I am completely content with my Sony receiver when it plays as Dolby DTS or Digital 5.1 surround sound. I have Infinity Primus 160's up front set at 60Hz crossover, an Infinity center set to 70Hz crossover, a sub-woofer set to 80 Hz crossover, and two Infinity SL-20's bringing up the rear, set to 70Hz crossover. My system is set at or better the THX specs though I can't claim the quality that comes from Lucas waving hands over my equipment. For a display I have a Sony Wega HD 34" tube set (the best picture for tube in my book). I am literally amazed at what my home entertainment center delivers for audio and/or video and I consider my setup to be average for Joe middle-class guy (like myself). I agree with the sentiment that the new HD formats are niche because they aren't aimed at Joe middle-class guy. The ansillary cost of high definition equipment will suprise you; I have $400 invested in component video cables, SPDIF audio, and digital coaxial audio cables. To take it to the next level, a rear projection ceiling mounted with movie screen on the wall takes you to the $6000+ price range for just the video. As far as I am concerned the LCD and Plasma are still junk that wears out fast and has to be viewed from 20 feet away so that the pixellation and other imperfections go away.
I would find it hilarious if I opened up a new HD player and found a yellow composite video cable and then have to scrounge for a red and white audio cables. When you buy a cheap video card you get a $20 s-video cable.
Oh yes, Steve Jobs may be able to sue a fart but he can't patent my stink. Smiles everyone smiles.
The article about the researcher was unintersting and somewhat sterile. I feel sorry for a man who makes it a goal in his life to try to prove such a thing as adult immaturity. Here is someone who must have went willingly straight into adulthood. This is the topic he should really be studying. What is the effect on children who are forced into adulthood too early? Entering adulthood due to academics comes to mind, also when you are forced to bear arms is another.
Other than that I found the reaction of/. readers interesting. To me this article and the comments are not at all about being physically, emotionally, or even mentally 6 years old again. Here is a topic that throws/. readers for a loop becuase it is about a metaphor and an irony. The metaphor is about being 6 years old and trusting unconditionally and the irony is that we superimpose our experience and knowledge onto that metaphoric 6 year old. As grown adults with life experience we know that we can never go back to trust like a 6 year old and it would be impossible anyway. We have the rudder now and we steer our vessel into the reefs, the rapids or the head wind. If you truly want to feel like 6 again then simply do an anonymous nice thing for someone you know or a stranger. The real test is that you must really want to do this nice thing and not for gain, loss, or even lifting your own spirit up. A 6 year old would do such a thing because they want to; not because they need to for their own wellness.
If the players did upconversion from 480p to 720p or 1080i (like a $600 Denon) and they played regular DVD's and had killer CD playing hardware that also support SACD then that would be a reason to buy into the hype. It bothers me to no end that I have to upgrade to an HDMI receiver just so that I can pipe through a 1080i or 720p DVD picture to my Sony Wega via the Sony Dobly/DTS receiver without creating a fecal storm of expensive cables.
After only 3 months how can so much software be reliably tested? Is it really released or is it still beta? I thought there was a bunch of static flying around about version 2.5 of the kernel. If you build software on a broken foundation you will only get broken software. What if this software only works becuase earlier software is failing? That is a completely possible situation.
