Nvidia Apologizes 117
BuRzMaLy writes: "Read out the next round in Nvidia ethic story. The guy at Hypothermia does
an interview with Nvidia where they in fact admit to all the charges against them, and they apologize to Hypothermia as well."
This is a followup to a
recent story where Nvidia was accused of trying to bully around various Web sites.
Re:Hrm (Score:1)
Wow... I think you are on to something... If NVidia is responsible for hypothermia, just think how fast you could overclock their chips...
Talking so much without saying anything... (Score:4)
Here at NVIDIA we have over 60 people in marketing and unfortunately, someone who thought he was doing the correct thing was not. The contract that is on Hypothermia (sp?) is a document that we use for corporate to corporate promotions.
Translation: Someone here really f**cked up. (Note lack of apology).
Let's say if and OEM would like to do a banner for a show this agreement assures us that we have top billing with that promotion.
Then why is there all this text in the agreement [gamershardware.com] about web sites? What does this have to do with a show?
Whatever you review is whatever you review...we've never asked anyone to pull a review for competitive reasons.
Yeah, but you guys sure have no problem pressuring reviewers into biasing for your card's strengths.
I feel really bad in your situation, because for the last 7 months you have been misled by a non-NVIDIA employee (intern, contractor, etc...). To Hypothermia, who had thought that this was an accurate PR rep, I apologize and for all of the grief/headache this has caused I apologize for that too.
What kind of company allows this to happen? Is NVIDIA such a loose operation as to allow non-NVIDIA employees to use their corporate email? Note that this does not satisfactorily explain Hypothermia's situation, because in the evolution of this whole ordeal [gamershardware.com] Hypothermia clearly states that he spoke to at least two different people.
So this apology means nothing to me because none of Derek's explanations hold water. The apology I see only really applies to allowing someone to impersonate an NVIDIA employee.
All the opinions expressed above do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
Re:(OT) Re:Stil doesn't stop there (Score:1)
Can we say Glide? (Score:1)
Re:Why why why (Score:1)
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
Hardware is not politics. I will continue to buy hardware that will offer me the best value and/or performance and/or happens to be available. I own one NVIDIA card, two 3dfx cards, an S3, and a Matrox. Why? See above.
Food is not politics. If I have to hear another tirade about how terrible I am and the foods I eat, I'm going to wring the fucking vegan's neck. My vegetarian friends can be cool -- they eat their hummus and leave me alone.
Television is not politics. Leave me alone. I don't care if there is no educational value. I don't care if the book by XYZ author is better than anything on TV. I enjoy watching The Simpsons and South Park and The Family Guy -- try fitting that kind of humor into a book.
Smoking is not politics. If you don't like where I smoke, that's fine -- I'll step outside. If you want to prevent me from smoking with laws making cigarettes outrageously expensive, or setting zones so that I can't smoke anywhere on the grounds of my workplace, fuck off. You think it's disgusting? Well, I think your nail biting is, too!
You get the idea. Assess things on their merits, and forget the company's politics. The practices of a company now will affect their karma somewhere down the road anyway (see M$).
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
It's this sort of thing which sets 3dfx apart.
Scott
Re:Stil doesn't stop there (Score:1)
Re:Only because of liberal "ethics" (Score:1)
Quick! Print up your manifesto and mail it to the NY Times!
Re:Corporations are good for all of us (Score:1)
Playing the Payola Game (Score:1)
Finally, the author brags that he could have made them give him 50 GeForce2 boards.
I'm sorry but this type of airing of dirty laundry of your business partners (which I consider signing the type of promotional agreement to be) reflects badly on yourself more than it does nVidia.
.sig: "Are you moderating me down because you disagree with me?"
Encouraging (Score:1)
Cool! (Score:1)
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How about this.... (Score:2)
It's sickening to see that people are in this type of "biz" only to get free stuff and go to their friends and say "Hey man! Look what XXX sent me! nah nah nah!" Pathetic. I really wish I could do this sort of thing only because I love messing with hardware and writing about it. Unlike some people over at *cough* HardOCP who start writing editorials the minute nVidia says they won't send him a Geforce 2 MX card.
