dyingofcolour

In The U.SMore than half a million people diagnosed with AIDS have died in the USA. Nearly three-quarters of these people did not live to the age of 45.

 

In 2003, the age group 35-44 years accounted for an estimated 35% of HIV diagnoses, 41% of AIDS diagnoses, and 39% of deaths of people diagnosed with AIDS.

 

The estimated number of children diagnosed with AIDS in 2003 was unusually low, while AIDS diagnoses in older people increased in number. There are now fewer deaths among those aged under 45 years, but more among older people.

 

When comparing HIV and AIDS statistics, it is important to remember that a person infected with HIV will probably not develop AIDS for several years - the average delay in the USA is around ten years without treatment, and longer if ARV drugs are taken. Additionally, new diagnoses of HIV do not necessarily represent new infections, since people may live with the virus for a number of years before being tested.

 

In The World

 

More than 20 million people have died of AIDS since 1981.

 

Africa has 12 million AIDS orphans.

 

By December 2004 women accounted for 47% of all people living with HIV worldwide, and for 57% in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Young people (15-24 years old) account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide - more than 6,000 become infected with HIV every day.

 

Of the 6.5 million people in developing and transitional countries who need life-saving AIDS drugs, fewer than 1 million are receiving them.

A young man named Adam wakes to find himself chained to a rusty pipe inside a decrepit subterranean chamber. Chained to the opposite side of the room is another bewildered captive, Dr. Lawrence Gordon. Between them is a dead man lying in a pool of blood, holding a .38 in his hand. Neither man knows why he has been abducted; but instructions left on a microcassette, order Dr. Gordon to kill Adam within eight hours. If he fails to do so, then both men will die, and Dr. Gordon's wife, Alison, and his daughter will be killed. Recalling a recent murder investigation by a police detective named Tapp, Dr. Gordon realizes he and Adam are the next victims of a psychopathic genius known only as "Jigsaw." With only a few hours left to spare, they must unravel the elaborate puzzle of their fate in the midst of mounting terror. The killer has provided them with only a few clues and two handsaws – too weak to break their steel shackles, but strong enough to cut through flesh and bone.

 

While investigating the bloody aftermath of a grizzly murder, Detective Eric Mason (Donnie Wahlberg) has the feeling that it is the work of Jigsaw, the notorious killer who disappeared leaving a trail of bodies - and parts - behind. And Mason is right. Jigsaw is at work again. But instead of two people locked in a room with only one unthinkable way out, there are eight. Eight strangers – unaware of their connection to each other -- forced to play out a game that challenges their wits and puts their lives in jeopardy.

 

Sure, Saw 2 was bloodier but I enjoyed the originals Saw's concept. What do you think?

Playstation 3

 

Xbox 360

 

Xbox 360[/u] : Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU

Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each

Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total

VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total

128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread

1 MB L2 cache

 

CPU Game Math Performance

9 billion dot product operations per second

 

Custom ATI Graphics Processor

500MHz processor

10 MB of embedded DRAM

48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines

Unified shader architecture

 

Polygon Performance

500 million triangles per second

 

Pixel Fill Rate

16 gigasamples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA

 

Shader Performance

48 billion shader operations per second

 

Memory

512 MB of GDDR3 RAM

700 MHz of DDR

Unified memory architecture

Memory Bandwidth

22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth

256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM

21.6 GB/s front-side bus

Overall System Floating-Point Performance

1 teraflop

 

Storage

Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive

12x dual-layer DVD-ROM

Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB

 

I/O

Support for up to four wireless game controllers

Three USB 2.0 ports

Two memory unit slots

 

Optimized for Online

Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, gamer profile for digital identity, and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies, or listening to music

Built-in Ethernet port

Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g

Video camera ready

 

Digital Media Support

Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD

Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PCs

Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive

Custom playlists in every game

Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers

High-Definition Game Support * All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i, anti-aliasing

Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported

 

Audio

Multi-channel surround sound output

Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio

320 independent decompression channels

32-bit audio processing

Over 256 audio channels

 

System Orientation

Stands vertically or horizontally

 

Customizable Face Plates

Interchangeable to personalize the console

 

Xbox Gamer Guide:

The Xbox Gamer Guide is an entertainment gateway that instantly connects you to your games, friends, music, movies, and downloadable content. Available at a touch of the Xbox Guide Button, the Xbox Gamer Guide gives you instant access to the experiences and content you want, from the gamer card of the player that just invited you to play online to new downloadable content for the game currently running.

