Actually, flops is enough. Of course there are applications that could still benefit from better integer performance. However, most of the CPU intensive programs that I use are more floating point intensive. For example, my Athlon 64 3000+ is not quite powerful enough to decode 1080p HD content in real time. I would say that most of the software that "normal people" use is more numerically intensive than integer intensive. If general purpose CPUs had better floating point performance, we wouldn't need special purpose GPUs for 3D rendering. My office software (which only needs good integer performance) already runs fast enough.
I agree! http://www.audioreview.com is a great resource. As for a home theater solution for under $1500, I would recommend the JBL Studio Series speakers, such as the S-Center, S310 or S312 for fronts and S38 or S26 for rears. You will see that these speakers are rated very highly on audioreview.com, and you should be able to get a complete set plus subwoofer for a home theater for less than $1500. I think these are by far the best speaker value out there. They sound almost as good as the very high end audiophile stuff for only a small fraction of the price. I would stay away from JBL's lower-end stuff though.
I've also heard some interesting tidbits. Of course, these are also pretty much a total rumor with no evidence at all Therefore, I won't bother giving any links:)
Sony plans to make a PCI card that will let you play playstation 2 games on a PC.
Bleem plans to take advantage of PS2 shortage by releasing a PS2 emulator for the PC.
Microsoft plans to release software that will let you play X-box games on a PC. (hint: this software will be called Windows ME).
Rumor has it that slashdot is now just another rumor mill...
People are probably getting more dangerous radiation from their (crt) computer monitor than they would ever get from a cell phone. Also, everyone knows that the real danger of cell phones is that people tend to use them while driving, which is known to cause car accidents. I think whole cell phone-radiation scare is just another case of people making a big deal about a really insignificant risk factor.
Simply playing an MPEG4 movie (e.g., using the divx plugin for Windows media player) uses most of the CPU utilization of a 700 MHz Thunderbird. Creating a 2 hour long MPEG4 movie from a DVD extracted mpeg file takes about 10 hours an the same Thunderbird system. It would probably still take several hours even on a 1.6 GHz Athlon. There is the potential for a lot of cool applications if the compression could be done "live." However, even a 1.6 Athlon is not fast enough for this.
So, I think a lot of people in their right mind need that kind of computing power. As audio/video compression gets better, the processing power required to encode and decode will likely continue to increase.
>> The problem, as reported by NPR, was traced to human error.. Somebody left a database open,
which is where the vulnerability existed. Western Union will correct the problem, says they.
Hmm. Here is another problem they should also correct:)
I don't want to pay taxes for useless things. I pay taxes for the tangible services, like defense, that the government provides.
But without the space program, how will our government protect us from an extraterrestrial invasion? Our space program will allow us seek out all nearby extraterrestrial life forms (e.g., the aliens that live on Europa) and destroy them before they are able to invade Earth!
Intel designed this chip for very high clock rates with the assumption that Mhz ratings sell chips and systems because joe public is too stupid to know what IPC means.
Looking only at IPC is just as misleading as looking at MHz alone. The only performance indicator that really matters is execution time for your apps. I don't really care what the IPC or the MHz of ProcessorX is as long is it gives me good performance for my applications. I think Intel simply decided to make a trade off here: use a lower IPC than P!!!, but have a high enough clock rate to more than make up for it. I don't know if they will succeed, but I think that is what they are aiming for, anyway...
Yes. You are correct. Cache is typically SRAM, which unlike DRAM, does not need to be refreshed. There are actually some supercomputers that use SRAM for main memory!
Actually, in addition to increasing the power of the lasers, they should use the newly developed green diode lasers instead of the boring IR ones. If enough buildings used them, we would get to see a nice laser light show each night:)
My story is as anecdotal as any, but what
is so bad about Swing?
Well, here's one problem I have with Swing:
Try using a wheel mouse with Swing. The wheel doesn't work. This will seriously frustrate those of us with wheel mice.
This has been my experience as well, at least for client applications. I would really like to do my Java development on Linux rather than windows, but Java on Linux is not quite there yet. My work involes using the Java audio API (Java Sound). Unfortunately, simple audio suport is broken in IBM's Linux 1.3 JDK (incredibly choppy audio). I am sure IBM knows about this since even the audio demos in/opt/IBMJava2-13/demo/sound/ sound very choppy. The windows version of IBM's 1.3.0 JDK has a wonderfull implementation of Java Sound (much better than Sun's), however. I will reluctantly continue my development on windows for now...
How can one say that Java on Linux "rocks" when something as basic as simple audio support is not usable? Please note that I am only ranting about client-side use of Java here. It might be that Java "rocks" on Linux as long as you are only using it for server-side stuff, which is probably what most people will use it for anyway...
