Senior Contributing Editors:
Jesus Diaz
| AIM | Twitter
Mark Wilson, Reviews
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchanan | AIM | Twitter
Adam Frucci | Twitter
Sean Fallon | Twitter
Jack Loftus | Twitter
John Herrman | Twitter
Dan Nosowitz
Chris Mascari
Danny Allen | Twitter
Rosa Golijan | Twitter
Chris Jacob
hahahaha. did anyone think it'd be any different? Intel graphics. think about that. Intel graphics. has anyone ever had a good experience with Intel graphics? onboard graphics that score like crazy on artificial benchmarks but then you load up tetris and it chokes.
@onlysublime: Actually, the X4500HD is a pretty damn good performer for what it tries to do. It's low power, it runs Aero quite nicely, does HD video OK, and can even run Trine on 1776x1000 (damn monitor overscans on 1920x1200 and 1920x1080 over HDMI) albeit at "Very Low" settings but at a high frame rate. And the drivers are a HELL of a lot more stable than nVidia ones.
People get Intel graphics when all they want to do is do word, browsing + email, power point presentations, etc. - and have good battery life while doing it. The X4500HD never claimed to be able to run Crysis so don't lambast it for not doing so.
Eh, the X4500 is a fine chip, but like a lot of previous generation solutions, it's running into a "just-not-good-enough" wall in a world of "good-enough" computing. Does that make any sense? The same thing happened to Intel Celeron and AMD Turion. They were fine when they came out, but then they kind of fell by the wayside as they just couldn't cut it.
The reason netbooks have risen up in style is because of "good enough" computing, because people don't need Core2Duos to do what they want to do.
However, the X4500 is falling behind because of HD video on Hulu, Youtube, and GPU acceleration for Flash and Web Browsers, and that little bit of stuttering is just enough to make it "not good enough".
@taniquetil: I'm not saying nVidia hardware is bad - just nVidia drivers. My X4500HD does 720p YouTube HD just fine - 1080p is where it stutters, but I mean, honestly - it's running on a tablet with a 1280x800 display (the 1776x1000 is additional real estate and atypical). You'd be an idiot to even want 1080p because you're not going to be able to view it on that screen, even theoretically. Most people want something that just works not something that works fast (coughApplecough).
And it still sucks that Netbooks with ION processors have to cost more because of the fact that "standalone" Atom procs cost significantly more than the full integrated versions. I hope Intel gets a big swift kick in the ass so this sort of thing can change for the better.
"So once I finished cleaning my GLOCK, I turned off my iPod, set my iRobot Roomba about its duties, and sat down at my PlayStation 3 (powered by nVidia!) to play some inFAMOUS..."
WaHaHa... I Do Love Using Superfluous Caps In Everything! Even Better If It's InAppropriAte In A Way That Makes The Word HArDeR tO REad...
*tazes self*
Sorry... I don't know what came over me there... I just uh... sorry... Won't Happen Again...
@Die Fledermaus: Really?? You don't see what I did there? The part where you said that there weren't any juvenile comments, and I made a "your mom" joke out of that?
There was actually a hidden message in there if you look at the context. I didn't just make a "your mom" joke so I could see words come up on the screen as I typed them.
I didn't know the MBP had a slot-loading record player for Beatles music. That's cool, I wish they would release digital music already, and let the interwebz have it.
I am noticing something which plays right into this article. There are several condescending posts by people deriding the quote which uses less common words, and which points to a writer with a more then average vocabulary. When did it become a crime to have a vocabulary that uses a sizable portion of the english language. Have we become so lazy that BRB, LOL and TTFN etc are the best we can master?
@aubreyAubrey: I present you as exhibit A.
Thank you for stepping up as prime example that even the internet troll can be supplanted by a lesser intellectual animal.
@Die Fledermaus: Without delving too much further into the text, I'd say read what George Orwell has to say about the English Language in 1946 and a recent turn to the language of old, replacing the common language for the more complex, full of superfluous words that become a notch on their belt for having a more profound understanding of language that could be wholly avoided and still remain as expressive, if less impressive.
