After reading/. for a year or two, I sort of deduced that the whole philosophy behind linux was to be cool.
I second that. Why else would it have a power animal from the Antarctica? Also, it did originate in Finland where it's pretty bloody cold during most of the year.
apt is not tied to the deb package format. There is apt for rpm, but the lack of apt-gettable rpm sites is a problem. On the other hand, Mandrake has urpmi which is similar in functionality.
This is why RPM has file dependencies, though its usage is up to the packager. For example, most RPMs require the file libc.so.6 but it doesn't have to be from the glibc RPM.
What do you mean with "the actual SETI@Home web site"? Seti@Home is one of the many SETI projects around, though arguably the most famous. For a comparison, you could say that Linux is something like Unix@home, but it's not the one and only Unix.
..when you have MPlayer. People have reported that it plays divx/dvd
just fine, in software, on Linux with VIA motherboards, even those
below 1 GHz. I believe that because my P3-450 plays them just as well.
And I don't even have XVideo, which would speed up decoding (it does a
part of divx/dvd decoding in hardware, namely colorspace conversion
and scaling). The current VIA mobos have XVideo support in XFree86
CVS, IIRC.
The Toshiba that's mentioned in the other link has in fact a heat pipe, which is kind of different from water cooling. Heatpipes have no moving parts, which is why I'd prefer one to anything where a fluid is mechanically pushed around.
On the other hand, the heat still has to go somewhere, and these devices will only help move it around. In a laptop there isn't much real estate where the heat could be dumped, though it helps if these technologies are used to spread the heat into a larger area to reduce the temperature.
But the conventional systems are a bit strange in having the CPU in the middle of everything, while the heat needs to be moved to the edges. Can you imagine a motherboard with the CPU on the 'wrong side' so that it could be directly against the case?
the general level of prices and wages is fairly low, for instance compared to Finland. Some high tech companies here are moving their production to Estonia just for this reason (not unlike what USA companies do in India). In this respect these broadband prices are nothing spectacular. For instance, I'm paying 49 per month for a roughly 1024/320 cable connection, no extra limitations.
..we first seal the heat-generating components inside a closed case, then start
worrying about heat dispersal, and then have to use huge and noisy
fans to bring some cool air in and hot air out. Why not solve the
problem from the beginning, rather than patching up existing designs?
I've recently built a power amplifier with a practically sealed case
with plenty of metal. The case itself is the heat sink, so there's no
need to have any dusty air wandering inside. Of course audio devices
don't usually need fans, but it's basically the same idea anyway. The
next computer I build will hopefully have passive cooling in a similar
fashion, and of course a fanless power supply.
IRc, you can't do straight PHysics at cam.ac.uk, only natural sceicne, with a heavy physics component?
Well, in the first year we had to do a couple of other subjects but from the second year on it was purely physics, plus some maths of course. In fact I liked it this way, in the first year I did things like chemistry and materials which turned out useful later on.
Funnily enough, physics one of the few natural sciences @cam where you could specialize so early on. In the second year you had to do three subjects in total, but you could take 'double physics' and maths.
I agree, at least to some extent. In the paper Gold commented on the energy of the photons entering and leaving the sail, but that was all in the reference frame of the sail itself. Of course the sail isn't moving relative to itself.
photon pressure is what "keeps stars up" i.e. the pressure exerted by the photons produced in the star exerted on the matter comprising the star are what prevents it from collapsing under its own gravity.
I agree, but the different layers of a star are not in thermal equilibrium with each other. The core is always hotter, and there is heat flowing out from the surface, which keeps the surface cool.
The problem with solar sails (according to the article) would be that it reaches thermal equilibrium quite soon, and cannot absorb any more energy from the Sun.
a device to turn mass into energy (d1) and a device to turn energy into mass (d2).
Place d1 at a point on the earths surface and d2 at a height above it. Use d1 to turn some mass into photons and shine these photons at d2 where they are turned back into mass. Let the mass fall down to d1 and harvest the kinetic energy released. Repeat ad infinitum.
Now as stated this would only work under a small distance were d1 and d2 were placed very close together so hardly any useful energy could be gotten out of it, but it does show that the 2nd law is not as undeniable as is often thought.
Isn't this the basic thought experiment in General Relativity which shows that photons undergo gravitational redshift? I.e. when photons climb up in the gravitational field, they must lose energy like any other particle. In fact I also studied physics at cam.ac.uk and I just checked this from my astrophysics lecture notes, but perhaps you have a better explanation...
For installing a new operating system like Linux or *BSD. A floppy or two is used to boot the machine, the rest of the installation comes from the net. No need to burn CDs of something that becomes obsolete soon.
For repairing systems with broken boot sector, etc. Any other use for tomsrtbt you can think of. Of course there are good CD alternatives like Knoppix, but not all machines have CD drives.
Both of the above points make use of the fact that floppies are (1) ubiquitous and (2) bootable. Not all USB-connected drives are bootable, for example. CDs would be good if they were truly rewritable like the magnetic media. I've never understood why people download and burn ISOs when they could, in most cases, do a network install.
Most of the "not ready for desktop" FUD against Linux is the supposed lack of applications. This example makes it clear that the apps are very much there, albeit it doesn't apply to general desktop usage.