Well put. People in the linux camp demand and command when they have no right to do so. Any article, whatsoever, that trys to suggest Microsoft is not a blood sucking juggernaut, draws a biblical plague from Linux worshippers. Instead of reading the article and trying to be receptive or at least cool to the contents they will immediately load and fire the anti-Bill Gates cannon at anyone, anywhere and with zero regard to what they are saying. Look at the news from the last week, Microsoft's landscape is going through a changing of the guards. The company is trying to embark on new and exciting times, trying to come up with a strategy for OSS, trying to change and all that this lot can say is some silly, uninformed expostulation about Bill being a borg. It's nonsense. But then I keep reading and see that these people fight amongst themselves like dogs clamoring for pee rights to a fire hydrant. The comments about SCO unix are enlightening, when one of their own breaks camp and tries to actually be a business they launch nuclear warheads at them. These people truly are software communists and don't realize the bleak end that they cast for themselves. In order for them to keep on with OSS someone has to pay the bill, don't they realize that! When someone is footing the bill, someone is guiding the project from the pocketbook. Just mark my words on the next statement. There will be a Wal-Mart and Target version of OSS operating systems. This will be a reality, it is the end result of software communism. A product that will be more abhorring than anything they claim from Microsoft. Just wait. They say OSS, but what they are really saying is that they want to take away my choice to actually choose to pay for software. They want to force feed me and call it enlightenment, they want to force me to type commands on a shell, they want to ridicule me for wanting to enjoy my user experience by moving widgets around on a screen that I can customize and personalize. I've been a computer user as long as everyone else, I started out in UNIX, JCL, and DOS, hated windows 3.0 when it came out, because I was not ready to accept it. These people evangelize over that fact but fail to see that the way of the world is another way. They make alot of claims about freedom and software but when you boil out the emotions they are just a band of people wanting to live in an unchanging ivory tower where they can do everything from the shell and expect no less from others. Why does this matter so to them, even more why does it matter so much that others be like them. They say Windows software doesn't work, yet I have used Windows software and find that it is just as culpable of failure as any software written for any O/S. I use open source software for my home machine and I use software I have paid for. For me that is the best combination. I contribute to open source and I am a reader of it as well. Don't censor me dammit!
It's amazing how uninformed people are about evolution. You hear them say that there must be a new species between species A and B in order for evolution to be agreed upon. How much farther from the truth can you be. Species evolve on mother natures clock not on ours. One hypothesis holds that evolution occurs when a genetic mutation occurs in offspring and sticks because it gives a species a better chance of surviving.
The nazi's believed that evolution meant the survival of the fittest, Darwin believed that evolution was the relationship between a species and its ability to reproduce.
Not reproducing obviously means no evolution, reproducing like they do on the Indian sub-continent means that you are likely to populate the world eventually (or cause it to run out of food while trying)
Nothing could ever get me to spend money on anything branded with an Apple logo. I would buy one of these Shutter Pods for the superior WMA format. Furthermore I'd be able to rip the music cd's that I own via purchasing (hey what a novel idea you stinking thiefs) and listen to them in my car, on my pc, on my DVD player, at work, at your girlfriends house, whereever I want. You think I want to share my collection of music with you. Whatever!! you think to highly of yourself.
grrravy
It is natural that the source code was closed. It protects that commercial investment of the company and the security of the product. Early adopters, such as the group described in the article, should have a way to work with Apple to learn how to extend the O/S.
A buddy of mine and I joke about owning the 6 million dollar computer. Sometimes we even repeat lines from the TV show (...gentlemen, we can rebuild him...better, stronger, faster, wuuu-eeeee-oooooo)
This article should be titled "The $1200 computer" and sub-titled "For only 6 million dollars". All DIY'ers, myself included, know that we have spent a kings ransom on our systems. I've stopped adding up how much the frankensteining on my box has cost me.
All in all it is a very cool article and I am glad that people are trying to combine budget computing and gaming rigs together.
If you upgraded to an HDMI receiver as "the brain" to your A/V system then you could do this. All of your A/V would plug into the receiver and your TV would be on the monitor output. I do this except just using component video. My HDTV gets 1080i and 5.1 Dolby digital and/or DTS from the digital cable box using component video and monster spdif cables. They connect to the receiver and my TV is on the monitor out. If you have a DVD player that will upconvert the signial to HDMI then you should be able to get 720p or 1080i resolution from your DVD's. I don't currently own one like this but plan on upgrading to a Sony HDMI receiver eventually. I still think my DVDs playing 420p with 5.1 dolby digital or DTS have amazing clarity. Be prepared to pay a small fortune in cabling costs. I am also viewing on a Sony 34" tube TV which has the best picture that I have ever seen.
