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

Surveys.

[czardonic]

I guess the important difference being that this one is backed up by an actual survey by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association

Certainly sounds impartial.

I switched from dsl to modem..

[Ruis]

.. because I had to. My line provider went bankrupt. How often has that happened lately?

DSL....

[MrWinkey]

Question the source? I'm shure my telephone/cable company has been hard at work installing that transponder in the box 25' from my house since January. Every month I call...."Yes sir it should be any time now....."

I am as confused as heck

[not_cub]

1. "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 ;) " says Timothy of slashdot, home of slack journalism and one-sided reporting. So, I don't believe a word he says, and I won't question the source.

2. "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 ;) " says Timothy of slashdot, and I believe him. I will question every source. Goto 1.

Re:HP was the greatest

[MightyMicro]

Very sad -- I treasure my HP16C "Computer Scientist" calculator, vintage 1982 and still in daily use. Made in Corvallis, Oregon. Works as well today as the day it came out of the box -- and it was a gift from a friend in Portland.

No family member would steal it because of the reverse Polish logic. Perfect.

Re:Consider the stats evened

[burnin1965]

QWest is just starting up DSL in my area so I'll be dumping my overpriced ISDN connection as soon as my DSL line is up and running. That should cancel out your DSL retreat.