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RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Slipstreem — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:09:49 GMT

A big animated GIF with a working water fountain would be rather nice. Frogs too. :)

Cheers, Slipstreem. :cool:

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

JamesW — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:04:59 GMT

Your sig would certainly benefit from the addition of a small pond or lawn imo.

The shrubbery emerged after some complaints about offensive sigs. The '1' refers to the number of shrubberies involved, rather than being a score. The game, if it's a game, is to see how many shrubberies can be crammed into a sig before it becomes offensive. So far the results are less than impressive, I admit.

In terms of offensiveness, ponds, lawns and shrubberies must be roughly equivalent. Sheep would be a nice touch. I have been considering a water feature, possibly a fountain or birdbath, for some time, but haven't had the time to work on it.

If anyone wants to develop a signature that's more bland than mine (blank sigs don't count, obv), I would welcome the challenge.

'Pax vobiscum' refers to a rash statement (my usual mode of expression) I made about latin speaking being progressively devalued in social situations. It's a sort of apology, since some classically-educated forumites felt they were being described as misfits.

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Slipstreem — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:20:09 GMT

I do hope so. They're late bringing my medication. :D

Cheers, Slipstreem. :cool:

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Rad68 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:18:47 GMT

Don't be too long - the nice men in white jackets will be around soon! ;)

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Slipstreem — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:23:02 GMT

Fascinating!

What also fascinates me is why we still only have half of the score. It clearly says, "Shrubberies: 1" under the photograph in your signature accompanied by what could be the name of the best individual player.

I'd also be fascinated to know what sport your shrubbery has taken up as I have a small lawn with accompanying small fish pond that wants to get some exercise by taking up a sport of some kind, but can't decide which of the plethora of possible opportunities to pursue due to there being an enormous diversity of possible paths to take when pursuing an uncertain goal. It's a long shot, but if your shrubbery and my small lawn with accompanying small fish pond happen to coincidentally have similar sporting interests, then they could probably practice said activity [i]or[/i] activities together.

For more of an individual test of stamina and agility combined, small lawn with accompanying small fish pond has taken up Hillary-Adams Rules & Regulations Orienteering Derby Society speed-mountain race climbing recently. It's a tough sport for the competitors, but contains the odd amusing rule. As an example, HAR rule 4.2 (subsections "i" through "iii" (it's roughly in the middle of Volume 7)) specifically states, and I quote directly from the official rule book, that,

(i) Bonus points will be added at the end of a contest at the discretion of a panel of independent judges. Bonus points are earned for the comedic content of your performance which can be aided by the addition of anything up to 50Kg in weight and complying to rule 4.2, subsection (ii).

(ii) This "payload" can consist of any number (greater than zero obviously, or we would seriously infringe rule 1.11, subsection (i) (page 111 (Volume 1 (obviously!)) relating to, and I quote, "Attempts to confuse independent judges to death by employment of the "They were there when I set off, Judge. Honest!"-ploy, which infers dishonesty and serious stupidity on the part of the contestant as grounds for permanent expulsion from HARRODS in public to ensure the deep-seated hatred of you in upper-class circles. The drinking of Lemon Tea during this indeterminate period [i]will[/i] be banned, therefore, this is potentially a lifetime ban! A breach of said ban at any time will be punished!", but we're not quite sure how because no-one's ever been foolish enough to break rule 1.11, subsection (i) yet, unless they did and got away with it without anyone noticing)) of amusing objects and artefacts up to the weight specified in rule 4.2, subsection (i).

(iii) Any comedic item or items decreed by any one of the panel of independent judges referred to in person in rule 4.2, subsection (ii) to be of 'poor comedic value', or possibly even mildly offensive (the outright obscene is obviously an automatic trigger for rule 1.11, subsection (i) (cross-referenced in rule 4.2, subsection(ii)) relating to the potential abuse of independent judges, either in the singular [i]or[/i] the plural, and the subsequent consequences of said unsportsman-like behaviour.

