You obviously know nothing about electronics and magic smoke
Good point -- it's been a while since I've had a puff of that, if you know what I mean...
Seriously, though, I'm picturing a scenario where you accidentally drop a CFL or LED. Besides the mercury vapour issue, it's also nice that one of these stays fully functional after a drop.
The positional argument for starting with 0 makes sense in C, because it's such a low-level language. It makes sense to expose this low-level view on arrays so you can do things like pointer arithmetic.
For anything higher-level, you'd think the language should make things easier for people who deal with everyday countable items. But even in an otherwise nice high-level language like Python you can find some thoroughly messy array logic, because it basically takes the positional idea even further. While a[0] is the first item, a[0:2] is a range of the first two items, instead of three. The logic is called slices: you start at position 0, which is just before the first item, and end at 2, just after the second one. You've spanned a distance of 2, over the first 2 items.
Physicists and mathematicians have indexed, say, vectors, starting with 1 for ages, except in recent times where sometimes they use 0 for very special reason (like chapter 0 in a book).
One common example of vector indices is in relativity. Since we traditionally used indices 1 to 3 for spatial dimensions, it made sense to keep them that way. The spatial dimension was given index 0 probably to denote its special/fundamental position (e.g. energy in the energy-momentum vector).
The traditional programming language of scientists, Fortran, starts its arrays with 1 by default, but it can also be instructed to start wherever you want. For example -n to +n is sometimes quite convenient.
Also, considering something like Star Trek, there is some comfort in imagining a society where intellect and honesty are rewarded rather than ridiculed. Which, of course, can be a central aspect of speculative fiction; how far can an ideal geek society go, or do you need someone to be an asshole to take action in the end.
However, I agree with the OP to some extent. As a science/math/electronics/programming/music geek, I've never understood the stereotypical geek fascination with games, comics and other plasticky entertainment. Reading books I can understand, collecting superhero figures not that much.
That may seem funny, but to me this is all about memory management. Brains/CPUs with larger L1/L2 caches are better, because there is always the I/O overhead. Computing analogies also explain a lot about bureaucracies -- at some point the I/O starts to outweigh the benefits of a multiproc system. This is why flat organizations with localized decision-making are more efficient.
Agreed, you can be a programming monkey or a software development monkey. To me, the use of a higher register often implies the kind of professionalism where a suit and a bunch of certificates matter more than real problem solving ability.
Oh, right, because the name Uber is not influenced by the German "über" preposition/prefix in any way, and neither is the colloquial usage of uber-, as in "ubergeek". Must be pure coincidence.
(Where I'm from, we also use the über prefix for words like übergeek. It's not really that hard to spell or pronounce, but I guess for truly international usage you need to fall back to ASCII.)
The enormous numbers of the Passenger Pigeon actually suggest that they were the beneficiaries of an extreme environmental disruption that occurred a few centuries earlier: the sudden and dramatic disappearance on the large scale agricultural and horticultural societies of Native Americans when ~90% of the population died from successive onslaughts of pandemic disease brought by the arrival of populations from the Old World (Europeans and Africans).
Stop spelling it "BitCoin", it's "Bitcoin", as in common grammar rules where you don't put a cApITal in the middle of a word.
That so, TeknoHog?
Well I can spell my own name in any bloody way I want. But if you're going to spell the name of a product/technology then please find out how to spell it first.
Stop spelling it "BitCoin", it's "Bitcoin", as in common grammar rules where you don't put a cApITal in the middle of a word. For some reason, the "BitCoin" spelling is always used by people who don't know Bitcoin, and it just looks degrading.
I remember using talk only on the same machine. I specifically said "Internet" to exclude applications that only work on the same host or a proprietary network. However, I now see that talk also works across networks.
Of course, I like to mention IRC just because it's from Finland.
There are already things hindering the customers to place their PC directly with their back to the walls. One is called cables, the other one is called convenience.
But then you also have people who just like to shove things against the wall. I mean who cares about a broken cable now and then, you can always buy more >.<
imagine the users setting drinks on top of it! At least with a box, if you knock your drink over, it's on the floor. HERE.... it can drain your entire soda into the mobo ports (back) or fan intake. (front)
Moreover, I imagine this feature will increase dust buildup. Of course you get plenty of dust along the airstream, no matter what direction, but in this case (pun intended) there's a constant buildup from above, even when the machine is off. Then when you turn the machine on again, you get this nice layer of dust sucked in at once.
To avoid these types of problem, I'd rather have an indentation on the back, leaving room for air even when the top is pushed against the wall. It will be somewhat worse for natural convection, though. Then again it might help when lifting the machine up.
