I have a dream: that my little children will one day live in a world where they will be able to buy kits online, not designed by marketer, but by the contents of their creative character.
Imagine designing a kit in a Lego CAD program and then automatically exporting the BOM to an order form that takes a screenshot of the finished item, a manual and contents list and produced a boxed, bagged set that is immediately shipped to you.
Seriously Lego, where are you?
Actually, that already exists and is called LEGO Factory
Well I read TFA and besides the new capabilities of DirectX 11 (which look nice, but not exactly earth-shattering to me and also will need some time to get implemented into games anyway), what I found interesting was what ATI actually did with the display output connectors.
The demo system they set up had one of those new DirectX 11 cards and that card is a dual-slot solution as all the highend graphics cards are now. But ATI did use the space from those two slots quite nicely by including dual DVI ports AND a HDMI AND a DisplayPort connector meaning you have all the different types of digital display connectors available on a single card, which would be a first, I think.
No word yet whether you can use all four ports simultaneously, but if you could, it looks like a nice new way of hooking up multiple displays:)
This is just great. Google Mail is finally out of Beta. Duke Nukem Forever is cancelled. If finally there is a year of Linux on the Desktop, only an unfinished GNU Hurd stands between us and the Apocalypse...;-)
Are you sure? I was reading some of the live coverage of the the keynote and found in the live coverage from gdgt the following passage:
11:48AM - Averages 2x speed increase -- some things are even faster. OpenGL ES 2.0 support. 7.2Mbps HSDPA. Big applause. "The new iPhone 3G S is a REALLY fast phone."
I have also read the official press release from Apple (not sure if it is already released yet, but it should be soon) and it also mentions OpenGL ES 2.0, so I think you got your upgrade after all:)
Right away, if North Korea and South Korea destroyed each other, it would be better for American car companies. We wouldn't have as many Hyundais and Kias running around the USA.
Well, Im not going to even comment on the rest of your post, but in your mind, if Korea destroys itself, the first thing that comes into your mind are Korean car companies?
And you know, this being slashdot and all, maybe you heard of a little company named Samsung, which is just one the biggest semiconductor companies in the entire world and the largest manufacturer of DRAM and Flash memory chips, not to mention hard disks and LCD technology?
As for the rest, suffice to say that I strongly disagree with you.
Well as a few others already pointed out Apple did look at the Cell chip and rejected it. There are in my opinion two big problems why Apple could never seriously consider the Cell:
First of all, it was new architecture, which consisted more or less of a PowerPC chip which shares some similarities to the G5 and the SPUs which the PPC part had to feed with data. Well, to truly take adavantage of the Cell architecture, all programs would have to be optimized to the Cell architecture, which is not an easy task, as any PS3 programmer can attest you. So all the amazing applications you envisioned would have to rewritten for the Cell and if we remember how long it took to for true Altivec adoption, this could take a long time. But without the usage of the SPUs, the PowerPC part of the Cell is even weaker than a G5, so the transition would have been awful, as exisiting software would struggle to run decently on the Cell while all the applications are rewritten. Not to speak of the fact that not alle computing tasks are really well suited for the Cell architecture anyway...
Second and I think some others commented on this already as well: The biggest problem Apple had with the G5 was that it did not scale as well as expected due to thermal reasons (hence all that watercooling stuff they built into the later PowerMacs) and more importantly, that IBM was not able to make a G5 chip capable of being used in a laptop, both for thermal and power inefficency. But if you think about how important the laptop systems are to Apple, how long could Apple realistically wait for IBM to deliver a chip like that? And if you think about the Cell, I would wager to believe that even today with better and more efficient production capabilities, the Cell would still be a relatively poor laptop chip.
So yeah, I can see where you think the Cell could have theoretically been an interesting alternative, in the beginning I also thought that this would have been a possible alternative for Apple to consider. But since Cell programming is so specialized and difficult and Apple needing especially laptop chips in the worst possible way, I think at least in that regard, the switch to Intel was the correct one. Now dont get me started on that x86 architecture, however..;-)
Well at least the author plans do a Mac and a Linux version in the future. From the FAQ:
Is there a Mac / Linux port
Unfortunately not at this moment. I'm planning of doing these as soon as I'm done with the PC version of the game, but I can't promise anything at this point.
