Don't forget non-proprietary, upgradeable hard drive.
It uses a standard 2.5" SATA hard drive.
And the tools to backup, format the new drive, then restore your data are all built-in.
> Don't ever judge a console's power by its first gen games.
Certainly!
I realize that Gundam game is probably a poorly programmed piece of crap.
And you can say current Windows games are not taking advantage of hyperthreading or dual cores, much less quad cores...
But! Developers will add more and more detail and complexity. As much as optimization and programming tricks can help, there's only so much they can do. Eventually they'll squeeze out everything they can out of fixed platform consoles.
And seriously the RAM specs alone say devs can hit that ceiling quick:
* 256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
* 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
That's just rediculous. I used to say to my friends: give me any system and I can bring it to its knees.
You can always load and run loads of stuff to bring any system to a crawl. (You can never have too much hard drive space and RAM and CPU power, right?) You could be using the power available very inefficiently, but it's still using the available power.
I hear that Gundam game runs like ass... It could be crappy code, it could be they used too many high-res textures? too many polygons in the models? who knows; but still from the reviews, it sounds like the PS3 is not powerful enough to run it.
You can upgrade PCs, but the available console RAM and video RAM is fixed and not ever going to change.
Developers will hit the ceiling (as they always do) as they make levels, environments, models, AI, and physics more and more complex and detailed. Just make a game that plays with graphics like Blizzards cinematics in real-time with hundreds of units all rendered like that.... Everquest II with even more detail, HDR lighting? How about Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with the high-res textures and terrain detail, etc. like you can do on a PC?
hrmm.. Sorry, i guess i should add that i was talking about the a9 toolbar.
I've hardly ever wasted the time to go to a9.com to search anything..
From their own "What's New" page for Sept. 29 (http://a9.com/-/company/whatsNew.jsp):
We have discontinued the A9 Instant Reward program, and the A9 Toolbar and personalized services such as history, bookmarks, and diary. To get help uninstalling your A9 Toolbar, visit toolbar.a9.com. We have also discontinued A9 Maps and the A9 Yellow Pages (including BlockView(TM)).
Continuous scrolling search results might be nice... if only the results weren't by Windows Live.
Agreed. Same here; I just plugged in a search now and then to keep the discount going, but ended up googling anyway *especially* after they dropped Google.
If they're dropping the discount too I'd say there is very little reason to install or use it.. given most of the features can be added onto Firefox with other extensions and search bars.
Bookmarks.. well, there are plenty of other sites for that.
The Diary feature might be interesting, but I've never used it.
The History might have been handy since Firefox has a tendency to wipe its own history (usually after a crash, so i'm guess that godawful history file gets corrupted and it wipes it), but attempts to search your own history were pretty worthless.
Assuming that the robot in the article's picture is facing the mirror (and that it only can see forward), it looks like they have something to block the LEDs from being seen by the robots' cameras.
Also, "Takeno and his colleagues built the robot with blue, red or green LEDs connected to artificial neurons in the region that light up when different information is being processed, based on the robot's behavior.", sounds like the LEDs are just indicators for the researchers to see what the neural network is doing.
I found that annoying too until one day I found that you can "configure" this by selecting View (menu) -> Headers -> All/Normal.
Choosing "Normal", just expands to show the Subject:, From:, Reply-To:, Date:, To:, Cc:, Bcc:.
"All" of course give you All the Headers which can take up half/most/all of the message window as you've described.
something has to be done.. most/all of my spam is because of my email was in my domains' whois info (or from NNTP newsgroup from YEARS ago, which didn't get spammed 'til a year or two later)
Maybe something that requires human interaction to get the info, so spammers can't run some script and just harvest emails from whois
Cool, I had been taking digital pictures manually then putting or viewing them side-by-side and doing the magic-eye/cross-eye method to view them in 3D. It's definitely more stable (not so jittery as the GIFs) and less nauseating than the above animated GIFs, but also not everyone can do the magic-eye method.... So this gave me the idea to throw together a quick JavaScript image swapping page
It would sure beat getting a headache from crossing your eyes. It might also help to keep focus when you try to focus on something on the screen in 3D, but of course.. it's on the screen.. so it's no in 3D.. and everything goes blurry again.. while you try to re-cross your eyes and keep from getting fragged at the same time.
Now.. if someone could make StereoUT(2003)....
4:3 with "widescreen mode (vertical compression)"
on
Buying a New TV?
·
· Score: 1
Of course it's up to you, but I picked 4:3. BUT I'd make SURE it has a "widescreen mode". (It might also be called vertical compression.. whatever, just depends on the brand, what "cool name" they decided to call it, and who you talk to)
Anyway
Why this is important: (IMHO)
When you watch DVDs or widescreen content, you can put the tv in widescreen mode and it will focus all the scanlines into the widescreen/letterbox area. So you get to have use of ALL of your horizontal lines to view widescreen, instead of WASTING 25% or more scanlines drawing black bars.
Some regular TVs also have this feature (I think the better Sony Vega's have it), but it's not as good because there aren't as many horizontal lines available.