To those of you who fall in that category I say the hell with you and you will fall by the wayside to websites which don't give us this soap opera style crap. Anand comes to mind, no wonder he has the largest internet/hardware e-mag on the net. (Note to anand: can we have different benchmarks OTHER than Q3? =))
Re:It can and should be avoided (Score:1)
I always thought CR was a reliable source of information until some time in 1990. I worked at a bicycle store as a mechanic for most of the 80's (back when a 100ns 64kbit DRAM chip in a DIP package cost ~$7).
Anyway, I read a review in CR on a number of bicycles, and to my surprise, they had listed a few department store bikes over specialized, higher quality brands. I couldn't figure out how they could make these claims, I mean, there's a world of difference in just the components alone.
After reading the article, it appeared to me that the stores which supplied the test bikes obviously had differing levels of competence w.r.t. their mechanics. I don't remember the exact wording, but apparently the reviewers' opinions were based largely on the performance of the bicycle, rather than the components. Since the department store had better mechanics, the inferior product got higher marks.
So I guess there really isn't a parallel for video cards since there isn't any real 'tuning' per-se. However, it is interesting how even the most well-intentioned publication can be misleading through no fault of its own.
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Re:Two things: (Score:1)
The correct spellings are as follows:
Re:Stil doesn't stop there (Score:1)
Analogy To Print... (Score:2)
Good design/type on screen should (IMO, obviously) rely on using small amounts of light on a largely unlit screen.
Perhaps more important on tech sites where people are more likely to have high resolutions with larger areas of white.
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Re:It can and should be avoided (Score:2)
And with technology related items, people are much more interested in new stuff. Magazines that reviewed only products that were on the shelves would have a hard time competing with magazines that review stuff that will be out next week.
Getting free hardware doesn't usually make for a better experience anyway. You often get beta drivers that have all sorts of conflicts with other drivers. I still have all sorts of 3d boards that I can't use anymore because they use beta drivers that don't exsist anymore and I didn't have the mind to save them.
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Re:Something's not quite right (Score:1)
The industry is rife with this sort of thing. While it's not "playing nice" for a company to leverage reviewers like this, it is not at all unethical - for the producer. The producer of goods has a fiduciary responsibility to increase sales. They are ultimately not responsible for the accuracy of information printed in some trade rag or review site.
The ultimate responsibility for journalistic integrity is; SUPRISE! THE JOURNALIST!! If Jim's Hardware can't get a demo unit from nVidia for a review, and loses readers to ZDNet, TOO FUCKIN BAD! Wait until the product is released (what a concept) and anonymously buy it. Obtaining sample product any other way represents a CLEAR conflict of interest!
The way this is SUPPOSED to work is, ZDNet plays kissy-kissy with vendor, vendor plays kissy-kissy with ZDNet, who writes a favorable review for the vendor - a month in advance of the product's actual release (is this a review, or a press-release in sheep's clothing?). When the product is released, people buy the product, find out it's really poo, and get pissed off. A month later, Jim's Hardware has their reivew ready, and is honest, clear of any conflict of interest, and people read it and go - damn, I'm not going to trust ZDNet any more, I'm going to trust Jim's Hardware, because though their information was later in arriving, it was accurate. Jim's Hardware didn't SELL me to the vendor for a hot scoop.
If you're going to point your finger, learn WHERE you should point it.
if it ain't broke, then fix it 'till it is!
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
if it ain't broke, then fix it 'till it is!
Re:Talking so much without saying anything... (Score:1)
What do you want, flawless execution?
People make mistakes. Corporations are mostly made of people. Doesn't it make sense that a Company might screw up once in a while.
And even so, the real thing that is important to get out of this is that they don't want reviewers signing these contracts. Isn't that the best possible outcome?
Journalistic Ethics (Score:2)
Hmm... ya, that sounds like journalistic ethics.
[quote]
Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.
[...]
Act Independently
Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know.
