No, I only tested systems available to me for either evaluation or that were production somewhere; the G5 had not made it to the big-iron world at the time (has it yet?), but feel free to run that simple command on your G5 and compare. These numbers are anywhere from several years old to 1 year old, and I don't have access to all the latest-and-greatest hardware.
Oh, and the AMD64 is running in 32 bit mode; IIRC it was about 20% faster when running Gentoo in 64 bit mode.
Okay, since Tom's is completely dead at the moment, I'll share the results of my own useless benchmark. I ran the very same single-threaded stupid command on several different machines and recorded user time. Users enter stupid commands anyway, so I figure this is as good as any other test.
I did say this is useless, right? Good. Note that most of these machines are multi-cpu machines, and it looks like I only did this on Power4, PPC, Intel and AMD, and Alpha systems.
My stupid command is: dd if=/dev/zero bs=32768 count=3200 | time gzip >/dev/null
Here are the machines and the USER-time result in seconds: MHz Secs CPU Arch 3185 1.04 Intel Xeon CPU 3.20GHz 3057 1.08 Intel Xeon CPU 3.06GHz 2795 1.22 Intel Xeon MP CPU 2.80GHz 2786 1.22 Intel Xeon CPU 2.80GHz 2395 1.39 Intel Xeon CPU 2.40GHz 1800 2.00 AMD Athlon 64 Processor 1533 2.44 AMD Athlon MP 1800+ 1300 3.18 IBM Power4 1108 3.69 IBM P690 Power4 1108 3.71 IBM P690 Power4 1000 4.36 EV6.8CB 1150 4.4 EV7 21364 1000 4.79 AMD Duron OC 133FSB 1000 5.1 EV6.8CB 21264C 1000 5.37 PIII Xeon Coppermine core 1000 5.5 PowerPC RS64-IV 866 5.76 PIII Coppermine core 700 6.1 EV6.7 21264A 500 12.36 PIII Katmai core 600 14.9 EV5 400 14.99 AMD K6 350 17.23 Pentium 2 532 19 EV5.6 21164A 300 27.14 Pentium MMX 300 34 EV5
Due to the Lameness Filter, I can't make the above data any prettier, but I'd bet you can figure it out.
Of course with differences in OS, compilers, memory speeds, etc. you can't really draw any conclusions from this, EXCEPT this is how fast this particular command runs on these exact systems, AND you can run it on yours to compare how fast a stupid command will finish, which is good to know.
The old, 3270 emulator based system would have slowly got through it but the newer system died.
Wow, I didn't know that 3270 emulators were even programmable, and surely wouldn't try to base an airline reservation system on them. Seems far better to use something like a mainframe than a grid of terminal emulators, although there must be a few distributed mips there...
Whoops, too fast on the draw there. My cdrecord IS setuid root, so my previous reply is in fact useless since I'm burning as root but didn't know it. Sorry about that.
k3b with 2.6.9 as a normal user works just fine for me, and k3b isn't setuid... However with 2.6.10-rc3-bk14 (bleeding edge nightly build of a few nights ago), the whole machine locked up hard when using k3b. Back to 2.6.9 and it works fine. Hmmm... hopefully something screwy with the nightly build only, or maybe my flakey hardware...
" Educating kids with bedtime tv is evil." You ever try educating a kid a bedtime?;)
Nothing educational about the TV; this is more of a give-and-take thing. You have to reward a little... not too much, as we know children need boundaries... but is this really a battle that is worth fighting, and is the outcome really that evil? I've got a wonderful child, and if he has been good there's no reason not to reward him with a movie request now and then. Too bad he hasn't seen many and therefore only knows for sure that he likes Nemo.
My son is learning both from us and by using a computer at places like http://pbskids.com/, http://noggin.com/, and http://nickjr.com/. Sure there are some good kid TV shows on during the day and you can grab a quick shower while he is watching Dora, but TV is for the most part entertainment, and the adults and computers get to educate throught interaction.
