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Of course, we don't HAVE to have a mean time to failure if things are engineered well enough. But then how would we feed our greed?

1 nanosecond..., honestly, that's typically British. In the US that battery would have been trashed already. The Brits are way too much attached to these long lasting historical figures. And royalty is another example.

Well, there is a light bulb in Livermore, CA that's been burning for 114 years. That hasn't been continuous as there have been some power outages and it's been moved a few times but the Livermore fire department seems pretty attached to it.

In terms of longevity, they don't make 'em like they used to... Case in point is a lightbulb in a Livermore, CA firehouse that has been in service continually since 1901, and which can be viewed via the following web cam: http://www.centennialbulb.org/... This improved incandescent lamp, invented by Adolphe A. Chaillet, was made by the Shelby Electric Company. It is a handblown bulb with carbon filament. The bulb was designed to burn at 60 watts, and currently shines at 4 watts. It was left burning continuously in firehouse as a nightlight over the fire trucks.

112 years enough?

http://www.centennialbulb.org/

Even survived 6 hours of down time...

So, it would look like this?

http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm

running at 4 of 60 watts

Maybe LEDs will be better in some way, but paint me a skeptic. Oh, and here's an incandescent light bulb that has been in continuous operation for 110 yrs. I wonder what they paid for it. http://www.centennialbulb.org/

Look up 'outlier'.

Not really.

Apparently it is not entirely uncommon for lightbulbs to still function of that era.

20 years is nothing. The livermore light bulb is 110 years old and still working. How come we can't beat the technology from our great grand fathers?

Because in watts per lumen you'd probably be better off using an infrared heater element as a light source.

20 years is nothing. The livermore light bulb is 110 years old and still working. How come we can't beat the technology from our great grand fathers?

http://www.centennialbulb.org/

Actually, the idea of an everlasting light bulb isn't that far-fetched.

Not sure how serious you are, but it seems people always trot out that tired example. I too was amazed when I first heard about that light bulb. When I saw it - not so much. It hardly produces any light at all (its at 4W*, which may be decent for a LED, but for an incandescent bulb, is pitiful). Finally - the fact that it has only been turned off and on again a few times in its life, makes it an unfair comparison to 'real life' light usage. Heating up (by a lot!) and cooling down again on a regular basis, creates a lot of stress on normal bulbs. I will admit to ignorance on how on/off would affect newer types of lamps (and laziness on not researching it now), but I would hazard a guess that across the board, keeping any electrical light source permanently on, will help its lifespan considerably when compared to lights that are turned on and off every time it gets dark...

*Mandatory reference link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light

How about one that is approaching 110 years and counting ?

http://www.centennialbulb.org/

Actually, the idea of an everlasting light bulb isn't that far-fetched.

There's the Centennial Light, which only consumes 4 watts, and has been continuously burning for over 100 years. http://www.centennialbulb.org/index.htm

Anyway, the popularity of CF is just because it's a direct replacement of the power-hungry incandescent bulbs, which are almost always used in the most impractical way possible for the sake of "beauty". Not only they're usually enclosed or covered to lessen the intensity, there's no reflective surface anywhere, and are also often used against walls instead of in the center of the room. It's the exact complete opposite of how circular fluorescent lights are used.

Another example of beauty over practicality is the stupid idea to use incandescent bulb(s) in a ceiling fan (if used for cooling). Anyway the beautiful, non-aerodynamic blades are useless, except when used as a canoe paddle.

How about a normal light bulb running for over a hundred years?
Centennial Bulb

For instance, the good old light bulb. This one is going for over a hundred years and still counting.

I wonder how long it will takes before LED bulbs beat that (yes, at least a 108 years)

Trade off space for reliability.

Maybe you would pay more for an SSD that is, say 1/4 the capacity, but lasts like this

The real issue with tech stuff is that by the time it "wears out", it is obsolete anyhow.

Maybe after computers are perfect, they can work on making them last longer :-)

Not entirely complete, of course -- I'm not sure /dev/video exists, I don't know what xanim is, and there's the matter of whether it's actually mpeg. But the concept is, in fact, blindingly obvious.

For example: I consider playing mp3 files to be a goal. However, the mp3 format is patented, and any implementation must pay ridiculous licensing fees.

So yes, I am kind of worried that TiVo's patents might cover, for example, MythTV.

finding just the right material for the filament which would conduct, but not short out, wouldn't burn up immediately, and would provide a steady amount of light.

Which shows you how little judges -- or maybe just you -- know about the history of the light bulb. It absolutely was a simple idea. We already had candles, why not use electricity to provide light?

Traditional incandescent bulbs don't last anywhere near that long.

A firestation in Livermore, California maintains the world's longest lit lightbulb http://www.centennialbulb.org/. Some things shouldn't be legislated.

What will theese guys do? http://www.centennialbulb.org/

http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm It's a bulb in a Livermore/Pleasanton fire house. It has a carbon filament that is much thicker than modern bulbs and also burns much cooler/darker. (105 years old)

Check out the awards section. The congratulatory certificate from the State Senate of California looks a bit less than imposing, thanks to the use of centre-justified MS Comic Sans

You mean like this one?

This bulb, in a fire station in Livermore, CA, has been burning since 1901.

Constantly.

One hundred three years.

Here's the webcam.

You mean like this one?

This bulb, in a fire station in Livermore, CA, has been burning since 1901.

Constantly.

One hundred three years.

Here's the webcam.

Now This is a long running system!!

Link the 100 year Bulb!

Fortunately, they didn't know about this light, or else we'd have Hannuka cermenonies lasting one century each!

The Fire Dept in Livermore CA claims it has the worlds oldest light bulb. It's a 4 watt night light that's left on all the time, and has been burning for 103+ years.

That would be in Livermore, CA. Just down the road from me at the moment. You can find it here.

And yeah, my Amiga 3k still gets daily use.

qz

Both Intel and AMD are CPUs for home users who don't need performance. Workstation processors, like the SPARC mentioned by my friend sql*kitten, have long known that real performance is obtained by putting even the weakest CPU with a fast I/O design. Indeed, I believe that even a 68040 with a very high scale transverse parallel memory design would give a mid to high end Pentium IV a run for its money. This link demonstrates the truth of this claim: Bandwidth is king.

The real improvements in the x86 world will come when they start quad-pumping and double-cheeling the memory system. Actually I believe that it'll be a great stride forward when they use the new lightpath memory architecture, removing the inherent speed limitations of tungsten interconnects used in modern systems. The elimination of filaments in the CPU core of the amatuer processors will be a good improvement as well.

Thank you for listening!

grrrlllpower

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