The decompression function could be integrated into the videocard relieving that CPU burden. Playback is not problematic. In fact, I recall seeing MPEG decoder cards back in the early days of DVD ROM's. Regardless of this ungreatful Choatism whereby we get off the topic of just how useless or useful old computers are, while we can certainly use the old fuckers, the question of upgrading has always been: Does it do what you want? If the answer is no, then you upgrade. Sure, you can revive old hardware with Linux, but you'll find it runs KDE 3.0 or GNOME slower than windows 95 did on the same hardware. So unless you're willing to also go to older software (or at least less demanding software) you've still got a useless machine. OTOH, if it does work well enough, and you don't care for swapping memos in Micro$loth Word V283.23 with cow-orkers or don't care about watching the latest 3d movie on XVD disks, then by all means, if you don't mind the huge power consumption, use that old iron. Personally, I do have 8 and 9 year old hardware and find it glacially slow. While surfing the web with an old Sun Voyager running a whopping 40MHz SPARC V7 is a bit slow, it's fast enough to get the morning news and weather report as I drink my coffee. Sure, that old IBM Thinkpad 365x with a flying fast Pentium 100 (no that's not P3 or P4, or even P2, plain ol'e Pentium 1) and 48mb of ram running windblows 95 sucks for most things, it makes a fine MP3 player for my living room, once nice speakers are attached, and so on and so forth. As for the Lisa, I haven't powered up that beastie in years. But, yes, I could run LisaWrite and print just fine on dot matrix paper off the lovely ImageWriter II printer. Uh huh... I'm sure that such a printout would make a fine resume. Care to wager on whether such a printed resume would even render an interview? No boys and girls, it's the boiling the frog scenario. If you try to boil a live frog in an pot at high heat, the frog will jump out. If you cover the pot, well the pot will boil over. So instead, you don't turn the heat on high. Rather you keep the heat low, very low, and as the temperature rises notch by notch, the frog doesn't notice. By the time the water is hot, the frog is already dead. Guess who the frog is? Same here. Example: Want to view DVD's, you gotta buy a DVD player or DVDROM for your PC. But wait, now you can't watch DVD's you've legally purchased in England because by contract all DVD players are region specific! Worse yet, if you happen to have an old TV that doesn't support RCA in and your DVD player doesn't have a COAX connection... you can't connect your DVD player through your VCR, because, guess what, DVD players are bound by contract to scramble their output with Macrovision and your VCR of course honors this, so you can't watch DVD's you've purchased in the USA if you have an old TV! Never mind that pirates don't even need DeCSS to clone DVD's. Never mind that there are plenty of MacroVision remover boxes out there sold as picture enhancers. Never mind that none of these things prevent pirates from copying DVD's. Never mind that there are "illegal" region free DVD players out there without Macrovision protection, etc... No, the whole point is a legal one brought to you by our friends at the DMCA. Where a movie isn't a movie, but a "video device..." right... So long to your "Fair Use" right to make a backup copy. Tough titties if your 3 year old thought the DVD would be cleaner if washed with sand paper. You're out the $30 you've paid for "The Matrix III - Trinity Does Dallas" So extrapolate, and you'll know what to expect when Palladium and it's ilk show up. Want to watch the next version of what will be DVD? You get a big brother inside chip. So it goes. Want to run Micro$haft Orifice 3003 1/2? Gotta have the TCPMA chip in your Pee Cee.. wait, scratch that, you won't have admin rights on that PC, so it's really "our PC." And that copy you bought, nope, not yours either, you were only sold a "license" to use it. Part of that license says they can install whatever they want on your^H^H^H^H^H our PC? Including back doors? Including spyware? Including marketing gathering information? Yup. You grabs your ankles and you spreads your cheeks. Or, you just vote with your wallet. Do you really need Orifice 3003 1/2? Does your current Pee Cee work just fine? Great, keep using it. Need to print a 3d resume in color on holographic paper? Cough up $80 at Harbucks and pay for a crappachino grande and 30 minutes of MicroSoft time and type up your new resume. Or go the Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD route and raise that middle finger up proudly. Will you be able to do just as much? Probably. But, oh wait, we forgot, Uncle Sam has padded his wallet from the likes of the MPAA, RIAA and that new rule about how no Pee Cee without a big brother chip inside cannot be sold... Too bad, that. I guess Jack Vallenti wanted to close "The Open Source loophole." Nevermind that there are perfectly legal uses for linux enabled machines, but "we must close the open source hole - or they'll compile their own software!" But wait, what was I thinking, you can't even pay $80, because by now if you don't have a Microsoft Passport, you don't have a Micro$haft Visa Social Security Implant(tm). You don't exist! Yes, you're right; probably it will never get that far. Then again, we also thought that only congress could declare war, that people captured on a battle field carring weapons and shooting at our soldiers were POW's. We also thought that in the USA any person arrested and suspected of a crime was entitled to a lawyer, and a trial, but defining a new class of criminal called "terrorist" who have no right to even talk to a lawyer of family and don't have to be charged with a crime, and go before a military sham tribunal. ----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos--------------------------- + ^ + :Surveillance cameras|Passwords are like underwear. You don't /|\ \|/ :aren't security. A |share them, you don't hang them on your/\|/\ <--*-->:camera won't stop a |monitor, or under your keyboard, you \/|\/ /|\ :masked killer, but |don't email them, or put them on a web \|/ + v + :will violate privacy|site, and you must change them very often. --------_sunder_@_sunder_._net_------- http://www.sunder.net ------------ On Tue, 2 Jul 2002, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

At 05:19 PM 7/2/02 -0400, Jack Lloyd wrote:

...

Real time video still requires something fairly high end, but give it a year.

The compression function could be integrated into the videocamera, relieving that CPU burden. Playback is more problematic.