Slashback: HETE, HP, Regression

Slashback with more on cheap satellites, the relative speeds of threads under Linux and two strains of Windows, a skeptical response to the idea that crowds of people are retreating to dial-up access, and some tantalizing hints at products killed along with the HP calculator division. Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, Benchmarks, Etc. Writing with a followup to the Slashdot post titled, "Who Has Faster Pipes? Linux, Win2000, WinXP Compared" Splinton had this to say: "In this article, Ed Bradford compares semaphores, mutexes and window's critical sections. Pthreads look good, but Win2Ks critical sections are twice as fast again!"

The computing equivalent of Area 51? A short while back HP closed its calculator division. Many have thought HP's calculator department was unprofitable. This was not the case. Many have thought they had no innovation. This was not the case. Turns out that management had 4% workforce to kill and they were part of the cut.

This article explains more. It turns out they had designed several Linux based PDA's ready to produce that were killed by management. Sounds interesting? Go check it out.

The biggest expense was the 12 gross of Estes D engines ... Satellite Designer writes: "The topic of low cost satellites having been mooted here recently, I though I'd alert readers to another such project. The HETE-2 satellite recently located a cosmic gamma-ray burst precisely enough that (with a lot of help from friends) an afterglow was detected, identifying its source. HETE-2 cost $26 million, only 1/3 of what a 'small' scientific satellite normally costs.

A lot of commercial 'off the shelf' technology went into HETE. Nothing from Radio Shack, but there are quite a few parts from Digi-Key onboard. You can't save money by using cheap parts (but you *can* save money by using easily obtainable parts), and you can't achieve reliability by using expensive parts (but you *can* help reliability by using the parts best suited for your application). The radical thing about HETE's parts selection was that it considered parts in the application context (as one would do in a normal engineering process), rather than restricting selection to a QPL assembled to meet irrelevant requirements.

The real trick to keeping costs down is to do the job with as small a team as possible in the minimum time possible. Rather than employing a large team of specialists, HETE's scientific investigators did much of the engineering and technical work. A small, carefully selected engineering team filled in the knowledge gaps."

Quitting isn't easy, and why bother? dmarsh writes: "This new article from C|Net seems to be a total contradiction to last week's "Dump Broadband, Dig Out Your Modem!" thread's article. I guess the important difference being that this one is backed up by an actual survey by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association."

Goes to show, in a large group of people you can probably find at least some who fit nearly any premise. As always, question the source ;)

Comments

Two strains of Windows, eh?

[rice_burners_suck]

I like how Windows software is described as "two strains," like a virus. Windows really is a virus, and a bad one at that. I heard that people aren't flocking like sheep to buy Windows XP, which is good news if it is true. I saw XP at a Fry's and was not impressed. It contains more graphics and junk, which means that it needs yet more powerful computers than before to accomplish the same tasks. Most folks I ask say they use their computers for email, casual web browsing, word processing and to run one or two other programs (usually custom medical or electronics programs, as most of my friends work in these fields). And the same folks complain that Windows is too expensive and quite frankly sucks, but they can't do anything about it because they have no choice. Face it, no matter how many alternatives there are out there, there is no choice until developers start moving to a better system. It's difficult to make that move, but it's happening slowly but surely. I've blown Windows 98 (the latest one I have and only because it came preinstalled) off my hard drives on five computers and installed FreeBSD and various Linux distros. That's five down and several more to go. I've helped some of my friends get started with alternatives and once it works, they love it. That's the only way to fight the Windows virus. Oh well...

Ass Backward

[bstadil]

You got this Ass Backward. The market decides what they will do, Then business live with that. If you raise price on a product that should follow Moore's law or close, expect to see your subscribers jump. Why do you think you need / deserve raises by the way. It that something Moses brought down with the Tablets?