Well, im looking all over IBM's web site and cannot find any information on the processor [types] used, or how you configure the hardware (ie, how many processors do you put in at a time, where do they go, memory type, fun stuff like that).
Play Metal Gear Solid 2 before you decide to jump on the xBox bandwagon
1st of all, ill prolly get flamed for this, but, MGS2 isnt all it was cracked up to be (short, umm, erratic and kinda stupid plot, easy). Oh, and I seem to remember reading a while ago(dont know if its still true) that MGS2 would be coming to the xbox. And in all truth, the xbox version would more then likely look way better(higer rez textures, shaders, AA, etc), use the HD for more permanent game world interaction, etc. Truth be told, the xbox has more potentiol for better games at this point in time. Only time will tell.
And, while buying a game+system for hype is all well and good, its far better to buy a system for a game youve played and know you like. If mr. taco likes fighting games, and has played DOA3, that has prolly why he would "jump on the xbox bandwagon", as it were.
This program is a godsend. I have a feeling MS wont have a netplay service set up for some time, and now i can play with my friends full screen w/o having to drag TVs and such over to one persons house. The XBOX may have 4 controller ports, but playing 4 to a screen really doesnt compare to haveing a screen to yourself. Console NET gaming will take off. SEGA made huge headway in to this arena, and it will only get more popular. XBox is going to be hacked left and right, and i cant wait =)
And to gaming bigots - I am an avid collector of consoles, and have a PC and MAC for gaming as well, and what ticks me off more then anything is people who have some blind attachment to one way of gaming, usually because its what they blew 300 bucks on. Heres the point, for all those who still dont get it:
ITS ABOUT THE GAMES STUPID
Finally, about seeing Xbox games directly playable on PC... its going to be a while if ever. Fist reason is MS wont want to cannibalize their own market(although a lot of games will be ports, the strength will be original titles, and XBox first titles, to drive sales). The second is a technical hurdle: XBox on the surface may look just like a PC with a gForce3, but, it has one very important advantage: the programmers have ONE target spec to reach the whole audiance. This has always been a console advantage from a game making standpoint. So while on paper its looks like less then a high end pc, in then end you have better looking games because programmers write games to take full advantage of what resources are available, the target output is a TV (relativly low resolution and a constant), and no huge OS overhead.
I have some experience in this, so i will interject.
Home scanners and digital cameras are definitly not suited for the task if you need very near digital reproduction of an object. The reasons for this are many, but mainly, the all interpolate colors between what imaging elemaents they have. And not that accuratly.
When you move up to the midrange of scanners/digital camers (~$2000), the problem can still be there, but its less pronounced. I worked on a project requireing digital photos of a very hard to photograph subject, and tthis range of cameras produced sub-par results for the task (the shots look incredible, but zoom in and youll see fuzziness and interpolated color).
Then, you have the ~$20,000+ cameras and scanners. This was eventually what we had to go with. One camera delivered particularly good results, and achived it through actually moving the CCD so that there were no interpolated pixles. It was accurate enough that if you shot a Greytag/Macbeth chart, right from the camera, the greys would be the same value for evey pixel.
As with all these [camera] setups, You need a very controlled lighting situation (ie. photo studio), but you can shoot just about anything.
As far as scanners, the same applys. You will need to get in toe the pricy professional line to get accurate pixles, and from that, better analysis.
Your test for any product should be if you scan a greyscale, if you go in to photoshop and look at the pixle color values, are they all the same value (like 125,125,125) and, is it consistant across the swatch (if you move your mose a few pixles over, does the value change?)
The other aspect you have to contend with is your computer and monitor and its interpretation of what your seeing. Again, if any amount of accuracy is needed, you will need a controled lighting setup. No direct sunlight, try not to wear clothing that will project a color cast on the monitor, a lightbox to properly illuminate the scaned subject for proper color editing, etc.
This is where you buy a macintosh. you dont need to do all the ColorSync stuff, just keep your monitor and scanner/camera in line.
So based on the three levels in imagry equipment (home, semi-pro, pro) you can determine what level of final output you need and judge your costs from there.
This is mostly high end stuff, but, you should be a good starting point in findieng the mix of price/performance you are looking for for the overall project.
And, since the iPod is just a firewire disk, what i assume happens is if you have the iPod in Sync mode, you cant plug it in to another iTunes and copy the music in that fasion.
You can of course mount it in Diskl mode and copy that way.
Walk in to a local Babbages, EB, whatever, youll see shelves of used console games, be it for playstations, or even the original NES. But one of the chains sells used COMPUTER games, but as i understand it, thay have a list of what publishers they can take, and everything else is off limits. So it would seem that this company got permission to re-sell used titles. If you think about it, this is a double whammy, since they are sold, then resold =)
There were huge legal battles over the resale of used console games if memory serves, and now, you can freely sell and resell.... why would this not apply to computer software, they have pretty much the same licenses....
Not only will the G5 smoke in Single Cpu solutions, it also can apparently have both Multi-Core Cpus, AND mutli(multi-core) cpus(as i understand it). From MacOSRumors:
The G5 will have a 10 stage pipeline. It will have the full book E spec, allowing for n-way crossbar capability.
The difference between SMP and N-Way can be found here.
As for more info on what a muti-core setup would look like, check out IBMs Power4. More info on the Power4 multi-core design here.
From what i can gather, in a multi(multi-core) setup, N-way would set each processor a task, and each processor(with, say 4 cores) does SMP on the task. Or, it may even do N-way type scedualing in the multi-core CPU. However it ends up working, i cant imagine a 4 processor system with 16 cores that wont cost 30,000 bucks barebones =)
"Apple will launch Mac OS X 10.2 around the same time, we're told, and offer it as a 64-bit version. To do so would surely limit users of older hardware to 10.1 and its updates, but that hasn't stopped the company making such moves in the past. The G5's 32-bit support will allow apps to be carried forward, and developers have been told they will be able to make '64-bit clean' apps with a simple recompile."
