of time it takes to travel X lightyears. Sometimes they state it will take "2 days at high warp" to go 15 light years, but then they'll travel from one star system to another in a few hours.
Maybe I'm wrong here, and I'm not taking into account the exponentially high speeds at the higher warp factors, but it's never seemed very consistent to me.
Anyone have any idea when the ST:TNG DVD discs are coming out? It just says "Coming Soon" on the inserts in the TOS DVDs. Hopefully, they'll do box sets like the X-Files DVDs, in which a whole season is included in one set, but I'm sure that Paramount will want to milk all us fans for every last cent, and will sell only two-episode discs, so that you wind up having to buy 90 DVDs to get the whole series, rather than 7 box sets.
My biggest gripes about Voyager are that it didn't have the quality of writing of DS9. Seasons Six & Seven of DS9 are the best Trek ever written, in my book. TNG has more of the best episodes (Best of Both Worlds, The Inner Light, etc.) but the story arcs of the Dominion War were the most engaging Star Trek to watch week after week.
My biggest gripes about Star Trek are about the unreliability of Transporters and Holodecks. Nothing turns me off faster than "our transporters don't work because of a [particle] field on this planet", with the exception of the Holodeck program run amok. If the damned Transporters and Holodecks broke down that often, why would you ever use them? I'd be like Bones McCoy too, and stick to Shuttlecraft.
I gave up on Voyager after the first season too, until I got my TiVo and started watching again. The local Fox affiliate would move it around every few months, it became impossible to keep track of which nights were reruns, and which nights were new episodes, but with TiVo, that got much easier.
What I'd like to see is one Star Trek movie per year, featuring DS9, Voyager, and TNG crews. Have this year be a DS9 movie, next year Voyager, etc. They wouldn't even have to be incredible movies to make large profits for the studios, and to satisfy the fans. Part of the reasons that the movies can suck is because they include too much stuff geared at the non-fan, when many of us would love to have more movies with writing that is more consistent with the shows, but with better special effects. Something like the Best of Both Worlds on the big screen would be great, and please, Paramount, don't mess with the characters every single movie. Data gets emotion chips, Geordi gets eyes, etc. They're slowly eliminating all of the things that made each crew member special...
That's enough of my Star Trek ranting for tonight... ---
All I have to say is that in order to SHUTDOWN the computer I click on the START menu. um, hello?
That's only for the people who aren't smart enough to hit Control-Alt-Delete, then Alt-S.
Or you could think of it as starting the routine which shuts the system down.
My personal biggest gripe about Linux as a desktop OS is how hard it can be to simply change your resolution or color depth. Try any recent distribution, using either KDE or Gnome, and try to find a shortcut in the menu system for changing your resolution. Doing it via a GUI method takes a lot of hunting around, if it's even possible at all... ---
I turned off the season pass for Gunmen on my TiVo a couple of weeks ago. I gave the show a chance, I'm a devoted X-Files fan, but it was too brainless for me.
My biggest gripe is that there was nothing supernatural, spooky, or government-conspiratorial about the new series. For inhabiting the same world as Mulder & Scully, the Gunmen spend an awful lot of time chasing the world's lamest criminals. Jimmy Bond is just annoying and stupid, but at least Yves is hot.
The CONSTANT technical inaccuracies drove me nuts. I understand that you have to sacrifice some reality to make the plots work, but some of the errors in the show could be corrected with very little work at all.
In the pilot, they talk about the new fancy CPU having a built in modem to it that causes some security concerns. Never mind that you'd have to open up your PC and plug a cable into the CPU for this "modem" to work. All of their technology references fell short. I can forgive one or two, but after you're bombarded with 15 in a row, it just becomes apparent that the show is insulting your intelligence and attempting to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I know that a show needs a large audience to be successful, but TLG was too geeky for the non-geeks and too inaccurate for the true geeks.
