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Seven Wonders of the IT World

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the random-stats dept.

C.G. Lynch writes "The computer closest to the North Pole. The most intriguing data center. The biggest scientific computing grid. The little kernel that rocked the world. CIO.com has compiled a list of Seven Wonders of the IT World, some of the most impressive and unusual systems on the planet (and beyond)."

17 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Small computer running Vista by ShatteredArm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    WOW! A small really small computer runs Vista! This is groundbreaking!

    Seriously, though, the only "wonderous" things on there were the Voyager and the supercomputer. Most of the other stuff is not the most groundbreaking or superlative for its kind out there. I thought the idea of a "wonder" was something that we can only try and imagine how they managed to do it or how they came up with the idea.

  2. Re:120F in North Pole? by jmauro · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Webcam's rated temperature, not the temperature at the North Pole. I'm also quite sad it get's "disposed" of every year by letting it sink to the bottom. That kind of sucks.

  3. Biggest Paradigm Change by Red+Jesus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Biggest Paradigm Change in Enterprise Software: Linux kernel

    Don't get me wrong: I love Linus and I love Linux. But don't forget what RMS likes to remind us at every opportunity: Linux is part of the GNU system. And GNU predated Linux by a long shot.

    Stallman started the GNU project in 1983 and founded the Free Software Foundation in 1985. The Linux kernel appeared in 1991. Where did Torvalds get his compiler? Where did Torvalds get his editor? Where did Torvalds find people to work on his kernel? I understand that it can be pedantic to argue about big, abstract ideas like ``When did the paradigm shift really happen?'' Maybe the paradigm didn't ``shift'' until the Linux kernel came out. But Torvalds wasn't out to change paradigms. Stallman was. If we're going to hail the concept of free software, we should acknowledge the alphabet soup of RMS, the FSF, GNU, ETC. that gave it legs to stand on.

    1. Re:Biggest Paradigm Change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Maybe the paradigm didn't ``shift'' until the Linux kernel came out. But Torvalds wasn't out to change paradigms. Stallman was.

      Community development was Torvalds' innovation, not Stallman's. Prior to Linux, the FSF was a GPL cathedral cranking out utilities to run on Sun OS.

    2. Re:Biggest Paradigm Change by Chyeld · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The straw that breaks the camel's back may just be one straw. It may not even be the heaviest or biggest straw. It may owe it's entire fame to all the straws that came before it.

      But it's still the straw that broke the camel's back. The first straw didn't, the straw just before the last straw didn't, just the one straw. The last straw.

      Thats the straw that gets remembered.

      How many people attempted to fly solo transatlantic before Charles? Can you name any, and if so, do you consider it an acheivement or a matter of 'everyone knows that'?

      That isn't to belittle RMS or his works, but for all he put into it, it would have come to naught if Linus or someone else hadn't come along and given the final push.

    3. Re:Biggest Paradigm Change by Red+Jesus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That isn't to belittle RMS or his works, but for all he put into it, it would have come to naught if Linus or someone else hadn't come along and given the final push.

      I guess I didn't make my point clear enough. Why was Linus even pushing at all? The FSF did more than write software. It fostered a community. It created a public license so folks wouldn't have to write their own. It established a list of goals: software that the GNU system sorely needed. Torvalds didn't come up with the paradigm of using open source software nor did he establish the basic rules by which open source projects would operate. The fact that his kernel was the last component to be written before the GNU/Linux system could stand alone isn't at issue here. The question is whether he was responsible for founding a paradigm.

      Try this instead: Go out into the street and ask people to name a piece of free software. Odds are, they'll name Firefox. Firefox is the first piece of open source software to attract a userbase of that many non-technical people. Firefox drew the public's eye to OSS in a way that no other software has. But would you say that the Mozilla Foundation was responsible for a paradigm shift? Of course not! They just exposed a larger number of people to the concept. As fine as their software is, it's just software. And right now we're looking for paradigms. The Linux kernel is no more foundational in this respect than is Firefox.

  4. the biggest wonder by hguorbray · · Score: 2, Insightful

    is that IT works at all considering that the stakeholders and implementers have little common ground or understanding or sympathy for the other.

    -I'm just sayin...

  5. Google at the "end of the Oregon Trail"? by tholomyes · · Score: 2, Insightful

    TFA: "Pioneers knew The Dalles as the end of the Oregon trail."

    I was just in Seaside this weekend, and they had a big sign next to a statue of Lewis and Clark proclaiming that that was the end of the Oregon Trail... The oceanside makes more sense IMO.

    --
    When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat? -C. Palahniuk
  6. Re:Slightly Dissapointed by Culture20 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It might outlast Earth.

  7. Agreed: by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Considering that both Voyagers each carry a mechanical device and a gold disk that bears lots of rich data about Earth and Humanity, I'd say that the best damned Backup/DR data storage effort we've made so far in the history of mankind.

    /P

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  8. OQO? by ynososiduts · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What is that doing in the mix with Google, Blue Gene, and Voyager. It's not even useful. It's too small to be used as a regular office PC, and too large to be a bring everywhere gadget. It should be replaced with like, Ethernet or something similar.

    --
    622677120
  9. Re:More than you might suspect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Google (startup partially funded by CIA $$s)" is extremely different from "has continued to fund Google's spin offs and start ups like Google Earth".

    You can't claim Google was funded by the CIA in its start up days without some kind of source. Seriously. You're just mongering. If you can't back up sensational claims like "Google was funded by the CIA", then don't make them. You're cheapening Slashdot.

  10. Re:More than you might suspect... by Reaperducer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, in other words you're still not able to back up anything you said.

    I don't know much about the history of Google, but Keyhole was a company independent of Google for quite years. I worked for a company that subscribed to its service. Google bought Keyhole years later.

    Your original post is completely worthless, with a bunch of home page links pretending to be citations. Lemme take a shot at your style of online journalism:

    Google is a company owned by the Dairy Queen corporation with the stated goal of infiltrating homes worldwide Radio Shack microphones and transmitters. They are carrying out this nefarious deed at the behest of the Queen of England, and the president of Mexico.

    There. I'm just as factual as you are. And my references are just as good.

    People like you are the reason smart people don't trust the internet.

    --
    -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
  11. New 7 Wonders by dm0527 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I was also disappointed by the list. Mostly because of content, but also because it contained a link to the New 7 Wonders website, which has simply got to be a joke. A list that some place put together to "represent global heritage throughout history" and the pyramids at Giza was simply a runner up?!?!? How lame do you have to be to put together a "seven wonders of the world" list where the pyramids don't warrant a place on the list, especially considering that they're the only thing still around from the bloody original list...

    --
    - dm - The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.
  12. Re:More than you might suspect... by Clay+Pigeon+-TPF-VS- · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Citing prison planet is like citing info wars... It's barely one step above citing the x-files.

    --
    Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
  13. What about the web? by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How can you possibly put together a list of the IT wonders of the world with out including the world wide web - especially when you put the article on a website!

  14. Re:More than you might suspect... by Reaperducer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    take it easy on calling people out who likely *do* know a fair bit more about certain subject matter than you do and let them inform the community.
    I'm still waiting for you to inform the community. All you've done so far is make baseless accusations with no proof. That's not information, that's rumor. If the proof is so easy to find, why won't you show it to us? Your assertions imply that posting the proof would have taken less time and effort than posting your previous reply.

    Also, don't assume that having an ID number of 871695 makes me a Slashdot rookie. I've been here almost since the beginning, but under a different ID that I abandoned years ago. Further, the claim (again unsubstantiated) that you have a doctorate doesn't impress me or anyone else.
    --
    -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."