First, i beleive this is is partly an incorrect statement. If the processor(G5) can run 32-bit apps nativly, there would be no reson to leave all the G4's and newer g3's out of the picture in future updates, thats just too much market segmentation, especially for Apple.
What i think well see, well, what i hope, is 2 product lines for the G5 this spring:
Professional, Server
Shared Traits:
1-4 G5 CPUs
HyperTransport to feed these monsters data
Support for tons of ram
Updated Firewire(800, or *1600*)
Pro Traits:
GeForce3 as standard equip
new enclosure
Server Traits:
A box as good as apples Network Server Line but, rack mountable.
Hot swap HDs, Fans, Power Suplies, and PCI cards.
GeForce2(i say this because of OSX's graphical overhead, and while you wont be in it a lot after setup, might as well have an enjoyable time while there)
Thats all i can think of off the top of my head, but i think this is the direction they need to go. If they release a server box with 4 cpus, rack mount, everything hot swapable, built in RAID, etc, etc, sign me up for 4 =)
OK, heres what bites my giblets...
At 3 very large universities, i recall all of them having some idle process program runing at all times. Be it RC5, Seti, or what have you, the point is it appears that doing this is commonplace. Hell, stuff like this was my kind of dream (mine was to outsource all the lab computers to companies for distributed 3d rendering. few thousand computer all chugging away at night, OH YEAH!).
He should not be fired, and if he is convicted, the suits in all universities will start doing an uneccessary crackdown on their IT departments because of some FUD. And beleive me, they WILL do it, even though they wont understand what tey are doing.
Also, by my estimates, to use up.59cents a second by way of rc5... i think he'd need some 10,000 computers or more... more likely the bandwidth was being eaten up by napster..
gg thx
1. Updates frequently are great. You find a set of bugs, fix them, w/o having to wait for a monlithic update that could be hampered by one bug that cant be fixed.
2. Because of the way X handles its packages/frameworks, its very hard to break a program, id assume, since old calls of the same name are not overwritten, if a program makes a call to a specific version of that call, it will always be there. I think thats the gist of it, you can read more Here, at ars-technica
And Mr.Adams... So long, and thanks for all the fish, you will be missed...
The last episodes on the TV series were so bad compared witht the rest of it(by FAR and away one of the best plots ever). Just dissapointing that a lot of unanswered questions dont get fleshed out at the end of the series, just "Congradulations, you are monumentally stupid for buyg the last tape!".
I htink a lot of you are completly missing the point here. As a web site designer, the backwards / cross platform problem is a complete nightmare! I think the aim of these guys isnt so much to say "UPGRADE NOW IR DIE!", but rather "upgrade so EVERYONE can get consistant content regardless of platform". Id love to send users of older browsers to a healpful site with all the resources they need to upgrade their browsers. And thats exactly what this article proports. You can upgrade whn you want to, but your holding everyone back. I mean, 5.0 browsers are the first to even almost get html rendering right.
I, and many others, have put in 100+ days since playing from release(proly close to 200 now). When im done with the game... i really dont just want to hit delete. Thats what keeps me from quitting all the way.
I would love a valid option to sell and feel at least a small part vindicated for my time.
Verant, instead of trying to skirt the issue, which has been causing fraud and scams, which is the reason they dont want them in the first place... should set up a system for character transfer internally. It would lessen customer service problems, and make a lot of people happy. As far as individual items.... some items have a real life day or more behind them... thats why they are worth money.
Press release-
"The hit TV reality show "Survivor" will now shoot its next endevor at The Ukrainian nuclear power station, Chernobyl. Contestants will participate in such great games as "Avoid the meltdown", "Hot potato, with uranium" and "Contamination Bingo". Prize will be awarded to the last person not dead or deformed in a year after the show is over.
2 things have really kept SEGA down over the years. Really bad marketing, and of course, sony.
Sony has excellent marketing/hype. No doubts about that. Ive never seen so many slobbering idots wait in line to spend 300+ bucks on something with no AAA games and only a few worth even playing for more then a little while. But, you all know this.
Segas launch got neutered by sony prematurly announcing/releasing the PS2. Thats all there is too it. The PS2 could have stood a 1/2 year more engeneering, better middleware and dev kits, and publishers another year to make real games and not shovelware.
Sega also failed in the long run with what i think also smashed the saturn: not using their huge licenses.
Sonic, Phantasy Star, Panzer Dragoon... the list goes on and on. Sony and its third parties recognize on thing - the name sells. For example, Final Fantasy. wow, thay are on 9 in a few days and NONE of them have anything to do with one another, except maybe chocobos. Now ask yourself this, if each title was released under a different name, would they sell as well? No. In truth you could call final fantasy 9 "Po goes the the market to get a fish" and it would be the same game, but, square, as does sony, knows the value in a name.
This also illustrates the phenomena that the PSX brought to the gaming world: mass market gaming. No longer do you have 90% of the game buying public knowledgeable of the industry, you now have 30% at best. Thats a lot of people who dont even know that sega exists most likely. Tis a shame, as so few PSX titles have had any quality over the last few years.
For all the sony fanboys, for as much as you want sega to die, no competetion in the gaming market would mean the worst drought of AAA original titles for a long time. The average joe comsumer wont notice, as they couldnt find a good game if it was suck to their ass, but for the hardcore, it will mean final fantasy 39, crash bandicoot 234, spyro 34, and so forth.
Sega chooses to come up with original content, rather then play off old names. Jet Grind Radio. Samba de Amigo. ChuChu rocket(yes chuchu). Sega has balls, and some of the best game designers this side of nintendo. Anyone truly in to games shold be praying for segas development houses to stay in good health.
If you havent, go play samba, and tell me its not the most fun youve had with a game in a VERY long time. You may find yourself springing 120 bucks for maracas and the game before you kow what hit you. its that good.
Im not fully versed one all the inside tech of the ps2, but ill make some semi-eduacated inferences based on something someone who says they know said.
