There are plenty of words pronounced with a "gentle" G, such as Gentoo. However, I think the logic (hey, another soft g) is that the initial G in GIF stands for graphics, so it should be pronounced the same way.
The article features Diana Deutsch. I have her book from 1982, The Psychology of Music, and it has much deeper explanations, though they can be found in other sources too.
The fundamental idea here is the critical band, related to the spectral resolution limit of human hearing. Basically, if two tones are close enough, they are perceived as equal, and far enough, they are separate. However, there is a grey area where the ear cannot decide if the tones are the same or different. The usual explanation for dissonance is harmonics (integer multiples of fundamental tones) that happen to meet in the critical band. In consonant tones, the harmonics are either equal or notably different, so there is no confusion.
The point about distortion in modern music is important, because it is another source of dissonant harmonics. For example, when a major chord is distorted, the nonlinear process creates new tones that are not harmonics of any of the original tones, and thus likely dissonant. (When a pure tone is distorted, you only get more harmonics of the same tone. Think (sin x)^2 vs. (sin 3x + sin 4x)^2 for example.)
The critical band also explains why chords on a bass sound so bad. The fundamental tones are closer together, so the harmonics fall more easily into the same critical band of confusion.
I'm not going to write a review, at least for now. The first reason being, of course, laziness:-j However, I don't think a review at this point would make any justice.
It is, in some ways, an unfinished product. The stock distro fails to take full advantage of the hardware, IMHO, and doing the same with a custom distro is tricky because of some driver issues. Drivers are, in fact, on their way, so a review after a few months would make much more sense. Unfortunately, the machine will feel a little outdated by then. Also, mine has a few hardware glitches, and I'm waiting for a warranty replacement that could take ages...
Which brings me to the other point of availability. I was told there are only few of these machines in Europe, as the first production run is sold out. I hope they can fix the initial glitches by the second run, but it does not look like it's going to be too soon. The first batch was late enough already.
Nevertheless, here are some of my initial experiences, answering many of the issues you might expect from a review.
I agree that IGP can be a waste, but why should Intel limit themselves to integrated graphics? AMD seems to have done fine with both discrete and integrated GPUs.
The Chinese are actively developing and manufacturing MIPS processors, it's what they use in many of their supercomputing clusters. I got myself one of the new 4-core Loongson laptops, so it's definitely alive and well.
It's probably one of the established but obsolete symbols, like the floppy disk for saving files. For example, I've never experienced a LED light up over my head whenever I get a brilliant idea.
After living for many years in Cambridge, I have become accustomed to this attitude. I want to make a T-shirt "I act like I am smarter than you because I am. I go to MIT".
I act like I am smarter than you because I am. I went to the other Cambridge.
I recommend the Ware tetralogy, it is now available under a CC license. Particularly the last couple of books are a worthy upgrade of Flatland's basic points into current math and science.
At a time before the printing press, this meant lots of jobs for manual labourers.
It was critical for the development of civilization.
Employment for the sake of employment is apparently a good thing. It keeps people off the streets. Copying by computers is bad, because it is too efficient.
Tell him he can use the knowledge to brew alcohol, make drugs and bombs.
As a science teacher, this is pretty much what I tell my students. Though I usually summarize the difference between sciences by noting that chemists make bombs, physicists make nuclear bombs.
Slashdot Mirror
There are plenty of words pronounced with a "gentle" G, such as Gentoo. However, I think the logic (hey, another soft g) is that the initial G in GIF stands for graphics, so it should be pronounced the same way.
just because we call them "laws of physics" doesn't mean the physical universe is always going to obey them
That's why they are called "laws of physics" instead of "laws of the universe".
Physics is a science, a way to understand the universe. Physics != universe. (IAAP.)
The article features Diana Deutsch. I have her book from 1982, The Psychology of Music, and it has much deeper explanations, though they can be found in other sources too.
