People understand the risks, but they keep smoking. People understand the risks, but they drive while texting. People understand the risks, but they put themselves in $50,000+ of credit card debt.
Apathy is the greatest enemy of a free society. Bread and circuses.
Probably the same way we determined the North Pole as being the top of our planet. All the important people were in the Northern Hemisphere, and we really like being on top.
don't forget that we currently have that situation today, its the motherboard-based main DRAM that is the slow memory, the fast 'main' memory is the L1, L2 and sometimes L3 caches on the CPU.
True, but CPU caches are managed exclusively in hardware. Using two different types of main RAM would require the OS to be aware of the performance differences.
This is why your ultra-fast computer always appears to be so slow, it's taking ages pushing huge amounts of data back and forth all the time.
That wouldn't be as big a problem if there were a way to cache frequently used library functions, so all the executing code would fit in the CPU cache. Most programs and monolithic libraries are simply too big, and the majority of library functions are simply not used. On principle, I hate depending on a 2+MB library just to do some basic GUI stuff. The shift to web browsers as an OS certainly isn't helping, especially since basic concepts like a "frame buffer" and a "database" are shockingly, amazing new features of HTML5.
We need better ways to strip away all the redundant code, not stuff the machines full of NV-RAM. The whole concept of how libraries are compiled needs to be rethought.
Are you talking about a small block carbureted V8? My dad has a Ford Taurus with a V6, and to replace the spark plugs the dealer had to disassemble half the engine because they are inaccessible behind the firewall! The automatic transmission of most cars these days is on the side of the engine, not behind it, so space is very tight. This is easily shown by how filthy the engines get under the hood. There's hardly any airflow. My mother's Ford Focus with an I4 is no better. These are ugly engines.
Meanwhile, there's so much room under the hood of my WRX that almost anything can be done simply by popping off the intercooler and inlet scoop, and that's for a turbocharged car, which is quite a bit more complicated than a naturally aspirated. I've driven it for over 5 years and the engine is still so clean you could eat off it. True, you have to drive the car on to a couple of ramps to get access to the spark plugs, but most people change their oil at least a dozen times before the plugs need inspection. Ask a mechanic. Subarus are really easy cars to service.
As for the wiring, what car doesn't have 50 miles of wire and at least 20 CPUs under the hood these days?
Are we sure that all types of memory perform equally well? I know it's popular to downplay raw performance these days thanks to the rise of the mobile market and the limit to CPU clock speeds, but all technologies are still binned by performance in one way or another.
Back when I was in college as a graphic design major, I thought about the opposite situation. Rather than solid state storage, I wondered if it would be possible to have 16 MB of ultra fast memory with tight timings, and a ton of slow, cheap memory, thus allowing more total memory for the money. Somehow, the OS would be designed to prioritize memory usage based on performance, so programs would go in fast memory and file caches and stuff would go into the cheap memory. I asked an actual computer science student about the feasibility of such an idea, and he just looked at me and said, "There's no such thing as cheap memory."
Later I rationalized that the increased complexity of the chipset/motherboard would negate any advantages, but I was still a bit disappointed by my fellow student's answer. All types of memory vary in price and performance, and I just can't imagine having all my stuff just in the computer's RAM. If anything, there would probably be some kind of supply/demand issue that would force people to continue buying solid-state storage and RAM separately.
Not to mention all the Firefox fanatics that say the problem doesn't even exist, and/or blame it all on Flash/Reader/Java/Whatever.
I've heard all kinds of numbers from 300MB to 2GB, and I usually get to 400MB after 10 minutes of browsing, which is when the random pauses and freezes start to kick in. I love Firefox, but I'm sick of having to restart it every 15 minutes, let alone every day. The pauses cause missed clicks and keystrokes, and they drive me nuts.
The primary reason for using Iron, despite "only 3 real changes" is the fact that the project is already built. Google makes it hard to get the official Chromium builds by repeatedly moving around the binaries. Do you see any binaries downloadable from the page you just linked? You have to hunt for them, and you have to do that every time you want to update. No thanks.
Linux people may be thrilled to compile their own code, but most people just want to download it and go. To a lot of people, having a build that's very easy to install and update can be a major feature in itself.
You might as well say that all Linux distros are the same because they generally all come with the same packages.
Iron also comes pre-configured with a few extensions. They're minor, but nevertheless they are there. It's not about the code, it's the packaging.