Journalists should:
Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity.
Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.
Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.
Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; avoid bidding for news.
[unquote]
source: http://www.publicintegrity.org/ethics.html [publicintegrity.org]
And that's why I said this kind of thing wouldn't be a problem if the sites had any kind of independence (which equals ethics in this case).
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
The truth is that you don't like smoking, and you don't think people should have the right to do what they want with their bodies.
I know my life would be much less pleasant if I were in the company of a bunch of fussy, whiny antismokers...
Re:Another translation from nVidiaSpeak (Score:1)
Re:That's just great (Score:3)
Re:Corporations are good for all of us (Score:1)
Re:Why why why (Score:1)
Don't ask me why, it just is.
Early Adopters (Score:1)
However, I really don't think it's such a wise decision for a consumer to rush right out and by a product the day it's available. First off, the drivers (be they windows/linux/whatever) are generally not very mature, nor support the full features of the hardware.
It would seem that the smart buyer would wait for USER's reviews, be it friends, newsgroups, etc. Those are the true reviewers, your peers.
I never trust a website/magazine review anyway. The product they reviewed is not always what's seen on the shelf and I refuse to pay top dollar for what might really be a beta product.
Hypothermia signed a contract... (Score:1)
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
Bullshit. 3dfx was just as tight lipped with specs (closed glide, binary-only drivers, etc) when they were #1. Now that they're not, they're trying to be 'nice' to earn a better reputation, so they might be #1 again, at which point, they'll be behaving just as they were, and just as nVidia is now.
Corporations don't 'care'. People within those corps may care, and may have the power to do something nice, but the organization itself cares about market share and profit.
Re:Why why why (Score:1)
What do you want? (Score:1)
Everyone wants to be a judge; just wait until you're a defendant.
--
Patrick Doyle
Re:Why why why (Score:1)
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Re:They did it to developers, too (Score:1)
That's really underhanded -- NVIDIA is skating on very thin legal ice, and if this gets out, they will probably he headed into court in the near future.
Steven, I wanted to look at some of your current projects in development, yet your webpage didn't have a DNS entry. Any reason behind this?
BeOS? (Score:1)
l8r
Sean
Re:*sigh* (Score:2)
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
nVidia and Open Source (Score:1)
I bought a TNT after being promised that they would release docs. I have learned to never believe a promise, and I will no longer buy nVidia products.
Re:They did it to developers, too (Score:1)
Your thoughts provide curious possibilities, but there is no evidence of your existence, nor is there any way to follow up on this.
Before I completely discredit you, you mind responding?
Umm....a corporation doesn't have emotions (Score:2)
A corporation simply exists to make profits for its shareholders. Stop associating these touchy-feely qualities of niceness and morality with corporations. It's naive and silly.
Sure, sometimes companies donate to charity to improve their image, or sponsor sports and crap like that, but it's still the same thing. Ultimately, it's a big building with cubicles and paid PR people. Don't confuse a company with being good or bad. It's just there to make money. MS, oracle, Sun, napster - they're all there to make money, and they just bitch about justice and morality when it suits them.
Don't be so naive. Being loyal to a company or thinking it's ethical is as silly as like having feelings for your gas station. Even if the company happens to make software/hardware you like.
w/m
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
(Which is OK with me, I personally like 3dfx (right now) better anyway, for most of the reasons you've stated. I dunno, may change depending on what they do in the future... (After all, I thought Windows 3.1 was pretty cool and didn't care to see MS go away until after Win95...) Although I'd still like to get my hands on a Voodoo 5 :))
Anyone remember? (Score:2)
I seem to remember an episode where there were stickers being put on game software boxes that implied that you needed a 3dfx card to run that game even though that wasn't true. Anyone remember who ended up being responsible for that?
Re:Stil doesn't stop there (Score:2)
Sure, they produced a better piece of hardware. That doesn't give them the right to bully reviewers into changing their reviews or review methods.
