clutch

I am "clutch" as in the band "clutch", and right now I live in Wisconsin, but I will be back in Arizona in a few weeks. Once I get settled in, I plan on checking out the local SCCA scene.

I've been using the nightly builds myself as well, and they're sweet. I finally started getting into using the extensions now too, and fell in love with the tab scroller. You just right click on the page and scroll the mouse wheel to flip through the tabs (which comes in handy when you have 10 or so going at once ).

I have a Sony DRU-500AX, and it works pretty well. I got it on the recommendation from a couple of friends that burn movies and such. It also supports all the major standards, which is cool if you don't know which standard to go with or don't know what your existing equipment can work with. http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11203215&m=488&cat=511&scat=0

Well, that's cool. I would have gone for a 9500 Pro myself, as I have read that they can be clocked pretty high and some have even flashed them to be 9700 Pros (why one would do this, I have no idea since a screw up could trash the card). But if you're happy with your selection, then more power to ya.

Umm, actually, their existence tends to back up my opinion. If you note, there are a lot more owners of GeForce-based cards than nForce-based motherboards. Also, there has been more time for nVidia to do development work in Linux for these. Next, you will note that something as simple as a bootloader not working for some motherboard/BIOS combinations (GRUB) can be enough to thwart the interest of a developer to bother dedicating a lot of time to that OS. Also, if Intel (a much, much larger company with a *WAY* larger installed user base) had problems with their chipsets not having UDMA enabled (as such with my P4PE), what makes you think that a smaller company is going to feel inspired to dedicate a ton of time to getting theirs working? Again, this goes to resources being used which is something I have repeatedly stated. Larger user base = more money = more support. If this is something that you can't accept, then you're in for a long road ahead. Now, go out and get thousands more people to buy nForce-based boards for use in Linux and you will definately start seeing more support. Oh wait, if they feel the same way as you and think nVidia just doesn't like Linux, (hmmm, they did make some nice drivers for their video cards though so that's thrown out)or maybe does not like you personally and will never release drivers for the nForce chipset then they won't bother getting a board. Sounds like a Catch-22 there, eh? In any case, thank you for proving my "irrelevant" point.

Quote: You're missing the point. Again. nVidia are the only people who really know how AGP and the APU in nForce2 work and the only people who can write proper Linux drivers for it. It has nothing to do with the "Linux crowd," they don't know how nF2 works if they did, we would have seen drivers ages ago. nVidia already write drivers for Linux and FreeBSD so they have at least a working knowledge of the platform yet the nF2 drivers (particularly the APU which is the only feature I'm really concerned about. I know as well as you the Linux games market is still too immature to really make the lack of 3D acceleration a big deal) are still a joke. I don't hate nVidia (I bought their motherboard chipset didn't I?), but I expect Linux support to go the whole nine yards, support for all their products equally or none of them at all. Ack, my point was that kernel development changes too much for many basic things to be supported let alone having major corporations dumping large amounts of cash into it for items that are still "toys" in the computing world. The server vendors are putting money into development because they are actually selling boxes preloaded with Linux (Compaq, IBM, etc) and they actually see some money in the investment. However, you seemed to have missed my point, again, yourself. Give them a more unified environment, and you will see a lot better results. Obviously by your complaint of the cost of your Radeon 9500 Pro in another thread you realize that money doesn't grow on trees, so where do you think the return on investment is? All of the hardware you are using was designed Windows, a platform that is on over 90% of the desktop PCs worldwide and is on many of the systems shipped out by system integrators. Linux, on the other hand, is a vendor-hostile environment since there is *so* much work to be done, yet there is such a little return on investment right now for many industries in it. I mean, if companies have had financial troubles (anyone remember 3FDX?) or driver and hardware development issues (Matrox, ATi, etc.) for the most popular platform in the world, then why start dividing already thin resources and moving to one that has far less return for sales? So many people like to think that "Open Source" is the way to go, and that it's so much better than close source development. Well, things like a little trojan in the most popular SSH server app proved that can be a problem. People also claimed that Linux-based distributions are so much more secure than stable than Windows, and yet I have far more alerts coming from RedHat and Gentoo lists than I can recall from MS in the last few years. The concept of "having many eyes" looking at the source of an application to make sure that it's secure is *not* working as advertised, and when things like a simple editor (vi) can be used to take over an installation it does quite a bit to dimish the image of Linux. Do you think that any company would not only want to give out proprietary information on their drivers to make them open source, but then have them used to hold worms or viruses? I know that you are pissed because you aren't getting what you want, but you have to remember that *you* bought hardware developed for Windows, and *not* for Linux. I am trying to explain to you that there are many reasons for slow development of Linux drivers, since there aren't many people on other forums (or anywhere else) that will. They aren't making hardware/software as a charity or some non-profit organization and it takes a long time to develop a succesful program around the BSD and GNU licensing models (IBM is one of the few that has). If Linux can stabilize long enough to get core concerns out of the way, and bring in *real* features to the kernel without 5,000 extra patches, then they can attract a much stronger (and wealthier) user base and then the vendors will follow. That's why I feel that Linux is to blame, and that is why I will continue to say so. I am a Linux user, and even I can accept this.