Also, since there is an iPhone/iPod Touch version already, I think making a Mac version should be relatively doable anyway.
Well, aside from the fact that this Apple support document is not exactly brimming with information, using an antivirus program on a Mac makes perfect sense in a mixed environment with other operating systems.
Although your Mac may be safe from the vast majority of malware stuff circulating right now, it can still spread them around and infect for example the other Windows machines on the network (those Microsoft Office macrovirus infections are a good example).
Also, with all the nice virtualisation programs available on the Mac and BootCamp, it makes sense as a Mac user to be more aware of potential malware problems , although then the antivirus solution should be inside that environment, I think. Also those antivirus programs open up a whole other can of worms, because those antivirus companies are splendid examples of honesty and efficient programming, as we all well know:)
According to the article, the migration is already well underway. From the 11.000 desktops, 4.000 already are migrated to Open Source and about half of the embassies are on Open Source Software now. That explains where they get their maintenance cost numbers from, good to see that the cost savings seem to be real and backed by their own data instead of being estimates:)
They also started the switch a long time ago, according to article, the infrastructure switch started in 2001 and the decision for the destop migration was done in 2004, so I think they have some solid experience with handling Open Source now, which I think is good.
You make some good points, especially about the licensing fees, but you got something mixed up with your Firewire Speeds:
AFAIK There were never many available Firewire Controllers which had less than 400 Mbps (I think some of the early Firewire-equipped Macs may have been slower, but I am not sure), so generally, Firewire always was Firewire 400, long before USB 2.0 was created.
Intel specifically created the 2.0 spec in response to Firewire 400, to get a pie of the high-bandwith devices market, so USB 2.0 was the answer to Firewire, NOT vice versa.
Also, I think you meant this Firewire spec that is on its way out soon, but that one would technically be Firewire 3200 (which will have less theoretical bandwith than USB 3.0, but not 5x less), NOT Firewire 800. Firewire 800 has been on the Market for quite some years now, mostly on Macs, but a few High-End PC Mainboards have Firewire 800 controllers too. And believe me, they are noticeably faster than USB 2.0 or Firewire 400 ports, as I have been using them for a while now.
Well, I RTFA and while the data from the TechCrunch posting is quite interesting, the conclusion drawn from the blog post mentioned in the blurb is missing one important factor:
It takes Apples R&D budget and spreads it over the total number of employees from Apple. It then gets to the conclusion that Apple has underpaid its software engineers especially in the last few years as the R&D budget was not nearly as big as it should have been for the number of employees Apple has.
The problem with this conclusion is found in this article, which estimates that half of Apples employees are now working in retail i.e. in an Apple Store. Since Google and the likes do not have a brick and mortar business, so most employees are actually engineers, the simple calculation from the article might work there, but with Apple, it is a bit more complicated than that, especially since the retail store business has just been built in the last couple years
Dont understand me wrong, Apple could still by all means underpay its engineers, but the conclusion of the article is too simple, I think.
I would also think the first guess for the ASIC vendor would be ATI, but isnt ATI a Canadian company? Sure, of course they have US facilities, but wouldnt US-based mean that the man location should be in the US? Because then, NVIDIA would be my guess, as they have their main location in Silicon Valley, I think...
Well, I RTFA and the summary makes it look a little bit like the quote is from Ray Ozzie. Well, Ozzie is the Chief Software Architect, the quote would actually be from Sam Ramji. Just wanted to clarify before more people started flaming Ozzie when they really should flame Ramji:)
But I love this gem from the actual Ray Ozzie Q&A:
Ozzie noted that if a new operating system were designed today, it wouldn't be a single piece of software that operates a single computer. It would be something that could accommodate multiple devices, with the user at the center.
Oh, you mean like Linux, which runs from embedded systems through desktops up to big-iron servers and supercomputers? Or even MacOS X, which runs at least on Macs and the iPhone?
I hate to to burst Mr Bushnells Bubble, but the TPM is neither a good solution to game piracy, nor particularly new. According to the Wikipedia article on Trusted Computing, the first systems with a TPM have been shipped since 2004.
Good point about that not being the best comparison, especially since Miyamoto always gets described as very humble and friendly and is well-respected by his peers.
