This is similar to my answer to this percieved dilemna.
Decimal Megabyte or Binary Megabyte.
My feelings about trying to stamp out the common usage of an existing term and create a new term for its meaning for a set of terms that mean as much as kilobyte and Megabyte are generally not for polite conversation.
By comparison, efforts to get people in the U.S. to use Metric instead of archaic units doesn't have this annoyance factor as nobody is trying to redefine 1 U.S. gallon as 4 liters (Inertia is the operating factor, which applies here in addition to the contradictive factor).
[...although buried here in page 2 or worse thanks to overload mode, very few are going to read this anyway, including the moderators...]
Yes, the phone system came about, for the most part, without government involvement. Unforntunately, it created a monopoly that lasted decades before the government stepped in and broke it up. Monopolies are even worse than the government. There are no checks and balances and you can't vote them out of office.
Maybe you aren't old enough to remember, but Ma Bell was a government created and "regulated" monopoly. Blame Uncle Sam for Ma Bell, not the market.
I remember a time when "pent" = 586, but now "pentIV" = 886. Yeah, that makes sense.
The Pentium 4 is a 786. 8)
Pentium is 586
Pentium MMX is 586
Pentium Pro is _686_
Pentium II is _686_
Pentium III is 686
Pentium 4 is _786_ (even if it might be SLOWER on a clock by clock basis, violating another logical progression)
Gee, how could ANYONE get confused by that progression? 8P
So there's no doubt which generations the Pentium 5, 6, 7, and 8 are going to be, right? (probably all 786s)...
Yeah, if you like calculating politicians, endorse Tiller. I've had enough of those games though in the off-line world.
You may have a bit of a point here. The next two strongest candidates are the other two who seem to be having the most support here. If you have dirt on them too please feel free to share it. 8)
Anyone? Who on this list should we NOT be nominating and why?
As of shortly before 1630 CDT, here are the candidates with at least 5 nominations assuming I didn't accidentally cut one out:
Karl Auerbach - 66 endorsement(s) received
Robin Bandy - 9 endorsement(s) received
Liz Bartlett - 5 endorsement(s) received
Eric Lee - 7 endorsement(s) received
Nick Nicholas - 5 endorsement(s) received
Barbara Simons - 44 endorsement(s) received
Christopher Stewart - 15 endorsement(s) received
Emerson Tiller, J.D., Ph.D. - 79 endorsement(s) received
HOW TO NOMITATE
Go to the members only page and type in your number, password and PIN (remeembecr to include PIN- at the start). There's a new line item that wasn't there last time I looked: Endorse a candidate
REMEMBER: if nobody makes the 2% threshhold (and 2 or more countries, which makes it quite important for people from Canada, et al. to nominate too), we don't get ANY of our choices (not good at all)! The minimum number of nominations required to qualify will probably be in the neighborhood of 500 AT LEAST. I believe we can change our nomination later on, so I personally voted for Dr Tiller (the strongest candidate at the moment) and hope to change my vote to bolster someone else when he hopefully qualifies for the final ballot.
So does anyone have information on the other 4 seats we get to nominate people for? or would those best get articles of their own to keep things streamlined (This one for the Americas, et c.?
Totals as of a little after 1700 CDT:
Karl Auerbach - 68 endorsement(s) received
Robin Bandy - 9 endorsement(s) received
Liz Bartlett - 5 endorsement(s) received
Eric Lee - 7 endorsement(s) received
Nick Nicholas - 5 endorsement(s) received
Barbara Simons - 45 endorsement(s) received
Christopher Stewart - 15 endorsement(s) received
Emerson Tiller, J.D., Ph.D. - 80 endorsement(s) received
Three years ago Dimensionality was working on a game engine that was to use bump mapping (don't know which method Sean was using; it was in software). While the engine effort collapsed in January of 1998, we still have hundreds of bump-mapped textures gathering dust right now, waiting for a chance to be used in something.
http://www.dimensionality.com/stuff/GTex0214.JPG is a sampler I made shortly after the collapse. It's located in our gallery section.
Now watch me get moderated down for being on topic...
I first asked my self, "Why would a corporation be interested in making an extremely detailed map of the mood?" Then it just hit me.
An extremely detailed map would allow for planning a more in-depth mission. Possibly for mineral/metal prospecting for future mining missions. For a corporation the moon may be the most valuable untapped resource EVER.
BINGO! Someone here gets it!