Quote: Media player? - is free and plays dvd's Only if you have a hardware or software decoder installed, otherwise it will prompt you to install one.

They do look cool, and I am sure that there are some things that they do simply (plus they are *the* platform for recording and graphic artists) but Apple is flat out too stuck up with them and they rely on having a dedicated user base to keep their prices so lofty. While I have used them as well, I could just setup a cheap PC using Debian and make it very, very easy for the proverbial soccermom or grandma to send email, browse the web, and write letters using Fluxbox as the interface. Not only that, but up[censored] and patching these systems is very easy, and many of the applications used can be patched in the same manner as the core distro (unlike Windows Update that can only patch the OS and a few apps, like IE and Movie Maker). Either the user could do it, or the user could just get online and another (probably a son or daughter) could even SSH in and do all the updates remotely, and more than likely not needing to reboot. Now, while there is the issue of needing someone that can setup this scenario for the user, other distros are doing similar things already (Xandros, Lindows, etc.) and can do it all with varying levels of support and a reduced cost. The argument of the Apple OS being "more user friendly" is fighting a losing battle to the cheaper contenders, and is one less reason to buy a Mac.

Quote: Quote: and THERE is a reason macs can suck! - no reg files - just copy it over and tadda!!! it works on any other system! - u can't do that with the majority of PC applications - there is Apple's great technology bitting them selves in the ass! I guess this just highlights whats more important for a vendor in regards to thier users Apple... how can we make the computer experience a little friendlier for the user? Some people will rip us off, so be it. Our focus is making it friendlier for our legit users. Microsoft... How can we make it more difficult for people to rip us off? If it inconveniences a some legitimate customers, so be it. No returns on opened software. Personally I'm of the some people will rip us off, so be it group. Most people are honest some are not. I can't think of a single time that any form of technology designed to stop me from stealing software has helped me out... in any way whatsoever. I can hower think of several times said technology has tried to stop me from doing something legitimate. Jim Yeah, they make up for the "some people will rip us off, so be it" part by plowing their users with insanely high hardware costs and having to trash your comp every couple of years just to "upgrade" (not really an upgrade, but rather a replacement). And then they take all that extra money from having a slower, more expensive system sale and develop an even prettier, slower, and more expensive system to sell the sucker..., I mean user in two years. Considering I keep systems about 3-4 years before I give them to friends and family (where they use it for a while) I think I would rather stick with Windows or *nix. But hey, their systems do come in cool colors, and that's important, right?

Quote: i know the old AIW did this, as my uncles has had almost everyone since the 128 PRO one - and it always did this for him, place the TV on your desktop as if it was your wallpaper., but it did not make the windows on top transparent. So then it didn't do what I was talking about afterall, now did it? It will also do this in windowed mode, so if you want a small screen playing in a corner of your monitor you can do that and not drown out the whole desktop. It's a pretty cool trick; almost too cool. You wind up staring at it most of the time anyway that you might as well have it running on another monitor .

