Each neuron is integrating the 1K - 10K signals
its receives each cycle (@10Hz), then sends a result to 1K - 10K other neurons. The "integration" is worth an OP for each input, perhaps a couple more.
At any given time there are special purpose computers that run thousands of times faster the fastest generally programmable computer of the era.
However, you can only do a very limited set of problems on the special purpose machines.
The amusing thing is that frequently by the time an entrepeneur engineers more generality into the special machine, the mass-market computers have caught up. I've seen this happen many times in the supercomputer industry- Saxpy, Masspar, Thinking Machines, Tera, etc.
You also have to include that each brain cell on the average may touch 1,000 - 10,000 other brain
cells. Each connection is at least an op.
So it is more on the order of quadrillions of ops,
or peta-ops in metric terminology. Still, IBM plans a general-purpose system of this order in the 2010s decade.
GenX software companies: where are they?
on
Microsoft At Middle Age
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Why is it that the surviving computer companies
are run by people born in the 1950s and 1960s-
Apple, MicroSoft, Sun, etc.? People born in the 1970s and 1980s had fabulous opportunities during the venture capital golden age of the 1990s, but for the most part blew it. There are a few surviors like Yahoo, Google, Red Hat, but nothing as dynamic as the boomer companies. What is the reason? Business and social immaturity? TEchnological immaturity?
I thought the initial NT "heavily borrowed" (MS tradition) from the Digital Equipment Corp (now part of HP) VAX operating system. Then it gradually incorporated parts of the evolving Windows/DOS OS.
The science fiction writer Asimov wrote some novels on the premise that mass human behavior was scientifically predictable. He called this science psychohistory.
Sociology has swung back and forth with this premise, sometimes thinking lots of behavior can be quanitified, other times thinking little can.
I dont think too much of these claims.
The Moore's Law hype resembles market analysts' prediction why the DJIA could go to 36,000 and beyond. Internet companies did not need profits to go public; they even didnt need revenues. Of course, the InterNet will change a lor of things, but not that fast. And Moore's Law will continue to some degree for some time.
I find that 20% of my monthly expendures are
still in good-old-cash; the rest checks or charge cards. Id guess that "mini debit cards",
e.g. phone cards $20 - $100, could replace that, if accepted everywhere.
MicroSoft has acquired monopoly status in many aspects of IT, include net servers and OS. Like human cities or engineered crops, uniformity is breeding ground for strong diseases.
MicroSoft's commitment to removing bugs is uneven.
Sometimes they work at it, sometimes they dont.
Last weekend's slammer bug affect on MicroSoft's internal servers points to the latter, no matter the PR campaign.
Magnetic disk is always 10-20 times more expensive than archival tape or CD.
The former is $1 a gigbyte (new 200GB disks)
and tape is about 7 cents a GB.
Both are decreasing in price in concert.
An hour of video media media is about $2 disk
and 10 cents analog video tape.
I liked the part were a cereal box advertising display started spamming a commercial at Tom Cruise during a meal and he tosses it away.
In minority rport, video displays were as cheap and ubiquitous a as paper. However, I think the inspiration was "electronic ink", a somewhat different technology.
He hacked one in the movie E.T. the Extraterestrial in 1982 in order to call home. I took the E.T. ride at Universal a few weeks ago where there were some S&S.
Thats what really drives prices high there because sales taxes are automatically added to prices. Most of the these sales taxes are the national sales taxes called the VAT (value added tax). American tourists can apply for a refund for big items they take home, but have to pay the normal stuff.
Thats a little less than the national average of 57%, but near parity. About 40% of SB degrees are computer-related, but I dont know the sex ratio of that.
24 out of 195 programmers are female.
I could have missed a few, having some trouble with non-European first names.
The fraction is higher when you include testing, documnentation and specification specialists.
(We are the largest scientific software conglomerate in the energy industry.)
OUr company does approximately three year cycles.
It names a a year about three years in the future,
so it has shipped at least one year by the time that year has rolled around. For example "2002" and "2005". In 2004 the nervouse customers feel "sage" buying version 2002.4. The earlier adopters can buy 2005.1.
Slashdot Mirror
Each neuron is integrating the 1K - 10K signals its receives each cycle (@10Hz), then sends a result to 1K - 10K other neurons. The "integration" is worth an OP for each input, perhaps a couple more.
