dmd platform support - poll

[Walter Bright]

Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> - Graphics card that's pixel shader v1 (was a pre-pixel-shader GeForceMX 2 
> for a long time, only upgraded because I found this one for about $40 and 
> wanted to play around with pixel shaders).

I don't have a graphics card because of heat/fan/noise.

> - The motherboard's USB is v1.x

So's mine, and that really sucks. I'm going to get a card with 2.0 on 
it. USB is a home run, kudos to the designers of it.

> - 21" CRT I got from a CompUSA store-closing for $25. (Funny thing is, this 
> was made years ago and goes higher than HD resolution and has no native 
> resolution, good contrast, no ghosting, no realistic risk of burn-in, and 
> zero frames of "image processing" delay. Silly people and their 
> hundreds/thousands-of-dollars LCD/Plasma/DLP HDTVs ;) ) I can't hang it on 
> the wall, but what do I care? My desk's big enough.

I'm not with you there. I hated that gigantic leaden monster on my desk, 
and was happy to upgrade it to a sleek lcd.

> 
> So, yea, about on par with you two. (Although I do have damn near a TB of HD 
> space and still crave more...yea, I'm a packrat.) The only thing about it 
> that I feel is insufficient is the number of PCI ports (it's one of those 
> reduced-size motherboards...in a non-reduced-size case), but I'm still 
> getting by.
> 
> I do some occasional video processing/editing, 3D stuff (mainly to learn 
> it), and gaming (but nothing like Gears of War or Halo or anything like 
> that, besides I prefer to game on a living-room console). If I were to get 
> really serious about any of those things, I would probably want a new 
> system, but I don't do enough of them to really justify it.

I tried video editing, it's a no-go on my system. Not even close.

> I would kind of like the convenience of a laptop (mine's dead), but the only 
> reason I'd be interested in the fancier CPUs on that is for the reduced 
> heat/power consumption.
> 
> Speaking of laptops, if anyone hears about a company that makes quality 
> laptops with an actual built-in trackball, let me know. I can't stand those 
> awful touchpads or IBM's "nubs", and dragging around a real trackball in 
> addition to power cord, etc, starts taking away from the whole "portability" 
> thing.

I bought an eee pc, as in a laptop I'm interested in portability, not 
desktop replacement.

> One other funny anecdote about "newer/trendier is not always better": I've 
> been recruited by a friend of my mom to replace/supplement her small 
> business's wireless network with a wired one.

When my house was built, I wired up every room with 2 cat5's and 2 RG6 
coaxes (had to do it myself, as the electrician had no idea how to 
install it). I had no use for it at the time (10 years ago) but these 
days it's fantastic to have. I keep finding more and more uses for it, 
and just ordered another hub for all the new stuff. I plan on rewiring 
my distribution panel to make it look more professional rather than a 
plate of spaghetti <g>.