IIRC, Sid Meier (of Civilization fame) even said that Miyamoto is sort of a role model for him, which I think is high praise.
I wish I had some mod points right now so I can mod you up, interesting stuff.
I just want to add that unlike good slashdot tradition I RTFA and there was also a short blurb that tha actor tried to negotiate for residuals, but was denied. So he did not suddenly start to whine about it after GTA IV sold millions of copies, which I think makes his case a bit more legit in my mind.
I hope the NVIDIA acquisition and now this news will drive the adoption of the PhysX Engine. Right now, if you look at the list of titles, the PhysX Engine is not used by many games (namely, mostly Unreal3-Engine titles).
If the adoption picks up, maybe Havok (which is now Intel property) will not remain the only physics engine in town, but right now, this news will not affect a whole lot of games...
Well, if we didnt already know, check out this gem from the article:
The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said.
This is so ridiculous that it would be funny, but I fear they are completely serious about it...
In addition to all the posters, I think that the SDK took so long and is still a bit away because Apple did not have enough developing manpower to handle the initial launch of the iPhone, Leopard and now the SDK.
Notice they delayed Leopard to get the iPhone out of the Door and now notice that the announcement of the SDK comes right on the heels of the confirmed shipping date of Leopard.
I would guess that since the iPhone uses a lot of the technologies used in Leopard as well that they had to free up many of the core developer by finishing up one project at a time. Besides, those poor people need some rest now and then as well;)
Well I read TFA and the concept behind that plastic is deceptively simple: It is a membrane consisting of hourglass-shaped pores, which seemingly is a very efficient shape for pores and is also used in plant cell membranes.
So in essence, this plastic is a plant membrane in plastic form, which is not a radically advanced concept, but a really clever one and if it works as advertised, kudos to the research teams.
...to comb through private financial recordings from a Belgian bank in the first place? I mean, last time I checked, Belgium does not exactly fall under US jurisdiction, doesn't it? Wouldn't that fall under some international laws or something?
Well maybe all those publishers do not want to take part in the E For All Expo because there are already enough gaming expos around?
Besides the mentioned Tokoy Game Show, there are still the revamped E3 and the Game Developers Conference and there is the big and now very popular and established Games Convention in Germany as a consumer expo.
Throw in the more specialised ones like Blizzcon, Quakecon or PAX and there does not seem to be a great need and certainly not enough money in the advertising budget of companies for yet another gaming expo...
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, that already exists and is called LEGO Factory
Well I read TFA and besides the new capabilities of DirectX 11 (which look nice, but not exactly earth-shattering to me and also will need some time to get implemented into games anyway), what I found interesting was what ATI actually did with the display output connectors.
:)
The demo system they set up had one of those new DirectX 11 cards and that card is a dual-slot solution as all the highend graphics cards are now. But ATI did use the space from those two slots quite nicely by including dual DVI ports AND a HDMI AND a DisplayPort connector meaning you have all the different types of digital display connectors available on a single card, which would be a first, I think.
No word yet whether you can use all four ports simultaneously, but if you could, it looks like a nice new way of hooking up multiple displays
This is just great. Google Mail is finally out of Beta. Duke Nukem Forever is cancelled. If finally there is a year of Linux on the Desktop, only an unfinished GNU Hurd stands between us and the Apocalypse... ;-)
I have also read the official press release from Apple (not sure if it is already released yet, but it should be soon) and it also mentions OpenGL ES 2.0, so I think you got your upgrade after all :)
Well, Im not going to even comment on the rest of your post, but in your mind, if Korea destroys itself, the first thing that comes into your mind are Korean car companies?
And you know, this being slashdot and all, maybe you heard of a little company named Samsung, which is just one the biggest semiconductor companies in the entire world and the largest manufacturer of DRAM and Flash memory chips, not to mention hard disks and LCD technology?
As for the rest, suffice to say that I strongly disagree with you.
Well as a few others already pointed out Apple did look at the Cell chip and rejected it. There are in my opinion two big problems why Apple could never seriously consider the Cell:
;-)
First of all, it was new architecture, which consisted more or less of a PowerPC chip which shares some similarities to the G5 and the SPUs which the PPC part had to feed with data. Well, to truly take adavantage of the Cell architecture, all programs would have to be optimized to the Cell architecture, which is not an easy task, as any PS3 programmer can attest you. So all the amazing applications you envisioned would have to rewritten for the Cell and if we remember how long it took to for true Altivec adoption, this could take a long time. But without the usage of the SPUs, the PowerPC part of the Cell is even weaker than a G5, so the transition would have been awful, as exisiting software would struggle to run decently on the Cell while all the applications are rewritten. Not to speak of the fact that not alle computing tasks are really well suited for the Cell architecture anyway...