Now I am with you somewhat - if I lived alone I may not even have a TV, but I don't live alone, and the TV is on at least half the time during the day. Anyone have any constructive suggestions for limiting TV time for youngsters in a house where that's an unpopular option?
Oh, and to get back on topic: the VCR is dead because, back in the day, we had 4 broadcast TV channels and it was more important to capture what little content we liked. Now we get 150 channels of crap on the satellite and there is almost always something on that can be entertaining, so no need for a VCR to bring the content-level of the TV more in line with our liking.
Toddlers and DVDs
on
The VHS is Dead
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Counterpoint: scene selection is almost invisible to toddlers I have been around. That means that when it is nearly bedtime, you can skip past the majority of Finding Nemo directly to the fun bits at The End, and have it look like The End. Toddlers know what that means, and off we happily go to brush our teeth and put on jammies.
Ahh... scene selection. Nemo is MUCH more watchable the 20th time if you go from school to turtles to reunion to THE END.
OK, so who still does NOT have a gmail account? I have two invites left - what goodness will you do to humanity if I give you one?
AND - if gmail use is growing exponentially (I got 6 invites after 2 weeks use, and of 4 invites sent out, there are 2 new users), how long until eveyone on earth is buried in gmail accounts?
Damn, that's a slow algorithm. On the prime number checker page that is, not of your clever method of determining prime number candidates.
I can suggest a couple code optimizations, if you are tempted to use their algorithm: (1) check only if odd numbers are divisors. if the number isn't divisible by 2, it won't be divisible by 4 either. Really you only have to check if prime numbers are divisors, but we don't have a handy pre-built list of those. (2) check up to the square root of the number only. If you haven't found a divisor by then, you aren't going to find one.
As it is, you can enter a number like 12345678901147 and it will pretty much lock your computer up (mozilla asks if you want to cancel because it is taking so long).
Change the line for (var i=2;i<num;i++) { to for (var i=2;i*i<=num;i+=(i>2?2:1)) { and that page just springs to life on larger primes... like... 7427466391 for instance.
Note: I am not a mathmatician. I can't even spell it. I'm pretty sure I am right however.
I think it only looks linear because the part less than 7 and more than 14 have clipped. Also my original numbers stand, maybe even a little better with this example: 15 MPH is about 6 M/Sec and 30 MPH is about 12 M/sec. If this generator were put up where I live with the constant slight breeze, it would give very close to zero output, as the 7 M/sec required for any output at all are only seen during short gusts. 7 M/sec is a pretty stiff breeze.
I expect very few places will have sustained winds of 12 M/sec and above, but IANAM.
All that having been said, I am sure it is designed for windy places, and kudos to you for being a shareholder in a company that has a technology that you believe in. I hope that works out well for you.
It needs to come not only pretty much constantly, but with some speed as well. The energy in wind power goes up with the cube of the wind speed, and most wind generators give their rated output above 25 or 30 miles per hour. So, if you constantly get wind 15 miles per hour, you will get, what, 12.5% of the rated power out of your generator that's rated for 30 MPH winds.
I put an anemometer up for a summer at my house that got a pretty constant light breeze, and captured data for a summer. I figure a wind generator (at maybe 80 feet up) would have given me on average 3% of its rated power.
Have a look at (United States)
this map before you put up a generator.
I met my wife of 12 years while we were both drunk at a college party. I would say that alcohol effected our relationship, or at least played a small part.
If that scares you, then the flyer has served its purpose.
I can think of some times it would be really handy, not that it solves any of my problems that can't be solved another way.
For instance: say you are monitoring commands you are running on four different machines in four terminal windows that will take a while, and as a sanity check, you also have xosview running behind the terminal windows corresponding to the machine the terminal is on, and showing through enough to be useful but not enough to totally obscure your commands window. Now you get to use more screen real-estate for the commands (fewer ugly line-wraps, more history on the screen) and you can make sure you are really loading up the CPU by way of the nifty load monitoring tool.
The fallout of this is still with us, and even on topic:
I just had to replace the caps in my $35 DVD player's power supply after only 8 months of use.