Check out Freaks & Geeks on Fox Family if you want a really enjoyable show. There were only something like 18 episodes made before NBC axed it, but they're absolutely hilarious. I never saw the show when it was on NBC, but after discovering it on Fox Family, every single person I've introduced it to has loved it and watched every episode. It all plays out very true-to-life, and you can actually believe that most of these situations could or would happen to these kids... ---
er breathe, I meant, not breate, whatever that was. Oh, and I'm sure they'd all want to bring 30 lbs. of luggage along and they'd all be pissed off when their cell phones didn't work, then they'd plug in a hair dryer and use up all of the AC that the solar cells have gathered in the last week to dry their hair. ---
Yeah, but you can't load as many people as you can payload. People have to move around, eat, sleep, breate and shit. Satellites don't even need atmosphere. ---
"Teachers, especially those with large bustlines, face a serious peoblem in Cordoba, Argentina. A woman simply cannot be hired to teach if her chest is big. Why? Because lawmakers in Cordoba finally came to realize that a large, shapely chest is just "too much of a distraction for teenage boys in a classroom."
Anyone who had Ms. Skruukrud for Biology class in my high school would realize immediately the validty of this statement.:) ---
I haven't ever used an O2, but for Corporate PCs, Dell's new Optiplex GX150 machines are pretty nice. They open at the push of a button, and most of the components can be taken out of the box without a screwdriver. They're also the quietest PCs I've ever used, unlike my old Dell Precision 410 workstation, this SCSI drive sounds like someone crushing gravel... ---
I suppose this means that for job security, it's better to let little problems simmer for a while (so you appear to be loaded down), then come charging to the rescue like a white knight (so you get appreciated).:-)
Very true. I always use this tactic, as well as telling people that I won't be able to get to their problems for two more days, then showing up in half an hour to fix them. This makes them think that you're a miracle worker (Montgomery Scott - Star Trek) and also keeps them from calling you about things before they engage their brain to solve the problem themselves.
More importantly, it gives you some padding for the call that you thought was just a computer lockup but turns out to be a toasted hard drive that the luser didn't backup in the last six months, so you've got to spend an entire day trying to get that drive to cough up some project that is due TODAY. ---
I'm an IT Support Person, and I've had days with "Jack Shit To Do". It's generally when everyone else is on vacation, and I'm all caught up on my trouble calls. I get a lot of web surfing done, and organize things for the days when I go non-stop from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with people screaming at me because they don't bother to save frequently, or back up their data.
I don't think that IT people are a special class or anything, but we tend to see people at their worst, when they're frustrated because something isn't working right. They're usually also embarassed and pissed at themselves, because they've done something stupid, but that won't stop them from taking it out on you.
I don't think IT people are godly, but we do have to put up with more than our share of bullshit, and if we don't get at least a little down time and some toys occasionally (I've got my new 21 inch monitor on the way) then we'd all just burn out like social workers do... ---
Oops, sorry, I just meant the speed thing and the CPU utilization, which are typical of the parallel port Zip drives.
The Click of Death is a real problem, I administer some university computer labs, and there's nothing worse than having it spread throughout your labs, then having to deal with the associated complaints from those who didn't have any backups of their important data. It does/did strike all versions of the Zip drives, but thankfully, the newer models don't seem affected... ---
Honestly, that's what you get for buying a drive that transfers data through your printer port. That port was designed for PRINTERS, not for removable media. Spend a little bit more and get an internal IDE version, the external USB version, or god forbid, a SCSI Zip. You'll be much happier.
Back in '97, I bought the external Zip Plus. It lets me use SCSI on my box here at home, and if I needed to, I could hook it up via parallel to a box I was working on. Fortunately, I didn't have to do that very often... ---
Slashdot Mirror
I use it, but I can't right now, as I still can't log in. So it seems MS is full of crap when claiming that there are just "delays" in logging in. It's not working from my Win2000 box using the MS client or my iBook running Fire on OS X...
There are legitimate uses for this, it's quite handy for sending quick messages to my co-workers who are on the other side of the building from my office...
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I use all four of them as well, and generally agree with your comments, here are my thoughts:
Yahoo: Not bad, but I hardly know anyone who uses it, and it seems lightweight.
MSN: My favorite, it stores buddy lists server-side, which is great for moving between machines. It has the least annoying sound effects, and a pretty simple interface, as well as the ability for people to send a message to my pager quite easily.