Second and I think some others commented on this already as well: The biggest problem Apple had with the G5 was that it did not scale as well as expected due to thermal reasons (hence all that watercooling stuff they built into the later PowerMacs) and more importantly, that IBM was not able to make a G5 chip capable of being used in a laptop, both for thermal and power inefficency. But if you think about how important the laptop systems are to Apple, how long could Apple realistically wait for IBM to deliver a chip like that? And if you think about the Cell, I would wager to believe that even today with better and more efficient production capabilities, the Cell would still be a relatively poor laptop chip.
So yeah, I can see where you think the Cell could have theoretically been an interesting alternative, in the beginning I also thought that this would have been a possible alternative for Apple to consider. But since Cell programming is so specialized and difficult and Apple needing especially laptop chips in the worst possible way, I think at least in that regard, the switch to Intel was the correct one. Now dont get me started on that x86 architecture, however..
Well at least the author plans do a Mac and a Linux version in the future. From the FAQ:
/iPod Touch version already, I think making a Mac version should be relatively doable anyway.
Is there a Mac / Linux port
Unfortunately not at this moment. I'm planning of doing these as soon as I'm done with the PC version of the game, but I can't promise anything at this point.
Also, since there is an iPhone
Well, aside from the fact that this Apple support document is not exactly brimming with information, using an antivirus program on a Mac makes perfect sense in a mixed environment with other operating systems.
:)
Although your Mac may be safe from the vast majority of malware stuff circulating right now, it can still spread them around and infect for example the other Windows machines on the network (those Microsoft Office macrovirus infections are a good example).
Also, with all the nice virtualisation programs available on the Mac and BootCamp, it makes sense as a Mac user to be more aware of potential malware problems , although then the antivirus solution should be inside that environment, I think. Also those antivirus programs open up a whole other can of worms, because those antivirus companies are splendid examples of honesty and efficient programming, as we all well know
According to the article, the migration is already well underway. From the 11.000 desktops, 4.000 already are migrated to Open Source and about half of the embassies are on Open Source Software now. That explains where they get their maintenance cost numbers from, good to see that the cost savings seem to be real and backed by their own data instead of being estimates :)
They also started the switch a long time ago, according to article, the infrastructure switch started in 2001 and the decision for the destop migration was done in 2004, so I think they have some solid experience with handling Open Source now, which I think is good.
You make some good points, especially about the licensing fees, but you got something mixed up with your Firewire Speeds:
AFAIK There were never many available Firewire Controllers which had less than 400 Mbps (I think some of the early Firewire-equipped Macs may have been slower, but I am not sure), so generally, Firewire always was Firewire 400, long before USB 2.0 was created.
Intel specifically created the 2.0 spec in response to Firewire 400, to get a pie of the high-bandwith devices market, so USB 2.0 was the answer to Firewire, NOT vice versa.
Also, I think you meant this Firewire spec that is on its way out soon, but that one would technically be Firewire 3200 (which will have less theoretical bandwith than USB 3.0, but not 5x less), NOT Firewire 800. Firewire 800 has been on the Market for quite some years now, mostly on Macs, but a few High-End PC Mainboards have Firewire 800 controllers too. And believe me, they are noticeably faster than USB 2.0 or Firewire 400 ports, as I have been using them for a while now.
If they want to bring back talent, shouldnt Ballmer throw lassos or boomerangs instead of chairs? Should be much easier to haul them in that way ;-)
Well, I RTFA and while the data from the TechCrunch posting is quite interesting, the conclusion drawn from the blog post mentioned in the blurb is missing one important factor:
It takes Apples R&D budget and spreads it over the total number of employees from Apple. It then gets to the conclusion that Apple has underpaid its software engineers especially in the last few years as the R&D budget was not nearly as big as it should have been for the number of employees Apple has.