It makes a surprisingly amusing spectator sport watching a small sheep slide up the side of a mountain sitting on a small lawn with accompanying small fish pond. The added variety of choreographic techniques that the shrubbery may have already would undoubtedly add to the scenario and be of benefit to the whole comedic effect of pursuance of said pastime in my opinion, as well as giving additional invaluable training and general improvement in fitness to said shrubbery.

The cat's driving me down to the off-licence in two minutes, so I'll have to say goodbye for now. Tally-ho! :)

Cheers, Slipstreem. :cool:

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

JamesW — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:29:04 GMT

I think Marten is correct. The turning point (for domestic PCs) can only occur when games developers start using something other than DX. Generally, they now develop for multiple platforms, but for the PC they opt for DX, which MS control, but don't take on the extra work of implementing an OpenGL version, although there are a few exceptions which only prove the rule.

MS even influence GPU design by requiring that *ALL* DX GPU functions are supported in hardware. Pre DX10 it was possible to emulate some DX functions using software on a CPU, which allowed GPU designers far more latitude. GPUs are now designed specifically to implement DX10.

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Sparky — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:37:18 GMT

Is this the sort of thing you mean.

http://live.linux-gamers.net/

A live dvd optimized for games only.

It,s still a beta so don't expect miracles.
Review here.

http://www.linux.com/feature/139589

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Spedley — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:04:20 GMT

The point of running a game from live cd (i.e. no install, like many consoles) is that it is OS independent and 'barebones'.

Most Live CDs could install a game on the Hard Drive if necessary, however the main benefits come from only one version of a game needed for Windows, Mac and Linux based machines.
Also, many people old Windows machines are full of rubbish and the overheads slow games down badly. A live CD would fix this by bypassing Windows.
And, it would give many people - myself included - the final reason to ditch Windows entirely: Gaming.

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Basil — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:38:33 GMT

[quote][b]MartenReed (24/06/2008)[/b][hr]But not all graphics cards are made to utilise OpenGL as the primary API.[/quote]
Anything at all modern can use both.

I don't see the appeal of running games on a liveCD, liveCD's are too slow and you would still have to install the games to the HDD.

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Tippon — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:16:47 GMT

Spedley: Continuing that idea further, the distro could be geared towards broadband users, as the vast majority of gamers seem to have a broadband connection, and could download specific drivers during the initial setup, making the OS as small and lightweight as possible. Using something similar to Wubi, it could store the configuration in a file / folder on the hard drive, along with any game saves, and other games using the same idea could also use this :)

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Spedley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:18:43 GMT

Sorry for continuing the Thread-Jack but I think a small gaming Linux Kernal which could be incorporated onto a live CD would be great. Windows users could run it in a virtaul machine, as could mac users and anyone else with the right hardware, even old machines could boot the CD and run games stand alone. There would be no need for several different versions of a game and it could be run using the Live CD with minal overheads for ultimate performance.

It could really take off with such a large userbase , OpenGL and a 'standard' Linux base OS. You could even base future console around the idea!

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

MartenReed — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:55:51 GMT

But not all graphics cards are made to utilise OpenGL as the primary API.

Which is why Microsoft are basically controlling the hardware market..

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Basil — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:50:41 GMT

To quote wonkie-pedia "With the exception of Windows and the Xbox, all operating systems that allow for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics utilize OpenGL as their primary 3D graphics API." Directx is no more compatible than any other MS format it's just very widely used.

To put the version numbers in context WINE recently had a tenth birthday and released version 1.0, open software doesn't have to release a new version every year to keep the coffers full and has some very low numbers on perfectly usable software.

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

MartenReed — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:42:38 GMT

I know that Basil, but I think it's just the general ease and wider compatability of DirectX that can't be... beaten?

OpenGL has had a good stab, I agree. But it's still fairly low in version numbers, so surely it must be getting a bit out of date?

