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What is thePC tablet..sounds like a laptop or somthing that you draw on...

It's like a handheld computer, only it is much wider and longer, almost notebook sized. Back in the 80s, there was a company called Go! that was going to release a tablet PC. Then Microsoft declared they were going to release a tablet PC, and Go! lost its funding (because nobody wanted to run with an MS competitor, by god). Well, a little more than a decade later, and they have finally paid off >:(.

To learn more about Microsoft's new tablet PC, try going to www.slashdot.org . You'll recognize the MS stories by the excellent Gates of Borg icon

Wow that is awesome...PC tablet.addtolist ...check....

It's really expensive. Wait at least a year for a third-party company to produce the reasonably priced version.

Sounds like it will turn out like the PS2 or somthing...never can telll...look a the GameCube...it is like at 149.99! that is pretty low for a new console

When I was a kid, like 8-9, a new computer cost about $3000-4500. Keep in mind that this "computer" had less processing power and memory than a modern cell-phone.

Now, I could get a computer that could play Quake for under $300.

They should slow down the pace of technology a bit and let some of us catch up with the rest. It would be nice if game companies produced old classics such as the first master of orion, the old lucasarts adventure series(The Secret of Monkey Island), Star Control 2 and the like. I miss fiddling around with the config.sys of old dos versions. Computer games are way too commercialized and too focused on eye-candy that requires high powered video cards.

But isn't that the point? If id software wasn't continually releasing kick @$$ games that required high system requirements.. we probably would be content with our 400 mhz machines that can run Word and Mozilla comfortably.

Look at Doom 3. Video card makers are probably desparately waiting for this game to be released so people will have a reason to upgrade. Doom 3 takes advantage of the latest video cards so people who have TNT's or Voodoo's won't be able to play at all.

I think it's a combination of games with eye candy and intel's competition with AMD that has reduced prices and pushed people to buy faster machines.

What would be cool is if a limit in speed was finally reached (because of technology or price) and game developers had to go back to profiling and writing important code in assembler to increase speed.

- Nick

Isn't that why we are all here though? Most of us are content with slower machines. I upgraded from 400MHZ to 1.5GHZ and it is the dumbest thing I've done in years. Mister super-fast processor crashes all of my Sierra games unless if I'm using NAGI and FreeSCI. My 166MHZ laptop runs them perfectly, without the use of non-Sierra interpreters. Do you realize that processors will be at something like 10TeraHertz in 15 years. Things won't slow down then either. IBM has already created a molecular based computer. This is what my game is all about. How we become computers. The whole biological computer thing scares the bejesus outta me. I truly do believe that the timeline for my game is possible. One day computers may very well be an integrated part of us. I think it is part of man's quest for immortality. If we can save ourselves on a harddrive, then we can never die...right? Just get uploaded into a newer healthier genetically engineered body. It's really not that far off. 2084, that's my theory...(just like 1984, HA!) So, no, there is no slowing down. It has become part of our evolution. Perhaps we are the resistance.

[glow=red,2,300]Viva la resistance![/glow]

Hey, this post kind of turned into a shameless plug for my game!! http://www.juncmodule.com/framedpages/games.html

HA! ;D

Later,
-junc

a molecular based computer.

Are you talking about the quantum computer? Cause I read that first test results were really disappointing and they'll probably won't be able to replace current computers. They'll only be useful for medical stuff, like inserting a very small quantumcomputer thingy in your blood stream or some tisue that can trace down cancer-infested tisue and attack it.
Well that's what the Knack said anyway.

[edit]Your screenshots look thuper btw![/edit]

Wow, that is actually MORE than I heard. I thought they had just developed a on and off switch of sorts. I didn't know it could actually be used as a computer already. I thought actually being able to use it would still be at least a decade off. I imagine that molecular/quantum computers will evolve slowly and behind closed doors for at least the next decade. Then, as "electronic" computers begin to reach their physical limitations the "non-electronic" computers will begin to ease their way into public life.

NOTE: I'm using electronic and non-electronic very loosely here. I suspect microchips and biochips will be integrated at some point. I doubt there will ever be an entirely life based computer within this century.

later,
-junc

edit: oh yeah! Thanks for the compliment on the screenshots!

Hey, are you guys also talking of the snail-brain chips ;D ? Lately there have been a lot of pictures going around of some snail nerve cells being grown on microchips to combine biological and electronical aspects... It actually looks quite funny at the moment, some round sticks sticking up from a board and strange, weblike structures stuck between them. I wonder what they will be used for one day... I can already imagine the adverts:

Upgrade to Snail-Chip: Windooze gets some brains

;D.

SGreenslade wrote: They should slow down the pace of technology a bit and let some of us catch up with the rest. It would be nice if game companies produced old classics such as the first master of orion, the old lucasarts adventure series(The Secret of Monkey Island), Star Control 2 and the like. I miss fiddling around with the config.sys of old dos versions. Computer games are way too commercialized and too focused on eye-candy that requires high powered video cards.

I wish that people would either get up to speed with technology, and stop moaning!

Quantum computers and IBM's particle computer are two different things. Quantum computers use the spin and direction of different particles to create a state that is between 0 and 1 (a qubit). These particles are manipulated by laser tweezers and weird-@$$ stuff like that. IBM's particle computer uses logic circuits set up like series of dominoes, and it uses the chain reaction to determine the final state. Quantum computers are still pretty slow, but it is a baby science. The IBM particle computer is blindingly fast, but it takes a long time to set up the initial sequence. When they can easily reinitialize the sequence, then it will be very practical.

As far as processor speeds, Moore's law not-withstanding, there are very real physical limitations of speed based on the distances of busses and whatnot. As things become smaller, there is more interference from adjoining circuits and static. The next predicted level is stacked processors, so your Pentium 93 will probably be a damn cube.

In addition, NAGI has a full screen mode. Yeah, you can't use the original interpreter, but AGI is both a scripting language and a format standard. As such, it was meant to be interpreted. To meet modern OSes and the like (And it could very well be an OS conflict, and not hardware, as my 700mhz Pentium III running Win98SE has NO problem running the original interpreters), new interpreters must be created. Too bad, but the game will remain the same. More importantly, your kids might even play your game on the Pentium 93 Brain-implant PC. Huzzah!

And, yeah, I really hate old, slow computers and the original Sierra implementation of sound always got on my nerves. Too high pitched, little tinny bleeps from the internal speaker, no overtones at all. Even as a kid, I would kill my PCs RAM by trying to have a realistic number of elements in my games.

Okay, I have to stop before I REALLY start ranting.

there's a doom 3???? Man, I must be way late in the information of video games. What I am saying is that it's still possible to make kick @$$ games with SVGA as the limit for graphics. Why are we all here if that's not true?