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User: lagfest

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Comments · 107

  1. Re:I don't know about everyone else... on Google Rolls Out Chrome 7 · · Score: 1

    Yes, Chrome has always done this. Apparently it saves on the support budget to have a single version of chrome for all users (just like pretty much every other google product).

  2. Re:Hmm, I wonder on After a Decade, Digital Radio Still an Also-Ran In UK · · Score: 1

    The DAB bitrate is variable, giving talk radio lesser bitrates, and classical music larger bitrates.

  3. Re:Apparent Wind on Google-Backed Wind-Powered Car Goes Faster Than the Wind · · Score: 1

    It works because you are using a fraction of the applied power to create a counter force to your source of power.

    Remember your old toy, the yoyo? Put it on the floor with the string extended to it's entirety, now pull the string until it's in your hand.

    How far did your hand travel? how far did the yoyo travel?

  4. Re:The link you actually care about on Google Wave Now Open To All · · Score: 1

    Wrong.

    It has to be enabled by an administrator, though.

  5. Re:f.lux on Your Computer Or iPad Could Be Disrupting Sleep · · Score: 1

    Even better: get a display with an ambient light sensor.

  6. Re:And? on How To Play HD Video On a Netbook · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Slashdot crashes for a day, then upgrades the user id field to a bigint.

    at least, that's what happened when comment id (24 bit unsigned) hit the ceiling.

  7. Re:Use the Coax as a wirepull for the cat5 on Suggestions For a Coax-To-Ethernet Solution? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Because coax was so unreliable it would make network admins cry.

    In the good ole lan party days, the network would be disrupted every time someone needed to connect or disconnect a pc. Sometimes you had T piece that was a bit faulty and that also nuked the network. And when you had 12 machines on the network, finding the source of the error was even harder.

    Performance was only a secondary reason for it's demise.

  8. Re:Junk characters on 86% of Windows 7 PCs Maxing Out Memory · · Score: 1

    So they are called Junk characters because they are used to portrait a naked mans penis? What a coincidence :)

  9. Re:When do people get this on 86% of Windows 7 PCs Maxing Out Memory · · Score: -1, Redundant

    "You obviously don't understand memory access design. It's all about feeding the CPU. There are two sorts of relationships we can use to make this work: temporal and sequential.

    Hard drives are the largest-capacity storage (well unless you want to go to tape). But they're slow. Even the fastest high-RPM SCSI or SATA drives are SLOW compared to what's above them. This is mitigated, somewhat, by putting some cache memory on the drive's controller board itself. Still, having to hit the hard drive for information is, as you say, a slowdown. Same goes for external storage (Optical media, USB media, etc).

    So you try to keep as much information as possible in RAM (next step up). Hitting RAM is less expensive than hitting the H/D in terms of a performance hit. In the original days of computing (up until the 486DX line for Intel CPUs), RAM and CPU operated on a 1:1 clock speed match, so that was that.

    Once you factor in the clock multiplier of later CPU's, even the fastest RAM available today can't keep from starving the CPU. So we add in cache - L3, L2, and L1. the 486 implemented 8KB (yeah a whole 8K, wow!) in order to keep itself from starving. L3 is the slowest, but largest, L2 is faster still but smaller, and L1's the smallest of all, but the fastest because it is literally on the same die as the CPU. That distinction is important, and in general you'll find that a slower CPU with more L1 Cache will benchmark better than a faster CPU with less.

    The CPU looks for what it wants as follows:
    - I want something. Is it in L1? Nope.
    - Is it in L2? Nope.
    - Is it in L3? Nope.
    - Is it in RAM? Nope.
    - Is it in the H/D Cache? (helps avoid spin-up and seek times) Nope.
    - Crap, it's on the H/D. Big performance hit.

    Everything except for the L1 check, technically, was a performance it. The reason for pre-caching things (based on temporal and sequential relationships) is all about predicting and getting what will be needed next into the fastest available place.