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ok, but they have to be SOMEWHERE. ps2 has 32mb main memory if i recall. So thats the texture limitation, barring compressin, and the space used for models, processing physics, et al. Also, that still doesnt get passed all the other stuff you need for each frame. theres a reason games dont run in 640x480 with FSAA on the ps2, and it all comes down to the vram limitation, and in the end, will have the biggest impact on how good the overall image quality will look in the future.
>>
Texture streaming: lets use quake 3 arean for an example.
heres how i see the dreamcast/pc way;
vram contains texture data for any givin level, and its all loaded at once. So, when you do a 180 in Q3A, it knows it has the resources to draw whatever texture is behind you.
heres how i see the ps2 way;
vram contains essentially a texture *buffer* for that frame. 4mb is a hard limit of per-frame textures. I dont care what your bandwith is, for the architecture, you are locked down to 4mb a frame. Well, thas not counting any other stuff that has to be in the vram.
On a pc, you could have 32mbs of textures in your view area at once. If you dont see what im getting at, consider this. one any on frame, the ps2 coud have say a mona lisa texture on a wall, and lets say it takes all texture ram for whats viewable in a single frame(~4mb). On the pc, in theory, you could have say 8 different textures of that size in one frame.
now lets say you have a room with 4 walls, each with a texture in the middle that takes up all the vram on the ps2. your staring forward a the mona lisa, you turn 90 degrees to a picture of the president. this is where you have to texture stream. First, you would need to allocate a pool ofyour main ram for textures(they gotta be somwhere). lets say we have no game data, so we use all 32mb of it. now when you turn, it would seem that the cpus have to chunk out to vram what bits of texture are viewable. So as you turn, and your view changes from one pic to the other, the cpu(s) are constantly transferring new texture data to vram(ie, different sized chunks of 2 textures). This gets in to so many problems i dont even feel like typing them out. In truth, i dont think you could do the texture work on a single frame of Q3A in original size/bit depth textures on the ps2 in a lot of spots. You stil have the pool of textures in main ram, bu you still can only have so much on screen at once.
Now, Q3A is an instance where you need textures on demand, that being you need all the textures fo a level loaded in to some form of ram all at once because you never know where a player is going to go. On racing games or other games where you have a linear progression, then you can start doing texture dumps from the DVD as you are playing. DVD isnt that fast so you have to be pretty conservative with how much data your taking from it. Could you imagine being in quake and tuining around and watching a wall texture load from the DVD?
now, the pudding is, how much VRAM would you have left for textures on a game runing 640x480 with FSAA? I dont think it matters how fast you stream, you have that texture limit per frame.
also, the 800mb of teture being streamed is kind of misleading, seeing as that would be if you a) had enough ram and b) that was ALL you were transferring. even then i dont htink you could do it. its a bogus number.
now im not positive any any architecture i mention, and would love some edcation if someone knows more on any of this.
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if anyone could provide some detail on what goes in to both z-buffer and pre-sorting, it would be appreciated.
i am also curious as to why games do not run in 640x480(a makeshift cure for no AA on a tv screen)
What irks me about all this is that even more then 5 years ago im sure telcos saw the need for a data net. But, in classic form, they continued to milk the current infrastructure to death instead of doing something like this [fiber data only net]. Of course they WILL switch over, but, they will find a crafty way to charge you more, and give ytou the same crappy service... and who knows how long the pipes will be bursting for before they do it. Heck, they might just wait for startups to build it and buy it all up.
This article is heartning and pisses me off at the same time. I SHOULD have this innovation in my house right now. Oh well. Hopefully these guys get a TON of business and make all the T1 installations obsolete, before the telcos know what hit them.
My future net:
All fiber data net spanning the globe, with lines to every house
Voice is done over data lines, with higher quality, and less cost.
There is more bandwidth then anyone knows what do do with, thus allowing 'cable' television, video phones, and more, to utilize the network.
This future is not technically unfeasable. Everything exists to make it reality, except for backward thinking bean-counters at major corperations who currently control the net stifling rapid forward progress.
Hopefully, operations such as this startup will accelerate the goal. Can only hope.
You dont mention your computer preference(although you allude to a distrust of Apple), or what the final use of the monitor will be for(sound like you want a nice tv), so pick up a cube and one of these, and youll have your tv/dvd player. And if you ever can trust apple on one thing for, its a product with good color reproduction:p
QT for osX does NOT use quartz, as illustrated on this page, as all the graphics layers (quicktime / opengl / quartz ) are essentially 'plugins' to the whole graphics layer. Aqua, the interface, sits at the topmost level, abtracted from the core graphics technology. This architecture lends itself to having other imaging tech ported to it, like, say, directX =) for more info, try here.
What does that all mean? It means QT on linux almost guarenteed (why wouldnt apple want that market?)
Also, i remember reading a few years back that Quicktime for windows is an almost complete port of the mac os. I do not recall to what extent it was, or the validity of my memory, but its food for thought...certainly would be a huge engeneering effort(as i recall, QT uses allmost all macOS toolbox api's)
I dont know if anyone reading this has seen it, but the new UI for quicktime on osX is way better then its current incarnation. You can see it here
As far as Apple liscensing[sp] QT pieces, its a win win i think. If MS really just got windows media player support, then it seems like the right thing to do to be in that camp as well.
OSX: consumer version will come out, along with a server for PPC machines. It will be a hit. look at the articles on arstechnica.com, and see if all the great underlying tech goodies dont make your head spin with excitement. It will have, to rebutte some posts erlier, remote control(in OS, not with something like Timbuktu). It will have as much customizability as you want. Bar none the BEST graphics model anywhere. And, the modular nature of all the os components, dont be supprised to see a red box(windows compatability) along with directX sitting next to all the other graphics technology. What does this mean? It means GAMES. It means the most versitile OS on the market. The emulation will be no more then the emulation that osX does for the classic mac os. In the end, you will be able to run Classic MacOS programs, UNIX progs, windows programs, java, carbonized macos apps, and native osX apps.