The opening paragraph:
"Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language -- so the argument runs -- must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes."
Very interesting how it all seems to have been reversed as of late, yes? A return to the more complex?
@MIKEAWESOME: I believe it is like most things in our society it is a pendulum swing. While I think the use of a more extensive vocabulary is never a detriment I also that believe that one must live in the here and the now. It would be similar to speaking nothing but Elizabethan english.
@Die Fledermaus: I feel the exact same way. Language is not an artifact of history, but a tool for our use, the tool may change, but it only changes to fit the job and will continue to adapt to fit the job as necessary.
In short, I don't think we ought to be worrying about language too much.
@Xagest: I'm interested to know of often you create a sentence starting with that word - but I agree, and I'll go one step further to say that it makes me very uncomfortable writing those kinds of words. I could be typing at 100 words per minute and then spend three minutes trying to decide how I should write a misfit word/title/brand. Either, correctly, or, how "they" think I should. I'd rather hammer-fist my keyboard than encounter one of them.
@valkilmerisawful:
Not as often as I used to. I've gotten into the habit of writing "The" at the beginning of the sentence to save myself the trouble. So now I say "The iPod needs..." or "The iPhone is..." instead of starting a sentence with either of the brands.
Language is always changing, and it always has, influenced by the culture of the day. Just let it happen. Maybe it's okay that in the not-too-distant future we'll all be typing long strong-together words intermixed with random capital letters, all written out in the Comic Sans font. So what?
@nutbastard: First of all, I was not insulting you, but now I am. An acronym is a word or phrase made up of the first letter or syllable of a group of words. FBI IS an acronym for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Acronyms CAN be used as an abbreviation for a word or phrase that means the same thing to save time and is popular in internet language and speech. So you are correct that can be spoken as if they are words but are not limited to this and only this.
Acronyms can even create words or names that didn't previously exist such as SCUBA which is an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
"An acronym (pronounced AK-ruh-nihm, from Greek acro- in the sense of extreme or tip and onyma or name) is an abbreviation of several words in such a way that the abbreviation itself forms a pronounceable word. The word may already exist or it can be a new word. Webster's cites SNAFU and radar, two terms of World War Two vintage, as examples of acronyms that were created.
According to the strictest definition of an acronym, only abbreviations that are pronounced as words qualify. So by these standards, for example, COBOL is an acronym because it's pronounced as a word but WHO (World Health Organization) is not an acronym because the letters in the abbreviation are pronounced individually."
@nutbastard: "a word (as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also : an abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters : initialism"
Now that we have all demonstrated our ability to use a dictionary, this case is dismissed based on the grounds that it is ridiculous by nature. Court is adjourned.
@nutbastard: A quick Google search informs me that abbreviations like FBI and CIA are called "initialisms," whereas things like NATO are true acronyms. So you're right.
Fun facts: matt's keyboards have numerous stabby marks on them.
It is believed by some that a capital letter beat matt up as a child.
The walls of matt's bedroom are painted with phrases like "capital letters = satan's propaganda", "shift = shit getting f'ed" and "camel case will spit cancer on your soul", as well as big capital letters with "x"es marked all over them with notations saying "this is a lower-case x in a big font-size NOT a capital x".
The irony of that last one has not yet dawned on matt.
12/04/09
12/04/09
People get Intel graphics when all they want to do is do word, browsing + email, power point presentations, etc. - and have good battery life while doing it. The X4500HD never claimed to be able to run Crysis so don't lambast it for not doing so.
12:16 AM
Eh, the X4500 is a fine chip, but like a lot of previous generation solutions, it's running into a "just-not-good-enough" wall in a world of "good-enough" computing. Does that make any sense? The same thing happened to Intel Celeron and AMD Turion. They were fine when they came out, but then they kind of fell by the wayside as they just couldn't cut it.
The reason netbooks have risen up in style is because of "good enough" computing, because people don't need Core2Duos to do what they want to do.
