Empy's Random Friday Thoughts 11-21

[Emperor]

Sure why not.  I am putting off work a little after a busy week.  This is usually my opportunity to read up on movie, tv and gaming news.  So far today I have read a semi-ok review of Twilight that basically says what I already knew.  It is worse than the book, with sub par special effects and alright acting.  Really the movie was made for teenage girls.  I will still see it sometime... not sure if I want to fight long lines of rabid teen girls (and Barm) to watch this though.

 

Next up I read a review for Australia.  Now the only reason I am even remotely interested in this is due to the fact it has some Oscar buzz.  But I kind of dislike the 'actor' that calls herself Nicole Kidman.  She overacts in 95% of the films she appears in.  The review kindly ripped the movie apart saying it needed a bit more time to get tweaked and that it felt pretty campy.  Oh well... hopefully someday this year a movie is released I feel is Best Picture bound.  I am now pinning my hopes on "The Road" which I know little about but Viggo is staring, "Milk" - Sean Penn is all I need to say, "The Wrestler" which I just learned about today and "Revolutionary Road" which has Kate Winslett in it (she is in my top 5 still). 

 

In gaming news, I found a pretty useless graphic that shows the power usage of consoles. Eat your heart out Sinister.

 

 

One night I hope to catch up with Tenshin and play some Left 4 Dead.  The game is pretty sweet as you run around and kill fast zombies.  That is basically the game.  The best is when a hunter jumps on you and starts tearing out your stomach.  But Tenshin can't play it around his kids.  BTW Barm, if you need yet another 48 hour Gold code I have one from that game. 

 

Ok I think I have rambled long enough that I lost most of you by now.  Peace out bitches.

[Barmacral]

I'm willing to take all the gold codes you can give me. Right now I'm on my 3rd, and I've got 2 more lined up, the longer I can go without actually having to purchase live, the better.

[Cadsuane]

Why would you NOT turn it off when you're done playing? Is there some catch to that that I'm missing, because saving over $100 and damaging the planet just a bit less seem a lot more worthwhile than just saving yourself the giant effort of pressing the off/on button.  :-\

[Emperor]

Also... where did they come up with a Xbox that would survive a year if you left it on all the time?

[Barmacral]

Actually Cads, it happens all the time, people leaving stuff on. I know I used to never turn my computer off. Unfortunately, this is far from a novelty, most people ARE too lazy to turn their electronics off and on.

[Haxorsist]

Yeah, but a computer is different. Sometimes you just have to check DM (porn) chat on MSN (porn) play a game (weird porn that you don't tell anybody about) right away and it takes too long to turn on. Of course you should turn it off at night. A console however only serves the purpose of gaming, so when you're done playing games you should just turn the thing off.

[Cadsuane]

I leave my laptop on, but only when I know I'm gonna come back to it in short order. It goes off at night and when I leave for work/class/a night out. We are required to leave our office computers on so they can do regular updates and stuff like that, but I take every opportunity to turn the monitor off while I'm not sitting in front of it.  :-\

[SinisterDeath]

Why would you NOT turn it off when you're done playing? Is there some catch to that that I'm missing, because saving over $100 and damaging the planet just a bit less seem a lot more worthwhile than just saving yourself the giant effort of pressing the off/on button.  :-\

 

Yea, theirs only 2 reasons to leave a 360 on.

1. Your downloading a game, that became available late night, your JUST found out about it, but you don't want to start the download in the 'morning', so you can play it in the 'morning' kinda situation.

2. Your a lazy F***er. ;)

 

Ps3?

1. Same as the one above, downloading full games, demos, movies, all that jazz.

2. Leaving your PS3 on cures cancer.

3. Your a lazy F***er.

 

So, yea.

 

And I have to agree with empy..

WTF did they find a 360 that could be left on 24/7 for a year? TOOTALLY skewed test there! :P

 

Btw, if you don't get #2 for the Ps3, Folding@Home, is a program developed, I believe by Harvard? That has to do with folding complicated protiens, and is involved with curing cancer. So yes, leaving your ps3 on, folding at home, is more likely to cure cancer then not...

HENCE if you are leaving it on all night, yoru PS3 is going to be doing more 'processing work', then the 360, which is basically running on idle' just 'downloading' something. So the thing acutally makes sense. ;)

 

Though you konw, I coulda swore I read somewhere the ps3 was more energy efficient then the 360... :P

http://www.ps3news.ca/08302007/18/ps3_more_green_than_xbox_360_elite

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-356-2.htm

 

So its hard to say really. ;)

Of course, I don't doubt the ps3 is more energy inefficient then the 360, generally more power requires... more power. ;)

*Shazam!*

 

 

Was that just corny?

[Majsju]

I frequently leave my laptop on while I run away for some errands, like having a pint or five down at the pub. But when I do that, I unplug it so it runs on battery instead.

[Karana Majin]

Wait.  The Road?  As in the book by Cormac McCarthy?  That book was... amazing.  Viggo is playing the dad?!  How did I not know about this!?

 

I am beside myself!!

[Tenshin_Xo]

Yeah but the PS3 isn't really all that good at folding\@home, hence the preference for actual PC's.  It's not Harvard, although I don't really remember where.  Also it's nothing to do with cancer directly, but stuff like mad cow, CJK or whatever, and Alzheimer and other prion and protein defects.

