JasonGW

Absolutely right about the trivia there, too. I remember the IRQ questions as asking what each IRQ is for (RTC, Timer, Mouse, KB, etc.) and a question about whether IRQ's are software or physical (Physical, of course, provided by a pair of IC's on every mobo). Anyway, definitely take the time to study. One of the reasons A+ is so easy to pass if you study well, too, is that it's an adaptive exam. Get the first 20 questions (out of 50) right and you're done Jason

Sorry, didn't intend to boast, only to say that he shouldn't have trouble with A+ at all if he build a computer, make it work, troubleshoot basic memory/graphics/drive problems and configure & troubleshoot the OS. The Windows tests (2000 or XP) are actually tougher than the entirety of the A+, IMHO, but that's mostly because a lot of the questions involve trivia that you wouldn't necessarily need to use on a day to day basis (example: What happens to file permissions when you copy a file from one NTFS partition to another? What if you copy it to a different physical NTFS drive? What happens if you move the file instead of copying it? What happens to a file's permissions when you move it from an NTFS volume to a FAT32 volume?) Long story short: It ain't that hard, you can do it, man! Jason

Hey, we're looking at maybe migrating our infrastructure over to a set of blades (10 bay enclosure, 8 servers online with two spares at the ready), and I'd like to talk with someone who's worked with them in a production environment. Some questions I have are: 1. Dell mentions that you can "Provision" a blade slot for a particular OS configuration for easy restore in the event of failure. How does that work? Do you keep a preconfigured 2003 server image on hand? Does it take "snapshots" of that slot's hardware at predefined intervals? 2. How does the OS see the SAN? Is it seen as a network drive or does it appear more inline with how your box would see a SCSI controller and drive? 3. How do you manage filesystems on the SAN? Does it support multiple partitions? NTFS? FAT? Proprietary? Managed through special proprietary software or through Windows' Disk Management Console? 4. MS Exchange server. I assume that you'd store the database on the SAN rather than on the blade itself, but what about recovery in the event that blade fails? This ties back to question #1. If we're dealing with snapshots, that's cool unless they're over 30 days old, in which case you could have some Kerberos problems with that machine on the domain. Not hard to fix, still, but a pain in the a** any way you look at it. 5. What about automatic failover? Can you provision a spare box to keep itself synched, configuration-wise (not file system-wise, because if a virus is what brings your server down you sure as hell don't want to have a backup of that virus that will automatically take over in the event the first box dies or just goes crazy? If it does, will it shut down that other box in order to prevent network problems? If anyone's fairly nearby (southern california, I'm in Rancho Cucamonga) and has such an environment set up, I'd love to check out your setup and talk to you first hand about the pros and cons of using Blade servers over standalones. Thanks! Jason

Huh. I thought that the A+ test was a joke, frankly. I was in and out of both the hardware AND software portions of the test in 20 minutes. The hardware knowledge you need is pretty basic, and the Windows questions are something any Admin should know anyway. Jason

Say what? You're smoking crack, man. PS2 is the *weakest* console of this generation by a MILE in terms of graphics and rendering. Both Gamecube AND Xbox smack that box around like nothing else. What PS2 DOES have going for it is *excellent* 3rd party support that cranks out TONS of great games. Incidentally, the "32 bit vs 128 bit" has little to no meaning given that most of the graphics rendering is done not by the CPU but by the GPU. Xbox's GPU is a true 128 bit nVidia processor, supposedly equivelent to a high end Geforce3 or low-end Geforce 4. You're claim concerning MS getting around their celeron by "adding some fancy circuitry and memory" is ridiculous at best. Nice fanboy post, I suppose, but what a complete pile of crap with no basis in reality whatsoever. You go take a look at Splinter Cell on Xbox, then take a look at Splinter Cell on PS2, and then come back and tell us which one is better at graphics and rendering. Jason

Ultimately I'll get all three, but the only one I plan to buy at launch is Revolution. For the most part, PS3 and Xbox 360 should be on even ground as far as capability (except, of course, that 360 has better media capabilities than PS3 will). I refuse, however, to be raped by Sony or MS again with their mediocre launches. Jason

I played it for a few minutes at E3 and it looked pretty awesome to me Jason

Not that it's relevant, because you'd be insane to use it, but NT 4 *cannot* read or write FAT32 natively. With the Sysinternals utility you also cannot create FAT32 partitions. Also, if you plan to use NT adn Windows 2000 or XP, you MUST use at least SP4 in order for NT4 to see the Windows 2000/XP version of NTFS (NTFS 5.0) Jason

In followup, now that I've been using this board awhile, the A8n-SLI SUCKS. I'm about ready to chuck this POS out the window. Jason

I have the same problems on my A8N-SLI Deluxe (which may actually be the *sh1ttiest* motherboard I've ever owned). I believe the problem is that the *driver* doesn't output 5.1 except on the *analog* connections. If your receiver has analog 5.1 inputs, output that way and it will work. Optical and digital outputs won't, except with programs like PowerDVD which do their own encoding. Jason

Why not just use MediaPortal instead? Http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net . It's every bit as full featured as MCE (in fact, more so, and it's upgraded ALL the time, unlike mCE) and better, it's FREE. Check it out, I don't think you will be disappointed. Jason PS: You could alternatively wait for XBox 360, which should give you a lot of that Media Center functionality right out of the box!