However, the X4500 is falling behind because of HD video on Hulu, Youtube, and GPU acceleration for Flash and Web Browsers, and that little bit of stuttering is just enough to make it "not good enough".
And throw in
02:00 AM
12/03/09
12/03/09
12/03/09
12/03/09
12/01/09
11/30/09
Subwoofers are not large for no reason.
12/01/09
Does the "double negative" give the same meaning in this case as : "Subwoofers are large for a reason"???
The more we read it, the more confused we got...
11/30/09
WaHaHa... I Do Love Using Superfluous Caps In Everything! Even Better If It's InAppropriAte In A Way That Makes The Word HArDeR tO REad...
*tazes self*
Sorry... I don't know what came over me there... I just uh... sorry... Won't Happen Again...
11/30/09
11/30/09
11/30/09
12/01/09
There was actually a hidden message in there if you look at the context. I didn't just make a "your mom" joke so I could see words come up on the screen as I typed them.
11/30/09
11/30/09
11/30/09
edit: No reason for this edit...
11/30/09
General
Keyboard
Auto-Capitalization
Off
Your iPhone will be an iphone forevermore!
11/30/09
11/30/09
11/30/09
11/30/09
Thank you for stepping up as prime example that even the internet troll can be supplanted by a lesser intellectual animal.
11/30/09
11/30/09
[www.mtholyoke.edu]
The opening paragraph:
"Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language -- so the argument runs -- must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes."
Very interesting how it all seems to have been reversed as of late, yes? A return to the more complex?
11/30/09
11/30/09
11/30/09
In short, I don't think we ought to be worrying about language too much.
11/30/09
11/30/09
11/30/09
Not as often as I used to. I've gotten into the habit of writing "The" at the beginning of the sentence to save myself the trouble. So now I say "The iPod needs..." or "The iPhone is..." instead of starting a sentence with either of the brands.
11/30/09
Language is always changing, and it always has, influenced by the culture of the day. Just let it happen. Maybe it's okay that in the not-too-distant future we'll all be typing long strong-together words intermixed with random capital letters, all written out in the Comic Sans font. So what?
11/30/09
11/30/09
NYT isn't an acronym, it's an abbreviation. Unless you actually pronounce it as "Nite". then it's an acronym.
11/30/09
11/30/09
ahem:
an acronym is an abbreviation that is spoken as if it is a word, like NASDAQ (naz-dack).
Things like NYT or FBI or LSD or NAACP are not acronyms, as they are not spoken as if they are words.
dude... i know what the friggin NYT is.
wtf.
11/30/09
Acronyms can even create words or names that didn't previously exist such as SCUBA which is an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
So "Ahem" your wrong.
11/30/09
"An acronym (pronounced AK-ruh-nihm, from Greek acro- in the sense of extreme or tip and onyma or name) is an abbreviation of several words in such a way that the abbreviation itself forms a pronounceable word. The word may already exist or it can be a new word. Webster's cites SNAFU and radar, two terms of World War Two vintage, as examples of acronyms that were created.
According to the strictest definition of an acronym, only abbreviations that are pronounced as words qualify. So by these standards, for example, COBOL is an acronym because it's pronounced as a word but WHO (World Health Organization) is not an acronym because the letters in the abbreviation are pronounced individually."
11/30/09
Now that we have all demonstrated our ability to use a dictionary, this case is dismissed based on the grounds that it is ridiculous by nature. Court is adjourned.
11/30/09
11/30/09
we haven't all demonstrated that ability - still waiting for Bwehngamun to catch up with us.
11/30/09
It is believed by some that a capital letter beat matt up as a child.
The walls of matt's bedroom are painted with phrases like "capital letters = satan's propaganda", "shift = shit getting f'ed" and "camel case will spit cancer on your soul", as well as big capital letters with "x"es marked all over them with notations saying "this is a lower-case x in a big font-size NOT a capital x".
The irony of that last one has not yet dawned on matt.
11/30/09