Your VNC client tells the display driver that it needs to refresh the screen of certain rectanglar region, the display driver capture the display buffer which is the resulting bitmap that's effectively catered all the windows and their z-index on the screen, and send back the client.

Now replace that with 3D viewport coordinates and game backbground textures.

Since for specific map it'd be deterministic function, the cloud server may cache the result to further increase performance. (Imagine a war map in a game that 100 players appears in the same screen, differs slightly by coordinates and view angles)

The performance gain could be negative if the texture to be displayed isn't that complex, or network speed is slow, though

1 day ago, svelasquez1​23 wrote

Obviously not a popular opinion here but how does supporting a second hand market help content creators or paying customers considering its impact on the size of the paying consumer base. 

You can't sell used copies of movie tickets, sporting event tickets, bowling, or amusement park admissions.  It's entertainment that you are paying for and if the games do not include subscription supported DLC, it's consumable.

I don't know... I can resell books... even if it contains multi-route fictions ("Turn to page 11 if you select the first choice, page 15 if you select the second one") 

11 hours ago, GoddersUK wrote

*snip*

Quite right you can't "borrow them to your friend". That is a grammatical impossibility, however, and I think it's a bit harsh to blame Microsoft for that.

He should check the usage of "to lend" and "to borrow". I think it isn't quite right to laugh at incorrect usage of "non-English native" person without telling them why.

Take Ubuntu for example. Some Ubuntu users doesn't like their choice of using GNOME as XWin environment, the released a distro that use KDE as default instead of that's why Kubuntu existed.

With someone knowing KDE enough, this kind of distro can be maintained be as few as two people.

I've read about plans to consolidate MSDN forum and ASP.NET forum (account and points linkage) like MSDN forum and TechNet forum now about a year ago, but never heard any updates since that.

14 hours ago, figuerres wrote

*snip*

wifi n

8 core cpu

Freakly, for wifi, why N only when AC is already out?

And yay for multicore game console. It's higher spec. than my desktop.

40 minutes ago, GoddersUK wrote

@wastingtimewithforums: Why? Because EA et al. are greedy tards.

Btw, take SimCity incident recently as example, the developers of the game itself don't agree with the managements, however they have to follow management's decision or lose their job.

It's like that when software companies is running by business people instead of developers. Real game developers may want to protect their work, but won't try ways that hurts gameplay experience of paid gamers.

Although if I don't need to do development with my laptop, I may have considered to replace one with tablets.

Where's superconductor semiconductor when we need them?

Will the flash drive manufacturers buyback these unwanted drives and sell to game vendors, so that they can create their own version of "no install required" games (Saves written to local AppData of the user instead)?

If Microsoft makes a new USB medium type that's not copyable (maybe also with tweak to NTFS system driver that disallow file copy / junction from that medium), and the flash drive manufacturers help update the firmware for that, it may just work. (Covered by DMCA, so we don't need another law. And no crappy DRM that punishes real customers)

Just like IIS ( http://www.iis.net/">http://www.iis.net ) the web technologies have their individual site. There's nothing special.

Mono, Monogame and moonlight are opensource replica of how .NET framework should work on other platforms, and therefore not supported by Microsoft.

7 hours ago, elmer wrote

Apparently the Server version will be 2012-R2 - I wonder if that will also be free ?

I don't think there will be 2012-R2 because of this unless there's huge change inside. Afterall, what people complained for Win8 isn't really relevent to Win2012.

EDIT: Btw, since Microsoft don't think this as a Service Pack, will it push the Win7 to the edge of being rotated out of support cycle?

Another sentence like "Can Can can can?" is made. (Although words not exactly the same)

14 hours ago, evildictait​or wrote

The employee was absolutely right to be scared shitless. If Microsoft finds out who posted it, they're going to get fired.

That's not to say he doesn't have some valid points. Indeed, I can identify with several of the points he's making (teams really hate "inheriting" code that they didn't write, and it's much easier to write new code than repair old code, for instance).

But the reason he's gonna get fired when they find out who it is isn't because he's making these points, but because of how he's making these points.

If you have a problem with your employer, talk to your boss. If your boss doesn't listen, talk to his boss. If he doesn't listen, write your CV and go somewhere where your talents will be appreciated.

Writing a negative post about your employer online on a site that you know is going to use it as ammunition against your and your colleagues is always going to get you fired when they find out. That's not just "how Microsoft works". That's how every company in America works.

Agreed. Feel free to rant about your company or a company of the past, just make sure most detail that can be used to conclude which company you're talking about is removed. Otherwise you can expect trouble.

This guy rant with the company named directly, He's crossed the line and don't expect mercy on him.

3 hours ago, Harlock123n​ew wrote

Security issues aside, XP could live practically forever in a VM... We have many clients still nursing along XP vms for specific tasks that the software load in them performs....

Yup. When I left my last company, we still have clients who using DOS based stock trading system and dutifully pay our support fee even when they've not contacted us for support for a long time.

Who knows how long will they keep living as long as they can serve a purpose.

Once upon a time, PostgreSql treat Windows as second class citizen, because staff they hire know deeply about *nix, but not Windows. While their *nix version is one of the fastest and most feature complete DB engine at that time, their Windows version is way way slower than their competitors.

A few years later, they hire staff to brush up the performance for Windows version and now they no longer suffer from the poor performance.

Moral of story: It's common when a project of *nix come out there aren't Windows version, but as user base evolve, there will be Windows port, and possibly a fork for a Windows specific version because of difference in system architecture. (Windows favors multithread, *nix favors multiprocess. Even Apache have to rewrite their Windows main executables to cater this difference.)

If you try to install with WinXP SP2 disk on harddisk with SATA, you'll need to get a floppy to load the driver in the first phase of installation. (Unless you're technically savvy enough to create a streamlined installation disk in the beginning)

Since floppy drives are less commonly seen today, average joes will have difficulty doing reinstallation themselves.

EDIT: The information is in there, just that you didn't quote it. I take back my words that the link missed such information.

EDIT2: The end of life of Win9X was pushed by 2 things.

First, Win9X images are removed to MSDN website, so those we didn't computerized their information infrastructure has no legal way to get it after Microsoft stopped to sell new copies.

Then, people have to upgrade to WinXP to take advantage of Hyperthreading and multicore CPUs.

I'd imagine that when motherboard vendors stop support BIOS completely, WinXP will only live on VMs soon and cease to be a primary desktop OS. In fact if WinXP SP3 don't come with SATA support, and motherboards don't come with fallback BIOS support, WinXP's life might end sooner than Microsoft want it to be.

1 hour ago, wastingtime​withforums wrote

In 2003 AltaVista was already almost dead, and bought out by Overture.

Yahoo:

http://books.google.de/books?id=seTusb27TIEC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=In+2002,+Google+overtook+Yahoo+in+referrals+to+Web+sites&source=bl&ots=CjztZS612L&sig=nHlWy_k7zTSgT_Hr69CjdikPi7k&hl=de&sa=X&ei=JfOJUcetMJCChQfop4HwCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=In%202002%2C%20Google%20overtook%20Yahoo%20in%20referrals%20to%20Web%20sites&f=false

Mid-2002: Google overtook Yahoo in percent of referrals to websites.

I must say that I see nothing on this page. There's only big blank rectangles with word "Wird Geladen..." written on the corners. Can you check the link?

EDIT: Btw, just know that once upon a time Win9X significantly dominates the market as most popular. And when Microsoft declared to end support for Win9X, there's similar outcry.

Knowing these is good enough for the discussion. No need to sidestep the topic.