There is also the real possibility of osX part or all, being ported to intel in a retail version(server more likely then consumer)
What this will mean for all the markets:
consumer/gamer: will not switch from PC most likely. It is cheap, and the hard core market is always upgrading. However, with windows support, and/or directX, games will be running/esily ported, affording those who would like a Mac to get one and still game. Overall, it could be the best platform for games(technically), but there is a LONG way to go with the current stigmas. If osX is ported to intel, with windos or directX support, I think it could become THE os of choice for gaming.
consumer/novice: Still the core of new mac buyers, osX will nary make an impact on these buyers. Unless Apple comes up with great advertising directly targeting its OS features over windows to consumers, this market share will stay the same, and wont sway PC people to the mac side. If osX is ported to intel(consumer), advertised well, and a simple install over windows(ie-keeping all your windows files) it could be the biggest thing since the floppy *grin*. Of course, a consumer version will have to do for windows users what osX currently does for mac users - the abilty to run legacy apps.
coperate/joe user: well, joe user usually doesnt have a say in what computer or programs he uses, but the computer on his desk will be osX IF a substantial increase in productivity can be proved and advertised. This has a WAY bigger chance of hapening if osX is ported to intel
corperate/IS: This directly affects the joe user, and should be apples main target after consumers/media markets. There are a TON of compelling reasons to move to osX server. NetInfo is one of the best(if you dont know about it, get toknow about it. its incredible), scripting, customizabilty, and the ability to run unix apps. once again, if its ported to intel, this will definitly give NT a run for its money if IS has compelling reasons to try it.
publishig/media: 100% penetration(this is my business, and i cant tell you the huge buzz generating ofer its release). This is what this sector has needed for a long time. NT was a partial solution(the power) but the UI and bugginess of the os kept its numbers from totally overunning the mac os. This is where Apple will dominate, irregardless if its ported to intel.
nerds/programmers/hobbyists: I know, weather your willing to admit it or not, that everyone who might read this post is DYING to get their hands on the final osX. Weather or not they will use it alwasy seems completly arbitrary, but everyone in this sector will try to get experience with it. I suggest you get to know it, as so far, all the backend stuff is incredible, and very well engeneered, and, well, sweet =) Once again, if ported to intel, it will be on a partition of every one from this sector.
education: as loong as the computers will run it, it shold be a 100% sweep. After the release of osX, there are no compelling reason to switch to windows, and this will keep this market share on the rise for apple.
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Linux: The perrenial favorite of all who very in to computers, the windows breakup will only serve to grow market share, and insecurities about the future of the product become muddied in various circles. I predict 2 years for a good GUI, and it will have to be a very organized effort by a dedicated group(i mean organized as in what it takes to make a commercial GUI) Lixux and osX will compliment each other, and its in the 2 camps intrests to get to know each other.
What this will mean for all the markets:
consumer/gamer: forget it. if you look at the problems mac has getting games, mutliply that by 1000 for getting ports to linux(i KNOW its happeing, but no hadr core or casual gamer will switch to Linux for 2 or 3 highprofile games a year, if even)
consumer/novice: If the GUI pans out, a possibilty, but remeber, as much as you would love to think that nerds are the biggest population of computer users, we are not. A fully customizeable OS will scare the S*** out of consumers. Gte it out ofyour heads that it means anything to this market. And oh yeah, this is probably the biggest market of them all, so if your not pandering to them, your beating a dead horse wondering why its not selling to them.
coperate/joe user: once again, anything can be plopped in his face, as long as he doesnt need to have too much training on it. For now, hat means no linux, but in a future with a good GUI and apps....
corperate/IS: this sector will continus to adopt linux for many reasons, including the "buzz" it has generated.
publishig/media: well, no delusions about it, without Adobe, Quark, a good GUI, this maket is sunk for Linux
nerds/programmers/hobbyists: Always was, and always will be the haven for the user base of linux.
education: k-12, will still be mostly a no show, bu will continue to grow in the college arena.
Windows: Windows will continue to be the bloatig pig of an os it is, and will continue to sell a billion copies every year whena new version comes out. The only competition on most fronts is osX, but most users are MS drones, and will not stray form the path unless something VERY enticing becons them.
My finges are tired, and windows currently dominates all of the markets except for schools and publishing. This trend will not end any time in the near future. The infiltratin of Linux and osX in to the current windows bastions will be slow. The only os that has a huge chance to blow windows out of the water a bit is osX, and only if it comes out for intel, and provides lagacy app support.
As is always with technology, the future is very muddy. The Next Big Thing(tm) may upsurp the current checks and balances, but, you usually dont see it coming =)
I think a big thing that everyone has been missing throught all of this is that Apple is already an established corperation. Think about it. They have to make money. They have to sell something make money. They have to keep their shareholders happy. They have to abide by the law and sell stuff to keep them happy. They have to comply with the goverment. Its much easier to start off as a entity that does Open Source. The ideology of open source sees to not want a goverment or goverment intervention. Going backwards has so many hurdles, that Apple even attempted it is truly amazing. Think of the logistics, look at Apples attitude to change, then if you still feel you can blast Apple for their attempt, more power to you.
- 4 PORT 10/100 NIC(giving a total of 5 10/100 ports) - 24x cdrom - ATI rage 128/16 - Built in 10/100 ether - 256 mb ram - ultra2 scsi - 2 9gb ultra2 scsi HD's(10000rpm) - OS10 server _____- a good UI:P _____- unlimited clients _____- 5 server licenses _____- WebObjects(50 transaction/min) _____- Apple File Services _____- NetBoot - USB - FireWire(IEEE 1394) - Spanky looking box - Setup in 15 minutes or less(dont take this out of box experience for granted)
What does a comparable Linux Box Cost?(add in the cost of WebObjects, or something comparable)
Slashdot Mirror
Well, im looking all over IBM's web site and cannot find any information on the processor [types] used, or how you configure the hardware (ie, how many processors do you put in at a time, where do they go, memory type, fun stuff like that).
Anyone have any light to shed on this?
