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Where Have All The Cycles Gone?

Posted by timothy on from the that's-why-it's-called-ether dept.

Mai writes "Computers are getting faster all the time, or so they tell us. But, in fact, the user experience of performance hasn't improved much over the past 15 years. This article takes a look at where all the precious processor time and memory are going."

17 of 854 comments (clear)

  1. My CPU Usage by fembots · · Score: 5, Funny

    2% word processing
    3% gaming
    5% internet
    90% feet warming

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
    1. Re:My CPU Usage by BeyondALL · · Score: 5, Funny

      that's why I run Seti@Home in the winter :)

      --
      "If you keep an open mind people will throw a lot of garbage in it."
  2. This week's action item by fembots · · Score: 5, Funny

    Launch a few applications simultaneously and time their start-ups. Try it again in five years to see whether the time has improved.

    I think it'll be the same, given the same machine.

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
  3. What are they talking about? by brian0918 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Windows 3.1 and Notepad run nice and fast on my 3.2GHz 8GB RAM box.

  4. Clippy by rlp · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone needs to ask Clippy what he's doing with all those spare cycles.

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    [Insert pithy quote here]
    1. Re:Clippy by nine-times · · Score: 5, Funny

      Browsing the Staples web site for mail-order brides.

    2. Re:Clippy by dexter+riley · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a little-known fact that Clippy doesn't really go away when you click "just type the letter without help". He returns to a background process, where he lives with his wife, two kids, and the "Search Companion" Dog. Microsoft Bob lives there, too...well, he actually lives in a virtual cardboard box behind the "bowling alley" thread.

      It's kinda like the Matrix, only less resource-intensive, and without as much "whoa" time.

  5. Reminds me of a song... by nharmon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Where have all the cycles gone, long time passing
    Where have all the cycles gone, long time ago
    Where have all the cycles gone, gone to spyware everyone.

    When will they ever learn?
    When will they ev-ear learn?

    1. Re:Reminds me of a song... by Buran · · Score: 5, Funny

      Where has all the spyware gone? Long time passing?
      Where has all the spyware gone? Long time ago
      Where has all the spyware gone?
      Gone to spammers, everyone.

      When will we ever learn?
      When will we ever learn?

      (Apologies to Mikhail Sholokhov, Pete Seeger & parent poster)

      --
      i am a soviet space shuttle
  6. Uhmmm, no. by Scratch-O-Matic · · Score: 4, Funny

    I didn't rtfa, but..no. Nine years ago I used to start my word processor (Ami Pro!), then go take a leak while it loaded. What a BS claim.

    --


    Evil is the money of root.
  7. Where have all the cycles gone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    My girlfriend has a cycle every month. It causes me problems, so I can imagine it must cause some problems for the computer as well.

    1. Re:Where have all the cycles gone? by Stanistani · · Score: 5, Funny

      The time to worry is when this cycle suspends atypically, causing a dependent issue.

      --
      You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
    2. Re:Where have all the cycles gone? by the+real+darkskye · · Score: 4, Funny

      So thats where child processes come from!

      --
      Music is everybody's possession.
      It's only publishers who think that people own it.
      Fuck Beta
      ~John Lenno
    3. Re:Where have all the cycles gone? by zCyl · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's why you don't want to fork outside of protected mode.

    4. Re:Where have all the cycles gone? by alexo · · Score: 4, Funny


      >> "My girlfriend has a cycle every month."
      >
      > Heat?

      Running at about 380 nano-Hz, I would rule out heat issues.

  8. DCTI by Leroy_Brown242 · · Score: 4, Funny

    distributed.net is where all the smart CPU cycles have gone! :)

    --
    Pretty Pictures!
  9. Re:Just look at the size of a word document today by cosmo7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here's that MS Word native format:

    64 bytes: Cryptic Masonic signature
    64 bytes: Reserved for Carnivore
    8KB: Macro playground
    8KB: Random extracts from King James Bible
    64 bytes: Run-length encoded document contents
    8KB: Uncompressed copy of above for compatibility