I will only comment on the game type I enjoy; that is the RTS title of Pacific Fighters. I'm convinced that learning this game is equivalent to learning golf. Yet, while I hate it most of the time I keep going back for more; keep spending mad money on the computer to get more out of the title and download freeware software like FRAPS to get my FPS and record sections for machinima. I've even visited Borders to buy a book about how to do basic acrobatics. It is great fun. However, I am also a sink (single-income-no kids) so I can't speak from the perspective of gamers with baggage. I will venture that a wife and kids would probably be negative mojo on game time.
Instead of one or the other, why not both? Show them how to cc and link and then how to do it using the studio. A good basic windows programming linking problem is how to override system calls in kernel32. The answer is changing the link step to link a custom library before kernel32, then the code contains your function instead of the one in kernel32. One that makes for a good example is OutputDebugStringA. In order to do things like that in the studio you need to issue linker directives, such as pragma. This also drives home that there are ANSI and Wide versions of functions, which is usually transparent at coding time.
I am brand loyal to Sony stereo equipment so it would be very nice to hook this component up through my Sony receiver and have the audio play out of the 5.1 system and have the game play on 34" HD Sony wide screen CRT. I would then be able to satisy the gaming curiosity and the blue-ray technology into one compartment. I can buy an HD DVD player for the other camp and have it all neatly and nicely arranged on the rack.
Ubisoft's Pacific Fighters package. In it's unrealistic arcade mode the plane flys like a video game. In it's most challenging 100% realistic mode, it fly's like a plane. There is a huge online community dedicated to Pacific Fighters that join in through a lobbying software called 'Hyperlobby'.
Unfortunately the policy doesn't cover unopened defective titles. The man really shouldn't have been allowed to get away with the refund by causing a scene and personally embarassing the clerks and managers. He'll get negative karma points for that. Ubisoft is a decent company and he could RMA the merchandise to them for a fixed copy of a crappy game; he could have then taken that title back to the store and claimed it as unopened.
I normally buy my own music which is my personal choice. I don't mind it really; I wish a new CD was around $9, but that is ok. Usually I buy because I like the whole experience of going to the record store, thumbing through the music, picking out the one CD out of ten that I really want; not the ones that I had fancied in a fly-by-night moment. Sometimes I copy albums from friends; sometimes they from me. I know that I rarely listen to music that I don't purchase, the exception being when the player is on random.
I view the trend of pirating software, downloading music and videos as just another facet of the throw away society. It troubles me that in music and software people don't expect to have to pay for the merchandise. It troubles me that the dogma behind this is strangely a form of communism. Music and software by the people and for the people. It is troubling because someone who truly believes that "free stuff" is the way of the future will be fanatical towards me for believing the opposite. If they were in charge this would make them a music and software dictator. They hope to be charge eventually by sinking the companies who charge for their products. When artists and developers alike lose the incentive for the art that they create the "creative well of inspiration" dries up. People have to earn money to live and the logical conclusion is that eventually you must take sponsorship. The one who pays the bill for product development is the one who guides and controls the development the product. You might as well hope to have a Wal-Mart O/S or a McDonald's O/S, maybe even the Target and GAP bands. The logical conclusion is that trying to cause a society of free music and software will only create a much worse one in which large corporations will swallow up the freeware. That is not the type of society that I want to live in and you shouldn't either.
There should be moderation in everything including moderation itself. You should pay for things sometimes and sometimes they are provided to you from the bounty.
Slashdot Mirror
I sent the Mayor of Nashua, NH an email. Forget spamming the police, spam the Mayor!