I've used laptops as my main/only machine for a long while, but I now use a dock with external display and keyboard, as it's more ergonomic in a standing desk. However, the general point is that I still like to use a full computer in this age of tablets. There are many cases where a tablet would be more suitable, but I hate owning too many different appliances for each job, when a single laptop can do almost everything. Of course, there's also the usual agenda of freedom to program your machine as you see fit.
Curse all you stupid laptop users!
It's not stupidity. I'm just too weak to carry a full desktop setup around to places where I need to work.
Usually people who need more than 16 gigs are requiring this for work-related reasons, where the $700 takes a different perspective.
$700 may not be much compared to labour, but it's still real money someone in the economy is going to pay.
The "room" is where you have other computer hardware and electronics, and that keeps getting cheaper and faster all the time. That's why the price fixing of RAM is so obvious. I remember paying less per GB in the DDR2 days.
Also, memory is supposed to be this relatively dumb part of machinery. As I'm speccing out a new home machine, I notice that the mobo will cost less than 8 GB of DDR3, which is the minimum I'm going to get (and maximum at these prices).
DDR4 is also extremely new. Expect it to get faster/better timing specs as time progresses.
this.
DDR4 is like $350 for 4x4GB. Too expensive still. This time next year we should see prices closer to what we are paying for DDR3 today.
DDR4 is "extremely new" as in 2011. For me, the only real improvement seems to be in power consumption.
Since regular SDRAM, each DDR generation has doubled throughput, but latencies have only improved very slowly. So in many cases the doubled data rate is just a marketing gimmick. This might explain why each DDR generation has been relatively slow to enter mass market. For example, in late 2008 I was speccing a work laptop, and it had this new and shiny DDR3 memory, with all the issues such as price and availability of big-ass 4 GB SODIMMs. Later in 2010 I bought a new motherboard for home, with DDR2, so apparently DDR3 was still not for everyone.
Of course, increased throughput does help in many cases, but I especially like the reduced power consumption. So I for one welcome our new DDR4 overlords -- once they are widely available and affordable. Even DDR3 seems hideously expensive compared to other hardware -- I can get a new motherboard for less than the price of an 8 GB DIMM.
Slashdot Mirror
You obviously know nothing about electronics and magic smoke
Good point -- it's been a while since I've had a puff of that, if you know what I mean...
Seriously, though, I'm picturing a scenario where you accidentally drop a CFL or LED. Besides the mercury vapour issue, it's also nice that one of these stays fully functional after a drop.
It's classical newspaper style to omit articles and capitalize words in headlines. Not exactly missing out [by accident].
When you accidentally a LED, does it immediately release toxic fumes in the air for everyone to inhale? Also, see the sibling post about e-waste.
Strong the whoosh with this one is, FYFT
FYTF.
The positional argument for starting with 0 makes sense in C, because it's such a low-level language. It makes sense to expose this low-level view on arrays so you can do things like pointer arithmetic.
For anything higher-level, you'd think the language should make things easier for people who deal with everyday countable items. But even in an otherwise nice high-level language like Python you can find some thoroughly messy array logic, because it basically takes the positional idea even further. While a[0] is the first item, a[0:2] is a range of the first two items, instead of three. The logic is called slices: you start at position 0, which is just before the first item, and end at 2, just after the second one. You've spanned a distance of 2, over the first 2 items.
Physicists and mathematicians have indexed, say, vectors, starting with 1 for ages, except in recent times where sometimes they use 0 for very special reason (like chapter 0 in a book).
One common example of vector indices is in relativity. Since we traditionally used indices 1 to 3 for spatial dimensions, it made sense to keep them that way. The spatial dimension was given index 0 probably to denote its special/fundamental position (e.g. energy in the energy-momentum vector).
The traditional programming language of scientists, Fortran, starts its arrays with 1 by default, but it can also be instructed to start wherever you want. For example -n to +n is sometimes quite convenient.
Also, considering something like Star Trek, there is some comfort in imagining a society where intellect and honesty are rewarded rather than ridiculed. Which, of course, can be a central aspect of speculative fiction; how far can an ideal geek society go, or do you need someone to be an asshole to take action in the end.
However, I agree with the OP to some extent. As a science/math/electronics/programming/music geek, I've never understood the stereotypical geek fascination with games, comics and other plasticky entertainment. Reading books I can understand, collecting superhero figures not that much.
+1 for everyone who gets the reference.
That may seem funny, but to me this is all about memory management. Brains/CPUs with larger L1/L2 caches are better, because there is always the I/O overhead. Computing analogies also explain a lot about bureaucracies -- at some point the I/O starts to outweigh the benefits of a multiproc system. This is why flat organizations with localized decision-making are more efficient.