 

Xbox 360, saving the environment one console at a time.

 

Also I just read that article today too. 

[SinisterDeath]

Uhh first.

I looked it up, its Standford. To see what they are working on curing, check out

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-Diseases#ntoc5

 

 

Second, Like I've been doing since the beginning, i've been dispelling the lies/propaganda, or as you call it, poking fun by spreading untruthiness! :P

And the PS3 is awesome at Folding@Home.

 

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats

 

PC - 233,616 Active CPUs, 2,281,703 Total CPUs, computing 222 TFlops.

PS3 - 59714 Active CPUs, 679,741 Total CPUs, computing 1684 TFlops.

Folding@home PS3 FAQ

 

What type of calculations the PS3 client is capable of running?

 

The PS3 right now runs what are called implicit solvation calculations, including some simple ones (sigmodal dependent dielectric) and some more sophisticated ones (AGBNP, a type of Generalized Born method from Prof. Ron Levy's group at Rutgers). In this respect, the PS3 client is much like our GPU client. However, the PS3 client is more flexible, in that it can also run explicit solvent calculations as well, although not at the same speed increase relative to PC's. We are working to increase the speed of explicit solvent on the PS3 and would then run these calculations on the PS3 as well. In a nutshell, the PS3 takes the middle ground between GPU's (extreme speed, but at limited types of WU's) and CPU's (less speed, but more flexibility in types of WU's).

 

 

What is the power consumption of the PS3 running the FAH client?

 

The original PS3 model will use about 200 Watts while running Folding@home. A later model PS3 (with a 40 GB hard drive) will use about 115 Watts.

 

It seems that the PS3 is more than 10X as powerful as an average PC. Why doesn't it get 10X PPD as well?

 

We balance the points based on both speed and the flexibility of the client. The GPU client is still the fastest, but it is the least flexible and can only run a very, very limited set of WUs. Thus, its points are not linearly proportional to the speed increase. The PS3 takes the middle ground between GPUs (extreme speed, but at limited types of WU's) and CPU's (less speed, but more flexibility in types of WUs). We have picked the PS3 as the natural benchmark machine for PS3 calculations and set its points per day to 900 to reflect this middle ground between speed (faster than CPU, but slower than GPU) and flexibility (more flexible than GPU, less than CPU).

 

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-PS3#ntoc7

 

Of course, this is mostly relevant to PC's fromt he 2007 Era, Once the nihilim brand of CPUs come out, nothing is going to stand in the way of it, but I'm sure my PS3 Kicks my New PC's ass at Folding. ;)

[Far Dareis Mai]

My brother saw Twilight last night and said it was actually pretty good, considering the reviews. Definitely a love story for younger women, but he didn't want to walk out of the theatre, so that's something.

 

And yay for my Wii being good on energy. Somehow I'm not really suprised about that. :D

[Lythnia Roylin]

Ok, so Twilight is my guilty pleasure, but then again I *am* an 18 year old girl, and the guys are just too perfect *sigh* So I saw the movie today, with two of my friends, having read all the books. Aside from my turning into a giggling pile of mush whenever Robert Pattinson smiled, it was pretty good! Stayed true to the book, especially where it mattered, except for one or two points, the casting was great and the acting wasn't that bad, honestly. Let's just say I'm definitely buying it when it comes out.

[Emperor]

Twilight was sold out near my house and I didn't feel up to driving a few more miles to see it elsewhere or pulling the "Buy a ticket for one movie to go to another movie" scheme.  I did see two other movies I will write up in the other thread though.

 

The Road... yes by the same guy that wrote No Country for old Men.  I just learned about it.  It will be coming out early 2009 but limited released before the end of 08 to get Oscar contention. 

 

The Road is a post-apocalyptic movie based on the novel of the same name written by Cormac McCarthy. The film is directed by John Hillcoat and is starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and his son in a journey toward the coast across a blasted landscape. The Road should be released in mid November 2008. Update: The Road has been postponed to 2009. :(

 

The Plot:

"A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and, when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing: just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other." (source: IMDb)

 

 

 

[Emperor]

[Dunbar]

I won a ps3 :(

 

And also, the road seems rather awesome

[SinisterDeath]

http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/Guide-Greener-Electronics-10-edition.pdf

http://www.edge-online.com/features/sony-%E2%80%9Cway-ahead%E2%80%9D-environmental-issues?page=0%2C0

 

I win, ohhh yea. ;)

[ChronoCrosS]

I like video games AND have real friends, hence I have a Wii and a PC. :)

[Barmacral]

Chrono: 1

Sin: 0

[SinisterDeath]

Real friends are for Newbs!

I like Video Games and have No friends, Thusly I have a PC And a Ps3. ;)

And hey, even if the 360 has a good game or two, I can just play them on my pc. ;)

[Tenshin_Xo]

Man I got worked in GoW2 tonight...  Matchmaking my left cheek.

 

On the upshot I got the wife a gold account so now we're tag teaming it.  That's right, I went there.

[Dunbar]

I have a ps3 and am considering buying a 360?

 

so.. I've no friends, and considering internet friends

 

oy

[ironcross]

do spouses count as friends? i guess i could count my son, but hes just 1.  so i now know why i like pcs

 

ironcross  in love with a pc since 91