Re:Monitor perhaps? (Score:1)
Journalism Ethics (Score:2)
Several magazines that I read and trust, have a policy of buying review items off-the-shelf. They sell or auction off the items after they are done with the review.
Re:Why why why (Score:1)
This is all spot on. I saw this illustrated once when my Editor Buddy and Artist Buddy were having an argument about when to use all-caps.
Editor Buddy made the point about the word's "coastline" and how the shape of the word is used to read, and all-caps has a uniform coastline and is harder to read because of t. Artist Buddy didn't buy it.
Editor Buddy then had Artist Buddy think of a common phrase, and draw it out as BOXES on a page, each box representing the BASIC shape of a letter -- so a "p" would be a box that descended below the text baseline, an "l" would be a box that rose above the baseline, etc.
Editor Buddy got 2 out of 3 phrases right. Artist Buddy saw the light.
Re:Two things: (Score:1)
Notes to Editors: GeForce 256, GeForce2 GTS, and GeForce2 MX should be written as shown, with an uppercase "G" and "F", with a lowercase "e" and a lowercase "orce." There is no space between "GeForce" and "2" for GeForce2 GTS and GeForce2 MX. There is a space before "GTS," "MX" and "256." "MX" and "GTS" are in ALL CAPITALS. The recommended format for Vanta and Quadro is title case. Quadro2 Pro and Quadro2 MXR should be written as shown, there is no space between "Quadro" and "2". There is a space before "MXR" and it is in ALL CAPITALS. The recommended format for NVIDIA, NVIDIA TNT2, NVIDIA TNT, RIVA 128, and RIVA 128ZX and is ALL CAPITALS. For further nomenclature information, please visit our image kit at www.nvidia.com/company.nsf/imagekit.html.
Very nice. (Score:1)
Thank you, Mr. Smythee. (Score:1)
Re:What's so bad about it? (Score:2)
They have no right to make money. They have no right to FORCE others to take down logos, or say "sure, we'll do that," get the contract signed and then proceed to harass them.
Well, not usually, but... (Score:1)
Secondly, even if it [b]is[/b] (and the "if" is rhetorical, not conditional) a polite fiction that a company that cares about justice and morality and all that, the end result is that justice and morality get brought foreward and argued about and thought about, and money goes to charities. I'm well aware of the crude greed that powers the engine. I'm also aware that the sailboats on Lake Michigan are powered by a long-term thermonuclear blast that can, and does, kill people. [b]Pretend[/b] that corporations that make the right donations and noises and have the right policies care, if only to keep the right noises and donations and policies profitable. Yes, it is BS. I've lived on a farm, I've seen what BS can do when spread correctly.
Adam Smith pointed out that the profit motive gets lots of good things done. That's something both the Capitalist Pigs and the Commies forget: profit is not the goal of a society. (It [b]is[/b] the goal of a company.) Profit is the engine that makes a Capitalist society work, and in most ways, work very very well.
Our secret is gamma-irradiated cow manure
Mitsubishi ad
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
Let me start by saying how much I agree with your other statements (food, tv etc.) but your rationale breaks down with smoking. Your rights extend only up to the zone where mine begin, and I have the right not to pollute my body, or that of my 3 month old baby to your toxic waste. You want to chew, fine, just don't blow anything out into the air that belongs to me too. I'm not saying that poeple shouldn't smoke, or drink, or whatever. Just don't do it in a way that affects me without my consent. If you smoke, do it somewhere far, far, away. If you drink, don't drive. I've got enough problems without you taking my life into your hands.
It can and should be avoided (Score:4)
1) purchase your own, off-the-shelf copy of the product - to ensure you experience what customers experience
2) politely return all unsolicited "gifts"
Consumer Reports does it, and their reputation is unimpugnable. Regrettably, in the hardware and software business, prices for off-the-shelf products often exceed the budget of enthusiasts. We're talking $100's to $1000's of dollars in most cases, especially for hardware.
