I never understood the need for 180fps in a game. Anything higher than the monitors refresh rate is a waste. I mean, if you're running an LCD monitor (typically refreshes 60 times per second) and you've got a video card that's rendering 120 frames per second - where's that every-other-frame going? The monitor can only display 60/s.
Now, if they offloaded the physics to the GPU to use the extra capacity...
I'm sure that Google Earth isn't the sole source for this type of information, only the highest profile. If they weren't using GE, they'd be using Rand McNally or freely available satellite data and folks would be griping about that.
Lightscribe has support from LightScribe themselves, no less. They even have an SDK you can download for Linux. Hell, I'm thinking about buying a LS drive just to support a company that's supporting Linux. See here.
Yeah, 40 years seems like a lot. She probably would have only got 25 years (up for parole in 5) if she had killed the 4 students that had seen the popups.
Still, can't beat Firefox for malware protection, and if all else fails, covering your tracks when you clear out all your personal data (past links, cookies, etc.). Y'all know about the second browser history cache that IE keeps on disk, right? I've done a couple of forensic investigations on computers for a local lawyer and that cache is really good for divorce cases. Browse some sicko porn site, clear your history, it's still on the disk in the other cache. Bingo - you just lost custody of your kids (admittedly it's in a bible thumping state that doesn't "cotton" to that type of behavior).
You can get double or dual layer dvd drives now. Unfortunately I've only been able to find any for Windows and Macs but none for Linux, which I have been looking for. Linux drives are a software issue, not a hardware issue. See this doc. I have a standard dual layer drive on my linux box and it works fine reading dual layer disks or writing single layer disks, I just can't write dual layer disks.
Or display screens in a plant environment showing process flows, meter values and such. We have setups like this in the plant I work in and they use a wall of monitors (plasma screens running 1024x768, I think) to get all the information to a viewable state. The limiting factor appears to be just raw pixels - you can only make a font so small before it becomes unreadable, for example. With a higher resolution output device, the same information could be presnted in a smaller area, or use the same area to display even more information.
No, I wasn't criticizing you, I was pointing out GGP's generalization was based on a limited data set and your point about questioning his data was valid. Sorry if that didn't come through in the post.
It's basic statistics. You can't make a generalization with a data set of only one, two or three data points and most people base their opinions on hard concrete evidence that they have "seen" themselves (which, by some strange conincidence, is usually only a small handfull of data points for the issue at hand).
For a statement to be stastically relavent you need at least a certian number of data points ('n' generally > 20, if I remember my statistics class correctly). The more data points you have, the more you can reduce the margin of error for the information you're inferring from the data set.
If you want some real data, go question 100 people that have >160GB drives and ask them how long they have had them or how long they had them before they failed and analyze that, THEN you'll have some good data.
Well, if you really, really want to be pedantic, the definition of a meter (or metre for the non-US majority of the world that actually USES the SI system) seems to be changing quite frequently (on a geologic scale, anyway). It used to be one ten millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole (line drawn through Paris, France), then it was the length between two scratch marks on a platinum-iridium bar at 0C, now defined as the distance covered by the speed of light in 1/299792458 of a second, plus there are about 5 or 6 different methods in between that I'm omitting (curious bystanders see here.
Lol.. Indeed. Mod me offtopic if you like (and granted, it's pretty off topic), but I despise people at work that make Comic Sans their default email font. How am I supposed to take anything they say seriously when every email from them looks like an excerpt from a Dilbert or Garfield strip? Sigh...
Re:Hard to learn but worth it
on
The Birth of vi
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· Score: 1
A screwdriver is a pretty specific tool for a specific task. Granted you could say that emacs and vi are specific tools for editing files, but there's a whole lot of different tasks involved in editing a text file.
It's probably more like a compound miter saw or a wood lathe. Anybody can use the saw or lathe, but it takes some time to master it.
DVD's won over VHS? Didn't I just read an article about how DVD player ownership just surpassed VHS player ownership? If you consider that winning the war, it sure took them long enough (~10 years).
I realize that making drugs (or any other product, for that matter) requires research and testing, etc., and manufacturers need to recoup that money spent. Plus, profits from a block-buster drug go into funding expensive research on drugs that can only target a very small portion of the population. However, making tiny changes to an existing drug and calling it "new" sucks, unless the change actually has an effect on how the drug works or reduces a side-effect.