The problem with this conclusion is found in this article, which estimates that half of Apples employees are now working in retail i.e. in an Apple Store. Since Google and the likes do not have a brick and mortar business, so most employees are actually engineers, the simple calculation from the article might work there, but with Apple, it is a bit more complicated than that, especially since the retail store business has just been built in the last couple years
Dont understand me wrong, Apple could still by all means underpay its engineers, but the conclusion of the article is too simple, I think.
I would also think the first guess for the ASIC vendor would be ATI, but isnt ATI a Canadian company? Sure, of course they have US facilities, but wouldnt US-based mean that the man location should be in the US? Because then, NVIDIA would be my guess, as they have their main location in Silicon Valley, I think...
Well, I RTFA and the summary makes it look a little bit like the quote is from Ray Ozzie. Well, Ozzie is the Chief Software Architect, the quote would actually be from Sam Ramji. Just wanted to clarify before more people started flaming Ozzie when they really should flame Ramji :)
But I love this gem from the actual Ray Ozzie Q&A:
Ozzie noted that if a new operating system were designed today, it wouldn't be a single piece of software that operates a single computer. It would be something that could accommodate multiple devices, with the user at the center.
Oh, you mean like Linux, which runs from embedded systems through desktops up to big-iron servers and supercomputers? Or even MacOS X, which runs at least on Macs and the iPhone?
I hate to to burst Mr Bushnells Bubble, but the TPM is neither a good solution to game piracy, nor particularly new. According to the Wikipedia article on Trusted Computing, the first systems with a TPM have been shipped since 2004.
Also, does someone remember Next-Generation Secure Computing Base from Microsoft? Do we really have to go through all of this again?
Good point about that not being the best comparison, especially since Miyamoto always gets described as very humble and friendly and is well-respected by his peers.
IIRC, Sid Meier (of Civilization fame) even said that Miyamoto is sort of a role model for him, which I think is high praise.
I wish I had some mod points right now so I can mod you up, interesting stuff.
I just want to add that unlike good slashdot tradition I RTFA and there was also a short blurb that tha actor tried to negotiate for residuals, but was denied. So he did not suddenly start to whine about it after GTA IV sold millions of copies, which I think makes his case a bit more legit in my mind.
I hope the NVIDIA acquisition and now this news will drive the adoption of the PhysX Engine. Right now, if you look at the list of titles, the PhysX Engine is not used by many games (namely, mostly Unreal3-Engine titles).
If the adoption picks up, maybe Havok (which is now Intel property) will not remain the only physics engine in town, but right now, this news will not affect a whole lot of games...
Well, if we didnt already know, check out this gem from the article:
The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said.
This is so ridiculous that it would be funny, but I fear they are completely serious about it...
Meh, as long as it doesnt really RUN on Steam, it is not a Steampunk Laptop to me ;)
In addition to all the posters, I think that the SDK took so long and is still a bit away because Apple did not have enough developing manpower to handle the initial launch of the iPhone, Leopard and now the SDK.
;)
Notice they delayed Leopard to get the iPhone out of the Door and now notice that the announcement of the SDK comes right on the heels of the confirmed shipping date of Leopard.
I would guess that since the iPhone uses a lot of the technologies used in Leopard as well that they had to free up many of the core developer by finishing up one project at a time. Besides, those poor people need some rest now and then as well
Well I read TFA and the concept behind that plastic is deceptively simple: It is a membrane consisting of hourglass-shaped pores, which seemingly is a very efficient shape for pores and is also used in plant cell membranes.
So in essence, this plastic is a plant membrane in plastic form, which is not a radically advanced concept, but a really clever one and if it works as advertised, kudos to the research teams.
...to comb through private financial recordings from a Belgian bank in the first place? I mean, last time I checked, Belgium does not exactly fall under US jurisdiction, doesn't it? Wouldn't that fall under some international laws or something?
Well maybe all those publishers do not want to take part in the E For All Expo because there are already enough gaming expos around?
Besides the mentioned Tokoy Game Show, there are still the revamped E3 and the Game Developers Conference and there is the big and now very popular and established Games Convention in Germany as a consumer expo.
Throw in the more specialised ones like Blizzcon, Quakecon or PAX and there does not seem to be a great need and certainly not enough money in the advertising budget of companies for yet another gaming expo...