While this is all facinating and incredible and stuff, im just wondering when these guys are gonna blow up he planet =)
Play Metal Gear Solid 2 before you decide to jump on the xBox bandwagon
1st of all, ill prolly get flamed for this, but, MGS2 isnt all it was cracked up to be (short, umm, erratic and kinda stupid plot, easy). Oh, and I seem to remember reading a while ago(dont know if its still true) that MGS2 would be coming to the xbox. And in all truth, the xbox version would more then likely look way better(higer rez textures, shaders, AA, etc), use the HD for more permanent game world interaction, etc. Truth be told, the xbox has more potentiol for better games at this point in time. Only time will tell.
And, while buying a game+system for hype is all well and good, its far better to buy a system for a game youve played and know you like. If mr. taco likes fighting games, and has played DOA3, that has prolly why he would "jump on the xbox bandwagon", as it were.
This program is a godsend. I have a feeling MS wont have a netplay service set up for some time, and now i can play with my friends full screen w/o having to drag TVs and such over to one persons house. The XBOX may have 4 controller ports, but playing 4 to a screen really doesnt compare to haveing a screen to yourself. Console NET gaming will take off. SEGA made huge headway in to this arena, and it will only get more popular. XBox is going to be hacked left and right, and i cant wait =)
And to gaming bigots - I am an avid collector of consoles, and have a PC and MAC for gaming as well, and what ticks me off more then anything is people who have some blind attachment to one way of gaming, usually because its what they blew 300 bucks on. Heres the point, for all those who still dont get it:
ITS ABOUT THE GAMES STUPID
Finally, about seeing Xbox games directly playable on PC... its going to be a while if ever. Fist reason is MS wont want to cannibalize their own market(although a lot of games will be ports, the strength will be original titles, and XBox first titles, to drive sales). The second is a technical hurdle: XBox on the surface may look just like a PC with a gForce3, but, it has one very important advantage: the programmers have ONE target spec to reach the whole audiance. This has always been a console advantage from a game making standpoint. So while on paper its looks like less then a high end pc, in then end you have better looking games because programmers write games to take full advantage of what resources are available, the target output is a TV (relativly low resolution and a constant), and no huge OS overhead.
I have some experience in this, so i will interject.
Home scanners and digital cameras are definitly not suited for the task if you need very near digital reproduction of an object. The reasons for this are many, but mainly, the all interpolate colors between what imaging elemaents they have. And not that accuratly.
When you move up to the midrange of scanners/digital camers (~$2000), the problem can still be there, but its less pronounced. I worked on a project requireing digital photos of a very hard to photograph subject, and tthis range of cameras produced sub-par results for the task (the shots look incredible, but zoom in and youll see fuzziness and interpolated color).
Then, you have the ~$20,000+ cameras and scanners. This was eventually what we had to go with. One camera delivered particularly good results, and achived it through actually moving the CCD so that there were no interpolated pixles. It was accurate enough that if you shot a Greytag/Macbeth chart, right from the camera, the greys would be the same value for evey pixel.
As with all these [camera] setups, You need a very controlled lighting situation (ie. photo studio), but you can shoot just about anything.
As far as scanners, the same applys. You will need to get in toe the pricy professional line to get accurate pixles, and from that, better analysis.
Your test for any product should be if you scan a greyscale, if you go in to photoshop and look at the pixle color values, are they all the same value (like 125,125,125) and, is it consistant across the swatch (if you move your mose a few pixles over, does the value change?)
The other aspect you have to contend with is your computer and monitor and its interpretation of what your seeing. Again, if any amount of accuracy is needed, you will need a controled lighting setup. No direct sunlight, try not to wear clothing that will project a color cast on the monitor, a lightbox to properly illuminate the scaned subject for proper color editing, etc.
This is where you buy a macintosh. you dont need to do all the ColorSync stuff, just keep your monitor and scanner/camera in line.
So based on the three levels in imagry equipment (home, semi-pro, pro) you can determine what level of final output you need and judge your costs from there.
For full setup, id guess:
Home 5-8k Semi-Pro 10-15k Pro 20-40k
Some useful links:
Greytag Macbeth
Apple:ColorSync
Imacon 3020 is camera i mentioned above
megavision
leaf
Sinar
Phase One
Betterlight
This is mostly high end stuff, but, you should be a good starting point in findieng the mix of price/performance you are looking for for the overall project.
iPod is indeed 5gigs
you can see for yourself Apple iPod Tech Specs
And, since the iPod is just a firewire disk, what i assume happens is if you have the iPod in Sync mode, you cant plug it in to another iTunes and copy the music in that fasion. You can of course mount it in Diskl mode and copy that way.
MacCentral coverage
The Apple Store
pretty neat stuff
Walk in to a local Babbages, EB, whatever, youll see shelves of used console games, be it for playstations, or even the original NES. But one of the chains sells used COMPUTER games, but as i understand it, thay have a list of what publishers they can take, and everything else is off limits. So it would seem that this company got permission to re-sell used titles. If you think about it, this is a double whammy, since they are sold, then resold =)
There were huge legal battles over the resale of used console games if memory serves, and now, you can freely sell and resell.... why would this not apply to computer software, they have pretty much the same licenses....
As for more info on what a muti-core setup would look like, check out IBMs Power4. More info on the Power4 multi-core design here.
From what i can gather, in a multi(multi-core) setup, N-way would set each processor a task, and each processor(with, say 4 cores) does SMP on the task. Or, it may even do N-way type scedualing in the multi-core CPU. However it ends up working, i cant imagine a 4 processor system with 16 cores that wont cost 30,000 bucks barebones =)
"Apple will launch Mac OS X 10.2 around the same time, we're told, and offer it as a 64-bit version. To do so would surely limit users of older hardware to 10.1 and its updates, but that hasn't stopped the company making such moves in the past. The G5's 32-bit support will allow apps to be carried forward, and developers have been told they will be able to make '64-bit clean' apps with a simple recompile."