If I correctly recall, the TrailBlazer probe is optimized to look for a number of very specific things, such as lava tubes. There are known lava tubes on Luna, but they became known because they were not structurally stable and collapsed akin to terrestrial sinkholes. Structurally stable lava tubes would be prime real estate, in that you are shielded from the sky (Gamma radiation and the like, but we're geeks who never go outside anyway, right?), and can pressurize them for crops, strolls, hobbies absurd on Earth (flying with wings, anyone?), et c.
I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed in most of the posts here. If I didn't know any better before reading them, I would have to assume that there's no reason to leave Earth ever, that it doesn't matter that we're in the middle of another mass extinction (no falling rock needed this time, just a bunch of members or a species of large mammal with destructive potential and limited grasp of the fragility of their environment), and that the notion of existing offword is nothing more than just another genre of escapist fantasy.
WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO EXPAND. There are too many of us here, and being able to move a large percentage of people off of Earth before we ruin it is going to require steps in between. We can't do it right now but we can take a few steps IN THAT DIRECTION to at least increase the chances of it someday being possible.
...not to mention the notion of BACKING UP some of the life on the only example of a living biodiversity before we finish wrecking the original.
This would mean that aside from FPU, the K7 is roughly the performance levels of a K6 with an improved FPU (which is enough to throw considerable doubt on on the numbers, but is tangentical to my point).
This would mean that AMD has sacrificed more in the name of clockability that I had believed (recent reports from Sanders seem to indicate that MHz is king again and that's AMD's primary goal). In this case, AMD had best ramp the clock speeds up into the stratosphere quickly -- something they'll need to do even if the numbers are completely bogus.
Another possibility: is this benchmark first and foremost a L2 cache speed test?
There are those who assume that Dvorak had a heavy hand in the Navy study (not proven) and had a conflict of interest (and behaved unethically, also not proven). The GSA study appears, from what I've read about it, to have been done by someone with a motive for seing Dvorak's simplified layout fail. Evidently there are no other studies.
Here's a possible study... randomly contact _n_ users (would need to be a large group, we need a significant number of people of all categories). The first part of the survey would be to assemble the "population" from which the second part of the survey is completed.
The groups: have tried Dvorak, went back to QWERTY (after seeing Shole's Dvoraklike revised layout I may well stop calling the QWERTY arrangement after its developer). Use Dvorak, have experience with QWERTY; Use Other; Use QWERTY, unfamiliar with Dvorak; and, if there are any, Use Dvorak, unfamiliar with QWERTY (just in case there are).
The main differences between the surveys given to each group in the second part of the survey would be rephrasing questions to keep them appropriate, increasing flexibility with the "Other" category, and eliminate inappropriate comparison questions.
There would be a target size for each group, with a random subsample of that group used for the groupse that have more than the target number (say 800 people).
This would take personal observation modes into a statistically measurable realm of evidence, and would require a bit less infrastructure than another study akin to the Naval or GSA studies or farces therof.
Why a survey? That's the type of research design I'm familiar with. 8)
Something I found on some obscure Dvorak page when I decided to go for it. It's a 165 byte DOS com file that does not work with NT. I just uploaded it to my company web page here. I put it into my autoexec.bat file and basically forget for the most part that it exists and that I really depend on it. DO NOT run it twice: you will get garbage. Scroll-lock will restore you to Sholes if you have use for such, or possibly save you if you ran it twice...
My testimonial: I have a chronic condition that is sapping my alertness and my Sholes typing speed was diminishing. I have never been able to touch-type, although I have yet to mount a serious effort with Dvorak. after one week I was up to my Sholes speed, but still a bit awkward. Within two weeks I was comfortable and faster.
I have had recurring carpel tunnel strain, but not since I switched. I'm faster with Dvorak, but am still a scan and peck (I used no training -- simply dove in). I am still more familiar with the arrangement of Sholes than Dvorak even though I've been typing Dvorak for 2 1/2 years (using a re-keycapped keyboard with uneven key heights), and wonder how much faster I'll be able to get (maybe something approaching a respecable typing speed) if I can get as familiar with the layout of Dvorak as with Sholes.
...especially the pa'rt about him not knowing what to do next after all this time. As JMS has shown, the deneumet(sp) can be the most explosive part of the story... OTOH, given the time scale bumped out to the same as for Episodes IV-VI, he hos plenty of time to change his mind...
Slashdot Mirror
Lead-lined sleeves for credit cards, driver's licences, passports, and airport visitor tags. In an assortment of new colors for our autumn lineup!
It was Frank Zappa. Zappa's Law is in several 'Murphy's Law' compilations that I've seen.
This is similar to my answer to this percieved dilemna.
Decimal Megabyte or Binary Megabyte.