ICQ: Used to be my favorite, but now there is too much clutter to the program. Your buddy list isn't stored on a server, so you've got to carry the data around between machines with you, which is a pain. It has annoying sound effects, but lots of powerful features.
AIM: Not bad, slightly annoying sound effects, large number of users, and cool buddy icons.
The other thing that makes me like MSN the most is that people generally tie it to their hotmail address, which they aren't likely to forget. Most of my ICQ friends have forgotten their # or password at some point, and have just made a new account, so some of them are on my list three or four times. People aren't too likely to forget their e-mail address or password if they even use it semi-regularly...
---
I had AT&T @Home for two years before getting my new locally owned and run cable modem service in my new place.
The level one support people are clueless, and like to blame your machine or hardware for every problem, even if you haven't changed anything, and you wake up some morning to find all three of your computers no longer connecting to the network, and you've swapped out your hub and every network cable. I am not making this up, it happened to me, and it took two and a half weeks for them to diagnose that there was a problem in the cable box outside my apartment building. One tech had come out, but didn't bother to actually TEST the line, just installed a new modem and left saying "it should work in a couple of hours".
What I want, is for ISPs to take providing service more seriously. If you do convince them that there is an actual problem with your line or modem, @Home always schedules someone to come to your house in two weeks, not the next day, not even that week.
Would I accept that from the phone company or the power company? Hell no! Maybe access to the internet isn't important to them, but it is important to me, as it can save me several trips to the office to fix minor glitches or help out computer-challenged users.
Now, I understand that cable modems can go down, but for the love-of-god, have a free dial-up number locally for when it does, so that those of us who have phone modems at least have a backup that we can use for those two weeks while we wait for help. AT&T has a modem pool that their subscribers can use, FOR FIFTY CENTS PER MINUTE. That's adding insult to injury.
What is the average cluelss user supposed to do for two weeks without access? You can generate an awful lot of negative eBay feedback for unpaid auctions and unsent goods if you can't get to your e-mail for two weeks...
I know that if you really NEED Internet access 24/7, you should be using something more expensive than a $30/month cable modem, but it's time that @Home actually showed some concern for the experience of the end users...
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I sent in my $10, just hoping others will do the same...
:)
If everyone posts an "I donated $xx" amount message, we can raise money for them at the same time as we break the previous Slashdot postings record.
---
Wow, I can't believe the amount of cynicism already appearing in this story. I just chipped in $10 towards the project because I'd like to see it be developed further.
That's what separates the people who use Linux because it's free (as in beer) from the people who believe in free (as in speech) software, and are willing to fund further development of it.
Sure, ten bucks isn't a lot, it's about two lunches for me, but hopefully if more Slashdotters contribute a few bucks, they can come out with better FreeNet servers & clients.
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Or, you could just use a Terapin device which can record to CD-R
Here's a link to their store
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No, he could have set the clock himself, all he had to do was plug a serial line into the port on the back of the TiVo. I don't think that TiVo is obligated to provide you with a clock-setting feature, since you're obviously not interested in making the device function properly, because you're not using the service which usually accompanies the device.
It was ReplayTV that inserted the commercials during pause, not TiVo.
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There's a LOT of FUD flying around this discussion, and really, I expected better from the Slashdot crowd. I own two TiVos, just having hooked up my second one yesterday, and the guy who submitted this story is not exactly an unbiased source of information.
First of all, why would you WANT to use your TiVo without the TiVo service? Even in version 1.3, that made the TiVo a slightly more annoying version of a VCR, sans video tape. A few features worked, but it's really not doing what it's intended to do. There are also other options besides paying $10/month, you can pay $99/year, or $249 for lifetime (of the unit) subscriptions to their service.
Second of all, how did he get the updated software, unless he was dialing in to TiVo? If he really wanted to use the box without TiVo service, why was he dialing in with the modem? If he was happy with his boat-anchor mode 1.3 box, why not just yank the modem cable out of the back? Why? Because he wanted the clock set by TiVo, so, he basically wanted to dial-in to their service for free. This costs TiVo money, of course, they don't make much (if anything) on the sale of a box, as the units are manufactured by Phillips or Sony, TiVo the company only makes money on the subscriptions.