The solution I would suggest is this. Establish a "blind" company that federates reviewers. This company accepts contributions from its members, pools them, purchases a sample product at the lowest price it can find, then allows the reviewers to share the sample product for their reviews. When all reviews are complete, the product can be auctioned off or resold in some other fashion. The companies bacing the reviewed products will never have contact directly with the reviewers, and the monetary issue is alleviated.
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
Why why why (Score:3)
Now, to the point. It's great that NVidia apologized. It's even greater that they admitted wrongdoing. But the question is: What steps are being taken to ensure it never happens again?
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Strongarming & Business (Score:2)
Still, it is good that they have fessed up to this, but someone had to call them on it. Nobody admits that they have done this sort of thing when they have done it, so you can't blame them for not fessing up, hardly anyone on this board can claim that they would have fessed up after the fact, I don't fault them for that at all. What I fault them for is for bullying their way around in the first place. I think that people should concentrate less on the fact that they wouldn't have fessed up and more on the fact that they did this in the first place. Also, it is VERY big of them to admit this, this is really bad press, and fessing up isn't really going to help it (yes, arguably it can, but really, admitting to something that you don't have to doesn't really help people's opinion of you. You altruists should know that their cup is half empty in doing this, not half full).
Anyways, good for them for fessing up, it takes guts. Bad for them for doing it in the first place, and nobody can blame them for not fessing up sooner.
I will never understand Slashdot (Score:1)
Stil doesn't stop there (Score:4)
nVidia was one of the worst offendors in telling review sites to downplay 16-bit color benchmarks on games... even on ones where the textures were in 16-bit color (so no benifit to 32 bit!) for the sole benifit of making 3dfx's faster card look worse. (ATI was particuarly bad, as well).
nVidia also "wants" reviewers to focus on speed instead of quality now - and encourages them to benchmark FSAA, because nVidia's approach is faster (and less good-looking) than 3dfx's.
nVidia has gotten used to playing a little bit dirty - that's how they managed to overthrow 3dfx. But now is the time that they need to step back and let fair reviews be fair reviews. If your card is fairly the best in the market, then you don't need to play Microsoft.
Re:Anyone remember? (Score:1)
Re:What's so bad about it? (Score:2)
What's so bad about it? (Score:1)
Whether we like it or not, we live in a capitalist world where people need to fend for themselves rather than being supported by the state. Corporations, the lifeblood of our economy, have every right to do whatever it takes to make money, and this was what an Nvidia contractor attempted to do for them.
What's so bad about that?
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
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Hrm (Score:4)
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
nvidia has never sued hobbyist programmers for legally reverse engineering their proprietary libraries and writing _open source_ wrappers for it.
not that nvidia is squeaky clean either.
once you get out of your parent's basement and into the real world, you'll realize that companies are not good or evil; they just want to make money, and will do whatever they think will make them more money.
Something's not quite right (Score:3)
Blaming outside contractors is a cheesy excuse. When you hire contractors to represent your company, then you need to verify everything that they say is in line with your company. And you need to stand behind, or directly take responsibility, for the actions of that contractor.
They at least admit that it was wrong, but they didn't exactly take responsibility. One step forward, one step back, and we're still where we started.
Two things: (Score:2)
2. Nvidia should be spelled NVIDIA.
3. Is this really an apology or just a pacifier? To me, it sounds like the kind of thing that any other PR department would come up with after a similar debacle. "Oh, it was a mistake", "It wasn't _us_ doing that per se", "it won't happen again" -- you get the picture. M$ has done this how many times???
4. There are three kinds of people in this world: those who can count, and those who can't.
Re:Stil doesn't stop there (Score:1)
It's just that SOME choose to employ more aggressive tactics than others. As the Hypothermia story pointed out, NVIDIA have furnished an explanation, and (this is the important bit) outlined how this sort of thing will be prevented in the future.
Just because you (may) have a superior product, doesn't mean it'll win in the marketplace. What counts is market presence and positive mind share.
what an original excuse... (Score:2)
--
Andy (currently an Intern although, not at nvidia)
Re:Stil doesn't stop there (Score:2)
In your opinion.
nVidia has gotten used to playing a little bit dirty - that's how they managed to overthrow 3dfx.
