Do you honestly think that a stock install of Ubuntu 9.04 uses fewer CPU cycles than, say, Debian Woody? Hell, grab some floppies and fire up that old 286; with all the improvements to Linux over the years, new distros must run circles around the old ones we had back then!
Software becomes more complicated with each new version. Features get added. The UI gets improved. Security gets heightened. The fact the Microsoft managed to include all the new features of the past seven years without significantly increasing power consumption or decreasing performance is indeed an accomplishment.
Also, note the difference between performance and productivity. A GUI is a good example. A command line will always perform better than a GUI. It can run on even the lightest of hardware. But you can (usually) be more productive with a GUI than by typing long, obscure commands into a Bash terminal. Another example is the search indexer: It may be more work for your CPU and hard drive, but it saves you lots of time hunting for files or emails.
Seriously, though, Vista changed quite a few things under the hood. The only reason you don't see more Vista-only software yet is because it was, well, a flop.
If Windows 7 catches on, it won't be long before you run across software that refuses to run on XP.
Re:First cryptographic thriller?
on
Tetraktys
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· Score: 1
Actually, phone providers have even more to worry about than that. Gizmo5 has a free SIP server that can be easily tied to Google Voice, so you can make and receive calls using any SIP client. There are SIP clients for most smartphones, including the iPhone. You can even buy inexpensive ATA hardware that lets you connect your landline phones to the service.
So let's see:
Permanent number not tied to any single device
Services and features no conventional telephone provider offers
Free SMS
Free calls wherever you have internet access
Otherwise, outgoing calls for the cost of an incoming call on any phone you have handy
The ease and ubiquity of Google
Is it any wonder that phone companies are shitting their pants about this? Google is doing exactly what AT&T, etc., should have done years ago (if they weren't money-grubbing monopolistic bastards).
I'd really like to have a crystal ball right now. In ten years, the major phone companies as we know them may disappear, replaced by plain bandwidth providers. Or the phone companies may keep trying to block any competitive VoIP service and delay the inevitable. Or they could do their best to sue everyone into oblivion. Whatever happens, it'll be interesting.
True, but if we kept on building those 1950s cars for the last half-century, the new technologies would never have become affordable.
If crazy people hadn't insisted on experimenting with, developing, and refining things that seemed silly, expensive, and impractical at the time, the Information age would never have begun. Or the Industrial age.
Yeah, let's put the lab in Antarctica! It'll be totally safe there! Nobody would get within a thousand miles of the facility. Well, except for the all the cross-country plane trips to bring newly discovered strains from the midwest. But hey, jets are the safest form of travel, right?
We don't know these bacteria can't be fooled, either. That's not the point, anyway: An analog computer may be useful. But it will solve the problem by "brute force", taking advantage of the massive parallelism inherent in the real world in the form of molecules or bacteria. It may solve the problem "quickly" in our perception, but it's far from efficient in polynomial time, and it doesn't help in terms of P = NP.
And like any analog computer, these bacteria need to be carefully designed to solve a specific problem. Which makes them utterly unsuited for the everyday tasks we perform on digital computers using general-purpose CPUs.
At best, this seems to be a novel form of analog computer. They have their uses, but calling them "faster than silicon" is very misleading; a soap bubble can solve the mean surface problem but I won't be replacing my Core 2 with one.
Between the rumors of back doors, and the fact that Skype is an Estonian company whose service was then bought by a large American corporation, it's easy to see why Putin's old-guard party would have some major misgivings about the service.
I was referring to this. Reading it again, the USPTO doesn't explicitly state that they won't be doing their own diligent prior art searches anymore, but shifting the prior art responsibility to the applicant as part of a new "accelerated review" process is tantamount to it.
The USPTO has already stated that they won't be doing real prior art checks themselves. And why would they? They're self-funded, and each patent they grant is more money for them.
The way I see it, the USPTO got their money, Microsoft got an extra patent to impress their shareholders, and anybody else who wants to use similar technology would have a rock-solid legal defense. It's not the way it should work, but it works.
Re:This may seem obvious to some, but...
on
Google Wave Reviewed
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· Score: 1, Informative
Normally it means "bad" or "messed up", but I think in this case it's more "hyperactive". The author seems to be stating "if your email program could get high on cocaine, it would be like Google Wave."
The groundbreaking finding here is that you can make lesions deep in the brain—through the intact skull and skin—with extreme precision and accuracy and safety.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't name too many Microsoft fan boys who are also Apple fan boys. I'd be more worried about the gang violence.
Here you go. Just add some eyes and you're set.
Do you honestly think that a stock install of Ubuntu 9.04 uses fewer CPU cycles than, say, Debian Woody? Hell, grab some floppies and fire up that old 286; with all the improvements to Linux over the years, new distros must run circles around the old ones we had back then!