It's not like TiVo came to his house, ripped open his box, and installed the software, NOR DO THEY DIAL IN TO YOUR BOX, which is a common misconception, for those of you who didn't read the article. Your TiVo will simply dial-in to the nearest UUNet access number with it's built-in modem. His box had to dial-in to get the software, and if he's dialing in, it's hard to blame TiVo.
There's a lot of good TiVo information on the AVSForum boards over at:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/
---
The shipment I got was all mini-towers, and the one sitting next to my desk is also a minitower, and they're absolutely quiet. I've also used the small desktop model, and that one is quiet as well. I haven't seen the ridiculously slim one in person yet, but I imagine it's also quiet, but it has about as much room for expansion as an Apple Cube, so it's not much good for the average hardware lovin' geek.
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Or, get a Dell OptiPlex GX150. Dell only sells these to Corporate/Educational institutions, but they're the quietest PCs that I've ever used. I just got a shipment of 15 in here at work, and it's too bad that none of them are for me...
I couldn't even hear it running over the noise of my PC and the air conditioning in my office, it's that quiet. If they had SCSI 160 hard drives in them, I'd probably swap out my Micron workstation for one...
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As a long-time PC user, I just ordered my first Mac last week. I've used them before at many jobs, but never owned one of my very own. I chose to get the new iBook.
Why? Because Apple actually has the x86 world beat in the notebook category. The cost of my iBook (I work in education) was $1545 + $237 for the AppleCare warranty. Try and configure a PC laptop the same way for $1545. My iBook has an XGA display (12" yeah, but still XGA) AirPort card, built in ethernet and 56K modem, as well as DVD. I swear by Dell systems, but I couldn't come close to touching the iBook for the same price, and I would have had to tolerate an external wireless antenna, as you can't have ethernet and 802.11b in a laptop yet...
I think that the G4 desktops are still overpriced, but the iBook line is very reasonable. The iMacs are okay, but the 15" CRT is dead, Apple. If they came out with a 17" version, they'd see a renewed interest in them...
---
I like to fill out all of the e-mail address boxes with "postmaster@domain.com" where the domain is the site I'm downloading from. I bet postmaster@real.com is getting really tired of the spam from his own company by now, as is postmaster@iomega.com, postmaster@apple.com, postmaster@novell.com, etc. etc. :)
---
There's more realistic-sounding information available on this site:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/#990980645
Aw hell, I'll just post it here:
Although Matrox does its best to keep all the details about the upcoming G550 top secret and doesn't provide any info even under NDAs, they still can't withstand very unpleasant leaks. Our reliable sources close to Matrox told us some credible details about G550, which will be officially announced on June 19, as we have told you before.
Judging by the set of features the upcoming G550 will have, we can conclude that this solution will not be targeted for gamers. Matrox will pay special attention to DualHead technology and 2D graphics, while 3D performance will remain mediocre. So, G550 seems to be just an enhanced version of the G450.
As for 2D, just as in the previous solution, G550 core will have 2 RAMDACs. Primary RAMDAC will work at 360MHz, while the secondary RAMDAC will work at 230MHz. So, the highest resolution on the primary monitor will make 2048x1536 and on the secondary monitor - 1600x1200, at 32bit color mode.
As for DualHead technology, it will work in the following modes: multi-display, DVDMax, zoom, clone, TV-Out, Snapshot, and will feature eDualHead browser enhancements. Also G550 will support dual-DVI.
Speaking about 3D, G550 architecture will undergo some slight changes. G550 will have 2 pixel pipelines with 2 texturing unit each. However, the performance will be greatly limited by 64bit DDR SDRAM, which Matrox considered to be the best choice for its G550 for some reason. So, 3D performance of G550 will be comparable with GeForce2 MX 200 or RADEON VE or even lower.
But G550 3D core will also have some nice things. It will be DirectX 8 compliant due to Matrox's brand HeadCasting engine. This engine is none other but a T&L unit supporting extended Vertex Shaders and matrix palette skinning. G550 will also support EMBM.