The HDTV i got is the Samsung 27" TXM2796HF. ($535 floor model, $600 normally; but alas floor model because Samsung has moved on to newer models, so you probably won't be able to find this one. It got fairly good user comments on cnet.)
My reasoning for going 4:3 vs. 16:9 was:
1) price.. cheapest 16:9 was i think a 30" Samsung at $999. (most HDTVs are 30/32"+ and $1200+ anyway though)
2) distortion! 4:3 on a 16:9 tube will either DISTORT the image (everyone looks.. tall... like watching Conan or Red Sonja on TV), crop the image, or you'll burn in some vertical letterboxing (if the tv even provides this option).
I think 4:3 with a widescreen mode provides the best of both worlds (4:3 & 16:9); no distortion and no lost resolution for either).
3) there is not enough widescreen stuff out there now, nor will there be in the near future (IMO).
Even in the future, re-runs, old tv shows, all the current programming, your old videotapes, etc. will still be in 4:3 format.
I think it will be quite some time before MOST programs are in widescreen... there are what 3 HD channels on DirecTV ? (which requires a new HD-receiver (~$300).) I don't know if you're lucky enough to even have HD broadcasts in your area.. we have *1* station, but we can't get a tv signal where we are anyway.. plus that requires an HD tuner box.. (more $$$; about $300)
By the time programming is the predominant format (7 years?) (not just widely available (3-4 years?) or even just available which it isn't really now) a better, widescreen HDTV will be (just like computers) cheaper then.
So (to me) widescreen will ONLY benefit you if you have HD channels you can watch (AND you watch them; currently only Showtime HD, HBO HD, Discovery HD) or if you watch a lot of DVDs.
Some other things to consider:
Go ahead and get HDTV now. An HDTV will still make current regular TV look better, scanline-doubling/filtering, etc. and you won't have an "obsolete" TV set to have to sell or take up landfill space later. You can upgrade the HDTV-ready with an HD-tuner/receiver box later when the FCC makes it mandatory to be built-in to new TV sets and this makes the external boxes cheaper.
If 27"/30"wide is too small.. anything bigger is also rear projection TV (RPTV) price range ($1200/1500+)... which provide even bigger screen for the same price. And aren't quite as unwieldly heavy! (My 27" is 100lb. I imagine you're looking at 150-200lb or more for larger tube sets, HD or not. RPTVs typically have casters/wheels to move them around on..)
There were some news articles (around 2003.01.24) about the wireless companies wanting this: if we have to make our numbers portable, land lines should be portable too. I think it's only fair...
I think I will still prefer the InkLink,
especially since it clips to any pad of paper, not require special digital paper. It is also only $100
vs. $200 for the io pen (SmartPad: $100, SmartPad2: $150) and works with PC(windows they should say), Palm, and PocketPC
Slashdot Mirror
Don't forget non-proprietary, upgradeable hard drive. It uses a standard 2.5" SATA hard drive. And the tools to backup, format the new drive, then restore your data are all built-in.
Certainly! ...
But! Developers will add more and more detail and complexity. As much as optimization and programming tricks can help, there's only so much they can do. Eventually they'll squeeze out everything they can out of fixed platform consoles.
I realize that Gundam game is probably a poorly programmed piece of crap. And you can say current Windows games are not taking advantage of hyperthreading or dual cores, much less quad cores
And seriously the RAM specs alone say devs can hit that ceiling quick:
* 256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
* 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
You can always load and run loads of stuff to bring any system to a crawl. (You can never have too much hard drive space and RAM and CPU power, right?) You could be using the power available very inefficiently, but it's still using the available power.
I hear that Gundam game runs like ass... It could be crappy code, it could be they used too many high-res textures? too many polygons in the models? who knows; but still from the reviews, it sounds like the PS3 is not powerful enough to run it.
You can upgrade PCs, but the available console RAM and video RAM is fixed and not ever going to change. ... Everquest II with even more detail, HDR lighting? How about Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with the high-res textures and terrain detail, etc. like you can do on a PC?
Developers will hit the ceiling (as they always do) as they make levels, environments, models, AI, and physics more and more complex and detailed. Just make a game that plays with graphics like Blizzards cinematics in real-time with hundreds of units all rendered like that.
From their own "What's New" page for Sept. 29 (http://a9.com/-/company/whatsNew.jsp):
Continuous scrolling search results might be nice... if only the results weren't by Windows Live.
Agreed. Same here; I just plugged in a search now and then to keep the discount going, but ended up googling anyway *especially* after they dropped Google. If they're dropping the discount too I'd say there is very little reason to install or use it.. given most of the features can be added onto Firefox with other extensions and search bars. Bookmarks.. well, there are plenty of other sites for that. The Diary feature might be interesting, but I've never used it. The History might have been handy since Firefox has a tendency to wipe its own history (usually after a crash, so i'm guess that godawful history file gets corrupted and it wipes it), but attempts to search your own history were pretty worthless.