"The story of Iron"
The general gyst of that article is that there is no need to make a fork because you could just modify a few lines yourself and get the same result. Well, why should I have to do it myself? Plus, the comments about contributing to Chromium and having the changes made "official" are completely stupid. Google is under no obligation to have just a few 3rd-party changes included into the official build.
If you want to have access to the full source...
Do forks really cause that much disdain within the open source community? Does a project really have to have hundreds of changes to justify an alternative build? I find it rather unfortunate that Iron gets so much hate from people because it's just not different enough from Chromium.
Iron was basically a joke for the paranoid.
Those paranoid of Chrome, yes. I'd just use Chromium if Google actually didn't make me jump through hoops to get it. So long as all the criticism for Iron revolves around it being "just a fork", rather than doing something really bad, I see no reason to call it a scam. The fact that someone actually made a diff and found nothing evil in the Iron source makes me feel even better about the project, so I'll continue using it as a backup browser to Firefox.
Gee, I wonder what would happen if someone made a fork of Firefox and only changed the config file so the GUI behaved like 3.6 again. Would people slam it as a scam, or herald it as a major convenience?
Sometimes, I feel that the open source community is just a bit too egotistical to remember what open source is all about.
No, it's definitely the deveopers' fault. The RescueFox game has its own sub-domain, so there really isn't a lead-in page. The developer blog provides no easy way to link directly to the project, and states that it "works" in Firefox, but doesn't say what versions. It's just bad design all around, and we all know how much of that is in web pages.
At least consider Iron, where the full source is available and it doesn't force you to have Google Update and its friends.
First time I tried Chrome, it read 20GB and wrote 4GB of data. I don't know what it was doing, but it sure looks suspicious to me, and I'm not too thrilled that every cold start of the browser unnecessarily tortures my SSD.
Welcome to the future of the Internet. A bold, dynamic, exciting frontier where if you don't have the latest browser technology, you'll get a blank page. I'm reliving the years of looking at a spinning hourglass for minutes at a time and wondering if the computer will ever actually do anything.
Seriously, even for a tech demo, why isn't there some kind of notification that your browser can't handle the demo? Couldn't they print a placeholder what the demo is and what is required, and then erase the message once the demo code kicks in? This gives a really bad impression if you ask me, and that is not what a demo is supposed to do.
I developed the exact same problem with my ATI drivers after updating to Calalyst 11.7. Blue Screens of Death after watching exactly 3 YouTube videos under Adobe Flash.
I disabled hardware acceleration in Flash and now the system is perfectly stable.
I'm still using Firefox 3.6.x
So, either Flash is the culprit, or there's something wrong with trying to use "hardware acceleration" (of what?) through the overlay that Firefox is using. Does Opera/Chrome/IE have similar problems? I've just accepted that Flash itself was the problem, and haven't tested any other browsers.
Make 'to change monitor brightness write a value from 0 (darker) to 0xff (brighter) to register 0xABC PERIOD'.
Does this really need to be done in software? I'm getting really annoyed that all my buttons are disappearing.
256 values for brightness definitely isn't enough. When will HDR finally become standard? 2030?
Meanwhile, finding a good monitor NOT based on a TN panel is difficult. What ever happened to E-IPS? Screw extra software to get rid of perfectly functional buttons. Give me hardware that isn't crap.
I thought this was about getting code out there so the public can see it and help squash bugs quickly, before sweeping changes make debugging very difficult.
It does not imply releasing hastily-designed new features, with compatibility-busting version numbers to boot.
Apple bans Flash, they are heroes backing open standards, and not at all dicking over a company that was largely responsible for the Mac being a relevant computing platform in the first place.
Microsoft bans all plug-ins, and they are screwing over Adobe for not selling to MS.
Here's a better idea. Why not leave the default behavior as it is for desktop machines or other device with a large screens, and use the tablet-friendly format on... tablets.
I really, really hate blue ocean strategies. Different devices, different requirements, for both geeks and noobs... all running one interface. It's madness.
Slashdot Mirror
I refuse to believe that.
People understand the risks, but they keep smoking. People understand the risks, but they drive while texting. People understand the risks, but they put themselves in $50,000+ of credit card debt.
Apathy is the greatest enemy of a free society. Bread and circuses.
hehe, woops. That's pounds per hour.
I was just thinking that they generally like to blow up stuff outside the aircraft.
There were similar reactions to the first iMac.