I am completely content with my Sony receiver when it plays as Dolby DTS or Digital 5.1 surround sound. I have Infinity Primus 160's up front set at 60Hz crossover, an Infinity center set to 70Hz crossover, a sub-woofer set to 80 Hz crossover, and two Infinity SL-20's bringing up the rear, set to 70Hz crossover. My system is set at or better the THX specs though I can't claim the quality that comes from Lucas waving hands over my equipment. For a display I have a Sony Wega HD 34" tube set (the best picture for tube in my book). I am literally amazed at what my home entertainment center delivers for audio and/or video and I consider my setup to be average for Joe middle-class guy (like myself). I agree with the sentiment that the new HD formats are niche because they aren't aimed at Joe middle-class guy. The ansillary cost of high definition equipment will suprise you; I have $400 invested in component video cables, SPDIF audio, and digital coaxial audio cables. To take it to the next level, a rear projection ceiling mounted with movie screen on the wall takes you to the $6000+ price range for just the video. As far as I am concerned the LCD and Plasma are still junk that wears out fast and has to be viewed from 20 feet away so that the pixellation and other imperfections go away. I would find it hilarious if I opened up a new HD player and found a yellow composite video cable and then have to scrounge for a red and white audio cables. When you buy a cheap video card you get a $20 s-video cable. Oh yes, Steve Jobs may be able to sue a fart but he can't patent my stink. Smiles everyone smiles.
The article about the researcher was unintersting and somewhat sterile. I feel sorry for a man who makes it a goal in his life to try to prove such a thing as adult immaturity. Here is someone who must have went willingly straight into adulthood. This is the topic he should really be studying. What is the effect on children who are forced into adulthood too early? Entering adulthood due to academics comes to mind, also when you are forced to bear arms is another. Other than that I found the reaction of /. readers interesting. To me this article and the comments are not at all about being physically, emotionally, or even mentally 6 years old again. Here is a topic that throws /. readers for a loop becuase it is about a metaphor and an irony. The metaphor is about being 6 years old and trusting unconditionally and the irony is that we superimpose our experience and knowledge onto that metaphoric 6 year old. As grown adults with life experience we know that we can never go back to trust like a 6 year old and it would be impossible anyway. We have the rudder now and we steer our vessel into the reefs, the rapids or the head wind. If you truly want to feel like 6 again then simply do an anonymous nice thing for someone you know or a stranger. The real test is that you must really want to do this nice thing and not for gain, loss, or even lifting your own spirit up. A 6 year old would do such a thing because they want to; not because they need to for their own wellness.
If the players did upconversion from 480p to 720p or 1080i (like a $600 Denon) and they played regular DVD's and had killer CD playing hardware that also support SACD then that would be a reason to buy into the hype. It bothers me to no end that I have to upgrade to an HDMI receiver just so that I can pipe through a 1080i or 720p DVD picture to my Sony Wega via the Sony Dobly/DTS receiver without creating a fecal storm of expensive cables.
After only 3 months how can so much software be reliably tested? Is it really released or is it still beta? I thought there was a bunch of static flying around about version 2.5 of the kernel. If you build software on a broken foundation you will only get broken software. What if this software only works becuase earlier software is failing? That is a completely possible situation.
