No, all the extra firmware will load one device at a time. So you get to see all 4 NICs load their firmware, your onboard SAS controller loads its RAID stuff, then your fibre-channel HBAs, your BIOS does its thing, and so forth and so on, not necessarily in that order, and all in serial.

One of the reasons things are done this way is that generally each device's firmware will give the operator an opportunity to modify settings as it boots, so it will ask you to hit a key or some combination of keys and then wait a number of seconds for that to happen.

If we had some fancy modifications to LinBIOS maybe you could just tell the BIOS that you want to get into the firmware options for X device and then it would take you right to it, while skipping all the waiting for input.

But, alas, we don't, so we just wait for 5 or 10 minutes while the server boots.

It takes place in a flat desert yes, but that desert is also the Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, and there's only one road in or out of the area, meaning that letting people just drive off over the desert will tear up the earth (and damage the ecosystem there) and allow people to try to jump on to the road anywhere they please, leading to slowdowns and accidents.

I don't really follow the smartphone scene, but aren't there some Android-based phones that currently can't be upgraded to a later OS version? Are owners of those phones just less secure, or are there patches available, if not full upgrades?

I think the true power of the PS3/Cell will be it's longevity.

Look at the PS2. Now look at the 1st gen games for it versus some of the latest ones. The differences are huge, and they are due purely to better programming techniques (same hardware.) I've no doubt that the PS3/Cell will have a similar lifespan.

Also, I know it discussed in almost every tech generation of consoles, but this time it might be true: Is the hardware finally good enough? This may be directly influenced by the popularity of Flash-based and iPhone games. Is the game market still being driven by the faster-polygon-pushing race? Maybe not..

*shrug*

I bought a new $330 15.6" dual-core Acer laptop from Wal-Mart on Sunday and without even booting to Windows 7, I inserted a Linux Mint 9 CD, formatted the HD, installed the OS and had a fully-working laptop with video, sound, 3D, wireless, and webcam working 100% without even a single reboot or driver download.

I don't see it getting much easier than that.

I think it happened at 4.87, actually..

I've been using a similar set-up for the last 9 months or so.

- 24/7 Linux box (My main desktop PC)
- t.e.d. (Java-based Torrent Episode Downloader - searches eztv and many other torrent site, using filters to get the shows you define.)
- Deluge (Bittorrent client set to check a folder for new torrents added by ted)
- tvnamer (perl app that renames TV show files to a format you decide, using TVdB for episode names)

String it all together with some scripts and cron jobs (to automate file renaming/moving and to restart java apps nightly)

Attach a device running XBMC with a Logitech remote and you're set. I'm currently using an actual modded Xbox, but plan on upgrading to a $200 Atom-basded nettop for HD output. (Acer AspireRevo)

Scotty?

I know printing it out in binary format has already been mentioned, but there is actually a tool for this. If you use high quality paper, it might last for centuries.

Here's the (free) software: http://ronja.twibright.com:8080/optar/

.. if someone develops a FPS where you shoot Hispanic 8-year-old females everyone will be happy? I kinda doubt it..

If by "went out of thier way," you meant "turned the cameras on and stepped back," then I agree with you completely. You can't blame everything on the media, the dancing monkeys on TV performed their act as well.

Mine was at a full desktop in 12 seconds - much, *much* faster than my host Ubuntu install.

Is this a troll? Months and months of play and you only hit level 12? It takes less than 2 hours to get to level twelve, if playing casually. About 1, if you solidly kill and run quests.