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Hope For Fixing Longstanding Linux I/O Wait Bug
DaGoodBoy writes "There has been a long standing performance bug in Linux since 2.6.18 that has been responsible for lagging interactivity and poor system performance across all architectures. It has been notoriously difficult to qualify and isolate, but in the last few days someone has finally gotten a repeatable test case! Turns out the problem may not even be disk related, since the test case triggers the bug only by transferring data either between two processes or threads. The test results are very revealing. The developer ran regressions all the way back to version 2.6.15 that demonstrate this bug has more than doubled the time to run the test in 2.6.28. Many, many people working at improving the desktop performance of Linux will be very happy to see this bug die. I know that I, personally, will find a way to send the guy that found this test case his beverage of choice in thanks. Please spread the word and bring some attention to this issue so we can get it fixed!"
That's not going to happen. The current crisis is the result of trying to put off a recession for 8 years, combined with 8 years of criminal ponzi schemes. The current bailout plans will just prolong the time it takes to clear out all the bad debt and bad actors, add to the debt, further devalue the dollar, and delay the inevitable - making it much more painful.
Expectations (Credit Suisse, etc) are that a *minimum* of 1 in 6 US mortgages will default over the next 5 years no matter what, and that the housing market won't hit bottom untl sometime between 2011 and 2016, with another 2 decades before values "return" to their peaks.
Yu can't solve a bad debt crisis with more bad debt, rewarding those responsible for the bad debt, and imposing the burden on those who were prudent. The refusal to bite the bullet over the last 8 years just guarantees that we'll be lucky if we avoid a depression, but that we'll definitely have the worst recesssion this side of 1929-1940.
The chinese have already figured it out. Additionally, they have figured out that it's better to invest their money at home than continue to buy US money long-term, which has already lost between 93 and 98% of its' value in the last 40 years. Long-term US bonds are going to be unsellable internationally a year or two from now, which means print, print, print, and a decade of stagflation, rather than real growth.
Notice how Obama is now saying "create or save jobs" rather than "create jobs." There will be no net creation of jobs over the next 2 years - just people changing from one job to another. This is still better than being unemployed, but it could have been done without the extortion/panic reaction of the bail-outs, which is the largest, most futile Ponzi scheme ever.
Kevin Smith on Prince
The economy is "fixed" just fine on a regular basis, but people don't seem to like that.
Ask yourself this: people have been spending money on worldwide flights, exotic holidays, fancy houses, big cars, cinema outings, fast computers... Now. let's say you work 40 hours a week, and get $40 for that. So that's essentially 40 tokens for work done. If your wage is average, then other people get similar tokens for a similar week of work. Now, how long did that flight take to build/arrange/fly/repair, in man-hours (or tokens)? What about the hotels, and excursions, and beauty treatments? And the big car? And that movie you saw? And the fast computer?
Ignoring what's the norm... do you REALLY think your 40 tokens per week can buy all this? That, if their were no tokens, and you simply had to contribute work on the plane to get a free flight, had to help build the car to get a free car... do you REALLY think you'd have time? Because, essentially, anything those tokens get you that you couldn't have gotten with man hours is borrowed time.
Unfortunately many humans preferred to be greedy and irresponsible with their resource use, gradually spending more than they have to get more than they need over decades as they slowly forget reality. That throws off the economy, and soon everyone's up the creek. Eventually, they realise it, and the whole thing crashes like a rollercoaster, down to much less than its worth and less than is needed. Finally people start to get a sense of normalcy, buying what they need, and everything is good. Until they start to forget where the line is, and then become irresponsible and greedy again.
It's a vicious cycle, that'll never change, until people start to be more responsible and share a little rather than grabbing a lot. BUT, none of this should matter much, to a frugal person who buys what he needs, and saves when he can. Not everyone will be affected by these boom/bust times -- only those who ride the rollercoaster.