Well put. People in the linux camp demand and command when they have no right to do so. Any article, whatsoever, that trys to suggest Microsoft is not a blood sucking juggernaut, draws a biblical plague from Linux worshippers. Instead of reading the article and trying to be receptive or at least cool to the contents they will immediately load and fire the anti-Bill Gates cannon at anyone, anywhere and with zero regard to what they are saying. Look at the news from the last week, Microsoft's landscape is going through a changing of the guards. The company is trying to embark on new and exciting times, trying to come up with a strategy for OSS, trying to change and all that this lot can say is some silly, uninformed expostulation about Bill being a borg. It's nonsense. But then I keep reading and see that these people fight amongst themselves like dogs clamoring for pee rights to a fire hydrant. The comments about SCO unix are enlightening, when one of their own breaks camp and tries to actually be a business they launch nuclear warheads at them. These people truly are software communists and don't realize the bleak end that they cast for themselves. In order for them to keep on with OSS someone has to pay the bill, don't they realize that! When someone is footing the bill, someone is guiding the project from the pocketbook. Just mark my words on the next statement. There will be a Wal-Mart and Target version of OSS operating systems. This will be a reality, it is the end result of software communism. A product that will be more abhorring than anything they claim from Microsoft. Just wait. They say OSS, but what they are really saying is that they want to take away my choice to actually choose to pay for software. They want to force feed me and call it enlightenment, they want to force me to type commands on a shell, they want to ridicule me for wanting to enjoy my user experience by moving widgets around on a screen that I can customize and personalize. I've been a computer user as long as everyone else, I started out in UNIX, JCL, and DOS, hated windows 3.0 when it came out, because I was not ready to accept it. These people evangelize over that fact but fail to see that the way of the world is another way. They make alot of claims about freedom and software but when you boil out the emotions they are just a band of people wanting to live in an unchanging ivory tower where they can do everything from the shell and expect no less from others. Why does this matter so to them, even more why does it matter so much that others be like them. They say Windows software doesn't work, yet I have used Windows software and find that it is just as culpable of failure as any software written for any O/S. I use open source software for my home machine and I use software I have paid for. For me that is the best combination. I contribute to open source and I am a reader of it as well. Don't censor me dammit!
If the next shuttle explodes then just blame it on their O/S.
It's amazing how uninformed people are about evolution. You hear them say that there must be a new species between species A and B in order for evolution to be agreed upon. How much farther from the truth can you be. Species evolve on mother natures clock not on ours. One hypothesis holds that evolution occurs when a genetic mutation occurs in offspring and sticks because it gives a species a better chance of surviving. The nazi's believed that evolution meant the survival of the fittest, Darwin believed that evolution was the relationship between a species and its ability to reproduce. Not reproducing obviously means no evolution, reproducing like they do on the Indian sub-continent means that you are likely to populate the world eventually (or cause it to run out of food while trying)
Nothing could ever get me to spend money on anything branded with an Apple logo. I would buy one of these Shutter Pods for the superior WMA format. Furthermore I'd be able to rip the music cd's that I own via purchasing (hey what a novel idea you stinking thiefs) and listen to them in my car, on my pc, on my DVD player, at work, at your girlfriends house, whereever I want. You think I want to share my collection of music with you. Whatever!! you think to highly of yourself. grrravy
It is natural that the source code was closed. It protects that commercial investment of the company and the security of the product. Early adopters, such as the group described in the article, should have a way to work with Apple to learn how to extend the O/S.
A buddy of mine and I joke about owning the 6 million dollar computer. Sometimes we even repeat lines from the TV show (...gentlemen, we can rebuild him...better, stronger, faster, wuuu-eeeee-oooooo) This article should be titled "The $1200 computer" and sub-titled "For only 6 million dollars". All DIY'ers, myself included, know that we have spent a kings ransom on our systems. I've stopped adding up how much the frankensteining on my box has cost me. All in all it is a very cool article and I am glad that people are trying to combine budget computing and gaming rigs together.
All that I notice is your negativity and that you just squeezed out a constipated mouth log on some cool work.
If you upgraded to an HDMI receiver as "the brain" to your A/V system then you could do this. All of your A/V would plug into the receiver and your TV would be on the monitor output. I do this except just using component video. My HDTV gets 1080i and 5.1 Dolby digital and/or DTS from the digital cable box using component video and monster spdif cables. They connect to the receiver and my TV is on the monitor out. If you have a DVD player that will upconvert the signial to HDMI then you should be able to get 720p or 1080i resolution from your DVD's. I don't currently own one like this but plan on upgrading to a Sony HDMI receiver eventually. I still think my DVDs playing 420p with 5.1 dolby digital or DTS have amazing clarity. Be prepared to pay a small fortune in cabling costs. I am also viewing on a Sony 34" tube TV which has the best picture that I have ever seen.