I expect every player sold last Christmas from the huge pile at the local chain-store outlet has these symptoms: when seeking on a DVD, the TV screen flickers (due to insufficient power), and eventually the player won't read a disk because the power supply is so weak.
Solution: replace the two largest caps with those of the non-bulging variety; now it works great.
How can a $35 DVD player (or anything else) use anything but the cheapest of caps? Do the manufactures know or care that their products are doomed to failure within a year of plugging them in?
Or a better question still, how can I know for sure that a more expensive DVD player uses non-crappy components?
You raise a good point. Stealing rotational energy from the earth isn't exactly tapping into a renewable source of energy, unless we set up giant arrays of solar-powered gyroscopes to add back to the rotational energy of the earth.
You read it here first, friends - a new way to transmit power halfway around the world without power lines! Giant solar powered gyroscopes in the desert adding to the Earth's rotation, and humongous sea-snails in Scottland removing it!
As for the business market, if the boss has a Mac at home (even if he got it for his kids, or he's seen the one at a friend's house) and he's had little trouble with it (compared to his PC) then he's going to be much more likely to entertian the idea of getting Macs.
On the other hand, if those of us who make vendor evaluations have truly bad experiences with our home Apple hardware, we will be less likely to consider the Xserve line for our next big project. I've been tempted by Xserve-RAID, but my recent experiences with Apple Support regarding my 15" powerbook have made it so it will be a LONG time before I can recommend Apple to anyone. The OS is truly nifty and the hardware sexy when it works, but after dealing with Summer in Apple Support for a couple weeks, I would warn anyone to stay far, far away from the current generation of Apple hardware based on the shifty, disingenuous nature of their hardware support alone.
They can make inroads in the schools and the home market where the boss gets experience, but they truly have no notion of the future value of an Apple customer once they have them in the fold, so to speak. What's the use of gaining a convert if you blow it on lousy tech help?
Why do you feel that you can't use a browser because of the color of the logo? Maybe you don't like concentric circles. Or red. Or the dinosaur head. Or is it the pentagram that you dislike perhaps - a symbol that has been used to represent just about anything having five subparts (wounds of Christ, etc.). Really, I'm stumped - maybe it looks too communist?
If that freaks you out, perhaps you should read what this loon says about the symbology your Apple!
Now, I will concede you this point; if the logo were, say, goatse, I would probably look for another browser too... but while that would be very offensive to most people, I just don't see how their current image is too divisive.
Offtopic? Stupid mods; this is COMPLETELY topical. This Slashdot article is "Ask Mike Godwin Anything". The original post has a GOOD QUESTION, and completely RUINS it with a gratuitous Hitler reference. If you don't know who Mike Godwin is, then don't mod. If you were famous for saying that when a thread mentions Hitler it is effectivly over, would you give this question a second thought?
I agree; being a little quicker in your particular area than the rest of the class has its downsides.
Having had the same problem in school half my life ago, all I can say is stick with it now, make the grade, then do what you want with your life. Here are my reasons:
(1) Time will come for you that your school years will seem like a *very* short period of your life. Difficult, no doubt, but just a passing phase.
(2) For me anyway, life as a free adult is a lot more fun than life as a student. You have much to look forward to.
(3) My adult life has been enabled by the useless hoops I had to jump through as a student. My grades were *barely* good enough because I refused to do about half of my homework. Life would have been easier had I done the homework and kept the academic scholarship, vs. working my way through University with crap jobs and student loans.
Good luck. I feel your pain. One final tip - try to avoid the drugs as a coping mechanism. They may or may not be wrong, but they sure are illegal. Getting arrested for possession or worse is a life-defining event, so to speak.
Depends on the size of the capacitors on the input side of the sound card - the larger the RC time constant, the lower the frequency signal that can be observed. My old SB compatible card could pick up as low as 3hz signals really easily - I had an animometer hooked directly to it and counted zero-crossings to determine the wind speed. The signal may not be that linear under 20hz, but it's still really easy to see.