Having said all that, maybe there should be a patent peer review board (or, in government speak, the PPRB) that reviews the validity of a patent request. Maybe patents should be harder to get and you should really have to prove your stuff is unique. After some of the vague, hand-waving tech patents, I've read, it's obvious that the guys in the government reviewing these things don't have a clue.
Step 1: Behemoth Corporation steals Class Y's underpants.
Step 2: Class Y gets ???
Step 3: Lawfirm Z profits! In this case, the "???" is about 44 cents, I'd think.
To be fair, Bill Gates denied saying it, and nobody has come up with an original cite or witness to the quote. That doesn't mean that he didn't say something "wrong or stupid" (which he admits to doing on other occasions). Not like he hasn't been wrong in the recent past (SPAM predictions, for example - it's been two years, Bill, and it's gettingworse.
Yeah, but that's stretching a (roughly) two dimensional surface in a three dimensional world. It's kind of hard to wrap your brain around inflating a three dimensional universe inside a [insert correct answer here].
Don't anybody try to insert the correct answer, either. The universe will come to an end.
Copying a book of knowledge or virtues when these kinds of books have very limited circulation to make available to a wider audience is a little different than copying a Pink Floyd album that you can buy in any Wal Mart or Target.
Not saying that I agree with DRM, the RIAA or any of their ilk - just saying that your argument isn't quite on the mark
Instead of paying people to create we are now paying for the commodity of the created work.
I think this is close, but IMO, we are paying a huge corporate conglomerate instead of paying the people that created the work. These days, artists get a pittance for every copy sold with the bulk of the money going to the distributor/producer/rights holder. Also, artists don't hold rights to their works any more it seems like - their production company does (right to distribute or not, right to keep the band from signing with another label, etc).
I agree with your GUI. Turning off the crappy neon XP theme makes the interface perform better, too. And yes - the first time I'm forced to use Vista, I'm turning off all it's "Aero" fluff.
Slashdot Mirror
I never understood the need for 180fps in a game. Anything higher than the monitors refresh rate is a waste. I mean, if you're running an LCD monitor (typically refreshes 60 times per second) and you've got a video card that's rendering 120 frames per second - where's that every-other-frame going? The monitor can only display 60/s.
Now, if they offloaded the physics to the GPU to use the extra capacity...
Yep. And I'd imagine more than half of the Linux users know how to install and use Wine, too.
I'm sure that Google Earth isn't the sole source for this type of information, only the highest profile. If they weren't using GE, they'd be using Rand McNally or freely available satellite data and folks would be griping about that.
Lightscribe has support from LightScribe themselves, no less. They even have an SDK you can download for Linux. Hell, I'm thinking about buying a LS drive just to support a company that's supporting Linux. See here.
Yeah, 40 years seems like a lot. She probably would have only got 25 years (up for parole in 5) if she had killed the 4 students that had seen the popups.
Still, can't beat Firefox for malware protection, and if all else fails, covering your tracks when you clear out all your personal data (past links, cookies, etc.). Y'all know about the second browser history cache that IE keeps on disk, right? I've done a couple of forensic investigations on computers for a local lawyer and that cache is really good for divorce cases. Browse some sicko porn site, clear your history, it's still on the disk in the other cache. Bingo - you just lost custody of your kids (admittedly it's in a bible thumping state that doesn't "cotton" to that type of behavior).
Or display screens in a plant environment showing process flows, meter values and such. We have setups like this in the plant I work in and they use a wall of monitors (plasma screens running 1024x768, I think) to get all the information to a viewable state. The limiting factor appears to be just raw pixels - you can only make a font so small before it becomes unreadable, for example. With a higher resolution output device, the same information could be presnted in a smaller area, or use the same area to display even more information.
Consistent? We (the US) buy soft drinks by the liter, booze by the milliliter and milk by the gallon. Where's the consistency there?
No, I wasn't criticizing you, I was pointing out GGP's generalization was based on a limited data set and your point about questioning his data was valid. Sorry if that didn't come through in the post.