First, i beleive this is is partly an incorrect statement. If the processor(G5) can run 32-bit apps nativly, there would be no reson to leave all the G4's and newer g3's out of the picture in future updates, thats just too much market segmentation, especially for Apple.
What i think well see, well, what i hope, is 2 product lines for the G5 this spring:
Professional, Server
Shared Traits:
1-4 G5 CPUs
HyperTransport to feed these monsters data
Support for tons of ram
Updated Firewire(800, or *1600*)
Pro Traits:
GeForce3 as standard equip
new enclosure
Server Traits:
A box as good as apples Network Server Line but, rack mountable.
Hot swap HDs, Fans, Power Suplies, and PCI cards.
GeForce2(i say this because of OSX's graphical overhead, and while you wont be in it a lot after setup, might as well have an enjoyable time while there)
Thats all i can think of off the top of my head, but i think this is the direction they need to go. If they release a server box with 4 cpus, rack mount, everything hot swapable, built in RAID, etc, etc, sign me up for 4 =)
OK, heres what bites my giblets... At 3 very large universities, i recall all of them having some idle process program runing at all times. Be it RC5, Seti, or what have you, the point is it appears that doing this is commonplace. Hell, stuff like this was my kind of dream (mine was to outsource all the lab computers to companies for distributed 3d rendering. few thousand computer all chugging away at night, OH YEAH!). He should not be fired, and if he is convicted, the suits in all universities will start doing an uneccessary crackdown on their IT departments because of some FUD. And beleive me, they WILL do it, even though they wont understand what tey are doing. Also, by my estimates, to use up .59cents a second by way of rc5... i think he'd need some 10,000 computers or more... more likely the bandwidth was being eaten up by napster..
gg thx
1. Updates frequently are great. You find a set of bugs, fix them, w/o having to wait for a monlithic update that could be hampered by one bug that cant be fixed.
2. Because of the way X handles its packages/frameworks, its very hard to break a program, id assume, since old calls of the same name are not overwritten, if a program makes a call to a specific version of that call, it will always be there. I think thats the gist of it, you can read more Here, at ars-technica
And Mr.Adams... So long, and thanks for all the fish, you will be missed...
The last episodes on the TV series were so bad compared witht the rest of it(by FAR and away one of the best plots ever). Just dissapointing that a lot of unanswered questions dont get fleshed out at the end of the series, just "Congradulations, you are monumentally stupid for buyg the last tape!".
I have been waiting for the movies ever since =)
I htink a lot of you are completly missing the point here. As a web site designer, the backwards / cross platform problem is a complete nightmare! I think the aim of these guys isnt so much to say "UPGRADE NOW IR DIE!", but rather "upgrade so EVERYONE can get consistant content regardless of platform". Id love to send users of older browsers to a healpful site with all the resources they need to upgrade their browsers. And thats exactly what this article proports. You can upgrade whn you want to, but your holding everyone back. I mean, 5.0 browsers are the first to even almost get html rendering right.
I, and many others, have put in 100+ days since playing from release(proly close to 200 now). When im done with the game... i really dont just want to hit delete. Thats what keeps me from quitting all the way.
I would love a valid option to sell and feel at least a small part vindicated for my time.
Verant, instead of trying to skirt the issue, which has been causing fraud and scams, which is the reason they dont want them in the first place... should set up a system for character transfer internally. It would lessen customer service problems, and make a lot of people happy. As far as individual items.... some items have a real life day or more behind them... thats why they are worth money.
How many watched the "Macworld Expo" Live? I read that Apple/Akamai were delivering 3.2gb/sec.
Info at macnn
I dont recall anything pushing a single stream that hard(id love to know, maybe presidential the stuff), but i think that it speaks for itself.
Press release-
"The hit TV reality show "Survivor" will now shoot its next endevor at The Ukrainian nuclear power station, Chernobyl. Contestants will participate in such great games as "Avoid the meltdown", "Hot potato, with uranium" and "Contamination Bingo". Prize will be awarded to the last person not dead or deformed in a year after the show is over.
2 things have really kept SEGA down over the years. Really bad marketing, and of course, sony.
Sony has excellent marketing/hype. No doubts about that. Ive never seen so many slobbering idots wait in line to spend 300+ bucks on something with no AAA games and only a few worth even playing for more then a little while. But, you all know this.
Segas launch got neutered by sony prematurly announcing/releasing the PS2. Thats all there is too it. The PS2 could have stood a 1/2 year more engeneering, better middleware and dev kits, and publishers another year to make real games and not shovelware.
Sega also failed in the long run with what i think also smashed the saturn: not using their huge licenses.
Sonic, Phantasy Star, Panzer Dragoon... the list goes on and on. Sony and its third parties recognize on thing - the name sells. For example, Final Fantasy. wow, thay are on 9 in a few days and NONE of them have anything to do with one another, except maybe chocobos. Now ask yourself this, if each title was released under a different name, would they sell as well? No. In truth you could call final fantasy 9 "Po goes the the market to get a fish" and it would be the same game, but, square, as does sony, knows the value in a name.
This also illustrates the phenomena that the PSX brought to the gaming world: mass market gaming. No longer do you have 90% of the game buying public knowledgeable of the industry, you now have 30% at best. Thats a lot of people who dont even know that sega exists most likely. Tis a shame, as so few PSX titles have had any quality over the last few years.
For all the sony fanboys, for as much as you want sega to die, no competetion in the gaming market would mean the worst drought of AAA original titles for a long time. The average joe comsumer wont notice, as they couldnt find a good game if it was suck to their ass, but for the hardcore, it will mean final fantasy 39, crash bandicoot 234, spyro 34, and so forth.
Sega chooses to come up with original content, rather then play off old names. Jet Grind Radio. Samba de Amigo. ChuChu rocket(yes chuchu). Sega has balls, and some of the best game designers this side of nintendo. Anyone truly in to games shold be praying for segas development houses to stay in good health.
If you havent, go play samba, and tell me its not the most fun youve had with a game in a VERY long time. You may find yourself springing 120 bucks for maracas and the game before you kow what hit you. its that good.