Quote: Quote: A lot of that goes to the development of the kernel, however, and not the fault of nVidia. Considering that the company is willing to put as much effort as they have into a free OS while trying to retain their intellectual property (3D acceleration is big money people, and they don't want to just "hand out" their stuff just yet) is a testament to their customer support program. In addition, I was able to get an nForce board working rather well under Gentoo, although it is a rather convoluted process. GRUB had seizures with it until I grabbed an unstable version of it, and I was also able to get the onboard LAN working and hdparm returned rather nice results at the time, so I would assume that UDMA was working. The AGPGART and APU issues are their fault. They put AGPGART code in their own Linux graphics drivers so they're fully capable of protecting their IP in that environment (nVidia's drivers aren't open source) so how hard can it possibly be to include support for non-nVidia chipsets as well? As for the APU, the current driver is merely a bridge between Linux's AC'97 audio support and the APU, the APU isn't used at all. This isn't support, it's lip service. I disagree, and I am willing to bet that your judgement is a little clouded by your general distaste of anything mainstream (Intel, MS, nVidia, etc). It isn't like the Linux/BSD kernel is the same from release to release, and therefore easy to optimize for. Many companies are used to developing against a "blackbox" and therefore having a stable component to work against, while the Linux crowd is having a hard enough time coming up with a standard installation method that all the distributions like, or where to install applications let alone any core components that they can work with and call "normal". I have had X crash just from using a browser in one deployment, and it would crash just from using certain menu styles on websites. Hell, X is a totally separate entity from the Linux and BSD kernels, while the Windows shell is integrated and maintained along with the kernel and not developed with the intention of being ported from one OS/Distro to another. As for sound issues, I had enough issues getting my Audigy to work right in a few distros and it's a mainstream card. The kernel would "claim" support in some cases but I would have to get ALSA installed and running (along with 10 different processes) to support the sound card. And what about the hobbled ACPI support that hasn't worked for me on several laptops and workstations across 6 distributions and 2 kernel revs? It's funny how there's probably 2 motherboards on the planet that work right with it, while all the other boards "don't follow the standard" according to their documention for the patches. And you have to love the wonderful suspend and hibernate functionality of the kernel (oh wait, I mean lacking) where you have to patch it *again* and do all kinds of crazy partitioning only to see it bomb out. After all this, we get to hear more and more promises of how 2.6/3.0 is going to fix it all, and yet the release is drifting further and further away. Not exactly a tempting environment for a company to sink a ton of resources in, now is it? Most people that use Linux like running it on low-end systems, like it because it's cheap/free, like the lower resources, or all of the above. Many users that buy high-end cards or regularly upgrade their systems (the kind of people that these companies like) play high demand games, do video production, 3D work, etc. While *nix/BSD systems do have a few high demand games running in them natively, along with other apps like those listed previously, they do not come close to those available for Windows, period. That's where the money is, that's where it's easier to offer the newest features, so that's where the attention is going to go. So in short, nVidia is doing fine, and ATi is moving forward in *nix support. Considering that there isn't a ton of cash in the area right now and in the forseeable future, it's a nice surprise.

Quote: Quote: and is just now starting to fix that as well as help out Linux users. nVidia could use a few lessons in helping Linux users themselves as well... Their current Linux nForce2 drivers are a joke, no APU support, no UDMA support and no non-nVidia AGPGART support. UDMA support is promised in the next kernel (2.4.21) and nVidia are supposedly working on AGPGART but who knows when they'll get around to giving us a proper APU driver. A lot of that goes to the development of the kernel, however, and not the fault of nVidia. Considering that the company is willing to put as much effort as they have into a free OS while trying to retain their intellectual property (3D acceleration is big money people, and they don't want to just "hand out" their stuff just yet) is a testament to their customer support program. In addition, I was able to get an nForce board working rather well under Gentoo, although it is a rather convoluted process. GRUB had seizures with it until I grabbed an unstable version of it, and I was also able to get the onboard LAN working and hdparm returned rather nice results at the time, so I would assume that UDMA was working. ViolentGreen, you came in just as ATi started hobbling together a good driver program to compete with nVidia. These Catalyst drivers seem to be doing just fine for me as well, and have been stable overall.

The early Riva cards used some cheats to boost performance (something about dropping the video quality if I remember correctly) to catch up with the 3DFX crowd. I started getting really heavy into 3D in '98 when Forsaken came out, and first had a Matrox Millenium AGP card. The acceleration and artifacts were awful with it, so I went to an ATi AIW Pro based on the Rage Pro. It was OK with D3D stuff, but had pathetic OpenGL support. Then, there was the promised mini-GL "wrapper" (many probably haven't heard of this, but it would translate OpenGL commands into D3D so the card could accelerate it, sort of) but it took forever to come out, and when it did it was awful. Then, when they were supposed to come out with a full OpenGL ICD for the Rage Pro, they dropped further development in favor of the Rage 128 line. This was the type of behavior that they continued with; dropping support for one chip when the next was released. 3DFX and nVidia would still release drivers for the older chips, while ATi couldn't be bothered. Now, however, it seems that ATi is sticking with a similar architecture and will be able to support these chips for a while to come.

Quote: Quote: Don't forget to tell him how "wonderful" driver support is for ATI "choke choke" Actually, I think it's a lot better then the nvidia driver support. You must be very, very new to the PC world as ATi has always had poor driver support in Windows, and is just now starting to fix that as well as help out Linux users. nVidia not only has *much* more solid and stable drivers, but has a much better driver team and continues to enhance performance on newer cards, while still passing on improvements to older ones and being backward compatible. And yes, I have been a long time fan of nVidia but I am currently using a Radeon 9800 Pro on this box because I wanted better DVD support.