G550 will be made with 0.18micron technology and have dual integrated CRTCs, RAMDACs, TMDS and one integrated TV encoder. The cards based on G550 will be equipped with 16MB or 32MB DDR SDRAM with 64bit interface. G550 based cards with 32MB memory are expected to cost around $140.
Also our sources told us that 3D gamers shouldn't forget about Matrox, because the company also keeps working on a new gaming solution.
---
Star Trek is always way off in the amount of time it takes to travel X lightyears. Sometimes they state it will take "2 days at high warp" to go 15 light years, but then they'll travel from one star system to another in a few hours.
Maybe I'm wrong here, and I'm not taking into account the exponentially high speeds at the higher warp factors, but it's never seemed very consistent to me.
Anyone have any idea when the ST:TNG DVD discs are coming out? It just says "Coming Soon" on the inserts in the TOS DVDs. Hopefully, they'll do box sets like the X-Files DVDs, in which a whole season is included in one set, but I'm sure that Paramount will want to milk all us fans for every last cent, and will sell only two-episode discs, so that you wind up having to buy 90 DVDs to get the whole series, rather than 7 box sets.
My biggest gripes about Voyager are that it didn't have the quality of writing of DS9. Seasons Six & Seven of DS9 are the best Trek ever written, in my book. TNG has more of the best episodes (Best of Both Worlds, The Inner Light, etc.) but the story arcs of the Dominion War were the most engaging Star Trek to watch week after week.
My biggest gripes about Star Trek are about the unreliability of Transporters and Holodecks. Nothing turns me off faster than "our transporters don't work because of a [particle] field on this planet", with the exception of the Holodeck program run amok. If the damned Transporters and Holodecks broke down that often, why would you ever use them? I'd be like Bones McCoy too, and stick to Shuttlecraft.
I gave up on Voyager after the first season too, until I got my TiVo and started watching again. The local Fox affiliate would move it around every few months, it became impossible to keep track of which nights were reruns, and which nights were new episodes, but with TiVo, that got much easier.
What I'd like to see is one Star Trek movie per year, featuring DS9, Voyager, and TNG crews. Have this year be a DS9 movie, next year Voyager, etc. They wouldn't even have to be incredible movies to make large profits for the studios, and to satisfy the fans. Part of the reasons that the movies can suck is because they include too much stuff geared at the non-fan, when many of us would love to have more movies with writing that is more consistent with the shows, but with better special effects. Something like the Best of Both Worlds on the big screen would be great, and please, Paramount, don't mess with the characters every single movie. Data gets emotion chips, Geordi gets eyes, etc. They're slowly eliminating all of the things that made each crew member special...
That's enough of my Star Trek ranting for tonight...
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All I have to say is that in order to SHUTDOWN the computer I click on the START menu. um, hello?
That's only for the people who aren't smart enough to hit Control-Alt-Delete, then Alt-S.
Or you could think of it as starting the routine which shuts the system down.
My personal biggest gripe about Linux as a desktop OS is how hard it can be to simply change your resolution or color depth. Try any recent distribution, using either KDE or Gnome, and try to find a shortcut in the menu system for changing your resolution. Doing it via a GUI method takes a lot of hunting around, if it's even possible at all...
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I turned off the season pass for Gunmen on my TiVo a couple of weeks ago. I gave the show a chance, I'm a devoted X-Files fan, but it was too brainless for me.
My biggest gripe is that there was nothing supernatural, spooky, or government-conspiratorial about the new series. For inhabiting the same world as Mulder & Scully, the Gunmen spend an awful lot of time chasing the world's lamest criminals. Jimmy Bond is just annoying and stupid, but at least Yves is hot.
The CONSTANT technical inaccuracies drove me nuts. I understand that you have to sacrifice some reality to make the plots work, but some of the errors in the show could be corrected with very little work at all.