Probably the same way we determined the North Pole as being the top of our planet. All the important people were in the Northern Hemisphere, and we really like being on top.
I like how Star Trek II specifically broke the mold: "His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
Assisted suicide will still be illegal.
I know. I feel that way every time I try a Linux distro.
The idea that people give stuff away, particularly intellectual property, undermines their whole existence.
And yet, there they are.
don't forget that we currently have that situation today, its the motherboard-based main DRAM that is the slow memory, the fast 'main' memory is the L1, L2 and sometimes L3 caches on the CPU.
True, but CPU caches are managed exclusively in hardware. Using two different types of main RAM would require the OS to be aware of the performance differences.
This is why your ultra-fast computer always appears to be so slow, it's taking ages pushing huge amounts of data back and forth all the time.
That wouldn't be as big a problem if there were a way to cache frequently used library functions, so all the executing code would fit in the CPU cache. Most programs and monolithic libraries are simply too big, and the majority of library functions are simply not used. On principle, I hate depending on a 2+MB library just to do some basic GUI stuff. The shift to web browsers as an OS certainly isn't helping, especially since basic concepts like a "frame buffer" and a "database" are shockingly, amazing new features of HTML5.
We need better ways to strip away all the redundant code, not stuff the machines full of NV-RAM. The whole concept of how libraries are compiled needs to be rethought.
Are you talking about a small block carbureted V8? My dad has a Ford Taurus with a V6, and to replace the spark plugs the dealer had to disassemble half the engine because they are inaccessible behind the firewall! The automatic transmission of most cars these days is on the side of the engine, not behind it, so space is very tight. This is easily shown by how filthy the engines get under the hood. There's hardly any airflow. My mother's Ford Focus with an I4 is no better. These are ugly engines.
Meanwhile, there's so much room under the hood of my WRX that almost anything can be done simply by popping off the intercooler and inlet scoop, and that's for a turbocharged car, which is quite a bit more complicated than a naturally aspirated. I've driven it for over 5 years and the engine is still so clean you could eat off it. True, you have to drive the car on to a couple of ramps to get access to the spark plugs, but most people change their oil at least a dozen times before the plugs need inspection. Ask a mechanic. Subarus are really easy cars to service.
As for the wiring, what car doesn't have 50 miles of wire and at least 20 CPUs under the hood these days?
Are we sure that all types of memory perform equally well? I know it's popular to downplay raw performance these days thanks to the rise of the mobile market and the limit to CPU clock speeds, but all technologies are still binned by performance in one way or another.
Back when I was in college as a graphic design major, I thought about the opposite situation. Rather than solid state storage, I wondered if it would be possible to have 16 MB of ultra fast memory with tight timings, and a ton of slow, cheap memory, thus allowing more total memory for the money. Somehow, the OS would be designed to prioritize memory usage based on performance, so programs would go in fast memory and file caches and stuff would go into the cheap memory. I asked an actual computer science student about the feasibility of such an idea, and he just looked at me and said, "There's no such thing as cheap memory."
Later I rationalized that the increased complexity of the chipset/motherboard would negate any advantages, but I was still a bit disappointed by my fellow student's answer. All types of memory vary in price and performance, and I just can't imagine having all my stuff just in the computer's RAM. If anything, there would probably be some kind of supply/demand issue that would force people to continue buying solid-state storage and RAM separately.
Looking at that video, I'm guessing part of the problem is the guy has an ATi card
Yeah. Given how long the game has been in development, we can't really expect it to work with current hardware and drivers, can we?
Not to mention all the Firefox fanatics that say the problem doesn't even exist, and/or blame it all on Flash/Reader/Java/Whatever.
I've heard all kinds of numbers from 300MB to 2GB, and I usually get to 400MB after 10 minutes of browsing, which is when the random pauses and freezes start to kick in. I love Firefox, but I'm sick of having to restart it every 15 minutes, let alone every day. The pauses cause missed clicks and keystrokes, and they drive me nuts.
The primary reason for using Iron, despite "only 3 real changes" is the fact that the project is already built. Google makes it hard to get the official Chromium builds by repeatedly moving around the binaries. Do you see any binaries downloadable from the page you just linked? You have to hunt for them, and you have to do that every time you want to update. No thanks.
Linux people may be thrilled to compile their own code, but most people just want to download it and go. To a lot of people, having a build that's very easy to install and update can be a major feature in itself.
You might as well say that all Linux distros are the same because they generally all come with the same packages.