Agreed, you can be a programming monkey or a software development monkey. To me, the use of a higher register often implies the kind of professionalism where a suit and a bunch of certificates matter more than real problem solving ability.
it is über, not uber in the anthem.
Oh, right, because the name Uber is not influenced by the German "über" preposition/prefix in any way, and neither is the colloquial usage of uber-, as in "ubergeek". Must be pure coincidence.
(Where I'm from, we also use the über prefix for words like übergeek. It's not really that hard to spell or pronounce, but I guess for truly international usage you need to fall back to ASCII.)
I build robots and they all suck
Fembots?
Was that an African or a European pigeon?
The enormous numbers of the Passenger Pigeon actually suggest that they were the beneficiaries of an extreme environmental disruption that occurred a few centuries earlier: the sudden and dramatic disappearance on the large scale agricultural and horticultural societies of Native Americans when ~90% of the population died from successive onslaughts of pandemic disease brought by the arrival of populations from the Old World (Europeans and Africans).
Is that an African or a European pigeonocide?
That so, TeknoHog?
Well I can spell my own name in any bloody way I want. But if you're going to spell the name of a product/technology then please find out how to spell it first.
Stop spelling it "BitCoin", it's "Bitcoin", as in common grammar rules where you don't put a cApITal in the middle of a word. For some reason, the "BitCoin" spelling is always used by people who don't know Bitcoin, and it just looks degrading.
I remember using talk only on the same machine. I specifically said "Internet" to exclude applications that only work on the same host or a proprietary network. However, I now see that talk also works across networks.
Of course, I like to mention IRC just because it's from Finland.
Heretic! The original Internet instant messaging system is spelled "IRC".
Chill out. They're just having that time of the month.
There are already things hindering the customers to place their PC directly with their back to the walls. One is called cables, the other one is called convenience.
But then you also have people who just like to shove things against the wall. I mean who cares about a broken cable now and then, you can always buy more >.<
imagine the users setting drinks on top of it! At least with a box, if you knock your drink over, it's on the floor. HERE.... it can drain your entire soda into the mobo ports (back) or fan intake. (front)
Moreover, I imagine this feature will increase dust buildup. Of course you get plenty of dust along the airstream, no matter what direction, but in this case (pun intended) there's a constant buildup from above, even when the machine is off. Then when you turn the machine on again, you get this nice layer of dust sucked in at once.
To avoid these types of problem, I'd rather have an indentation on the back, leaving room for air even when the top is pushed against the wall. It will be somewhat worse for natural convection, though. Then again it might help when lifting the machine up.
I've used laptops as my main/only machine for a long while, but I now use a dock with external display and keyboard, as it's more ergonomic in a standing desk. However, the general point is that I still like to use a full computer in this age of tablets. There are many cases where a tablet would be more suitable, but I hate owning too many different appliances for each job, when a single laptop can do almost everything. Of course, there's also the usual agenda of freedom to program your machine as you see fit.
Curse all you stupid laptop users!
It's not stupidity. I'm just too weak to carry a full desktop setup around to places where I need to work.
Usually people who need more than 16 gigs are requiring this for work-related reasons, where the $700 takes a different perspective.
$700 may not be much compared to labour, but it's still real money someone in the economy is going to pay.
The "room" is where you have other computer hardware and electronics, and that keeps getting cheaper and faster all the time. That's why the price fixing of RAM is so obvious. I remember paying less per GB in the DDR2 days.
Also, memory is supposed to be this relatively dumb part of machinery. As I'm speccing out a new home machine, I notice that the mobo will cost less than 8 GB of DDR3, which is the minimum I'm going to get (and maximum at these prices).
DDR4 is also extremely new. Expect it to get faster/better timing specs as time progresses.
this.
DDR4 is like $350 for 4x4GB. Too expensive still. This time next year we should see prices closer to what we are paying for DDR3 today.
DDR4 is "extremely new" as in 2011. For me, the only real improvement seems to be in power consumption.
Since regular SDRAM, each DDR generation has doubled throughput, but latencies have only improved very slowly. So in many cases the doubled data rate is just a marketing gimmick. This might explain why each DDR generation has been relatively slow to enter mass market. For example, in late 2008 I was speccing a work laptop, and it had this new and shiny DDR3 memory, with all the issues such as price and availability of big-ass 4 GB SODIMMs. Later in 2010 I bought a new motherboard for home, with DDR2, so apparently DDR3 was still not for everyone.
Of course, increased throughput does help in many cases, but I especially like the reduced power consumption. So I for one welcome our new DDR4 overlords -- once they are widely available and affordable. Even DDR3 seems hideously expensive compared to other hardware -- I can get a new motherboard for less than the price of an 8 GB DIMM.
I started in 1999 with Red Hat 6.
Me too :D And now for the obligatory shameless plug.