I agree with the parent post about a sound card being a nice classroom demonstration scope. For higher mhz, you can pick up a real scope from Ebay for much cheaper than a PC card solution.
Slashdot Mirror
No, I only tested systems available to me for either evaluation or that were production somewhere; the G5 had not made it to the big-iron world at the time (has it yet?), but feel free to run that simple command on your G5 and compare. These numbers are anywhere from several years old to 1 year old, and I don't have access to all the latest-and-greatest hardware.
Oh, and the AMD64 is running in 32 bit mode; IIRC it was about 20% faster when running Gentoo in 64 bit mode.
Okay, since Tom's is completely dead at the moment, I'll share the results of my own useless benchmark. I ran the very same single-threaded stupid command on several different machines and recorded user time. Users enter stupid commands anyway, so I figure this is as good as any other test.
/dev/null
I did say this is useless, right? Good. Note that most of these machines are multi-cpu machines, and it looks like I only did this on Power4, PPC, Intel and AMD, and Alpha systems.
My stupid command is:
dd if=/dev/zero bs=32768 count=3200 | time gzip >
Here are the machines and the USER-time result in seconds:
MHz Secs CPU Arch
3185 1.04 Intel Xeon CPU 3.20GHz
3057 1.08 Intel Xeon CPU 3.06GHz
2795 1.22 Intel Xeon MP CPU 2.80GHz
2786 1.22 Intel Xeon CPU 2.80GHz
2395 1.39 Intel Xeon CPU 2.40GHz
1800 2.00 AMD Athlon 64 Processor
1533 2.44 AMD Athlon MP 1800+
1300 3.18 IBM Power4
1108 3.69 IBM P690 Power4
1108 3.71 IBM P690 Power4
1000 4.36 EV6.8CB
1150 4.4 EV7 21364
1000 4.79 AMD Duron OC 133FSB
1000 5.1 EV6.8CB 21264C
1000 5.37 PIII Xeon Coppermine core
1000 5.5 PowerPC RS64-IV
866 5.76 PIII Coppermine core
700 6.1 EV6.7 21264A
500 12.36 PIII Katmai core
600 14.9 EV5
400 14.99 AMD K6
350 17.23 Pentium 2
532 19 EV5.6 21164A
300 27.14 Pentium MMX
300 34 EV5
Due to the Lameness Filter, I can't make the above data any prettier, but I'd bet you can figure it out.
Of course with differences in OS, compilers, memory speeds, etc. you can't really draw any conclusions from this, EXCEPT this is how fast this particular command runs on these exact systems, AND you can run it on yours to compare how fast a stupid command will finish, which is good to know.
--rebar
The old, 3270 emulator based system would have slowly got through it but the newer system died.
Wow, I didn't know that 3270 emulators were even programmable, and surely wouldn't try to base an airline reservation system on them. Seems far better to use something like a mainframe than a grid of terminal emulators, although there must be a few distributed mips there...
Whoops, too fast on the draw there. My cdrecord IS setuid root, so my previous reply is in fact useless since I'm burning as root but didn't know it. Sorry about that.
k3b with 2.6.9 as a normal user works just fine for me, and k3b isn't setuid... However with 2.6.10-rc3-bk14 (bleeding edge nightly build of a few nights ago), the whole machine locked up hard when using k3b. Back to 2.6.9 and it works fine. Hmmm... hopefully something screwy with the nightly build only, or maybe my flakey hardware...
" Educating kids with bedtime tv is evil." ;)
You ever try educating a kid a bedtime?
Nothing educational about the TV; this is more of a give-and-take thing. You have to reward a little... not too much, as we know children need boundaries... but is this really a battle that is worth fighting, and is the outcome really that evil? I've got a wonderful child, and if he has been good there's no reason not to reward him with a movie request now and then. Too bad he hasn't seen many and therefore only knows for sure that he likes Nemo.
My son is learning both from us and by using a computer at places like http://pbskids.com/, http://noggin.com/, and http://nickjr.com/. Sure there are some good kid TV shows on during the day and you can grab a quick shower while he is watching Dora, but TV is for the most part entertainment, and the adults and computers get to educate throught interaction.