I was just wondering if you were planning to do some x64 edition driverpacks? Even more so than WinXP 32 bit, there's a bad need for x64 drivers that are easily locateable and useable. Great work, and I really appreciate all you do Jason

True, if you get frustrated with this one you can throw it without worry that it will fly back and knock your a** out Jason

Hey, if anyone can make it easy and friendly to use, Nintendo can I can't wait to get to E3 '06 now! Jason

I think you may be pretty much exactly right. After reading and watching some videos this morning, I have to say that I'm excited about this controller and its technology. I don't know what the mass market will do (the hardcore will p*** and moan, just like they did with the graphically gorgeous Zelda: The Wind Waker) but I can't wait for E3 '06 just so I can (hopefully) try this controller out with some real software. When I think of all teh times I or others have wrenched our bodies all over the place, as if it would make any difference with your standard controller, I have to laugh about it. The cool thing is that now, it really *will* make a difference how I move and what I do. VERY cool. I'd say Revolution is definitely shaping up to be, well, revolutionary. Chalk me up for a pre-order! Jason

Wow, it...looks like a DVD remote. Interesting. Heading to read more about it. Jason

I hope so. I'd rather not have to MOD the thing if I can avoid it, jsut because I'd rather not get banned from LIVE, heh. Of course, now that XBox's are getting so cheap I've been thinking about snagging one and modding the hell out of it for a purely offline box, leaving my Live XBox alone to avoid potential problems. I'm hoping the rumors of a $99 price point coming when 360 releases are true Jason

Why? Aren't most of the XBMC features supported by default anyway? The only limitation I'm really aware of (and I admit, I don't have a lot of experience with XBMC) is that 360 will only play standards like WMA, MP3 and WMV9. Of course, WMV9 isn't bad, so...I dunno Thoughts? Jason

Yeah, I'd have to agree there. What an absurd pricing structure all these companies have assumed with their bundling crap! Sad that Wal Mart has now joined the fray. I remember when PS2 and the first XBox came out they were one of the only places where you could *find* an unbundled system. I'm definitely not getting one at launch. Jason

-Wikipedia - Fanboy(from the previously mentioned PS3 vs XBox360 thread) Need I say more? The problem is that no one is going to bother with this thread because of the types of responses you gave in the other 3. You've basically dug yourself into a hole that's very hard to dig out of. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You'd certainly need to say a lot more than what you just have, I'm afraid. My stated desire for Sony to get b***h slapped was clearly based on the fact that it's never good for a single company to have such a dominant position in the market for such an extended period of time. It has NOTHING to do with being a fanboy of any other specific vendor. Frankly I'd be just as content if Nintendo pulled a surprise performance and ended up on top for a bit. At least then we could count on clever and interesting software on a regular basis. In the end you can say what you like, but the point, purpose and intent of this thread was merely to report on what a Senior Engineer from THE most important development tools developer in the industry had to say about the state of current affairs regarding the only two next-gen consoles who've announced any system specifics whatsoever. This isn't a matter of *me* commenting on the issue, though you appear to have enjoyed deluding yourself otherwise and entirely ignored what was reported above. Have fun with your moment of mental masturbation, OK? Jason

Thanks for your lack of useful input, friend, but that wasn't the point of the thread at all. Too bad you missed it. As stated above, the point was merely to report what a senior engineer from Autodesk said about content creation on the new platforms using Max 8. Too bad you're no smarter than the previous poster and can't contribute something useful. Jason

Uh, no, on the contrary I'm not a fanboy of *any* of the major console manufacturers. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, none of them has proven themselves to be an all-around great solution. I was merely tossing out what one of the senior engineers of Autodesk said during a presentation concerning Max 8 and content creation on the new platforms. When you have something constructive to add, come on back. Otherwise, kindly poke your nose elsewhere. Jason

So we're sitting there going through the demos and the presenter--who's in charge of something or other for the entire western region of the United States-- is going on about how they've got all these cool new features and functions that tie into Xbox 360 development. All kinds of slick new directX stuff, tools for creating extraordinary textures via normal mapping, etc.), and someone asks "so what's Autodesk doing with regard to PS3 development?" and our presenter really had some strong opinions. He said "we plan to support PS3 development if Sony ever bothers to spend some time telling us what they want or need. Right now Sony's being characteristically flaky". He also said that the PS3 is "one of the worst programming nightmares I have ever seen. The primary core has no logic for delegating tasks to the SPE's, the programmer has to assign the tasks manually, by hand, in the code. By contrast, XBox 360's XNA platform automatically optimizes the code and assigns tasks according to available resources." Asked about which system was the more powerful he said "taking into account the entire package--tools, ease-of-use, resource management and hardware capability, XBox 360 is hands-down the most capable console system that will be introduced in the next generation. PS3 is becoming less powerful by the day, Sony's support is practically nonexistent at this point." As he wrapped it up he told us all, "if I could only afford one next-gen system, it would be XBox 360. If I could afford two, it would be 360 and Revolution." (which, of course, spawned a bunch of people asking about revolution, which he couldn't say anything about.) All in all, if I were Sony I'd be awfully worried when the world's #1 3D game content creation tool developers begins to call me "flaky" and says in no uncertain terms that the competition has a better box. Wow. Jason

I've had great luck with the Belkin 802.11g routers, myself. I've got a pair of them, actually, one doing my routing and one setup as a wireless bridge. I have the bridge box in the living room on the wall behind the 61" and run my ethernet cables from my PS2 and XBox for online gaming. Works *excellent*, if I do say so myself! Jason

What does your program do? I might be able to host it, depending on what it does. Jason