 

Personalized interface:

Xbox 360 lets you create your own unique system and experience. With interchangeable Xbox 360 Faces, it's easy to change the appearance of your console. Switch on your system and customize the look and feel of the Xbox Gamer Guide and Xbox System Guide with unique "skins." From sleek and sophisticated to fun and funky, pick the Faces and skins that show your personality.

 

Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button:

Divided into four quadrants, the glowing Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button visually connect you to your games, digital media, and the world of Xbox Live, the first global, unified online console games service. Featured on both the wireless and wired controllers, the Xbox Guide Button puts you in control of your experience. In addition to bringing up the Xbox Gamer Guide and the Xbox System Guide, the Xbox Guide Button lets you turn the system on and off without ever leaving the couch.

 

Xbox Live:

Xbox Live is where games and entertainment come alive, the only unified place where you can play with anyone, anytime, anywhere. And the best just got better. Connect your Xbox 360 to your broadband connection and get instant access to Xbox Live Silver. Express your digital identity through your Gamertag and gamer card, talk with others using voice chat, and access Xbox Live Marketplace-all right out of the box, at no extra cost. Upgrade to Xbox Live Gold and enter the exciting world of multiplayer online gaming. With intelligent matchmaking, access to all your achievements and statistics, video chat and video messaging, and an enormous selection of games, Xbox Live Gold delivers your competition, on your terms.

 

Xbox Live Marketplace:

Keep your favorite games fresh with instant access to new content. Xbox Live Marketplace is a one-stop shop to download new game trailers, demos, and episodic content, plus new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins, and more. Accessible to everyone who establishes a broadband connection with their Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace lets you personalize and extend your experience, on demand.

 

Games:

Xbox 360 redefines what games look like, sound like, feel like, and play like to engage you like never before. With Xbox 360, epic worlds are alive with detail, from thunderous skies rumbling over a mountain range to tiny blades of grass rustling together in the breeze. Vibrant characters display depth of emotion to evoke more dramatic responses, immersing you in the experience like never before. You'll see all Xbox 360 titles at 720p resolution in 16:9 widescreen, with anti-aliasing for smooth, movie-like graphics and multi-channel surround sound.

 

Digital entertainment:

Amplify your music, photos, video, and TV. Watch progressive-scan DVD movies right out of the box. Rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive and share your latest digital pictures with friends. Make the connection, and Xbox 360 instantly streams the digital media stored on your MP3 player, digital camera, Media Center PC, or any Microsoft Windows XP.

 

Playstation 3 :

CPU: Cell Processor

 

PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz

1 VMX vector unit per core

512KB L2 cache

7 x SPE @3.2GHz

7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs

7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE

* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS

GPU: RSX @550MHz

 

1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance

Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels

Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines

Sound: Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-base processing)

 

Memory:

 

256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz

256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz

System Bandwidth:

 

Main RAM: 25.6GB/s

VRAM: 22.4GB/s

RSX: 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)

SB: 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)

System Floating Point Performance: 2 TFLOPS

 

Storage:

 

HDD

Detachable 2.5” HDD slot x 1

I/O:

 

USB: Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)

Memory Stick: standard/Duo, PRO x 1

SD: standard/mini x 1

CompactFlash: (Type I, II) x 1

Communication: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x3 (input x 1 + output x 2)

 

Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g

 

Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)

 

Controller:

 

Bluetooth (up to 7)

USB2.0 (wired)

Wi-Fi (PSP®)

Network (over IP)

AV Output:

 

Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p

HDMI: HDMI out x 2

Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1

Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1

CD Disc media (read only):

 

PlayStation CD-ROM

PlayStation 2 CD-ROM

CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW

SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD

DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)

DVD Disc media (read only):

 

PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM

PLAYSTATION 3 DVD-ROM

DVD-Video: DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW

Blu-ray Disc media (read only):

 

PLAYSTATION 3 BD-ROM

BD-Video: BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE

 

Personally I've always preferred playstation, which do you prefer?

Hey, I'm Jen from northeastern PA. Just joined after seeing this site talked about in a forum on myspace. Seems very interesting.

I always feel bad when I see someone begging but I try not to give money directly to them, who knows if they are really poor or just begging to get extra money. I feel better giving money to a charity and it's more likely the money will be spent on something good rather than just drugs or alcohol like some beggers do.

i'd go with iTunes, it's very reliable.

I've heard that taking a small amount of vasaline and carefully placeing it on your lens will creat a good diffusion effect without having to buy an expensive lens specifically made for diffusion photos. It's a bit of a challenge to clean your lens but it supposedly works. Does anyone else have any suggestions for good diffusion photos?