Now I am with you somewhat - if I lived alone I may not even have a TV, but I don't live alone, and the TV is on at least half the time during the day. Anyone have any constructive suggestions for limiting TV time for youngsters in a house where that's an unpopular option?
Oh, and to get back on topic: the VCR is dead because, back in the day, we had 4 broadcast TV channels and it was more important to capture what little content we liked. Now we get 150 channels of crap on the satellite and there is almost always something on that can be entertaining, so no need for a VCR to bring the content-level of the TV more in line with our liking.
Counterpoint: scene selection is almost invisible to toddlers I have been around. That means that when it is nearly bedtime, you can skip past the majority of Finding Nemo directly to the fun bits at The End, and have it look like The End. Toddlers know what that means, and off we happily go to brush our teeth and put on jammies.
Ahh... scene selection. Nemo is MUCH more watchable the 20th time if you go from school to turtles to reunion to THE END.
OK, so who still does NOT have a gmail account? I have two invites left - what goodness will you do to humanity if I give you one?
AND - if gmail use is growing exponentially (I got 6 invites after 2 weeks use, and of 4 invites sent out, there are 2 new users), how long until eveyone on earth is buried in gmail accounts?
Damn, that's a slow algorithm. On the prime number checker page that is, not of your clever method of determining prime number candidates.
I can suggest a couple code optimizations, if you are tempted to use their algorithm:
(1) check only if odd numbers are divisors. if the number isn't divisible by 2, it won't be divisible by 4 either. Really you only have to check if prime numbers are divisors, but we don't have a handy pre-built list of those.
(2) check up to the square root of the number only. If you haven't found a divisor by then, you aren't going to find one.
As it is, you can enter a number like 12345678901147 and it will pretty much lock your computer up (mozilla asks if you want to cancel because it is taking so long).
Change the line
for (var i=2;i<num;i++) {
to
for (var i=2;i*i<=num;i+=(i>2?2:1)) {
and that page just springs to life on larger primes... like... 7427466391 for instance.
Note: I am not a mathmatician. I can't even spell it. I'm pretty sure I am right however.
I think it only looks linear because the part less than 7 and more than 14 have clipped. Also my original numbers stand, maybe even a little better with this example: 15 MPH is about 6 M/Sec and 30 MPH is about 12 M/sec. If this generator were put up where I live with the constant slight breeze, it would give very close to zero output, as the 7 M/sec required for any output at all are only seen during short gusts. 7 M/sec is a pretty stiff breeze.
I expect very few places will have sustained winds of 12 M/sec and above, but IANAM.
All that having been said, I am sure it is designed for windy places, and kudos to you for being a shareholder in a company that has a technology that you believe in. I hope that works out well for you.
Have you, by chance, seen the latest National Geographic?
I put an anemometer up for a summer at my house that got a pretty constant light breeze, and captured data for a summer. I figure a wind generator (at maybe 80 feet up) would have given me on average 3% of its rated power.
Have a look at (United States) this map before you put up a generator.
Completely OT:
I met my wife of 12 years while we were both drunk at a college party. I would say that alcohol effected our relationship, or at least played a small part.
If that scares you, then the flyer has served its purpose.
I can think of some times it would be really handy, not that it solves any of my problems that can't be solved another way.
For instance: say you are monitoring commands you are running on four different machines in four terminal windows that will take a while, and as a sanity check, you also have xosview running behind the terminal windows corresponding to the machine the terminal is on, and showing through enough to be useful but not enough to totally obscure your commands window. Now you get to use more screen real-estate for the commands (fewer ugly line-wraps, more history on the screen) and you can make sure you are really loading up the CPU by way of the nifty load monitoring tool.
OK it's a stretch but I'd still do it.
Sayteth the parent post: radiation can't affect an atom in anyway
So all the stuff that IS affected by radiation... it's made of what?
The fallout of this is still with us, and even on topic:
I just had to replace the caps in my $35 DVD player's power supply after only 8 months of use.
