OK, Everyone who wants to understand which processor is fastest should really take a course on processors. Here's the (condensed) deal with the MHz myth:
All other things being equal, faster clock frequency = faster processor. The trick is in the magic words "all other things being equal". If I have a 1 GHz G4 and overclock it to 1.8GHz it will be faster. That's because the processor is using the exact same process but all the steps in the process suddenly take less time.
The problem is that no two processor designs are the same. RISC vs CISC isn't even the only consideration. There are cache sizes/locations, number of pipeline stages, number of pipelines, processor component layout, all kinds of crap. And thats just IN the processor. Motherboard designs don't even enter into my discussion.
PPC and x86 are very different, as well you know if you are a nerd (if you aren't then what are you doing here anyway?). But even processors that run the same instruction set are different enough that clock frequency doesn't necessarily dictate relative processing speed. This is why if you went to tom's hardware when the P4's first came out and looked at the benchmarks, initial P4's were rated as slower than P3's which were running at a SLOWER clock frequency. And I don't think I have to tell you about AMD vs. Intel processors at equal clock speeds.
The point is that clock frequency is a number that represents something that is actually going on inside your processor. It doesn't always accurately represent speeds relative to other processors, but its a pretty good heuristic when used wisely. If you're comparing the speed of different P4's you wouldn't be in error if you said "I want a 2.6GHz P4 because its faster than a 2.2GHz P4". However, you probably would be in error if you said "I want a 2.6GHz P4 because its faster than a 2.5GHz Power5".
If the propellant feed lines to the main engines were still damaged, this would not have caused what just happened. The failure would have occured during launch, when the shuttle's main engines are in use. The main engines do not operate during re-entry (We're not trying to gain speed at that point, but loose it as to fall out of orbit). So a leaky fuel line would have been revealed at a completely different part of the mission. So the repair worked, but obviously a cracked fuel line was not the only problem.
Then this gets my mischiefous side going. What would happen if everyone on slashdot opened a whole pile of hotmail accounts and just forgot about them?
Well, ok. I suspect nothing would happen. They'd be out some storage space for a little while but they could probably handle it.
But wouldn't it be great if it worked like a sort of DOS on their storage? oh well.
Don't suggest that suddenly people who couldn t commit crimes will now find a reason to simply because the threat of guns is not there.
Thats not what I was suggesting. I'm suggesting that people who commit crimes with guns will still commit them without guns.
If everyone has a gun then things might even out, but you will still have thousands of deaths. Take out the gun factor and you save lives.
Exactly. In the unlikely event that there were no guns in America then there would be no shootings here.
But its important to understand that guns aren't what allows people to kill one another, they just make murder require less effort. People will still be attacked by other means - usually resulting in injury, often resulging in death. And that's what really needs to be addressed: Whatever it is that makes people resort to violence. Be it poverty, frustration, mental illness, substance addiction, whatever.
You really need to get over these conspiracy theory justifications.
What are you talking about? There is no conspiracy theorized in the post. America really IS full of Jackasses. Take a look at our crime rates (Violent and not).
If you believe that getting rid of guns (and the pathetic laws in your constitution that allows them) will not dramatically reduce violent crime, you are also stupid but worse, you are ignorant.
Define "dramatically". Jackasses without guns can commit just as many violent crimes as Jackasses with guns. Gun bans would yield a slight percentage drop in violent crime. However, in the USA even a slight percentage drop in violent crime is a big honkin' number. What will result from a sudden lack of guns in the USA is this:
1) Honest people (i.e. not murderers) who used to have guns would get pissed. This is merely an annoyance.
2) Kooks in militias will finally have a reason to instigate violence against local law enforcement, ATF, & the FBI instead of playing army boy all day in a camp in Montana.
3) And most importantly: The survival rate of violent crimes will immediately be a great deal higher. All right-thinking people will agree that this is a good thing.
Unfortunately we'll still have the same jerks running around trying to kill each other for the money in the cash register/for the wallets of pedestrians/for their next hit of (fill in favorite narcotic here)/for being mean to them in school/whatever.
Guns are bad for humanity. Humans are worse. But humans without weapons are far less lethal than humans with them.
The point is that trying to fix a broken society by taking away their toys is a half-assed attempt. It won't fix the problem it will only make the problem a little more palatable in the short run.
I thought of this a few years ago. Then Handspring went and did it. Which is something everyone thought was very cool when they first came out.
All the Springboard expansion modules had drivers in the cards. Although, based on the more recent PDA offerings from Handspring, it looks like they're abandoning the technology. The Treo doesn't have a Springboard slot and the Visor Edge requires an extra caddy thing to plug the modules into (May or may not come with it. idunno).
However, including the drivers was made possible by the fact that there was only one platform to bundle drivers for, the platform is pretty static. There aren't that many PalmOS updates and they don't change that much between versions.
The question of weather to go to college is generally easy for most techies anyway - that answer is "yes". The difficult question for most is weather to STAY in college.
I've been in college for three years. I am fully qualified for a very good developer position right now. I know this because I have that job this semester. My delima is I think the more common one. I could keep working and just go back to school whenever I need to. I'll be making plenty of money and be the envy of all my friends who are stuck in class all day trying to deal with such horror profs. as "Killer Cain".
Now its time for the drawbacks. I will probably never go back because saving money to do so is easier said than done. Next, any manager worth his salt will chose a college grad over some joe who knows stuff when faced with two people of the same skill level The resons have been discussed above. This leads to the biggest reason to finish college while you're there: without a degree, the schmucks in recruiting departments of companies will not take you seriously. If you want a good job without a degree you will HAVE to know someone on the inside. If you have a degree you don't always have to know someone, but it helps. And since college is the best preliminary networking resource there is, you probably WILL know someone on the inside anyway. These things added up will give a mediocre tech with a degree a huge edge over a really good tech with no degree.
