hakon
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Joined: 4/15/2005
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
a - How does the introduction of dual core processing affect the overall CPU speed. Do you simply multiply by 2?
This is fully up to you, as programmer :) Dual core means that you can run 2 processes or threads concurrently, at full speed. If you make good use of threading, you get twice the speed. If you don't use any threading, the maxiumum benefit will be that you may offload some system processes and other tasks to the second core, while the main core runs the main game thread. In the last case, you will only get about 10% to 20% speed increase over a single core.
More and more software supports 2 or more core, though, since dual core is pretty much becoming the standard (with quad core or more taking over the high end).
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b - What is the best way to set up the LAN? What software and hardware (e.g., cable) would be necessary?
The standard setup for a home network, is a broadband router, SMC have some good ones at :
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?cid=1&event=viewCategory&localeCode=EN_USA
(I dont have very good experience with 3com's low end routers).
Such a box contain:
- A router, with NAT support, which means that you get a local range of IP addresses that can't be seen from the outside. (Which is good for security). You can then expose only the ports that you specifically want to open, and delegate them to the computer that serves/answers the port, if you want to have a web server, ftp server etc. Connections made from the inside to the outside will be directed automatically.
- A built in firewall, which is a very nice first line of defense.
- A switch, usually with 4-8 lan ports, depending on your need.
- (usually) a wireless access point. This is highly recommended when you have a laptop, since it means that you can access your network from anywhere in the house, and there is less plugging/unplugging when you travel with your PC. Mine is set up to allow only the MAC address of my specific laptop, which means that it's quite hard to tap into for my neighbours. If you don't sit right next to the access point, the radiation exposure should be very limited, compared for instance to moderate use of a cell phone.
Some versions may also add more functionality, such as printer connectivity, etc, depending on your needs.
In addition to this, you only need 1 RJ45 cable per computer you want to connect,.
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c - Is using a standard mouse going to be possible? What would need to be purchased to do that?
All new laptops will support any USB mouse.
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d - Is it possible to buy Windows XP any more? Is using Vista Home Edition a reasonable choice? I suspect that is what most of the people who buy MWIF and run it on a newly purchased computer will be using.
Hmm. I would recommend Vista, and maybe Vista 64. If anything, then to avoid any compatibility issues. Of course, if you want to run a full developer environment on Vista 64, you probably want 4 gigs of ram.
A feature breakdown of for the vista versions is listed below:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx
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Printable Version
RE: What hardware and operating system do you expect to... - 
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RE: What hardware and operating system do you expect to... - 
The Yuki language in California and the Pamean languages in Mexico have octal systems because the speakers count using the spaces between their fingers rather than the fingers themselves. 
In 1716 King Charles XII of Sweden asked Emanuel Swedenborg to elaborate a number system based on 64 instead of 10. Swedenborg however argued that for people with less intelligence than the king such a big base would be too difficult and instead proposed 8 as base. In 1718 Swedenborg wrote a manuscript, which has not been published: "En ny rekenkonst som om vexlas wid Thalet 8 i stelle then wanliga wid Thalet 10" ("A new arithmetic (or art of counting) which changes at the Number 8 instead of the usual at the Number 10"). The numbers 1-7 are there denoted by the consonants l, s, n, m, t, f, u (v) and zero by the vowel o. Thus 8 = "lo", 16 = "so", 24 = "no", 64 = "loo", 512 = "looo" etc. Numbers with consecutive consonants are pronounced with vowel sounds between in accordance with a special rule. 
Octal is sometimes used in computing instead of hexadecimal, perhaps most often in modern times in conjunction with file permissions under Unix systems (see chmod). It has the advantage of not requiring any extra symbols as digits (the hexadecimal system is base-16 and therefore needs six additional symbols beyond 0–9). It is also used for digital displays. 
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