My feelings about trying to stamp out the common usage of an existing term and create a new term for its meaning for a set of terms that mean as much as kilobyte and Megabyte are generally not for polite conversation.
By comparison, efforts to get people in the U.S. to use Metric instead of archaic units doesn't have this annoyance factor as nobody is trying to redefine 1 U.S. gallon as 4 liters (Inertia is the operating factor, which applies here in addition to the contradictive factor).
[...although buried here in page 2 or worse thanks to overload mode, very few are going to read this anyway, including the moderators...]
SL
Sorry if this is becoming less relevant. I couldn't resist.
With a bug-ridden grimace and a terrible sound
It pulls the window manager down.
Helpless users in 95
Scream bug-eyed as it crashes on them.
It locks up the bus and the system goes down
And it pillages data and your drive spins 'round.
Refrain:
Uuhh Oohh Seems like it just won't go!
Oh No Mozilla!
Uuhh Oohh! Can't download from Tokyo!
Oh No! Mozilla!
History shows us what we get
We've not a stable browser yet!
(repeat)
MOZILLA...
[with apologies to Blue Öyster Cult]
Yes, the phone system came about, for the most part, without government involvement. Unforntunately, it created a monopoly that lasted decades before the government stepped in and broke it up. Monopolies are even worse than the government. There are no checks and balances and you can't vote them out of office.
Maybe you aren't old enough to remember, but Ma Bell was a government created and "regulated" monopoly. Blame Uncle Sam for Ma Bell, not the market.
I remember a time when "pent" = 586, but now "pentIV" = 886. Yeah, that makes sense.
The Pentium 4 is a 786. 8)
Pentium is 586
Pentium MMX is 586
Pentium Pro is _686_
Pentium II is _686_
Pentium III is 686
Pentium 4 is _786_ (even if it might be SLOWER on a clock by clock basis, violating another logical progression)
Gee, how could ANYONE get confused by that progression? 8P
So there's no doubt which generations the Pentium 5, 6, 7, and 8 are going to be, right? (probably all 786s)...
Yeah, if you like calculating politicians, endorse Tiller. I've had enough of those games though in the off-line world.
You may have a bit of a point here. The next two strongest candidates are the other two who seem to be having the most support here. If you have dirt on them too please feel free to share it. 8)
Anyone? Who on this list should we NOT be nominating and why?
As of shortly before 1630 CDT, here are the candidates with at least 5 nominations assuming I didn't accidentally cut one out:
Karl Auerbach - 66 endorsement(s) received
Robin Bandy - 9 endorsement(s) received
Liz Bartlett - 5 endorsement(s) received
Eric Lee - 7 endorsement(s) received
Nick Nicholas - 5 endorsement(s) received
Barbara Simons - 44 endorsement(s) received
Christopher Stewart - 15 endorsement(s) received
Emerson Tiller, J.D., Ph.D. - 79 endorsement(s) received
HOW TO NOMITATE
Go to the members only page and type in your number, password and PIN (remeembecr to include PIN- at the start). There's a new line item that wasn't there last time I looked: Endorse a candidate
REMEMBER: if nobody makes the 2% threshhold (and 2 or more countries, which makes it quite important for people from Canada, et al. to nominate too), we don't get ANY of our choices (not good at all)! The minimum number of nominations required to qualify will probably be in the neighborhood of 500 AT LEAST. I believe we can change our nomination later on, so I personally voted for Dr Tiller (the strongest candidate at the moment) and hope to change my vote to bolster someone else when he hopefully qualifies for the final ballot.
So does anyone have information on the other 4 seats we get to nominate people for? or would those best get articles of their own to keep things streamlined (This one for the Americas, et c.?
Totals as of a little after 1700 CDT:
Karl Auerbach - 68 endorsement(s) received
Robin Bandy - 9 endorsement(s) received
Liz Bartlett - 5 endorsement(s) received
Eric Lee - 7 endorsement(s) received
Nick Nicholas - 5 endorsement(s) received
Barbara Simons - 45 endorsement(s) received
Christopher Stewart - 15 endorsement(s) received
Emerson Tiller, J.D., Ph.D. - 80 endorsement(s) received
Three years ago Dimensionality was working on a game engine that was to use bump mapping (don't know which method Sean was using; it was in software). While the engine effort collapsed in January of 1998, we still have hundreds of bump-mapped textures gathering dust right now, waiting for a chance to be used in something.
http://www.dimensionality.com/stuff/GTex0214.JPG is a sampler I made shortly after the collapse. It's located in our gallery section.
Now watch me get moderated down for being on topic...