At any given time there are special purpose computers that run thousands of times faster the fastest generally programmable computer of the era. However, you can only do a very limited set of problems on the special purpose machines.
The amusing thing is that frequently by the time an entrepeneur engineers more generality into the special machine, the mass-market computers have caught up. I've seen this happen many times in the supercomputer industry- Saxpy, Masspar, Thinking Machines, Tera, etc.
You also have to include that each brain cell on the average may touch 1,000 - 10,000 other brain cells. Each connection is at least an op. So it is more on the order of quadrillions of ops, or peta-ops in metric terminology. Still, IBM plans a general-purpose system of this order in the 2010s decade.
Why is it that the surviving computer companies are run by people born in the 1950s and 1960s- Apple, MicroSoft, Sun, etc.? People born in the 1970s and 1980s had fabulous opportunities during the venture capital golden age of the 1990s, but for the most part blew it. There are a few surviors like Yahoo, Google, Red Hat, but nothing as dynamic as the boomer companies. What is the reason? Business and social immaturity? TEchnological immaturity?
I wish people would quit whining about the illusion of privacy. THERE IS NONE. And live with that.
I thought the initial NT "heavily borrowed" (MS tradition) from the Digital Equipment Corp (now part of HP) VAX operating system. Then it gradually incorporated parts of the evolving Windows/DOS OS.
And gets the girl too!
These werent your usual software types. Just young naive greedy guys. No way theyd make a business.
I think Hollywood is hesitant about a serial movie, until it is all shown. But next year LOTR will be competing with the Matrix serial.
The science fiction writer Asimov wrote some novels on the premise that mass human behavior was scientifically predictable. He called this science psychohistory.
Sociology has swung back and forth with this premise, sometimes thinking lots of behavior can be quanitified, other times thinking little can. I dont think too much of these claims.
The Moore's Law hype resembles market analysts' prediction why the DJIA could go to 36,000 and beyond. Internet companies did not need profits to go public; they even didnt need revenues. Of course, the InterNet will change a lor of things, but not that fast. And Moore's Law will continue to some degree for some time.
I find that 20% of my monthly expendures are still in good-old-cash; the rest checks or charge cards. Id guess that "mini debit cards", e.g. phone cards $20 - $100, could replace that, if accepted everywhere.
Coincidentally the NY Times ran an article about how tought the animation industry has become, especially for Disney.
MicroSoft has acquired monopoly status in many aspects of IT, include net servers and OS. Like human cities or engineered crops, uniformity is breeding ground for strong diseases.
MicroSoft's commitment to removing bugs is uneven. Sometimes they work at it, sometimes they dont. Last weekend's slammer bug affect on MicroSoft's internal servers points to the latter, no matter the PR campaign.
Magnetic disk is always 10-20 times more expensive than archival tape or CD. The former is $1 a gigbyte (new 200GB disks) and tape is about 7 cents a GB. Both are decreasing in price in concert.
An hour of video media media is about $2 disk and 10 cents analog video tape.
as coined by senator AL Gore in 1988.
Like when the Linux companies gave some to open source programmers.
They'll have different fingerprints, somewhat different personalities. Some due to non-deterministic development in womb.
I liked the part were a cereal box advertising display started spamming a commercial at Tom Cruise during a meal and he tosses it away. In minority rport, video displays were as cheap and ubiquitous a as paper. However, I think the inspiration was "electronic ink", a somewhat different technology.
He hacked one in the movie E.T. the Extraterestrial in 1982 in order to call home. I took the E.T. ride at Universal a few weeks ago where there were some S&S.
Thats what really drives prices high there because sales taxes are automatically added to prices. Most of the these sales taxes are the national sales taxes called the VAT (value added tax). American tourists can apply for a refund for big items they take home, but have to pay the normal stuff.
Thats a little less than the national average of 57%, but near parity. About 40% of SB degrees are computer-related, but I dont know the sex ratio of that.
24 out of 195 programmers are female. I could have missed a few, having some trouble with non-European first names. The fraction is higher when you include testing, documnentation and specification specialists. (We are the largest scientific software conglomerate in the energy industry.)
OUr company does approximately three year cycles. It names a a year about three years in the future, so it has shipped at least one year by the time that year has rolled around. For example "2002" and "2005". In 2004 the nervouse customers feel "sage" buying version 2002.4. The earlier adopters can buy 2005.1.
I put some in my perpertual motion machine, right next ot by cold fusion generator and electromagnetic gravity nullifier.