I will only comment on the game type I enjoy; that is the RTS title of Pacific Fighters. I'm convinced that learning this game is equivalent to learning golf. Yet, while I hate it most of the time I keep going back for more; keep spending mad money on the computer to get more out of the title and download freeware software like FRAPS to get my FPS and record sections for machinima. I've even visited Borders to buy a book about how to do basic acrobatics. It is great fun. However, I am also a sink (single-income-no kids) so I can't speak from the perspective of gamers with baggage. I will venture that a wife and kids would probably be negative mojo on game time.
Instead of one or the other, why not both? Show them how to cc and link and then how to do it using the studio. A good basic windows programming linking problem is how to override system calls in kernel32. The answer is changing the link step to link a custom library before kernel32, then the code contains your function instead of the one in kernel32. One that makes for a good example is OutputDebugStringA. In order to do things like that in the studio you need to issue linker directives, such as pragma. This also drives home that there are ANSI and Wide versions of functions, which is usually transparent at coding time.
The series featuring the late Jeremy Brett was excellent work. Still good TV to watch in today's hype driven drivel.
I am brand loyal to Sony stereo equipment so it would be very nice to hook this component up through my Sony receiver and have the audio play out of the 5.1 system and have the game play on 34" HD Sony wide screen CRT. I would then be able to satisy the gaming curiosity and the blue-ray technology into one compartment. I can buy an HD DVD player for the other camp and have it all neatly and nicely arranged on the rack.
I wonder what the new socket type will be called?
Once you discover the causes and conditions of the problem you start to realize that those other 3 fingers are pointing at you.
Ubisoft's Pacific Fighters package. In it's unrealistic arcade mode the plane flys like a video game. In it's most challenging 100% realistic mode, it fly's like a plane. There is a huge online community dedicated to Pacific Fighters that join in through a lobbying software called 'Hyperlobby'.
Unfortunately the policy doesn't cover unopened defective titles. The man really shouldn't have been allowed to get away with the refund by causing a scene and personally embarassing the clerks and managers. He'll get negative karma points for that. Ubisoft is a decent company and he could RMA the merchandise to them for a fixed copy of a crappy game; he could have then taken that title back to the store and claimed it as unopened.
I normally buy my own music which is my personal choice. I don't mind it really; I wish a new CD was around $9, but that is ok. Usually I buy because I like the whole experience of going to the record store, thumbing through the music, picking out the one CD out of ten that I really want; not the ones that I had fancied in a fly-by-night moment. Sometimes I copy albums from friends; sometimes they from me. I know that I rarely listen to music that I don't purchase, the exception being when the player is on random. I view the trend of pirating software, downloading music and videos as just another facet of the throw away society. It troubles me that in music and software people don't expect to have to pay for the merchandise. It troubles me that the dogma behind this is strangely a form of communism. Music and software by the people and for the people. It is troubling because someone who truly believes that "free stuff" is the way of the future will be fanatical towards me for believing the opposite. If they were in charge this would make them a music and software dictator. They hope to be charge eventually by sinking the companies who charge for their products. When artists and developers alike lose the incentive for the art that they create the "creative well of inspiration" dries up. People have to earn money to live and the logical conclusion is that eventually you must take sponsorship. The one who pays the bill for product development is the one who guides and controls the development the product. You might as well hope to have a Wal-Mart O/S or a McDonald's O/S, maybe even the Target and GAP bands. The logical conclusion is that trying to cause a society of free music and software will only create a much worse one in which large corporations will swallow up the freeware. That is not the type of society that I want to live in and you shouldn't either. There should be moderation in everything including moderation itself. You should pay for things sometimes and sometimes they are provided to you from the bounty.
Hard core gamers build their own rigs