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andrewmu

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The 3dfx Voodoo1 7 years ago

The problem is that VR performance is tightly coupled to GPU performance. Currently, adding more pixels requires an equivalent increase in GPU performance to maintain quality.

I'm prepared to believe that e.g. foveal rendering will give step-wise improvements without more GPU power, but it's not the same as the years of continual process improvements were for GPUs.

It's true that Bitcoin can't be used legally in fractional-reserve banking, but given the behaviour of exchanges to continue trading despite a proportion of their holdings having been hacked or embezzled, there was an element of de-facto fractional reserve going on.

I wouldn't say that that allowing fringe voices has been occasional. Nigel Farage has had a very disproportionate number of appearances on Question Time alone.

More recently the BBC allowed Arron Banks to defend himself publicly against legal charges of election interference in a way which might well bias a trial.

The BBC might not be "government funded state propaganda" but BBC governors are chosen by the government.

This is not a valid argument for the BBC being an objective broadcasting organisation. One side can rightfully claim bias and then the other side can over-sensitively claim bias the other way because the BBC isn't 100% presenting it's view. The BBC could still be much more biased towards one side.

[dead] 9 years ago

The late Pieter Hintjens had some thoughtful criticisms of CoCs: http://hintjens.com/blog:108

From my understanding, he's concerned about harmful assumptions sometimes made in them and also how the policing of them can be abusive.

High resolution screens have lots of pixels and high DPI screens have many pixels per inch.

If you look at an Ultra HD (3840x2180) 40" TV close up versus a 5" phone screen (say 1334x750) viewed from the same distance you'll notice the phone screen is sharper despite having fewer pixels.

There's a bit of irony between the title and the wording in the EU cookie warning:

"We use cookies to personalise content and ads [..]. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners."

The A.I. Anxiety 11 years ago

I'm imagining a self-aware AI doing good all day then retiring to it's private realm to watch videos of paper-clip manufacturing.

This is really nice. I like the lighting model but also the attention to detail, e.g. scratches on the Chrome material. One thing, that might be specific to my renderer implementation - the specular reflection seems to be point sampled. Is this to do with a float texture limitation?

I'm wondering why the greyscale and saturation filters were both necessary. greyscale(0) == saturation(1.0) and greyscale(1.0) == saturation(0.0), with afaik a linear scaling between either.

I too am instinctively repelled by this acquisition. I did prefer the idea of the technology remaining independent and supported on multiple platforms.

MS, Apple, Google, Sony all have their own closed(* Android is arguable, I know) devices that they would prefer to limit the technology to. The benefit to Facebook is to have a primary interface perhaps hosted on another platform but not completely dependent on it.

I can think of three obvious negatives:

Carmack's apparently successful work using mobile graphics hardware to generate acceptable output for the Rift could allow a much wider adoption among the casual users who don't have a hardcore gaming PC/latest generation console. Facebook might focus on producing a low-cost version that lacks the resolution/low latency which would be preferable to gamers / professional 3D users. An extensive patent portfolio could inhibit higher-end competitors from easily addressing that market.

The second concern is that Facebook would in political superpower-like ways abuse the power to grant access to a popular VR platform and demand concessions such as mandatory Facebook accounts for gaming, an egregious cut of royalties, banning of anything that "replicates Facebook functionality" etc.

Thirdly, is the probably the most common knee-jerk consumer issue; ultra creepy Facebook, logging and mining everything that you foveate on, from the ad logos in virtual environments to the facial/bodily features of your friends' avatars. They build a more detailed model of your own desires and motivations than you consciously have of yourself.