    Yes, I suppose you can run an entire system where it all goes into RAM, and you'll see it as more responsive simply because you never have to touch the hard drive. But turning off HDD caching is a BAD idea. It makes cache misses that much more expensive because then, instead of having even the chance of finding what you needed in RAM or in the HD's onboard cache, you have to wait for the H/D to spin up and seek to the right sector."

    FTFY :)

  10. Re:When do people get this on 86% of Windows 7 PCs Maxing Out Memory · · Score: 2, Informative

    My current* windows 7 stats say:
    Total: 2046MB
    Used: 1.26GB
    Cache: 634MB
    Available: 743MB
    Free: 132MB

    So used RAM does not include cache. And 'available' is a nice way of telling grandma that RAM used for cache is actually available to apps.

    * not a snapshot, i can't type that fast :)

  11. Re:We're on our way! on Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project · · Score: 1, Funny

    Are you by any chance related to any of these guys? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8fbrUjjivw

  12. Re:Where it matters most. on Framerates Matter · · Score: 1

    Most games on the Quake 3 engine have that. 125 fps was the sweet spot.

  13. Another bug on Y2.01K · · Score: 1
  14. Re:I tried it out earlier on Opera 10.5 Pre-Alpha Is Out, and It's Fast · · Score: 1

    I got mod points, but I couldn't find +1 disturbing.

  15. Re:Assuming... on "2012" a Miscalculation; Actual Calendar Ends 2220 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The mods agree. That's not even remotely plausible, this being slashdot and all.

  16. Re:Why on earth going propietary? Oh, it's Apple.. on Apple Behind Intel's USB Competitor? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Because you are being scammed, $10 is more realistic.

  17. Re:2P ... on AMD Packs Six-Core Opteron Inside 40 Watts · · Score: 4, Funny

    or not 2P, that is the question.

    It might get unpleasant if you hold it in too long.

  18. Wait, so all they have to do is... on GPL Case Against Danish Satellite Provider · · Score: 1

    Change some text in the eula, give a link to whatever distro they are using and provide an object file so that it can be re-linked to an updated version of uClibc. that's one meaty lawsuit you got there mister.

  19. Re:"2GB-maximum 32-bit" on Gaming On Windows 7 · · Score: 2, Funny

    And he's right, there is a 2GB Application memory limit, 3GB with LargeAddressAware. And then there's the 4GB OS memory limit, which you were sarcastically referring to.

  20. Re:Well... on Security Threats 3 Levels Beyond Kernel Rootkits · · Score: 4, Informative
  21. Re:OOh on Windows 7 Clean Install Only In Europe · · Score: 1

    Yours truly, Grammar Nazi.

    Your ' s. But nice try.

    [citation needed]

  22. Re:OOh on Windows 7 Clean Install Only In Europe · · Score: 1

    ... Plus I have the piece of mind ...

    That's a really weird place to boast about your taste in music.

    Yours truly, Grammar Nazi.

  23. Re:It doesn't matter on Memory Usage of Chrome, Firefox 3.5, et al. · · Score: 1

    I have weird ass-artifacts on Firefox here at home, and I'm using Vista.

    I don't think it's vista, just stop browsing porn.

  24. Re:fragmentation? on Solid State Drives Tested With TRIM Support · · Score: 1

    probably not. but neither OS vendors nor SSD manufacturers would want that.

    There's no backwards compatibility, SSD vendors have to write drivers for every OS, and so on.

  25. Re:DRM for DVD is bad... DRM from network is evil. on Why Bother With DRM? · · Score: 1

    Want to install the game on your girl friend PC? On your children PC? Yep... install it, but you will not get update of your game. So,... they simply release buggy version that need update and user tie with their new DRM network solution.

    While each install counts as an activation, you can do this without any problems.

    One time network registrations are a lot better than rootkits, dvds that only work in 50% of drives and swapping discs every time you need to play a game.