Also, the admin pak can be found in the respective service pack of the OS. You can get the latest one in the most current service pack just by extracting it using WinZip/WinRAR, or using the extraction command switch with the SP.

Check this out: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2412766618

Don't know, as the last ATi card that I bought for personal use was an AIW Pro (Rage Pro), and it didn't do it. Also, I don't recall any reviews of the later cards bragging about it, while I have seen several reviews of the new AIW 9700 card covering this feature. It works in both window and full screen modes, and makes all the windows translucent so you can see right through them to watch TV and/or movies in the background via the ATi media player.

Quote: Quote: It does mean thatt he software that is out there can stay though. The only thing you may not be aware of is that ruling was made by 1 Federal District Court Judge. It hasn't even been appealed (at least not yet) to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Fransisco (I beleive). If it upheld there then the ruling would still not be very effective to the rest of the country, It would only be binding in the Western States that comprise the 9th Circuit. The other Circuit Courts do not have to abide by the ruling for their districts. That is why the case, or one like it, would have to reach the Supreme Court and for them to rule on it, or not, for a definitive answer to the file-sharing fiasco we have nowadys. However, it is a precendent now. This is something that can be used as a baseline for other cases, and can possibly be used as a defense in the future. Nobody can successfully go after a gunmaker for shootings or an automaker for for what a moron does with a car. Myself, I like using the filesharing apps for things like TV shows that haven't made it to DVD (like "Buffy", "Angel", and some episodes of "The Lexx"). You can also find DJ mixes of tracks that are pretty cool, and would never make it to CD through any overpriced recording label.

The AIW 9800 Pro has been announced on the ATi website since early April, but I don't feel like waiting any longer. Plus, I wouldn't have dual-monitor support with one card (like I did with my Ti4600 and my new Radeon 9800 Pro) which is something I really like. However, I have started watching DVDs on my system more often, and ATi's support is simply wonderful. This is one thing they have always been good at, and continue to do so. I was watching "Mischief 3000" while downloading McAfee and moving files around. While this may not sound like anything special normally, I was watching the movie at full screen, and doing everything on one monitor. There's this new "ThruView" feature with the ATi DVD player that lets you watch the movie with everything else on your desktop being translucent. It's pretty handy to work on stuff and be able to just change your focus and watch a movie. All this, and only about 8% or so of CPU utilization. Pretty trick indeed. Also, the card has been great in a couple of games that I have played using it in (UT2003 and Q3) and is a solid performer. If ATi can just keep the momentum with their drivers, we could have something here.

OK, instead of the ATi AIW 9700 Pro, I got the Radeon 9800 Pro, a Pinnacle Studio Deluxe (v 8.0), and a Belkin firewire adapter for my server.

Quote: I've been toying with the idea of buying a DVD writer, but I don't want get stung buying the wrong format! Don't want to have a repeat of Betamax all over again (yes, I know Beta is better, but when did that ever matter in consumer wars?!) Is there one format that is inching out over all the rest, or is still neck and neck? Rgds AndyF The Sony that I got supports all the current, major formats. I had been toying with the idea of getting a DVD burner for a long time, but was frustrated with the standards war as well (this was back when "DVD-RAM" was still a contender ). But now, you can get a nice, cheap DVD player for your home theater setup that supports the DVD±R/DVD±RW standards as well as MP3 and WMA files. The JVC player that I got even supports S-VCDs so you can have DVD quality video using a CD. http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL027033

The Dell 1900FP looks just like my Samsung 191T Flat Panel. If that's the case, I would recommend it. It's a very, very bright monitor that has nice contrast and does black very well. Also, I don't care for monitors that have speakers in them, and my friend that has a Sony flat panel has had issues with it not turning on and having a slow refresh in games (mine is fine with Unreal Tournament and Q3). http://www.samsungusa.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?eUser=&prod_id=191T-Black

I just got a Sony DRU-500AX DVD+/-R/RW burner, and I am ordering an ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700. I also picked up a JVC DVD player for the main home theater setup that plays back all the formats that the burner supports.

...then please post it in the "Buy, Sell, or Trade" forum. This includes any software, hardware, or anything else with a price in exchange for it. If "announcing" a product, and it isn't in the appropriate selling forum, then it will be classified as spam and dealt with accordingly.

I still have a Rio 32MB player, and support for that went by the wayside in a fairly short time. It was disappointing not being able to install it in Windows 2000, and later in XP. I might be getting a replacement in the next couple of months, but I don't know what I am going to get either. I would like something that plays OGG files as well, but there's relatively few that do that.