On the other hand, when I studied nat. sci. we were taught to use the graphing space well: if the data goes from 2500 to 2600, it looks crap if the scale starts at 0 and there's nothing between 0 and 2500. In fact with benchmarks I like to see the numbers themselves, they don't leave any room for interpretation.
Re:Processor design needs to change.
on
P4 3.2GHz Reviews
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I agree that x86 is not the best way of computing. However, there are many factors that contribute to power consumption.
There are current leaks in transistors that account for a lot of wasted power, but can be solved by new manufacturing techniques. IIRC Intel has already developed some of these. Nanotubes and other fancy tech will probably be even better.
Wide and shallow pipelines probably need lots of transistors as well. Graphics processors are much more parallelized than CPUs, look (listen?) how much cooling they need. On the other hand look what VIA has done with x86 processors, they can be passively cooled.
MHz is only one factor in power consumption, just like it is only one factor in performance. And I'm looking forward for some clockless designs.
Slashdot Mirror
I second that. Why else would it have a power animal from the Antarctica? Also, it did originate in Finland where it's pretty bloody cold during most of the year.
apt is not tied to the deb package format. There is apt for rpm, but the lack of apt-gettable rpm sites is a problem. On the other hand, Mandrake has urpmi which is similar in functionality.
This is why RPM has file dependencies, though its usage is up to the packager. For example, most RPMs require the file libc.so.6 but it doesn't have to be from the glibc RPM.
What do you mean with "the actual SETI@Home web site"? Seti@Home is one of the many SETI projects around, though arguably the most famous. For a comparison, you could say that Linux is something like Unix@home, but it's not the one and only Unix.
And I don't even have XVideo, which would speed up decoding (it does a part of divx/dvd decoding in hardware, namely colorspace conversion and scaling). The current VIA mobos have XVideo support in XFree86 CVS, IIRC.
On the other hand, the heat still has to go somewhere, and these devices will only help move it around. In a laptop there isn't much real estate where the heat could be dumped, though it helps if these technologies are used to spread the heat into a larger area to reduce the temperature.
But the conventional systems are a bit strange in having the CPU in the middle of everything, while the heat needs to be moved to the edges. Can you imagine a motherboard with the CPU on the 'wrong side' so that it could be directly against the case?
I just saw "Linux is unaffected" many times in a row. Must be a glitch in the matrix.
Just a week ago I tasted some king crab, which is large, long-legged and spiky not unlike those in the article. I have a photo of its claw here. :-P
So, this other guy comes along and says, "I'm not afraid of you! I'm e to the x."
"Well that's just too bad, I'm d/dy!"
the general level of prices and wages is fairly low, for instance compared to Finland. Some high tech companies here are moving their production to Estonia just for this reason (not unlike what USA companies do in India). In this respect these broadband prices are nothing spectacular. For instance, I'm paying 49 per month for a roughly 1024/320 cable connection, no extra limitations.
Audio devices also need RF shielding, mostly to keep it out. However, a metal case can also work as a heatsink.
I've recently built a power amplifier with a practically sealed case with plenty of metal. The case itself is the heat sink, so there's no need to have any dusty air wandering inside. Of course audio devices don't usually need fans, but it's basically the same idea anyway. The next computer I build will hopefully have passive cooling in a similar fashion, and of course a fanless power supply.
Well, in the first year we had to do a couple of other subjects but from the second year on it was purely physics, plus some maths of course. In fact I liked it this way, in the first year I did things like chemistry and materials which turned out useful later on.
Funnily enough, physics one of the few natural sciences @cam where you could specialize so early on. In the second year you had to do three subjects in total, but you could take 'double physics' and maths.
Imagine...
..a Beowulf cluster
of these!
|
|
V
I agree, at least to some extent. In the paper Gold commented on the energy of the photons entering and leaving the sail, but that was all in the reference frame of the sail itself. Of course the sail isn't moving relative to itself.
I agree, but the different layers of a star are not in thermal equilibrium with each other. The core is always hotter, and there is heat flowing out from the surface, which keeps the surface cool.
The problem with solar sails (according to the article) would be that it reaches thermal equilibrium quite soon, and cannot absorb any more energy from the Sun.
Isn't this the basic thought experiment in General Relativity which shows that photons undergo gravitational redshift? I.e. when photons climb up in the gravitational field, they must lose energy like any other particle. In fact I also studied physics at cam.ac.uk and I just checked this from my astrophysics lecture notes, but perhaps you have a better explanation...
Both of the above points make use of the fact that floppies are (1) ubiquitous and (2) bootable. Not all USB-connected drives are bootable, for example. CDs would be good if they were truly rewritable like the magnetic media. I've never understood why people download and burn ISOs when they could, in most cases, do a network install.
Most of the "not ready for desktop" FUD against Linux is the supposed lack of applications. This example makes it clear that the apps are very much there, albeit it doesn't apply to general desktop usage.
Makes sense to me. ;-)
double-plus-uninexpensive!
I'm sure they messed up, otherwise they would have MPlayer for movies. ;-)
It's called hardware acceleration.
Or perhaps it's the rate at which computers need to speed up constantly in order to run Office.
On the other hand, when I studied nat. sci. we were taught to use the graphing space well: if the data goes from 2500 to 2600, it looks crap if the scale starts at 0 and there's nothing between 0 and 2500. In fact with benchmarks I like to see the numbers themselves, they don't leave any room for interpretation.