Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment +1 (Score 4, Informative) 39

Novas were 16-bit machines. I know because there are 16 select toggles on the front of mine :)

Soul of a New Machine was about the development of the MV line, which was the 32-bit extension of the Eclipse line, which was an extension (virtual memory, multitasking, etc.) of the Nova line. Similar to how VAXes were based on the PDP-11 architecture.

Comment Re:because (Score 1) 136

That said Colbert doesn't know jack about screenwriting, it is like nothing else, not even writing novels (look at how JK Rowling did when she tried to write screenplays instead of novels) so I would question how much input he's really going to have.

The headline threw me, then I saw his son, whom is a screenwriter, is attached as well. Then I looked up his son's credits on IMDB. He was a production assistant on one of Colbert's shows and.... that's it.

I hope it will be good, but it's not looking that way.

Comment Cost (Score 1) 311

In the olden days, it cost a lot of money to shoot down an anti-ship missile. Either a CWIS firing expensive ammunition at thousands of rounds per second, or firing a pricey RAM.

It isn't the olden days any more. Now they drop missiles using a giant microwave. It costs almost nothing to fire.
https://thedefensepost.com/202...

Comment Economics (Score 4, Informative) 116

The new streaming economics are that, unless you are an established multi-billion dollar IP, like Star Trek, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones, you aren't going to get enough money together for live-action anything beyond a simple detective show or medical drama.

There's a rare exception now and then - bestselling novel adaptation, established director or writer, etc... Whedon has a bad name right now, so nobody is going to be throwing money at him. His last huge-budget TV show, The Nevers, got pulled from HBO before it was finished airing.

Comment Re:Here's the missing info (Score 2) 52

But when shipping shows to far-flung international destinations, BBC "transferred" the video tape to film by filming a TV! That's what was found in the collector's cardboard box. That BBC used video tape is what allowed them to erase said video tapes.

My understanding is that, given the variety of video tape machines and differing video standards, 16mm film was the easiest way to distribute shows internationally. Everyone had some sort of 16mm telecine machine, but videotape recorder standards were all different. The downside was frame-rate sync issues, which were fixed in the olden days by slightly speeding up or slowing down the film. Nowadays it can be re-sync'd to the original framerate using compositing/resampling tools. Modern "AI" tools are pretty phenomenal at doing this. They can re-create missing frames to sync up odd frame rates, and you'd never know the difference.

Comment Here here (Score 2, Informative) 46

I'm running a 5x ZFS+2 30TB FreeNAS array. All our desktops and laptops back up to it, and it stores all our ripped CDs that get streamed through Plex. The really important stuff has a secondary off-line backup (photos, tax stuff) as well. Total cost was around $1000 including a Dell server. Worth every penny if you don't want to loose all your stuff.

Comment Quality (Score 5, Interesting) 46

At this point I think it depends on the individual drive mechanism, even from the same manufacturer. The best data source for this stuff is Backblaze, whom unfortunately only covers enterprise class drives. There is even quite a bit of variation across different manufacturing runs of the same drive.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog...

One run of Seagate 12TB drives has a 2.7% failure rate, which is mediocre, while a different run of the same drive is at 0.9%, which is pretty good. HGST used to be great, but now their numbers are mostly well north of 1%. WDC looks pretty good, except for one drive at 2.6%,

Comment Re:How dare machines immitate us! (Score 1) 131

Interesting, but reductive. Our whole society is built on shared delusions. To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, grind down the world and strain it through the finest sieve and try to find a grain of capitalism, molecule of law, an atom of justice, a quantum of mercy, an iota of love. Yet we believe in shared fictions to make our entire existence bearable, to make them mean anything. Believing in the supernatural and higher powers is part of the same inextricable human instinct for belief.

In fact, psychosis itself is the result of natural variation in a population that must be calibrated to produce enough belief to keep human society going. Just as obsession is the result of natural variation in a population that must be calibrated to produce enough drive to keep society going.

And since these things aren't going anywhere - the rate of schizophrenia is about 1% in the general population - we must carefully regulate the things we know exacerbate or trigger psychosis, just like with anything else, like cannabis in children.

Comment A bit more maybe (Score 1) 31

I'm even OK with using AI to do minimal graphics work. Some nonsense playing on a TV in the background of a bar. Graffiti in an alleyway. Grunt work stuff not important to the game itself, but makes the world feel a little more lived-in. Not character design, or voices, or the layout of a level, or clothes, etc...

Comment Re:Too bad the physical media landscape isn't good (Score 1) 89

No, HD-DVD and Bluray don't count...both of them were too expensive, too limited and too encumbered by the format war between them, and never became as attractive as DVD.

I think "Were too expensive" is operative here. Blu-Rays are pretty cheap these days. You can pick them up used at thrift stores for a couple bucks each. If you deal hunt on Amazon you get get them for $5 new. Even UHDs aren't bad, especially if you buy in bulk. You can get the Alfred Hitchcock Ultimate Collection UHD box set on Amazon for $112. That's 14 movies, which averages $8 per film.

Slashdot Top Deals

"My sense of purpose is gone! I have no idea who I AM!" "Oh, my God... You've.. You've turned him into a DEMOCRAT!" -- Doonesbury

Working...