The joy of old hardware.

[Joe1962]

MacGiver - that was an interesting show -but sometimes far-fetched
or questionable principles of science

That's what I thought of some of his solutions too, but I came across this today on Wikipedia:

Angus MacGyver's main asset is his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items—along with his ever-present Swiss Army knife and duct tape and the usual coincidence of being locked up in a room full of useful materials. The clever solutions MacGyver implemented to seemingly intractable problems—often in life-or-death situations requiring him to improvise complex devices in a matter of minutes—were a major attraction of the show, which was praised for generating interest in engineering[1] as well as providing entertaining storylines. All of MacGyver's exploits on the show were ostensibly vetted to be based on real scientific principles (even though, the creators acknowledged, in real life one would have to be extraordinarily lucky for most of MacGyver's ideas to succeed). In the few cases where MacGyver used household chemicals to create poisons, explosives or other things deemed too dangerous to be accurately described for public consumption, details were intentionally altered or vague.

[Vxt]

Those episodes really were very entertaining - did prompt much thinking/daydreaming 

I suppose the keyword is Ostensibly
A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation

As in:

A conclusion is simply the place where we got tired of thinking.
(What happens if you get scared half to death twice?)
A smart man covers his ass, a wise man leaves his pants on.

I did a lot of wandering in the boonies when younger - used to fret over:
> What to always bring along - (weight vs possibilities)
Learnt how to make fire from materials at hand - then said - the Heck w/it

Easier & smarter to carry water-proofed matches,. a good knife (NOT any 'swiss army' crap)
Most of all - Apropo clothing, a compass  & be CAREFUL where I went

Eventualy - learned how to navigate without a compass
By necessity:
The "everyone has an inherent  "Sense_of_Direction" is pure wishful thinking B.S.

Learning how to take care of yourself in nearly any situation -
Is not nearly as useful as paying more attention  to being careful before getting into troubles

Seems to me - that applies to computers as well ?

But truth be known -  all these "Reality checks'  in 'puterdumB' were often  for me -
> 'Too soon old - too late smart'

BlackBelt - Thnx for sharing - it's all a good topic ! 

[BlueMage]

However, spend your money well, get the best you can, and you'll have a machine that'll degrade fairly gracefully for at least two years.

Two years? Is that it? That works out to about $2.75 a day to play games ($2000/730). Sorry - I guess I'm not a gamer obviously. It would seem to me to make a lot more sense for gamers to go out and buy a Wii or XBox for 1/8th of the price of a decent gaming computer ?? No?

At least two years, and more likely four   Two years is like, worst-case scenario.  I mean, I'm not upgrading my rig for at least 2.5 years, and for now, I can play BioShock and (will be able to play) Crysis, so I'm happy.

There's also the issue of the quality of development.  Most games for Xbox and PS seem to lack a certain level of polish, in many cases feeling unfinished if they were developed concurrently to the PC counterpart.  Of course, where the game is developed first on console and then ported to PC, the result also feels unfinished, because you're moving from a lesser system to a greater one without making changes to take advantage of the greater systems's capabilities.

The Wii is the aberration here - the control system that Nintendo has developed truly sets it apart in the console world (and fascinates me quite a bit as an engineer).  However, thanks to the similarities between mouse and Wiimote, it's my contention that porting games from Wii to PC need not be a downgrade, but could be fairly smooth and requiring only minor adjustments in the control scheme.

Also, you forgot to factor the cost of actually buying games into your calculations

[orasis]

I run VectorLinux STD on my PIII 650Mhz/ 256RAM system - it runs faster than Windows 2k and I am much more productive on this system - mostly because I have a lot more 'specific' programs to work in - not too mention that I can turn off all distractions in CLI. - Some would say the same could be done in Windows by 'Cmd'/fake dos - but that is not true - because Windows DOS is very very limited as to what you can do in it...

However I have Windows XP on my P4 - and I've noticed that I get next to nothing done and always have problems on that system ... if it is not a hardware issue than it's a software or virus issue... - and lets not get started on the amount of spyware and adware that builds up on it

I only keep the Windows on that system for my audio/studio work - and yes I have tried Linux alternatives and sadly they are about a decade behind the Windows/Mac home studio stuff... 


*** Now that I read that Vector SOHO works well on a PIII 600 - I am tempted to give it a try on my box.. but then again I have never been a fan of KDE... heh so we'll see..

[Vxt]

Orasis

I have tried Linux alternatives and sadly they are about a decade behind the Windows/Mac home studio stuff...  Undecided

Behind - who ?

There are MANY dedicated Linux distributions that rival & often better those found for Windows platform:

Pick a COLOUR

AUDIO


Maya or Xara are two (graphics Apps) Gimp is arguably better than best of non-free Adobe products
Graphpup >  Have heard good things for a lighter yet capable graphics distro variant

Audio - who can keep track - from dabbling to studio quality

HTH 

[The Headacher]

I only keep the Windows on that system for my audio/studio work - and yes I have tried Linux alternatives and sadly they are about a decade behind the Windows/Mac home studio stuff... 

I use Linux for audio and midi. But I've never really tried midi sequencing in windows with one of the big names (like Cubase or something). I don't doubt it can do a lot that no of the Linux sequencers can. But both Muse and Rosegarden are fairly usable audio/midi sequencers, and once you get used to Jack you'll find out it's possibilities are almost endless. I'll see if I can package the latest Muse (0.9, released 2 weeks ago) when I get my faster box back from repair.

[Will]

My windows box has served me for roughly seven years. Pretty good even though the best it can play are games that came out in 03, and thats pushing it to its limits(upgrading to the radeon 9250 helped greatly as before it was a vanta doing the graphical work, which was bleh). I'm not going to discard the box till she blows up on me. The only thing I've NEEDED to replace has been the harddrive, but considering how much activity it saw and it happened right at the five year mark, its no real wonder it died.


Once I can settle on games i want that will run well on linux I'm switching. Hm....I'll be glad when that open scource dark engine project churns out a product that will let me play system shock 2 naitivly in linux.

[BlueMage]

Once I can settle on games i want that will run well on linux I'm switching. Hm....I'll be glad when that open scource dark engine project churns out a product that will let me play system shock 2 naitivly in linux.

What?  WHAT?  WHAT?!

Oh dear, I think I just wet myself in joy.

[Will]

Oi


Its got, according to the guy that's heading thigns up, another two years, minimum.