Im not fully versed one all the inside tech of the ps2, but ill make some semi-eduacated inferences based on something someone who says they know said.
>>
ok, but they have to be SOMEWHERE. ps2 has 32mb main memory if i recall. So thats the texture limitation, barring compressin, and the space used for models, processing physics, et al. Also, that still doesnt get passed all the other stuff you need for each frame. theres a reason games dont run in 640x480 with FSAA on the ps2, and it all comes down to the vram limitation, and in the end, will have the biggest impact on how good the overall image quality will look in the future.
>>
Texture streaming: lets use quake 3 arean for an example.
heres how i see the dreamcast/pc way;
vram contains texture data for any givin level, and its all loaded at once. So, when you do a 180 in Q3A, it knows it has the resources to draw whatever texture is behind you.
heres how i see the ps2 way;
vram contains essentially a texture *buffer* for that frame. 4mb is a hard limit of per-frame textures. I dont care what your bandwith is, for the architecture, you are locked down to 4mb a frame. Well, thas not counting any other stuff that has to be in the vram.
On a pc, you could have 32mbs of textures in your view area at once. If you dont see what im getting at, consider this. one any on frame, the ps2 coud have say a mona lisa texture on a wall, and lets say it takes all texture ram for whats viewable in a single frame(~4mb). On the pc, in theory, you could have say 8 different textures of that size in one frame.
now lets say you have a room with 4 walls, each with a texture in the middle that takes up all the vram on the ps2. your staring forward a the mona lisa, you turn 90 degrees to a picture of the president. this is where you have to texture stream. First, you would need to allocate a pool ofyour main ram for textures(they gotta be somwhere). lets say we have no game data, so we use all 32mb of it. now when you turn, it would seem that the cpus have to chunk out to vram what bits of texture are viewable. So as you turn, and your view changes from one pic to the other, the cpu(s) are constantly transferring new texture data to vram(ie, different sized chunks of 2 textures). This gets in to so many problems i dont even feel like typing them out. In truth, i dont think you could do the texture work on a single frame of Q3A in original size/bit depth textures on the ps2 in a lot of spots. You stil have the pool of textures in main ram, bu you still can only have so much on screen at once.
Now, Q3A is an instance where you need textures on demand, that being you need all the textures fo a level loaded in to some form of ram all at once because you never know where a player is going to go. On racing games or other games where you have a linear progression, then you can start doing texture dumps from the DVD as you are playing. DVD isnt that fast so you have to be pretty conservative with how much data your taking from it. Could you imagine being in quake and tuining around and watching a wall texture load from the DVD?
now, the pudding is, how much VRAM would you have left for textures on a game runing 640x480 with FSAA? I dont think it matters how fast you stream, you have that texture limit per frame.
also, the 800mb of teture being streamed is kind of misleading, seeing as that would be if you a) had enough ram and b) that was ALL you were transferring. even then i dont htink you could do it. its a bogus number.
now im not positive any any architecture i mention, and would love some edcation if someone knows more on any of this.
>>
if anyone could provide some detail on what goes in to both z-buffer and pre-sorting, it would be appreciated.
i am also curious as to why games do not run in 640x480(a makeshift cure for no AA on a tv screen)
What irks me about all this is that even more then 5 years ago im sure telcos saw the need for a data net. But, in classic form, they continued to milk the current infrastructure to death instead of doing something like this [fiber data only net]. Of course they WILL switch over, but, they will find a crafty way to charge you more, and give ytou the same crappy service... and who knows how long the pipes will be bursting for before they do it. Heck, they might just wait for startups to build it and buy it all up.
This article is heartning and pisses me off at the same time. I SHOULD have this innovation in my house right now. Oh well. Hopefully these guys get a TON of business and make all the T1 installations obsolete, before the telcos know what hit them.
My future net:
All fiber data net spanning the globe, with lines to every house
Voice is done over data lines, with higher quality, and less cost.
There is more bandwidth then anyone knows what do do with, thus allowing 'cable' television, video phones, and more, to utilize the network.
This future is not technically unfeasable. Everything exists to make it reality, except for backward thinking bean-counters at major corperations who currently control the net stifling rapid forward progress.
Hopefully, operations such as this startup will accelerate the goal. Can only hope.
If you havent looked at the apple 22' Cinima Display, do it now. Its absolutly gorgeous.
:p
22 cinima display and some features
You dont mention your computer preference(although you allude to a distrust of Apple), or what the final use of the monitor will be for(sound like you want a nice tv), so pick up a cube and one of these, and youll have your tv/dvd player. And if you ever can trust apple on one thing for, its a product with good color reproduction
What does that all mean? It means QT on linux almost guarenteed (why wouldnt apple want that market?)
Also, i remember reading a few years back that Quicktime for windows is an almost complete port of the mac os. I do not recall to what extent it was, or the validity of my memory, but its food for thought...certainly would be a huge engeneering effort(as i recall, QT uses allmost all macOS toolbox api's)
I dont know if anyone reading this has seen it, but the new UI for quicktime on osX is way better then its current incarnation. You can see it here
As far as Apple liscensing[sp] QT pieces, its a win win i think. If MS really just got windows media player support, then it seems like the right thing to do to be in that camp as well.
These are my current bets for the future:
= =======
= ========
OSX: consumer version will come out, along with a server for PPC machines. It will be a hit. look at the articles on arstechnica.com, and see if all the great underlying tech goodies dont make your head spin with excitement. It will have, to rebutte some posts erlier, remote control(in OS, not with something like Timbuktu). It will have as much customizability as you want. Bar none the BEST graphics model anywhere. And, the modular nature of all the os components, dont be supprised to see a red box(windows compatability) along with directX sitting next to all the other graphics technology. What does this mean? It means GAMES. It means the most versitile OS on the market. The emulation will be no more then the emulation that osX does for the classic mac os. In the end, you will be able to run Classic MacOS programs, UNIX progs, windows programs, java, carbonized macos apps, and native osX apps.