No, they managed to overthrow 3dfx by (shock) actually producing a better product and not just throwing out the nth rev of the voodoo chip.
nVidia has gotten used to playing a little bit dirty - that's how they managed to overthrow 3dfx.
All reviews (all pieces of writing, period.) are biased in one direction or another. This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone over the age of 12.
Let me guess, you one of those people who blew a ton of cash on an inferior VooDoo card and now your bitter...
come on - give them a chance (Score:1)
If this apology is an insincere attempt at press manipulation, we're all certain to find out sooner or later. If it's genuine, then we'll just alienate them and get ourselves into a tizzy for no reason at all. We have nothing to lose by giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Look at their Linux support, if you want a good example. They used to treat Linux like a red-headed stepchild, but now they appear to be genuinely interested in having us use their products. Sure, this is a market-based decision. But it's also a good market-based decision to not piss off your customers by strong-arming review sites. Let's hope they made the right decision for the right reasons, congratulate them, and move on. Time will tell.
Re:Stil doesn't stop there (Score:4)
Actually, even when you have 16-bit source textures, the end result can look a lot better when rendered to a 32-bit framebuffer. The reason is that you don't just do a plain copy of the texture, but you typically modulate it with an interpolated lighting value and possibly apply multipass effects as well. With a 16-bit framebuffer its quite easy to start to see banding and/or dithering artefacts that wouldn't be there with a 32-bit framebuffer, regardless of the bitdepth of the source artwork.
Encouraging (Score:2)
It looks like this was a few loose cannons in a large department. If anything this will have served to help nVidia clarify and communicate their own practices internally. I expect we won't see this kind of thing from them again in a hurry now they've had a chance to calibrate their moral compass.
Re:Corporations are good for all of us (Score:1)
Obviously you can't becuase there is no such law and you a full of shit.
Compaies Should Only Offer Loaners (Score:3)
All hardware submitted for review should be sent with pre-paid return packaging. After the company receives the hardware in return, they can ship the same unit to another reviewer. In this model, sites receive no financial incentive to review specific products, while even the smallest sites will be able to receive hardware to review. The manufacturers safe a few dollars and the sites have no ethical dillemas.
Re:Why why why (Score:1)
Damn, I wish
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
Re:What do you want? (Score:1)
My concern is that they're only changing their policy not because it's the right thing to do, but because they got caught and don't want the bad PR. The whole interview was nVidia blaming the outside contractor, when they should have known what the contractor was telling web sites that review it's products. This isn't just any outside contractor, they were the company's PR department. This is the group of people that need to be on the same page with the company.
Until they show concrete proof that their policy has changed, and that they're trying to remedy previous mistakes, I'll still view any thing from that company with suspicion.
I may be a pessimist, but they didn't apologize until they were presented with hard evidence of the events in question. That shows a lack of willingness to fix possible wrongs.
Re:Two things: (Score:2)
it's nVidia
Re:Anyone remember? (Score:1)
I don't know that proper blame was ever placed in this case.
Scott
Monitor perhaps? (Score:1)
OTOH, reading a similar site on the 17" Trinitron monitors at my college computer labs with similar fonts yielded different results... and it was FAR more readable! I personally use the 8x16 VGA font with my 'rxvt' terminals with a white-on-black interface... since it's a thick font. But some color schemes still irritate me (like Chimmy's Yahoo client's dark blue and dark green colors on black... yeah I should change that myself)
Nice examples (Score:1)
THANK YOU VERY MUCH (oh yeah, the caps thing...sorry)
Where is the strongarming, exactly? (Score:1)
As far as I can tell, nVidia offered them a deal: say nice things about our products and give us pride of place over our competitors, and we'll give you free hardware and permission to use our trademarks.
The Hypothermia guys just wanted the goodies, and no strings attached. You can't blame them for wanting it, but I don't see how it's unethical for nVidia not to give it to them.