Also, "Takeno and his colleagues built the robot with blue, red or green LEDs connected to artificial neurons in the region that light up when different information is being processed, based on the robot's behavior.", sounds like the LEDs are just indicators for the researchers to see what the neural network is doing.
I found that annoying too until one day I found that you can "configure" this by selecting View (menu) -> Headers -> All/Normal. Choosing "Normal", just expands to show the Subject:, From:, Reply-To:, Date:, To:, Cc:, Bcc:. "All" of course give you All the Headers which can take up half/most/all of the message window as you've described.
again from driverheaven
Despite Kutaragi's comments last week that it was "game over," Sony shake-up prompts chipmakers to sit again at the negotiating table.
originally spotted on driverheaven.net
I guess at the same you learn how to hack with one hand . .... tied behind your back.. yeah.
something has to be done.. most/all of my spam is because of my email was in my domains' whois info (or from NNTP newsgroup from YEARS ago, which didn't get spammed 'til a year or two later) Maybe something that requires human interaction to get the info, so spammers can't run some script and just harvest emails from whois
Cool, I had been taking digital pictures manually then putting or viewing them side-by-side and doing the magic-eye/cross-eye method to view them in 3D. It's definitely more stable (not so jittery as the GIFs) and less nauseating than the above animated GIFs, but also not everyone can do the magic-eye method.... So this gave me the idea to throw together a quick JavaScript image swapping page
It would sure beat getting a headache from crossing your eyes. It might also help to keep focus when you try to focus on something on the screen in 3D, but of course.. it's on the screen.. so it's no in 3D.. and everything goes blurry again.. while you try to re-cross your eyes and keep from getting fragged at the same time.
Now.. if someone could make StereoUT(2003) ....
Anyway
Why this is important: (IMHO)
When you watch DVDs or widescreen content, you can put the tv in widescreen mode and it will focus all the scanlines into the widescreen/letterbox area. So you get to have use of ALL of your horizontal lines to view widescreen, instead of WASTING 25% or more scanlines drawing black bars.
Some regular TVs also have this feature (I think the better Sony Vega's have it), but it's not as good because there aren't as many horizontal lines available.
The HDTV i got is the Samsung 27" TXM2796HF. ($535 floor model, $600 normally; but alas floor model because Samsung has moved on to newer models, so you probably won't be able to find this one. It got fairly good user comments on cnet.)
My reasoning for going 4:3 vs. 16:9 was: ... there are what 3 HD channels on DirecTV ? (which requires a new HD-receiver (~$300).) I don't know if you're lucky enough to even have HD broadcasts in your area.. we have *1* station, but we can't get a tv signal where we are anyway.. plus that requires an HD tuner box.. (more $$$; about $300)
1) price.. cheapest 16:9 was i think a 30" Samsung at $999. (most HDTVs are 30/32"+ and $1200+ anyway though)
2) distortion! 4:3 on a 16:9 tube will either DISTORT the image (everyone looks.. tall... like watching Conan or Red Sonja on TV), crop the image, or you'll burn in some vertical letterboxing (if the tv even provides this option).
I think 4:3 with a widescreen mode provides the best of both worlds (4:3 & 16:9); no distortion and no lost resolution for either).
3) there is not enough widescreen stuff out there now, nor will there be in the near future (IMO).
Even in the future, re-runs, old tv shows, all the current programming, your old videotapes, etc. will still be in 4:3 format.
I think it will be quite some time before MOST programs are in widescreen
By the time programming is the predominant format (7 years?) (not just widely available (3-4 years?) or even just available which it isn't really now) a better, widescreen HDTV will be (just like computers) cheaper then.
So (to me) widescreen will ONLY benefit you if you have HD channels you can watch (AND you watch them; currently only Showtime HD, HBO HD, Discovery HD) or if you watch a lot of DVDs.
Some other things to consider: ... which provide even bigger screen for the same price. And aren't quite as unwieldly heavy! (My 27" is 100lb. I imagine you're looking at 150-200lb or more for larger tube sets, HD or not. RPTVs typically have casters/wheels to move them around on..)
Go ahead and get HDTV now. An HDTV will still make current regular TV look better, scanline-doubling/filtering, etc. and you won't have an "obsolete" TV set to have to sell or take up landfill space later. You can upgrade the HDTV-ready with an HD-tuner/receiver box later when the FCC makes it mandatory to be built-in to new TV sets and this makes the external boxes cheaper.
If 27"/30"wide is too small.. anything bigger is also rear projection TV (RPTV) price range ($1200/1500+)
*sighs* the link should be: http://www.google.com/search?q=Wireless Companies Ask for Number Portability (i don't suppose anyone can fix that...)
There were some news articles (around 2003.01.24) about the wireless companies wanting this: if we have to make our numbers portable, land lines should be portable too. I think it's only fair...
I think I will still prefer the InkLink, especially since it clips to any pad of paper, not require special digital paper. It is also only $100 vs. $200 for the io pen (SmartPad: $100, SmartPad2: $150) and works with PC(windows they should say), Palm, and PocketPC