I expect every player sold last Christmas from the huge pile at the local chain-store outlet has these symptoms: when seeking on a DVD, the TV screen flickers (due to insufficient power), and eventually the player won't read a disk because the power supply is so weak.
Solution: replace the two largest caps with those of the non-bulging variety; now it works great.
How can a $35 DVD player (or anything else) use anything but the cheapest of caps? Do the manufactures know or care that their products are doomed to failure within a year of plugging them in?
Or a better question still, how can I know for sure that a more expensive DVD player uses non-crappy components?
So far, this is the best use anyone has proposed for this feature, and it is better accomplished with a 50-cent pen and a bar-napkin.
You raise a good point. Stealing rotational energy from the earth isn't exactly tapping into a renewable source of energy, unless we set up giant arrays of solar-powered gyroscopes to add back to the rotational energy of the earth.
You read it here first, friends - a new way to transmit power halfway around the world without power lines! Giant solar powered gyroscopes in the desert adding to the Earth's rotation, and humongous sea-snails in Scottland removing it!
Oh WAH you fucking baby. Want a bottle?
Hey look! Apple Support posts to Slashdot!
As for the business market, if the boss has a Mac at home (even if he got it for his kids, or he's seen the one at a friend's house) and he's had little trouble with it (compared to his PC) then he's going to be much more likely to entertian the idea of getting Macs.
On the other hand, if those of us who make vendor evaluations have truly bad experiences with our home Apple hardware, we will be less likely to consider the Xserve line for our next big project. I've been tempted by Xserve-RAID, but my recent experiences with Apple Support regarding my 15" powerbook have made it so it will be a LONG time before I can recommend Apple to anyone. The OS is truly nifty and the hardware sexy when it works, but after dealing with Summer in Apple Support for a couple weeks, I would warn anyone to stay far, far away from the current generation of Apple hardware based on the shifty, disingenuous nature of their hardware support alone.
They can make inroads in the schools and the home market where the boss gets experience, but they truly have no notion of the future value of an Apple customer once they have them in the fold, so to speak. What's the use of gaining a convert if you blow it on lousy tech help?
If that freaks you out, perhaps you should read what this loon says about the symbology your Apple!
Now, I will concede you this point; if the logo were, say, goatse, I would probably look for another browser too... but while that would be very offensive to most people, I just don't see how their current image is too divisive.
Offtopic? Stupid mods; this is COMPLETELY topical. This Slashdot article is "Ask Mike Godwin Anything". The original post has a GOOD QUESTION, and completely RUINS it with a gratuitous Hitler reference. If you don't know who Mike Godwin is, then don't mod.
If you were famous for saying that when a thread mentions Hitler it is effectivly over, would you give this question a second thought?
Parent is a troll. I've got mod points, but I'd rather point out the fact that it is a troll than to mod it as such.
I propose Rebar's constraint: Do NOT make a Hitler comparison in general conversation with Mike Godwin, no matter how valid your point.
I agree; being a little quicker in your particular area than the rest of the class has its downsides.
Having had the same problem in school half my life ago, all I can say is stick with it now, make the grade, then do what you want with your life. Here are my reasons:
(1) Time will come for you that your school years will seem like a *very* short period of your life. Difficult, no doubt, but just a passing phase.
(2) For me anyway, life as a free adult is a lot more fun than life as a student. You have much to look forward to.
(3) My adult life has been enabled by the useless hoops I had to jump through as a student. My grades were *barely* good enough because I refused to do about half of my homework. Life would have been easier had I done the homework and kept the academic scholarship, vs. working my way through University with crap jobs and student loans.
Good luck. I feel your pain. One final tip - try to avoid the drugs as a coping mechanism. They may or may not be wrong, but they sure are illegal. Getting arrested for possession or worse is a life-defining event, so to speak.
I agree with the parent post about a sound card being a nice classroom demonstration scope. For higher mhz, you can pick up a real scope from Ebay for much cheaper than a PC card solution.