Re:Only because of liberal "ethics" (Score:1)
Re:It can and should be avoided (Score:1)
Why leave it to enthusiasts? You already mentioned Consumer Reports; they obviously have enough money to purchase cars (all of which exceed $1000). Another example is Practical Sailor. Sailing equipment (much less the boats themselves) can easily exceed the price of computer hardware/software. Obviously a corporation of similar ilk, for computer related products only, is a better solution.Creating a company to regulate the reviewers would be much easier to corrupt than the status quo!
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
I do agree with you--if 3dfx does something that goes contrary to my beliefs I've stated here, if they do turn out to be "evil" or what not, I wouldn't be as supportive of them as I am.
Scott
Re:What's so bad about it? (Score:2)
Yeah, you're right. We should throw out all our silly inhibitions against theft and murder, since all they are is a mechanism that lets the sheep keep the lion from rising to his rightful position on top of the heap.
Too bad you posted as an A/C. Otherwise we could all steal your credit card number and use it without fear of you complaining to the police, since you would surely acknowledge our "right to do whatever it takes to make money".
Oops, I did it again, I responded to a troll.
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Re:OK, so what the hell did they do? (Score:1)
Re:Monitor perhaps? (Score:1)
preference? (Score:1)
I think it's easier to read.
Ideally, this should be a browser option, of course.
Actually, I'm surprised that Slashdot hasn't added color customization yet. I can filter stories, I can filter comments, and I can choose my link boxes, but I can't change something fundamental like the color of text?
--Lenny
Re:Talking so much without saying anything... (Score:2)
I really can't fathom why Taco said anything about admitting wrongdoing... this non-apology is yet another reason I won't be purchasing anything from nVidia ever again. I highly encourage anyone who hasn't already to let info@nvidia.com [mailto] know that you'll be doing the same. Ask them for their side of the story; you'll receive enough bullshit to snow ten strong men.
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
several of those wrapper authors legally reverse engineered glide from publicly available documentation.
3dfx is just as bad as every other corporation. they just managed to market theyselves to the gullible slightly better...
Re:That's just great (Score:1)
I'd just like to know how big this whiny antismoker range is. To me, it seems unrealistic to ban smoking ON THE ENTIRE GROUNDS anywhere. If you're sitting in an outdoor cafe and want to complain about other people smoking, shut the fuck up. You may as well stop driving or walking on the sidewalk, because you're inhaling even more toxic fumes from a resource that isn't even renewable.
I have a friend in the hospital. After several hours of visitation with him and his wife last weekend, it was time for a cigarette. I'm not a heavy smoker or even a particularly activist smoker, but it seems ridiculous to me that they ban smoking on the grounds of the facility. You can step across the street, but since it's not even their property, they can't put an ashtray there. These kinds of things don't resolve a "problem", they simply divert them.
Re:It can and should be avoided (Score:3)
And there lies the problem. Who wants to read a review of the product two weeks later? Reviews take time, shipping takes time, and everybody wants to have a review on launch day. If some of the people would wait for that to happen, then they would quickly fall behind the times. "Why is site X reviewing that now? I already read that on site Y two weeks ago..." reminds me of people whining about the
-rt-
That's just great (Score:5)
You don't see 3dfx pulling any crap like this. You don't see Nvidia opening their specs or giving free open source technology like FXT1 away. That's why I support 3dfx.
I honestly believe, and actions speak louder than words (well..maybe not in Derek Perez's case!), that 3dfx is a good corporation. They really care about the community.
Scott
Re:Why why why (Score:2)
It's in the interview:
Q: 4b.) "And how could it be prevented in the future??"
A: "For here on out all online promotions will be run through the PR department and voted on by a panel of marketing executives within NVIDIA."
Re:Why why why (Score:3)
Background (which you probably know): Serifs are the little 'tabs' that stick out on text. Look at the 'T' on your keyboard and then look at this T. The small 'tabs' at the ends of the letter are serifs.