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Basil — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:35:15 GMT

[quote][b]MartenReed (24/06/2008)[/b][hr]
Gaming revolves around it, and unless the Linux community can create an open source version that works[/quote]
Why create?
What's so wrong with Opengl? It's an actual industry standard rather than another one of Microsoft's proprietary versions (to be fair Directx has worked a lot better than the likes of WMA or OpenXML).
Professional games can and have been written with it (unreal tournament, neverwinter nights come to mind)

BTW Threadjack! :D

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

MartenReed — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:15:47 GMT

The DirectX thing is why Linux will never win.

Gaming revolves around it, and unless the Linux community can create an open source version that works (they have for everything else that will work instead of DirectX, Microsoft will hold the largest percentage :)

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Basil — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:13:41 GMT

[quote][b]MartenReed (24/06/2008)[/b][hr]Microsoft basically own computing, and unless the Linux community can properly get around DirectX and expensive industry standard software (such as CAD, SolidWorks), Microsoft will rule the roost. [/quote]
Directx is for games, the CAD software will be using free opengl and some, Autodesk Maya for example, already runs on linux or has a viable alternative (multi-platform BricsCAD can replace AutoCAD completely).
I wouldn't mind some more games though, even though all my steam ones can/do work.

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

-Wiz!- — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:59:16 GMT

They must see that modular is the way to go by now. :)

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

MartenReed — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:43:28 GMT

Who knows what Microsoft will do, to be honest?

They have the PC world by the, excuse my terms, balls. What they say goes, and everyone follows suite. Sure, they're losing this to increasing pressure from the Mac community (since the switch to Intel), and the insanely fast growing Linux "market", but they still have a massive grasp on this whole... thing!

Vista has pushed hardware the same way that XP did, and 2000 before that, and 98 etc.
The 360 has pushed consoles the way the Playstation 2 did.

Microsoft basically own computing, and unless the Linux community can properly get around DirectX and expensive industry standard software (such as CAD, SolidWorks), Microsoft will rule the roost.

But I do hope Windows 7 will be as good as they say!

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

Spedley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:31:44 GMT

I remember an article a few months back about the Windows 7 Kernel being 40MB with boot times under 10 seconds.

Perhaps Windows 7 has taken the exceptionally good move of having an enthusiasts kernal which is optimised, lean and efficient and then provides all Windows services and feature as options during install.
It would be the best route which would address most of peoples concerns.
* One version of Windows for mobiles, pdas, desktops, servers and embedded systems.
* Optional GUI for mobile phones, pda, desktops, tablets, tables and media centres.
* Customisable houskeeping for novice users, experts and embedded systems.
* A flexible approach for different architectures, CPUs, multi-CPUs and platforms.

Although I doubt Microsoft will grasp the furure by the horns and take control again it has had a big enough shake up to make it incorporate some 'wild ideas'.

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

MartenReed — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:04:44 GMT

The RAM thing is prefetching :)

RE: Windows : Touch of Death

-Wiz!- — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:21:36 GMT

Wrong section...Rants, Moans and Whinges is over there...:D

Windows : Touch of Death

Mitch — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:17:31 GMT

I couldn't agree more with Mark Pick on this. I wonder if the people at Microsoft have heard the well known phrase "its so easy, you could do it with one hand tied behind your back?" Do they not realise that Windows brought the PC to the masses because the GUI is EASY to use.

Honestly, if this bloat-ware is what they have in mind for Windows 7, then they are more out of touch than this government. I am sure you, like me, have seen all sorts of wacky mouse inventions etc etc over the years, flop like a wet sponge because somebody has tried to re-invent the wheel. Try to figure out why my Windows Vista installation is using 2034mb of 4094mb of RAM while idle please, or why the Photo Screensaver, Import Photo and Picture Wizard, "remaining time" predictor and the many various other problems with Vista don't work, before creating more temperamental garbage for your next OS!!!