|
||
Divination means simply making the unknown into the known. Many cultures all around the world have some form of divination tools or rituals, often ancient in age and practice. Some examples of different divination systems are the tarot, I Ching, scrying and using a pendulum.
Those who believe that divination works believe that all matter, whether “living” in the traditional sense or not, has an innate intelligence and that all things are connected through their energy. When you are working with objects, whether it be tarot cards, runes, bones or tea leaves, those objects are connected energetically to a higher power. Since you are handling those objects and are connected to them, you are then connected to a higher power through their energy. It's as if all objects are alive. Believing and accepting that everything on earth is intelligent makes it easy to believe that everyday objects and events have meaning and may be trying to “tell you something.”
One general type of divination is the reading of omens, which is the most primitive method. Historical Chinese records indicate mentions of unusual weather events and uncommon births. Information such as this was used in long-range planning, and may even have been the impetus to our modern-day scientific method.
One theory on how divination works is that the information obtained comes from our unconscious. Our minds constantly process data and information that we are not aware of at the time. It's feasible that this “data bank” is accessed during divination. The unconscious mind may physically determine how Tarot cards are ordered or how the runes are cast.
A different aspect of this theory explains that the events may really be truly random. The Tarot cards are shuffled and laid out in a certain way but the cards are totally separate from each other and in arbitrary patterns. The unconscious mind interprets the patterns and relationships of the cards instead of determining the patterns themselves.
Another theory describing divination is called synchronicity, which states that separate events may actually be meaningfully connected. Arbitrary events, no matter how disconnected they seem, contain meaning and wisdom if their hidden meaning can be ascertained. For certain types of divination such as Tarot or runes the synchronicity theory is a common explanation.
Can divination tell the future? Popular divinatory techniques such as Tarot seem to do so. Yet modern physics shows us that events happen on a totally random scale. This brings into question whether foretelling future events is possible – events occur in a certain way simply because they did not happen in another way.
Many events that happen in our everyday lives can be seen as divinatory. If you're rushing around like a crazy person and your car breaks down in the middle of your errands, some might take that as a message to slow down. But don't fall into the trap of assigning divine meaning to every single thing that happens in your life. Some things that happen really are just random events. As Freud stated, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!
DirectX is a family of "application program interfaces" (APIs) that are designed by Microsoft to make graphics functionality of Microsoft compatible software -especially videogames - function smoothly and at their highest level. There have been DirectX versions 3,5,6,7,8,9 and now, concurrent with the introduction of the new Microsoft Vista operating system, DirectX 10.
Direct3D is a special interface designed by Microsoft that allows developers to abstract 3D graphics programming from the underlying hardware. First introduced with Windows 95 11 years ago, Direct3D and its parent API, DirectX, have been a mainstay in the 3D games development industry.
Each version of DirectX has caused the development of more powerful and sophisticated video cards - the big manufacturers are ATI and nVidia - as the graphics, special effects and images on screen become less cartoon-like and more realistic. The essential goal of DirectX has always been to develop an onscreen 3-D environment, and every version of DirectX has improved upon that goal. With the introduction of each version of DirectX, the video card companies have been forced to produce new cards able to take advantage of the latest DirectX version's new features.
As of DirectX 10, to be introduced in Windows Vista, all 3D vendors (game makers) will support the same features, guaranteeing compatibility across the board. Although this may sound great, allowing for a more standardized games development environment, it makes it harder for graphics card makers to create more unique products and differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
Vista and DirectX 10 aren't all doom and gloom for the games industry, according to a Microsoft spokesman. They will in fact do much for both the performance and versatility of graphics hardware. For instance, graphics processors, known as GPUs, will have scheduling and sharing capabilities under Vista, much like CPUs have now. Users will be able to run multiple 3D applications that will be able to share memory, GPU cycles and other resources, something that is currently impossible under previous Windows versions.
While this is computer happy talk for compatibility, it may also portend a necessary function demanded by the sheer size of the Vista program and the power needed to drive video MB and RAM hungry games along with the operating system itself. Nevertheless, Vista was certainly designed with multimedia in mind. It will be the first Microsoft operating system designed to run on both 32 bit and the new generation of 64 bit chips - a quantum step forward in computer speed and sophistication.
According to video card maker ATI, the big step forward provided by DirectX 10 is a fundamentally different method of integrating what are called "vertex" and "pixel" shader functions into a "geometry" shading process. What this means is that the process of producing high quality graphics does not require substantial use of the CPU, or the computer's processing unit, but rather relies on the graphics processing unit - the video card. That means a lot less interchange of information between the computer's central functioning units and the video card - and thus, a chance for game developers to produce a more sophisticated and detailed 3D image that is less susceptible to distortion.
Gamers, start your engines.