OK, now I know why the casinos in Las Vegas are losing out to online gaming.

By the way, I hear there are a lot of vacant rooms in Vegas and the Chamber Of Commerce is trying to reinvent the city from a gambling hub to tourism.

 

That's not the type of online gaming I'm talking about. I'm talking about the first-person-shooter and whatever the latest and greatest craze is. I wouldn't think online gambling would be a big technology driver (but I can definitely see it putting the pinch on casino towns).

 

That's not the type of online gaming I'm talking about. I'm talking about the first-person-shooter and whatever the latest and greatest craze is. I wouldn't think online gambling would be a big technology driver (but I can definitely see it putting the pinch on casino towns).

There are a lot of gambling addicts (one of my in-laws was one) and online makes it easier for them to satisfy their craving. Accordingly, I can see an explosion in gambling-related financial problems and a lot more addicts winding up living on the street.

 

There are a lot of gambling addicts (one of my in-laws was one) and online makes it easier for them to satisfy their craving. Accordingly, I can see an explosion in gambling-related financial problems and a lot more addicts winding up living on the street.

I have no doubt about any of that, but I still don't see online gambling being a technology driver.

 

Porn has definitely been a driving force in A/V and communication technology. The ironic end result is that now a huge amount of porn is free online and I have to assume the money is dissipating. I don't see how porn could be much of tech driver anymore unless you're into (bad pun?) robots and AI.

Immersive gaming is still pushing the limits, but that's a small but lucrative segment. Once everyone could watch TV and movies on demand for <$500, there hasn't been a lot of need for more speed and horsepower.

Gawd, I remember running computations that went all night on a Mac Plus. Done in seconds now, in the background while watching a movie and browsing e-mail.

 

I have no doubt about any of that, but I still don't see online gambling being a technology driver.

I don't know anything about the subject of online gaming either, but this company might be able to give you an explanation:

http://www.wms.com/Pages/default.aspx

The company is a descendent of Williams Electronics which made pinball and slot machines.

 

Porn has definitely been a driving force in A/V and communication technology. The ironic end result is that now a huge amount of porn is free online and I have to assume the money is dissipating. I don't see how porn could be much of tech driver anymore unless you're into (bad pun?) robots and AI.

It was mainstream news a few weeks ago that Playboy is removing the porn content from their magazines precisely because they can't compete with all of the free online porn.

 

I don't know anything about the subject of online gaming either, but this company might be able to give you an explanation:

http://www.wms.com/Pages/default.aspx

The company is a descendent of Williams Electronics which made pinball and slot machines.

An explanation of what?

 

An explanation of what?

I was talking (more like writing) about the subject of why online gaming might be a market force for increased CPU speed/capacity.

 

On the subject of CPU capacity, I've noticed that YouTube's banner ads (the ones that play at the top of the home page) really hog my dual core CPU. However, if I click [X], the CPU drops.

Being a Dirty Filthy Capitalist Pig, I understand that YouTube (a Google owned site) needs these ads to finance free access and use of the site, but if the ads cause computer problems (and the user has to cancel them), it's a self defeating proposition.

 

I was talking (more like writing) about the subject of why online gaming might be a market force for increased CPU speed/capacity.

Are you talking about online gaming or online gambling?

 

I don't know the technicalities of either online gaming or gambling, but I guess the end result is the same: Someone wins a lot of $$$ and someone else loses a lot of $$$.

 

Are you talking about online gaming or online gambling?

If you talk about online investing, which resembles both, Glenn has a point. There continues to be a race for the fastest trading. There's a lot of money being spent for that speed. I'm hopeful that race will soon be curtailed by a change in the trading rules.

 

There continues to be a race for the fastest trading. There's a lot of money being spent for that speed. I'm hopeful that race will soon be curtailed by a change in the trading rules.

There are companies who legally trade huge numbers of shares of stock (any stock) and make money by making a fraction of a cent per share.

It isn't computer speed that matters to them; it's network speed. They try to locate their server farms as close to the exchange computers as they can. They don't care about company fundamentals. They just need the stock to move up or down a fraction of a cent.

 

Hi,

Problems with limits often come down to the "way things are", in that one quantity grows exponentially while another quantity grows either linearly or less exponentially to an extent that limits something like the physical size, speed, etc.

A really good example of this is with four legged animals. The ratio of bone and muscle mass limit the maximum size an animal like that can ever attain given the force of gravity we have here on earth. As the animal grows in size the legs have to be more sturdy in order to carry the animal, and so the muscle mass has to increase in order to be able to continue to move around. But the muscle mass also contributes to the weight, not just the bone, so increasing the muscle mass is only possible up to a certain point where the physical strength doesnt increase enough to carry the extra weight anymore.

The CPU has a similar problem where as we decrease size the surface area decreases as the inverse square of one side so the temperature rise approximated by Tr=K1*(W/A)^K2 must go up. Luckily the capacitance approximated by C=K*A/L will go down, but that still imposes a constraint on the clock frequency.
We could probably come up with a formula for this that includes most of the effects as the technology changes.

It is said that Moore's "Law" is reaching an end where we use current technology, but may continue once the technology is advanced. For example, transistors that work with light instead of electrons could make a big difference, and there may be other stuff coming too. If the same logic can be implemented with less heat that translates into higher speed.

 

It is said that Moore's "Law" is reaching an end where we use current technology, but may continue once the technology is advanced.

I'd like to point out that, compared to 'nature', man-created technology has a long way to go:

Human brains require negligible amounts of energy, and power dissipation does not overheat the brain. A computer as complex as the human brain would need its own power plant with megawatts of power, and a heat sink the size of a city.

 

Here is one more for fun.

 

It's my understanding that it is (and has been for quite some time) the gaming community that is driving most areas of computer performance at both the server and the client ends and everything in between. Not only is there the ever-increasing demands to increase the content, but the live-processing of the interactive environment is pushed to it's limits and given that these are highly-competitive applications in which fast response means greater chances of winning (and with the increasing amount of real-life money at stake in some of these games) it is not too surprising that the demand for high-end machines (at premium prices) is being driven by this market segment.

See here for example:

http://www.computerpoweruser.com/

 

Just guessing, but quantum computers may be the next leap.

 

Yes, quantum computers are just around the corner. Like practical and economical fusion and flying cars, they always have been and always will be.