There is also the real possibility of osX part or all, being ported to intel in a retail version(server more likely then consumer)
What this will mean for all the markets:
consumer/gamer: will not switch from PC most likely. It is cheap, and the hard core market is always upgrading. However, with windows support, and/or directX, games will be running/esily ported, affording those who would like a Mac to get one and still game. Overall, it could be the best platform for games(technically), but there is a LONG way to go with the current stigmas. If osX is ported to intel, with windos or directX support, I think it could become THE os of choice for gaming.
consumer/novice: Still the core of new mac buyers, osX will nary make an impact on these buyers. Unless Apple comes up with great advertising directly targeting its OS features over windows to consumers, this market share will stay the same, and wont sway PC people to the mac side. If osX is ported to intel(consumer), advertised well, and a simple install over windows(ie-keeping all your windows files) it could be the biggest thing since the floppy *grin*. Of course, a consumer version will have to do for windows users what osX currently does for mac users - the abilty to run legacy apps.
coperate/joe user: well, joe user usually doesnt have a say in what computer or programs he uses, but the computer on his desk will be osX IF a substantial increase in productivity can be proved and advertised. This has a WAY bigger chance of hapening if osX is ported to intel
corperate/IS: This directly affects the joe user, and should be apples main target after consumers/media markets. There are a TON of compelling reasons to move to osX server. NetInfo is one of the best(if you dont know about it, get toknow about it. its incredible), scripting, customizabilty, and the ability to run unix apps. once again, if its ported to intel, this will definitly give NT a run for its money if IS has compelling reasons to try it.
publishig/media: 100% penetration(this is my business, and i cant tell you the huge buzz generating ofer its release). This is what this sector has needed for a long time. NT was a partial solution(the power) but the UI and bugginess of the os kept its numbers from totally overunning the mac os. This is where Apple will dominate, irregardless if its ported to intel.
nerds/programmers/hobbyists: I know, weather your willing to admit it or not, that everyone who might read this post is DYING to get their hands on the final osX. Weather or not they will use it alwasy seems completly arbitrary, but everyone in this sector will try to get experience with it. I suggest you get to know it, as so far, all the backend stuff is incredible, and very well engeneered, and, well, sweet =) Once again, if ported to intel, it will be on a partition of every one from this sector.
education: as loong as the computers will run it, it shold be a 100% sweep. After the release of osX, there are no compelling reason to switch to windows, and this will keep this market share on the rise for apple.
=========================================
Linux: The perrenial favorite of all who very in to computers, the windows breakup will only serve to grow market share, and insecurities about the future of the product become muddied in various circles. I predict 2 years for a good GUI, and it will have to be a very organized effort by a dedicated group(i mean organized as in what it takes to make a commercial GUI) Lixux and osX will compliment each other, and its in the 2 camps intrests to get to know each other.
What this will mean for all the markets:
consumer/gamer: forget it. if you look at the problems mac has getting games, mutliply that by 1000 for getting ports to linux(i KNOW its happeing, but no hadr core or casual gamer will switch to Linux for 2 or 3 highprofile games a year, if even)
consumer/novice: If the GUI pans out, a possibilty, but remeber, as much as you would love to think that nerds are the biggest population of computer users, we are not. A fully customizeable OS will scare the S*** out of consumers. Gte it out ofyour heads that it means anything to this market. And oh yeah, this is probably the biggest market of them all, so if your not pandering to them, your beating a dead horse wondering why its not selling to them.
coperate/joe user: once again, anything can be plopped in his face, as long as he doesnt need to have too much training on it. For now, hat means no linux, but in a future with a good GUI and apps....
corperate/IS: this sector will continus to adopt linux for many reasons, including the "buzz" it has generated.
publishig/media: well, no delusions about it, without Adobe, Quark, a good GUI, this maket is sunk for Linux
nerds/programmers/hobbyists: Always was, and always will be the haven for the user base of linux.
education: k-12, will still be mostly a no show, bu will continue to grow in the college arena.
===============================================
Windows: Windows will continue to be the bloatig pig of an os it is, and will continue to sell a billion copies every year whena new version comes out. The only competition on most fronts is osX, but most users are MS drones, and will not stray form the path unless something VERY enticing becons them.
My finges are tired, and windows currently dominates all of the markets except for schools and publishing. This trend will not end any time in the near future. The infiltratin of Linux and osX in to the current windows bastions will be slow. The only os that has a huge chance to blow windows out of the water a bit is osX, and only if it comes out for intel, and provides lagacy app support.
===============================================
As is always with technology, the future is very muddy. The Next Big Thing(tm) may upsurp the current checks and balances, but, you usually dont see it coming =)
After that ramble, i need a very stiff drink.
I think a big thing that everyone has been missing throught all of this is that Apple is already an established corperation. Think about it. They have to make money. They have to sell something make money. They have to keep their shareholders happy. They have to abide by the law and sell stuff to keep them happy. They have to comply with the goverment. Its much easier to start off as a entity that does Open Source. The ideology of open source sees to not want a goverment or goverment intervention. Going backwards has so many hurdles, that Apple even attempted it is truly amazing. Think of the logistics, look at Apples attitude to change, then if you still feel you can blast Apple for their attempt, more power to you.
- 4 PORT 10/100 NIC(giving a total of 5 10/100 ports) :P
- 24x cdrom
- ATI rage 128/16
- Built in 10/100 ether
- 256 mb ram
- ultra2 scsi
- 2 9gb ultra2 scsi HD's(10000rpm)
- OS10 server
_____- a good UI
_____- unlimited clients
_____- 5 server licenses
_____- WebObjects(50 transaction/min)
_____- Apple File Services
_____- NetBoot
- USB
- FireWire(IEEE 1394)
- Spanky looking box
- Setup in 15 minutes or less(dont take this out of box experience for granted)
What does a comparable Linux Box Cost?(add in the cost of WebObjects, or something comparable)
How about a comparable NT box?