Iron also comes pre-configured with a few extensions. They're minor, but nevertheless they are there. It's not about the code, it's the packaging.
"The story of Iron"
The general gyst of that article is that there is no need to make a fork because you could just modify a few lines yourself and get the same result. Well, why should I have to do it myself? Plus, the comments about contributing to Chromium and having the changes made "official" are completely stupid. Google is under no obligation to have just a few 3rd-party changes included into the official build.
If you want to have access to the full source...
Do forks really cause that much disdain within the open source community? Does a project really have to have hundreds of changes to justify an alternative build? I find it rather unfortunate that Iron gets so much hate from people because it's just not different enough from Chromium.
Iron was basically a joke for the paranoid.
Those paranoid of Chrome, yes. I'd just use Chromium if Google actually didn't make me jump through hoops to get it. So long as all the criticism for Iron revolves around it being "just a fork", rather than doing something really bad, I see no reason to call it a scam. The fact that someone actually made a diff and found nothing evil in the Iron source makes me feel even better about the project, so I'll continue using it as a backup browser to Firefox.
Gee, I wonder what would happen if someone made a fork of Firefox and only changed the config file so the GUI behaved like 3.6 again. Would people slam it as a scam, or herald it as a major convenience?
Sometimes, I feel that the open source community is just a bit too egotistical to remember what open source is all about.
No, it's definitely the deveopers' fault. The RescueFox game has its own sub-domain, so there really isn't a lead-in page. The developer blog provides no easy way to link directly to the project, and states that it "works" in Firefox, but doesn't say what versions. It's just bad design all around, and we all know how much of that is in web pages.
Time to take a serious look at Chrome.
At least consider Iron, where the full source is available and it doesn't force you to have Google Update and its friends.
First time I tried Chrome, it read 20GB and wrote 4GB of data. I don't know what it was doing, but it sure looks suspicious to me, and I'm not too thrilled that every cold start of the browser unnecessarily tortures my SSD.
Welcome to the future of the Internet. A bold, dynamic, exciting frontier where if you don't have the latest browser technology, you'll get a blank page. I'm reliving the years of looking at a spinning hourglass for minutes at a time and wondering if the computer will ever actually do anything.
Seriously, even for a tech demo, why isn't there some kind of notification that your browser can't handle the demo? Couldn't they print a placeholder what the demo is and what is required, and then erase the message once the demo code kicks in? This gives a really bad impression if you ask me, and that is not what a demo is supposed to do.
Fail.
I developed the exact same problem with my ATI drivers after updating to Calalyst 11.7. Blue Screens of Death after watching exactly 3 YouTube videos under Adobe Flash.
I disabled hardware acceleration in Flash and now the system is perfectly stable.
I'm still using Firefox 3.6.x
So, either Flash is the culprit, or there's something wrong with trying to use "hardware acceleration" (of what?) through the overlay that Firefox is using. Does Opera/Chrome/IE have similar problems? I've just accepted that Flash itself was the problem, and haven't tested any other browsers.
Make 'to change monitor brightness write a value from 0 (darker) to 0xff (brighter) to register 0xABC PERIOD'.
Does this really need to be done in software? I'm getting really annoyed that all my buttons are disappearing.
256 values for brightness definitely isn't enough. When will HDR finally become standard? 2030?
Meanwhile, finding a good monitor NOT based on a TN panel is difficult. What ever happened to E-IPS? Screw extra software to get rid of perfectly functional buttons. Give me hardware that isn't crap.
Don't they require special flight suits for that?
release early, release often
I thought this was about getting code out there so the public can see it and help squash bugs quickly, before sweeping changes make debugging very difficult.
It does not imply releasing hastily-designed new features, with compatibility-busting version numbers to boot.
Hi. I'm looking for funding to invent and release it to the wild.
Hardware works just like software, right?
Apple bans Flash, they are heroes backing open standards, and not at all dicking over a company that was largely responsible for the Mac being a relevant computing platform in the first place.
Microsoft bans all plug-ins, and they are screwing over Adobe for not selling to MS.
Here's a better idea. Why not leave the default behavior as it is for desktop machines or other device with a large screens, and use the tablet-friendly format on... tablets.
I really, really hate blue ocean strategies. Different devices, different requirements, for both geeks and noobs... all running one interface. It's madness.
Can anyone say Streisand effect?
Did you say something? I was too busy launching birds at pigs to care about that boring political bullshit.