Java is a very nice language, which is exactly why it should be used on handhelds. If the language features of Java can cut development time significantly (which I have found to be the case where I work), than it only makes sense to use it. Of course there are some applications for which Java is ill suited, but I don't see this being the case for typical PDA applications. The cross platform nature of Java can also cut development time.
BTW, the latest Java implementations (Sun/IBM v 1.3.0) deliver performance comparable to compiled languages. This is because they used mixed-mode interpreters that essentially perform runtime profiling to find the hotspots and compile those sections of Java bytecode.
The fact that Linux is under GPL would only be a disadvantage to OS companies that would like to create a proprietary (and likely non-free) OS.
They would probably not choose to base their OS on Linux because it is GPL'd. I believe this is why Apply did not base OS X on Linux.
For everybody else, however, the zero-cost aspect of Linux will win out. A software developer who simply wants to write and sell a binary-only product that runs on PocketLinux need not worry about it. Just don't use GPL'd code in your product and you are safe.
Ok, so they already ban IP-masqueraded networks. Is this really enforceable? I mean, how is @home ever going to know if one of their customers is using NAT? It was my understanding that the only way they could find out would be if you were to invite an @home employee over to your place and show them your cool 5-machine home network.
I wrote abcnews a letter as well. At least they didn't make anything in banner adds from me. I use the Junkbuster, and I would encourage others to use it as well.
You make several good points. Possibly the best reason I can think of to use Java is the language features and improvements over C++. I am simply much more productive using Java than C++, and it is nice not to have to deal with porting issues.
However, there still are some drawbacks to Java:
Although Java has the potential to be (mostly) platform independent, Sun has a strong bias towards Windows. The latest Java implementation (1.3 RC2) is only available for Windows. Sun does not even support their own OS yet! Java 1.2 was out for well over a year before Sun released a Linux implementation. Even if we go back to v1.2, you will see that Sun supports versions of Windows back to win95, but support for Sun's OS is limited to very recent versions of Solaris. v1.2 is still not supported on some fairly popular platforms, such as MacOS. Sun's attitude appears to be: Provide up-to-date and solid Java implementations for Windows, and support other platforms when/if we get around to it.
Java is not yet suitable for the following application areas: Hard real-time systems (due to threading/GC issues), fast 3D graphics, high-end (96 KHz, 24 bit, > 2 channel) audio apps (Java is limited to 16 bit stereo @44.1 KHz, and only for Java 1.3).
>>know, I opened up a (dead) 1 Gig Drive the other day.
If you're gonna open up a hard drive, you might as well take out the NIB magnets. NIB magnets are the most powerful permanent magnets known, and they are used in hard drives. You can do all kinds of neat things with them. They are so powerful, that you can build a compass just by setting one of these magnets on smooth surface, such as a plate. They will overcome the surface friction and point north-south! Also try dropping a NIB magnet between 2 closely spaced big aluminum CPU heat sinks. They induced eddy currents will cause the magnet to descend rather slowly.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm going to firefoxcast my home page. I'll write it in html. Firefox users will be able to view it whenever they like.
Actually, flops is enough. Of course there are applications that could still benefit from better integer performance. However, most of the CPU intensive programs that I use are more floating point intensive. For example, my Athlon 64 3000+ is not quite powerful enough to decode 1080p HD content in real time. I would say that most of the software that "normal people" use is more numerically intensive than integer intensive. If general purpose CPUs had better floating point performance, we wouldn't need special purpose GPUs for 3D rendering. My office software (which only needs good integer performance) already runs fast enough.
I agree! http://www.audioreview.com is a great resource. As for a home theater solution for under $1500, I would recommend the JBL Studio Series speakers, such as the S-Center, S310 or S312 for fronts and S38 or S26 for rears. You will see that these speakers are rated very highly on audioreview.com, and you should be able to get a complete set plus subwoofer for a home theater for less than $1500. I think these are by far the best speaker value out there. They sound almost as good as the very high end audiophile stuff for only a small fraction of the price. I would stay away from JBL's lower-end stuff though.
Hit *CD (*23) on your PCS phone, type in the station's call letter, get the name of the band and song, and then ... hang up.
Start up napster, type in the name of the band and song, and download the mp3 :)
People are probably getting more dangerous radiation from their (crt) computer monitor than they would ever get from a cell phone. Also, everyone knows that the real danger of cell phones is that people tend to use them while driving, which is known to cause car accidents. I think whole cell phone-radiation scare is just another case of people making a big deal about a really insignificant risk factor.
Simply playing an MPEG4 movie (e.g., using the divx plugin for Windows media player) uses most of the CPU utilization of a 700 MHz Thunderbird. Creating a 2 hour long MPEG4 movie from a DVD extracted mpeg file takes about 10 hours an the same Thunderbird system. It would probably still take several hours even on a 1.6 GHz Athlon. There is the potential for a lot of cool applications if the compression could be done "live." However, even a 1.6 Athlon is not fast enough for this.