Software becomes more complicated with each new version. Features get added. The UI gets improved. Security gets heightened. The fact the Microsoft managed to include all the new features of the past seven years without significantly increasing power consumption or decreasing performance is indeed an accomplishment.
Also, note the difference between performance and productivity. A GUI is a good example. A command line will always perform better than a GUI. It can run on even the lightest of hardware. But you can (usually) be more productive with a GUI than by typing long, obscure commands into a Bash terminal. Another example is the search indexer: It may be more work for your CPU and hard drive, but it saves you lots of time hunting for files or emails.
DirectX 10, silly!
Seriously, though, Vista changed quite a few things under the hood. The only reason you don't see more Vista-only software yet is because it was, well, a flop.
If Windows 7 catches on, it won't be long before you run across software that refuses to run on XP.
not to mention Simple Simon (which was turned into Mercury Rising.)
Cobbling together 2 inferior technologies doesn't give you a superior one.
But it never stopped anyone from trying!
Yeah.
Actually, phone providers have even more to worry about than that. Gizmo5 has a free SIP server that can be easily tied to Google Voice, so you can make and receive calls using any SIP client. There are SIP clients for most smartphones, including the iPhone. You can even buy inexpensive ATA hardware that lets you connect your landline phones to the service.
So let's see:
Is it any wonder that phone companies are shitting their pants about this? Google is doing exactly what AT&T, etc., should have done years ago (if they weren't money-grubbing monopolistic bastards).
I'd really like to have a crystal ball right now. In ten years, the major phone companies as we know them may disappear, replaced by plain bandwidth providers. Or the phone companies may keep trying to block any competitive VoIP service and delay the inevitable. Or they could do their best to sue everyone into oblivion. Whatever happens, it'll be interesting.
Judging by the rat, I think you'd look more like Chiana. Which would be awesome.
True, but if we kept on building those 1950s cars for the last half-century, the new technologies would never have become affordable.
If crazy people hadn't insisted on experimenting with, developing, and refining things that seemed silly, expensive, and impractical at the time, the Information age would never have begun. Or the Industrial age.
"Shoop da whoop?"
Laser projectors, dude!
Great contrast, tremendous color gamut, and they can project from any off angle since there's no real focusing issue.
Granted, there's more bugs to work out, but the lack of a cheap green laser was the probably the biggest issue holding the technology back.
Yeah, let's put the lab in Antarctica! It'll be totally safe there! Nobody would get within a thousand miles of the facility. Well, except for the all the cross-country plane trips to bring newly discovered strains from the midwest. But hey, jets are the safest form of travel, right?
From these names, the only one that people would read and link with the internet/web would be Internet Explorer.
especially if they have been living on the moon for the last five years.
Or the Netherlands.
We don't know these bacteria can't be fooled, either. That's not the point, anyway: An analog computer may be useful. But it will solve the problem by "brute force", taking advantage of the massive parallelism inherent in the real world in the form of molecules or bacteria. It may solve the problem "quickly" in our perception, but it's far from efficient in polynomial time, and it doesn't help in terms of P = NP.
And like any analog computer, these bacteria need to be carefully designed to solve a specific problem. Which makes them utterly unsuited for the everyday tasks we perform on digital computers using general-purpose CPUs.
Don't ask me why that was posted AC. I was logged in and the "post anonymously" box wasn't checked.
At best, this seems to be a novel form of analog computer. They have their uses, but calling them "faster than silicon" is very misleading; a soap bubble can solve the mean surface problem but I won't be replacing my Core 2 with one.
Between the rumors of back doors, and the fact that Skype is an Estonian company whose service was then bought by a large American corporation, it's easy to see why Putin's old-guard party would have some major misgivings about the service.
Then why do they pay patent examiners at all? Why not lower the cost and time to patent to near zero and let everyone have a go at it?
Actually, they're trying just that.
I was referring to this. Reading it again, the USPTO doesn't explicitly state that they won't be doing their own diligent prior art searches anymore, but shifting the prior art responsibility to the applicant as part of a new "accelerated review" process is tantamount to it.
The USPTO has already stated that they won't be doing real prior art checks themselves. And why would they? They're self-funded, and each patent they grant is more money for them.
The way I see it, the USPTO got their money, Microsoft got an extra patent to impress their shareholders, and anybody else who wants to use similar technology would have a rock-solid legal defense. It's not the way it should work, but it works.
Normally it means "bad" or "messed up", but I think in this case it's more "hyperactive". The author seems to be stating "if your email program could get high on cocaine, it would be like Google Wave."
...It is alleged the man...ignored repeated requests to stop, when he was shot.
The man then caught fire...
There's got to be a HCF joke in there somewhere.
...I'll give up the naked pagan rituals, but the Torvalds and RMS idols stay!
The groundbreaking finding here is that you can make lesions deep in the brain—through the intact skull and skin—with extreme precision and accuracy and safety.
Ah, the miracle of modern medicine.