In the pilot, they talk about the new fancy CPU having a built in modem to it that causes some security concerns. Never mind that you'd have to open up your PC and plug a cable into the CPU for this "modem" to work. All of their technology references fell short. I can forgive one or two, but after you're bombarded with 15 in a row, it just becomes apparent that the show is insulting your intelligence and attempting to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I know that a show needs a large audience to be successful, but TLG was too geeky for the non-geeks and too inaccurate for the true geeks.
Check out Freaks & Geeks on Fox Family if you want a really enjoyable show. There were only something like 18 episodes made before NBC axed it, but they're absolutely hilarious. I never saw the show when it was on NBC, but after discovering it on Fox Family, every single person I've introduced it to has loved it and watched every episode. It all plays out very true-to-life, and you can actually believe that most of these situations could or would happen to these kids...
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er breathe, I meant, not breate, whatever that was. Oh, and I'm sure they'd all want to bring 30 lbs. of luggage along and they'd all be pissed off when their cell phones didn't work, then they'd plug in a hair dryer and use up all of the AC that the solar cells have gathered in the last week to dry their hair.
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Yeah, but you can't load as many people as you can payload. People have to move around, eat, sleep, breate and shit. Satellites don't even need atmosphere.
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Dave has also put the DTD back up on one of Userland's site, available at:
http://www.scripting.com/dtd/rss-0_91.dtd
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"Teachers, especially those with large bustlines, face a serious peoblem in Cordoba, Argentina. A woman simply cannot be hired to teach if her chest is big. Why? Because lawmakers in Cordoba finally came to realize that a large, shapely chest is just "too much of a distraction for teenage boys in a classroom."
:)
Anyone who had Ms. Skruukrud for Biology class in my high school would realize immediately the validty of this statement.
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I haven't ever used an O2, but for Corporate PCs, Dell's new Optiplex GX150 machines are pretty nice. They open at the push of a button, and most of the components can be taken out of the box without a screwdriver. They're also the quietest PCs I've ever used, unlike my old Dell Precision 410 workstation, this SCSI drive sounds like someone crushing gravel...
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I suppose this means that for job security, it's better to let little problems simmer for a while (so you appear to be loaded down), then come charging to the rescue like a white knight (so you get appreciated). :-)
Very true. I always use this tactic, as well as telling people that I won't be able to get to their problems for two more days, then showing up in half an hour to fix them. This makes them think that you're a miracle worker (Montgomery Scott - Star Trek) and also keeps them from calling you about things before they engage their brain to solve the problem themselves.
More importantly, it gives you some padding for the call that you thought was just a computer lockup but turns out to be a toasted hard drive that the luser didn't backup in the last six months, so you've got to spend an entire day trying to get that drive to cough up some project that is due TODAY.
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I'm an IT Support Person, and I've had days with "Jack Shit To Do". It's generally when everyone else is on vacation, and I'm all caught up on my trouble calls. I get a lot of web surfing done, and organize things for the days when I go non-stop from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with people screaming at me because they don't bother to save frequently, or back up their data.
I don't think that IT people are a special class or anything, but we tend to see people at their worst, when they're frustrated because something isn't working right. They're usually also embarassed and pissed at themselves, because they've done something stupid, but that won't stop them from taking it out on you.
I don't think IT people are godly, but we do have to put up with more than our share of bullshit, and if we don't get at least a little down time and some toys occasionally (I've got my new 21 inch monitor on the way) then we'd all just burn out like social workers do...
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Oops, sorry, I just meant the speed thing and the CPU utilization, which are typical of the parallel port Zip drives.
The Click of Death is a real problem, I administer some university computer labs, and there's nothing worse than having it spread throughout your labs, then having to deal with the associated complaints from those who didn't have any backups of their important data. It does/did strike all versions of the Zip drives, but thankfully, the newer models don't seem affected...
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Honestly, that's what you get for buying a drive that transfers data through your printer port. That port was designed for PRINTERS, not for removable media. Spend a little bit more and get an internal IDE version, the external USB version, or god forbid, a SCSI Zip. You'll be much happier.
Back in '97, I bought the external Zip Plus. It lets me use SCSI on my box here at home, and if I needed to, I could hook it up via parallel to a box I was working on. Fortunately, I didn't have to do that very often...
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