So, I think a lot of people in their right mind need that kind of computing power. As audio/video compression gets better, the processing power required to encode and decode will likely continue to increase.
0*(speed_in_MHz/power_in_watts) + 1/(execution_time_for_my_applications)
Take the CPU with the highest number.
Here are some of my current best guesses. Someone tell me which is correct.
1. Oh Ess Ex
2. Oh Ess Ten
3. 0 S eX (Zero Sex?)
Hmm. Here is another problem they should also correct :)
bash$ lynx -head -dump http://www.westernunion.com/
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Microsoft-IIS/4.0
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 18:29:13 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDGGGQQRVA=FHJINCOAOHANHOGNFICFFEGA; path=/
Cache-control: private
Don't worry. If the MPAA has its way, we will still be using CD players 50,000 years from now, and they will all be read-only.
But without the space program, how will our government protect us from an extraterrestrial invasion? Our space program will allow us seek out all nearby extraterrestrial life forms (e.g., the aliens that live on Europa) and destroy them before they are able to invade Earth!
Looking only at IPC is just as misleading as looking at MHz alone. The only performance indicator that really matters is execution time for your apps. I don't really care what the IPC or the MHz of ProcessorX is as long is it gives me good performance for my applications. I think Intel simply decided to make a trade off here: use a lower IPC than P!!!, but have a high enough clock rate to more than make up for it. I don't know if they will succeed, but I think that is what they are aiming for, anyway...
Yes. You are correct. Cache is typically SRAM, which unlike DRAM, does not need to be refreshed. There are actually some supercomputers that use SRAM for main memory!
Actually, in addition to increasing the power of the lasers, they should use the newly developed green diode lasers instead of the boring IR ones. If enough buildings used them, we would get to see a nice laser light show each night :)
Well, here's one problem I have with Swing: Try using a wheel mouse with Swing. The wheel doesn't work. This will seriously frustrate those of us with wheel mice.
How can one say that Java on Linux "rocks" when something as basic as simple audio support is not usable? Please note that I am only ranting about client-side use of Java here. It might be that Java "rocks" on Linux as long as you are only using it for server-side stuff, which is probably what most people will use it for anyway...
BTW, the latest Java implementations (Sun/IBM v 1.3.0) deliver performance comparable to compiled languages. This is because they used mixed-mode interpreters that essentially perform runtime profiling to find the hotspots and compile those sections of Java bytecode.
The fact that Linux is under GPL would only be a disadvantage to OS companies that would like to create a proprietary (and likely non-free) OS.
They would probably not choose to base their OS on Linux because it is GPL'd. I believe this is why Apply did not base OS X on Linux.
For everybody else, however, the zero-cost aspect of Linux will win out. A software developer who simply wants to write and sell a binary-only product that runs on PocketLinux need not worry about it. Just don't use GPL'd code in your product and you are safe.
Ok, so they already ban IP-masqueraded networks. Is this really enforceable? I mean, how is @home ever going to know if one of their customers is using NAT? It was my understanding that the only way they could find out would be if you were to invite an @home employee over to your place and show them your cool 5-machine home network.
Go get if from here.
Would that be such a bad thing, really?
Now I can build a beowulf cluster the size of a laptop!
However, there still are some drawbacks to Java:
Although Java has the potential to be (mostly) platform independent, Sun has a strong bias towards Windows. The latest Java implementation (1.3 RC2) is only available for Windows. Sun does not even support their own OS yet! Java 1.2 was out for well over a year before Sun released a Linux implementation. Even if we go back to v1.2, you will see that Sun supports versions of Windows back to win95, but support for Sun's OS is limited to very recent versions of Solaris. v1.2 is still not supported on some fairly popular platforms, such as MacOS. Sun's attitude appears to be: Provide up-to-date and solid Java implementations for Windows, and support other platforms when/if we get around to it.
Java is not yet suitable for the following application areas: Hard real-time systems (due to threading/GC issues), fast 3D graphics, high-end (96 KHz, 24 bit, > 2 channel) audio apps (Java is limited to 16 bit stereo @44.1 KHz, and only for Java 1.3).
If you're gonna open up a hard drive, you might as well take out the NIB magnets. NIB magnets are the most powerful permanent magnets known, and they are used in hard drives. You can do all kinds of neat things with them. They are so powerful, that you can build a compass just by setting one of these magnets on smooth surface, such as a plate. They will overcome the surface friction and point north-south! Also try dropping a NIB magnet between 2 closely spaced big aluminum CPU heat sinks. They induced eddy currents will cause the magnet to descend rather slowly.
Have fun!