The fundamental idea here is the critical band, related to the spectral resolution limit of human hearing. Basically, if two tones are close enough, they are perceived as equal, and far enough, they are separate. However, there is a grey area where the ear cannot decide if the tones are the same or different. The usual explanation for dissonance is harmonics (integer multiples of fundamental tones) that happen to meet in the critical band. In consonant tones, the harmonics are either equal or notably different, so there is no confusion.
The point about distortion in modern music is important, because it is another source of dissonant harmonics. For example, when a major chord is distorted, the nonlinear process creates new tones that are not harmonics of any of the original tones, and thus likely dissonant. (When a pure tone is distorted, you only get more harmonics of the same tone. Think (sin x)^2 vs. (sin 3x + sin 4x)^2 for example.)
The critical band also explains why chords on a bass sound so bad. The fundamental tones are closer together, so the harmonics fall more easily into the same critical band of confusion.
Nuke it from the orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
FTFY.
Also, being addicted to caffeine is a sign of a good worker.
I'm not going to write a review, at least for now. The first reason being, of course, laziness :-j However, I don't think a review at this point would make any justice.
It is, in some ways, an unfinished product. The stock distro fails to take full advantage of the hardware, IMHO, and doing the same with a custom distro is tricky because of some driver issues. Drivers are, in fact, on their way, so a review after a few months would make much more sense. Unfortunately, the machine will feel a little outdated by then. Also, mine has a few hardware glitches, and I'm waiting for a warranty replacement that could take ages...
Which brings me to the other point of availability. I was told there are only few of these machines in Europe, as the first production run is sold out. I hope they can fix the initial glitches by the second run, but it does not look like it's going to be too soon. The first batch was late enough already.
Nevertheless, here are some of my initial experiences, answering many of the issues you might expect from a review.
OpenGL uses LLVM. OpenCL uses LLVM.
Yes, in the same way as C uses LLVM. No, wait, doesn't C use GCC?
I agree that IGP can be a waste, but why should Intel limit themselves to integrated graphics? AMD seems to have done fine with both discrete and integrated GPUs.
The Chinese are actively developing and manufacturing MIPS processors, it's what they use in many of their supercomputing clusters. I got myself one of the new 4-core Loongson laptops, so it's definitely alive and well.
There's a crapp for that!
Yes, it's not like Slashdot has editors whose job it is to make sure headlines and summaries are grammatically correct and easily readable.
FTFY.
It's probably one of the established but obsolete symbols, like the floppy disk for saving files. For example, I've never experienced a LED light up over my head whenever I get a brilliant idea.
For all intestinal purposes, this thread makes me [sic].
The penis, mightier than the sword.
Keypads on laptops are barbaric. The typing space should be centered with the display, buddhammit!
The answer is "No", because Betteridge's "law" is the new "correlation is not causation".
I'd probably be happy with just *pinky -> mouth* One Million Cores.
General Processing Units
I've used ARM servers for years, but I'm probably just delusional, they clearly don't exist and don't make any business sense.
After living for many years in Cambridge, I have become accustomed to this attitude. I want to make a T-shirt "I act like I am smarter than you because I am. I go to MIT".
I act like I am smarter than you because I am. I went to the other Cambridge.
I recommend the Ware tetralogy, it is now available under a CC license. Particularly the last couple of books are a worthy upgrade of Flatland's basic points into current math and science.
By law, every book and scroll was copied.
At a time before the printing press, this meant lots of jobs for manual labourers.
It was critical for the development of civilization.
Employment for the sake of employment is apparently a good thing. It keeps people off the streets. Copying by computers is bad, because it is too efficient.
A giant wall of porn to great you when you, er, come home.
Did you mean:
I fap at work. Therefore, anything I build may contain traces of nuts.
Tell him he can use the knowledge to brew alcohol, make drugs and bombs.
As a science teacher, this is pretty much what I tell my students. Though I usually summarize the difference between sciences by noting that chemists make bombs, physicists make nuclear bombs.