Ok, here's the reason serif'd fonts are easier to read. When we read, many times we aren't actually looking at each letter, processing it individually, then combining the letters and matching it against a word we know. Our brain, for the most part, does the following. Let's say you read the word:
You probably understood the word long before you put each letter together. That's because your brain processed the word's shape. The high triangle at the front, the loops over the e's and o's, the long line on the high l and the low p. It does this with a great number of words, and while reading, you actually read whole words at a time, because you recognize them instantly from their overall shape. That'S one reason you can read a word like 'duplication' faster than a word like 'dplcigzte'. The second, most likely, does not have its shape stored in your brain. The difference in reading the words is very small, fractions of a second, but it adds up if you read a 1,000 page manuscript.
Again, a large part of what makes posts/sentences in all capital letters annoying is because they are harder to read. The capitals all create rectangles, and our brain doesn't like that one bit.
To sum up, the serifs aid our brain in recognizing the shapes of the letters by thickening the font at the end of each drawn line. I hope I did an adequate job of explaining this, it would be better with a chalkboard.
Re:Umm....a corporation doesn't have emotions (Score:2)
I myself have worked at a company with a product I really believed in. It was a product that helped k-2nd graders learn to read. Hell I still promote the product as much as possible even though I don't work there anymore.
Now I'm not saying that NVIDIA's products are as world changing as teaching kids to read, but the point is there ARE people who believe in a product, and who try to run the company in an ethical way. These people are quite likely to feel bad if the company has done something wrong to a customer/reviewer/client and it's just easier to say 'nvidia feels this way' than to explain exactly who at Nvidia feels sorry...
Obviously not all corporations are like that, but there's no reason to generalize all of them in such a manner. Using that theory I'd have to call you a 'big fat dead hairy elephant' based on your name, and I'm sure that would hardly be accurate. :)
Ender
Another translation from nVidiaSpeak (Score:2)
"I feel really bad in your situation, because for the last 7 months you have been misled by a non-NVIDIA employee (intern, contractor, etc...). This situation has been rectified and we have put in the necessary steps so this doesn't happen again..."
Translation: We're not going to take the blame, so this disposable Intern will be ordered to fall on his own sword.
Free Hardware to Reviewers is a GOOD THING (Score:2)
As the former Technical Editor (responsible for untold amounts on benchmarking) of 'boot Magazine' (now known as 'Maximum PC') - I know what I am talking about. Let me explain why some of the proposed 'sollutions' don't work.
A: Buying the hardware retail.
This chief value of many reviews is to allow people to get a feel for a product before they can buy it. Reviews that come out weeks (or even months) after a product is on store shelves lose an immense amount of value. Particularly with a print magazine, lead times are such that it is not at all practical to delay a review until the propper retail experience can be tried.
B: Loaner hardware.
This seems nice in theory - ask for the boards back to make sure that the reviewer has nothing to gain by keeping it. But - reviewers NEED to keep boards they test around so that they can later be held accountable for recreating their results, and so that they have boards handy to do comparative reviews.
Imagine if all the Voodoo 5 reviews on the net came out with no comparative results with a GeForce2. It doesn't work. Reviewers need to be able to build a library of all the products that they test.
The real problem here is small, not very credible sites that are pushing one-off reviews. Anyone who is getting paid to professionally review products should be smart enough to have no conflicts of interest caused by the free hardware around them. But fan sites that crank out a review or two every month or so - well, they have to go a lot further to prove their credibility and lack of bias.
- chris dunphy
Re:Stil doesn't stop there (Score:2)
Infact you have it confused on the facts anyway. Sure it was nvidia who had decent support for 32 bit rendering, but I don't see nvidia promoting 16 bit uber alles, it's just there as an option and happens to be faster than ATI, it's the reviewers who are drawing the comparrisons. NVidia still holds it's own in 32 bit mode.
Anyway, the rendering bottlenecks have moved as technology is changed since the Riva vs Voodoo days. Now that bandwidth is the issue it makes a lot of sense to try and skimp on precision, and the higher resolution possible makes the dithering artifacts less visible, combine that with the antialias filter reconstruction and you can even buy back a couple of bits of precision when you resize to video.