It's basic statistics. You can't make a generalization with a data set of only one, two or three data points and most people base their opinions on hard concrete evidence that they have "seen" themselves (which, by some strange conincidence, is usually only a small handfull of data points for the issue at hand).
For a statement to be stastically relavent you need at least a certian number of data points ('n' generally > 20, if I remember my statistics class correctly). The more data points you have, the more you can reduce the margin of error for the information you're inferring from the data set.
If you want some real data, go question 100 people that have >160GB drives and ask them how long they have had them or how long they had them before they failed and analyze that, THEN you'll have some good data.
Well, if you really, really want to be pedantic, the definition of a meter (or metre for the non-US majority of the world that actually USES the SI system) seems to be changing quite frequently (on a geologic scale, anyway). It used to be one ten millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole (line drawn through Paris, France), then it was the length between two scratch marks on a platinum-iridium bar at 0C, now defined as the distance covered by the speed of light in 1/299792458 of a second, plus there are about 5 or 6 different methods in between that I'm omitting (curious bystanders see here.
Would the real metre please stand up?
While the TSA is a government agency - last I checked Delta, Continental, AirTran, et al were private companies.
Lol.. Indeed. Mod me offtopic if you like (and granted, it's pretty off topic), but I despise people at work that make Comic Sans their default email font. How am I supposed to take anything they say seriously when every email from them looks like an excerpt from a Dilbert or Garfield strip? Sigh...
A screwdriver is a pretty specific tool for a specific task. Granted you could say that emacs and vi are specific tools for editing files, but there's a whole lot of different tasks involved in editing a text file.
It's probably more like a compound miter saw or a wood lathe. Anybody can use the saw or lathe, but it takes some time to master it.
No. See OpenDocument and OpenDoc. Two different things. Sort of...
DVD's won over VHS? Didn't I just read an article about how DVD player ownership just surpassed VHS player ownership? If you consider that winning the war, it sure took them long enough (~10 years).
Here's one
There are others. I remember seeing another company with one about 6 to 8 months ago.
I realize that making drugs (or any other product, for that matter) requires research and testing, etc., and manufacturers need to recoup that money spent. Plus, profits from a block-buster drug go into funding expensive research on drugs that can only target a very small portion of the population. However, making tiny changes to an existing drug and calling it "new" sucks, unless the change actually has an effect on how the drug works or reduces a side-effect.
Having said all that, maybe there should be a patent peer review board (or, in government speak, the PPRB) that reviews the validity of a patent request. Maybe patents should be harder to get and you should really have to prove your stuff is unique. After some of the vague, hand-waving tech patents, I've read, it's obvious that the guys in the government reviewing these things don't have a clue.
Step 2: Class Y gets ???
Step 3: Lawfirm Z profits!
In this case, the "???" is about 44 cents, I'd think.
To be fair, Bill Gates denied saying it, and nobody has come up with an original cite or witness to the quote. That doesn't mean that he didn't say something "wrong or stupid" (which he admits to doing on other occasions). Not like he hasn't been wrong in the recent past (SPAM predictions, for example - it's been two years, Bill, and it's getting worse.
Yeah, but that's stretching a (roughly) two dimensional surface in a three dimensional world. It's kind of hard to wrap your brain around inflating a three dimensional universe inside a [insert correct answer here].
Don't anybody try to insert the correct answer, either. The universe will come to an end.
Copying a book of knowledge or virtues when these kinds of books have very limited circulation to make available to a wider audience is a little different than copying a Pink Floyd album that you can buy in any Wal Mart or Target.
Not saying that I agree with DRM, the RIAA or any of their ilk - just saying that your argument isn't quite on the mark
Instead of paying people to create we are now paying for the commodity of the created work.I think this is close, but IMO, we are paying a huge corporate conglomerate instead of paying the people that created the work. These days, artists get a pittance for every copy sold with the bulk of the money going to the distributor/producer/rights holder. Also, artists don't hold rights to their works any more it seems like - their production company does (right to distribute or not, right to keep the band from signing with another label, etc).
I agree with your GUI. Turning off the crappy neon XP theme makes the interface perform better, too. And yes - the first time I'm forced to use Vista, I'm turning off all it's "Aero" fluff.