skylane

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I got lucky and just bought 2 new condition Apple Xserve servers at near free price. They are both 3,1 models, the last that was produced before the line was discontinued with great specs - Dual 4-core 2.93 Ghz Xeons with hyperthreading, 24 GB DDR3 ECC Ram, 3X 1TB 7,200k hot-swap drives, 1TB PCI-e RAID 0 SSD, 4-port USB 3 PCI-e card, Xserve RAID card, dual redundant 750watt PSU and Nvidia GT 120 graphics with mini-display out. For being a 2009 model it still very powerful - getting close to 19,000 on Geekbench 3 - basically more processing power than all but the top 2 current Mac lineups; the 8-core and 12-core cylinder Mac Pro. I'm thinking of maybe creating a 2-node rendering system headless connected to my 15" rMBP. What would you do with them? Thought about putting Linux on one as a test bench but I've read horror stories about putting Linux on Xserve machines.

Speakers

If so which one? Thinking of getting a mStand for my 15" rMBP

Get another Mac. You're already on that platform and ecosystem. Plus as you see the resale value keeps unlike any PC laptop. Cost of ownership is much lower because of it. PC laptops might be cheaper initially but they are disposable products with horrible resale.

I think it all depends on what you mean by "available light" - in the vast majority of time, indoor lighting is horrible for photography; in terms of temp (most of the time its mixed lighting), angle, level of diffusion, ect. I definitely agree that it takes more work/thought with lighting setup to create a more natural look with speedlights, strobes, or lamps. But when do we never adjust ambient lighting - indoor or outdoors - to best serve our needs?

+1 Good advice. People that actually take photographs don't need to worry about sharpness because in reality in post end products you can't tell ANY difference - that is printed in most consumer prints or/and especially online output. Never upgrade bodies or lenses unless you have a specific reason for the upgrade. Most of the time you won't see any difference. The 35 f1.8 is a great lens but I think you'll be better served with something like a SB400 flash that you can bounce. My advice is always look through all your top rated photos and see which focal length you use most often and whether it's indoors/outdoors - then consider how you can make it better.

Not in itself. Unless he needs low light non-flash indoor use or he needs a very shallow fov - getting a bounce flash with his 18-55 kit is going to produce much better indoor photos than a f1.8 anyday.

Never buy over lapping focal lengths - thus a 50 will over lap with your existing 18-55 - unless there is a very specific reason. What would be better would be use the 18-55 @50 or better yet @35 since you're using a crop sensor for a couple of weeks of shooting first before buying any primes.

Great job for 1st time PS user but I don't like the tonal changes. Also try to eliminate the 2 sensor dust blots on the sky. Keep it up !

Major differences between a CPU core and a CUDA or Stream Processors. CPU cores are just that - actual cores that can operate independently and can run different execution commands, as opposed to CUDA/Streams which are vector units that run simplified logic (geared to floating point calculations) running in parallel - and yes, there is much marketing with the number of CUDA/Stream "cores".

What is your client using CUDA for? I don't know of a single gambling platform that allows for API client-end programming. What performance benchmark was he seeing a 50% increase? How did he connect 8+ monitors with a single GTX 980ti? What is the resolution of his 8+ screens? What is his IP connection type and speed? Telsa has no video output thus would not work with the application you have in mind.

Yes, I know Peak Oil isn't the same in the supply and demand sense but the analogy of technological innovation that cannot be predicted that increases yield - oil or transistor density - is still apt I believe. And you have supply and demand curve inverted. Notwithstanding the over-production that most OPEC members produce over their allotted quota, although at historically high oil prices most producers maximize they current production capacity, the change in availability of oil - that is new production finds or new wells are far too forward advance to have any impact on current production capacity. Arguably we would have hit Peak Oil if it wasn't for technological innovations in horizontal drilling, hydro-fracking, sand oil refinery as well as improvements in seismologic/satellite data analysis for new exploration fields. None of those innovations were predicted as a production capable reality before they happened. Thus, even as we approach commercial limitations in current lithography technology there are far more unforeseen innovations that can and probably will occur to boost transistor density or net effect of transistor density.

Doohhh. I should have thought of that..... obvi I did. The problem is that the Asus drivers are not fully Win 8.1 compatible - specifically the driver for the touchpad

Interesting read. Although I wouldn't hold the author's viewpoint as anything authoritative, in tech analysis or quasi-financial analysis, limitations in current roadmap lithography development can be a hurdle ahead. With that said, it does remind me of "peak oil" - for those familiar - the constant forecasting of a slow down or inability to meet yield models that are proven wrong by advancement in technology that couldn't have been predicted. Granted, even with a sustained Moore's Law yield, Intel will probably adjust their business model around consumer product development as much as their own innovative abilities thus "tick tock" isn't written in stone.