Off Topic: HD Fixed! (GOD DMA PIO!)

I finally discovered the cause of all my PC latency. It turns out that Windows XP had knocked down the transfer mode of my IDE controller from Ultra DMA 5 to PIO, and never told me. I performed a fix I found on the internet, and my PC's been good-as-new all night.

(See the next post for my rendered opinion on why software should not try to outthink its user.)

The moral: be sure to check your IDE controllers' transfer modes and ensure they're not using PIO. Chances are better than average that Windows might have tried to outthink you. I checked two computers at work today and both had the same problem.

With my new found performance I fired up the Half-Life 2 demo again, and it worked way better than before. I played through both levels with no appreciable latency. I'll have more to say about Half-Life 2 in an upcoming post. I found it very immersive and want to implement some of the "common sense physics" it demonstrates into Vyde.

BTW, does anyone know why Blogger's Preview mode looks so bland? Is there a stylesheet that governs the preview? I'd much prefer to get a WYSIWYG preview rather than what I'm seeing instead.