An extremely detailed map would allow for planning a more in-depth mission. Possibly for mineral/metal prospecting for future mining missions. For a corporation the moon may be the most valuable untapped resource EVER.
BINGO! Someone here gets it!
If I correctly recall, the TrailBlazer probe is optimized to look for a number of very specific things, such as lava tubes. There are known lava tubes on Luna, but they became known because they were not structurally stable and collapsed akin to terrestrial sinkholes. Structurally stable lava tubes would be prime real estate, in that you are shielded from the sky (Gamma radiation and the like, but we're geeks who never go outside anyway, right?), and can pressurize them for crops, strolls, hobbies absurd on Earth (flying with wings, anyone?), et c.
Here is a respectable article on the uses for lava tubes: http://www.asi.org/a db/06/09/03/02/100/lava-tube-settling.html
I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed in most of the posts here. If I didn't know any better before reading them, I would have to assume that there's no reason to leave Earth ever, that it doesn't matter that we're in the middle of another mass extinction (no falling rock needed this time, just a bunch of members or a species of large mammal with destructive potential and limited grasp of the fragility of their environment), and that the notion of existing offword is nothing more than just another genre of escapist fantasy.
WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO EXPAND. There are too many of us here, and being able to move a large percentage of people off of Earth before we ruin it is going to require steps in between. We can't do it right now but we can take a few steps IN THAT DIRECTION to at least increase the chances of it someday being possible.
This would mean that aside from FPU, the K7 is roughly the performance levels of a K6 with an improved FPU (which is enough to throw considerable doubt on on the numbers, but is tangentical to my point).
This would mean that AMD has sacrificed more in the name of clockability that I had believed (recent reports from Sanders seem to indicate that MHz is king again and that's AMD's primary goal). In this case, AMD had best ramp the clock speeds up into the stratosphere quickly -- something they'll need to do even if the numbers are completely bogus.
Another possibility: is this benchmark first and foremost a L2 cache speed test?
SL
There are those who assume that Dvorak had a heavy hand in the Navy study (not proven) and had a conflict of interest (and behaved unethically, also not proven). The GSA study appears, from what I've read about it, to have been done by someone with a motive for seing Dvorak's simplified layout fail. Evidently there are no other studies.
Here's a possible study... randomly contact _n_ users (would need to be a large group, we need a significant number of people of all categories). The first part of the survey would be to assemble the "population" from which the second part of the survey is completed.
The groups: have tried Dvorak, went back to QWERTY (after seeing Shole's Dvoraklike revised layout I may well stop calling the QWERTY arrangement after its developer). Use Dvorak, have experience with QWERTY; Use Other; Use QWERTY, unfamiliar with Dvorak; and, if there are any, Use Dvorak, unfamiliar with QWERTY (just in case there are).
The main differences between the surveys given to each group in the second part of the survey would be rephrasing questions to keep them appropriate, increasing flexibility with the "Other" category, and eliminate inappropriate comparison questions.
There would be a target size for each group, with a random subsample of that group used for the groupse that have more than the target number (say 800 people).
This would take personal observation modes into a statistically measurable realm of evidence, and would require a bit less infrastructure than another study akin to the Naval or GSA studies or farces therof.
Why a survey? That's the type of research design I'm familiar with. 8)
SL
Something I found on some obscure Dvorak page when I decided to go for it. It's a 165 byte DOS com file that does not work with NT. I just uploaded it to my company web page here. I put it into my autoexec.bat file and basically forget for the most part that it exists and that I really depend on it. DO NOT run it twice: you will get garbage. Scroll-lock will restore you to Sholes if you have use for such, or possibly save you if you ran it twice...
My testimonial: I have a chronic condition that is sapping my alertness and my Sholes typing speed was diminishing. I have never been able to touch-type, although I have yet to mount a serious effort with Dvorak. after one week I was up to my Sholes speed, but still a bit awkward. Within two weeks I was comfortable and faster.
I have had recurring carpel tunnel strain, but not since I switched. I'm faster with Dvorak, but am still a scan and peck (I used no training -- simply dove in). I am still more familiar with the arrangement of Sholes than Dvorak even though I've been typing Dvorak for 2 1/2 years (using a re-keycapped keyboard with uneven key heights), and wonder how much faster I'll be able to get (maybe something approaching a respecable typing speed) if I can get as familiar with the layout of Dvorak as with Sholes.
...especially the pa'rt about him not knowing what to do next after all this time. As JMS has shown, the deneumet(sp) can be the most explosive part of the story... OTOH, given the time scale bumped out to the same as for Episodes IV-VI, he hos plenty of time to change his mind...
SL