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Alexander

WFG Retired
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Posts posted by Alexander

    What Skills Should Undergrads Have?

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    Despite the fact that I have a lot to say against Ryerson SCS's (School/Faculty of Computer Science; my university) curriculum, one thing I have to admit is that it got that part right.

    Ryerson takes the high-to-low approach. We started at a very high level (Java), and slowly went down over the course of 3 years (from Java to C/C++ to ASM). Now we have a lot of freedom as far as language choice is concerned (in most courses), and I tend to chose C#.

    In my opinion the true distinction between a Computer Science person (apparently “Computer Scientist” is politically incorrect) and programmers/code monkeys (gasp, look at my sig), is that even if he/she, throughout his/her entire career, deals only with high level (whether it is research or development), he/she has a full understanding of what is going on the low level. However, we are not Computer Engineers; we do not have to specialize in low level.

    My 2 cents.

    Hellenes: Common Misconceptions about the Hellenes

    in History Articles

    Posted

    Excellent read.

    I have to admit that to me personally, The Battle of Thermopylae wasn't really "...distorted, mangled, twisted...". Distortion and misleading information about that battle comes primarily from the movie. The general public (who does actually bother to check out WHICH battle the movie talks about) doesn't seem to understand that the movie is not meant to be historically accurate. But who is to blame? Hollywood or the people? I personally don't know.

    Myself, I always saw Herodotos as a bias historian.

  13. Online Multiplayer Gaming (What Servers?)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Consider this:

    When EA pulled the plug on the demo servers for BF2, some people chose to keep their servers running exclusively for the demo version. This is an example of the community investing resources.

    I am certain that if WFG will not create something like a match-making service (a central/master server), the community would.

    If I were Iraqui

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    I saw this video a while ago with a caption claiming that this was one of Americans' crimes.

    With the question of whether the war in Iraq is justified aside, it should be noted that this is an example of just how easy it is to take something out of context, and use it as misleading evidence.

    Yes, there were crimes committed by the Americans (both military and contractors) in Iraq. But in this case the "I'm American, out of my way" is not an attitude, but more or less a necessity. If the HUMVEE was to stop in the middle of the road, it would become an easy target to RPGs, high-calibre guns, and whatnot. The possible casualties would be not only the soldiers in the vehicle, but the civilians around it.

    Computer Specs

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    and he said he would choose an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and an EVGA graphics card over the AMD and NVIDIA... :)

    I'll second that.

    (It's not NVidia VS EVGA. NVidia doesn't actually sell cards. EVGA is a manufacturer that sells cards with NVidia chips)

    I recommend EVGA over XFX as well.

    Alex's memory upgrade

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    I'm looking for probably late August to buy one. Hopefully there will be more with DX10 around then.

    Alex, does your laptop have 'turboflash' or is is called turbocache ? I've heard a bit about that recently in the new Santa Rosa cores.

    Actually that's my desktop, I don't have a laptop for now (I returned my last one due to a defect).

    TurboCache, is NVidia's dynamic shared video memory technology. It uses the speed of the PCIe bus to access system memory. It is used by lower end cards (ie 7300GS).

    TurboFlash is a completely different animal. I haven't tried it yet (I should), but to the best of my knowledge it is Vista exclusive. (USB/Flash memory used as "main memory").

    Alex's memory upgrade

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    As some of you may know, recently memory prices took a temporary dive. I took the opportunity to get that much need memory upgrade for my Vista box.

    I now have a total of 3GB (Dual Channel, 667, 4-4-4-12). I had 1GB before, and the price of a 2GB kit was just $10 more than the 1GB, so there was no point of getting the smaller one.

    Here are the results:

    With VS open and nothing else running:

    Before:

    beforeeg4.jpg

    After:

    afterey2.jpg

    And here it is with my typical usage:

    stuffrunninggw4.jpg

    Fresh 0AD Build before: 4 minutes, 57 seconds

    Fresh 0AD Build after: 3 minutes, 30 seconds

    Although compiling is not exactly memory intensive, it's the fact that the darn thing would start paging in the middle, that slows it down.

    Lesson learned: If you are getting Vista, forget the minimum memory required figure (1GB), you NEED at least 2GB

    GeForce Go

    in Computer Desk

    Posted

    As far as the decision is concerned, I would have to agree with Klaas. Assuming you'll be using your laptop for college work, you most certainly should concentrate on general performance and quality, as opposed to the "gaming parameters".

    Seth, Macbook Pro is not within his budget. I believe Pro prices are above €1300.

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