However this only applies to people just entering the workforce. Once you get a few years worth of experience (and more importantly achievements) under your belt and on your resume things tend to even out over time.
The moral of the story is if you know people NOW in positions where they can get you the job you want/deserve, AND they are willing to do so, go for it. It'll be all good. You will get the resume fodder and hopefully the contacts that will help you later on. But for most people this isn't an option.
This is a great idea but... It still doesn't qualify to fulfill my car dream. That being a finley crafted automobile whose plush interior required the slaughter of at least one dozen cows. -"Drowning is for cats and blind puppies." -Othello
I live in the US so I don't know about having unusually powerful signals. However my Ericson (maybe thats why) has two noticable EM interferance symptoms. 1) about every 10 minutes my pc speakers click twice in rapid succession when my phone checks for voice-mail 2) right before I get a call my pc speakers click, buzz with ascending loudness untill it becomes almost unbearable (no matter what the volume is turned to) and then stops as soon as the phone rings. And if the phone is close enough to a monitor or two the image becomes purple and wavy. its pretty. This is very convenient for confusing the crap out of callers. "How the crap did you answer so fast???"
Interestingly, there is a large tv in the next room and whenever it is turned on the automatic degaussing feature causes a fairly similar effect on my monitor as the phone.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, Everyone who wants to understand which processor is fastest should really take a course on processors. Here's the (condensed) deal with the MHz myth:
All other things being equal, faster clock frequency = faster processor. The trick is in the magic words "all other things being equal". If I have a 1 GHz G4 and overclock it to 1.8GHz it will be faster. That's because the processor is using the exact same process but all the steps in the process suddenly take less time.
The problem is that no two processor designs are the same. RISC vs CISC isn't even the only consideration. There are cache sizes/locations, number of pipeline stages, number of pipelines, processor component layout, all kinds of crap. And thats just IN the processor. Motherboard designs don't even enter into my discussion.
PPC and x86 are very different, as well you know if you are a nerd (if you aren't then what are you doing here anyway?). But even processors that run the same instruction set are different enough that clock frequency doesn't necessarily dictate relative processing speed. This is why if you went to tom's hardware when the P4's first came out and looked at the benchmarks, initial P4's were rated as slower than P3's which were running at a SLOWER clock frequency. And I don't think I have to tell you about AMD vs. Intel processors at equal clock speeds.
The point is that clock frequency is a number that represents something that is actually going on inside your processor. It doesn't always accurately represent speeds relative to other processors, but its a pretty good heuristic when used wisely. If you're comparing the speed of different P4's you wouldn't be in error if you said "I want a 2.6GHz P4 because its faster than a 2.2GHz P4". However, you probably would be in error if you said "I want a 2.6GHz P4 because its faster than a 2.5GHz Power5".
If the propellant feed lines to the main engines were still damaged, this would not have caused what just happened. The failure would have occured during launch, when the shuttle's main engines are in use. The main engines do not operate during re-entry (We're not trying to gain speed at that point, but loose it as to fall out of orbit). So a leaky fuel line would have been revealed at a completely different part of the mission. So the repair worked, but obviously a cracked fuel line was not the only problem.
Then this gets my mischiefous side going. What would happen if everyone on slashdot opened a whole pile of hotmail accounts and just forgot about them?
Well, ok. I suspect nothing would happen. They'd be out some storage space for a little while but they could probably handle it.
But wouldn't it be great if it worked like a sort of DOS on their storage? oh well.
Well, what good is beta testing .net SERVER if you can't take it online??
Although the poster is probably breaking several nondisclosure clauses in his beta testing agreement. Keep up the good work!!!
The only thing banning guns will do is stop deaths by guns. From what I gather that's quite a few.
Absolutely. Assuming banning guns actually removed guns' presence.
Don't suggest that suddenly people who couldn t commit crimes will now find a reason to simply because the threat of guns is not there.
Thats not what I was suggesting. I'm suggesting that people who commit crimes with guns will still commit them without guns.
If everyone has a gun then things might even out, but you will still have thousands of deaths. Take out the gun factor and you save lives.
Exactly. In the unlikely event that there were no guns in America then there would be no shootings here.
But its important to understand that guns aren't what allows people to kill one another, they just make murder require less effort. People will still be attacked by other means - usually resulting in injury, often resulging in death. And that's what really needs to be addressed: Whatever it is that makes people resort to violence. Be it poverty, frustration, mental illness, substance addiction, whatever.
You really need to get over these conspiracy theory justifications.
What are you talking about? There is no conspiracy theorized in the post. America really IS full of Jackasses. Take a look at our crime rates (Violent and not).
If you believe that getting rid of guns (and the pathetic laws in your constitution that allows them) will not dramatically reduce violent crime, you are also stupid but worse, you are ignorant.
Define "dramatically". Jackasses without guns can commit just as many violent crimes as Jackasses with guns. Gun bans would yield a slight percentage drop in violent crime. However, in the USA even a slight percentage drop in violent crime is a big honkin' number. What will result from a sudden lack of guns in the USA is this:
1) Honest people (i.e. not murderers) who used to have guns would get pissed. This is merely an annoyance.
2) Kooks in militias will finally have a reason to instigate violence against local law enforcement, ATF, & the FBI instead of playing army boy all day in a camp in Montana.
3) And most importantly: The survival rate of violent crimes will immediately be a great deal higher. All right-thinking people will agree that this is a good thing.
Unfortunately we'll still have the same jerks running around trying to kill each other for the money in the cash register/for the wallets of pedestrians/for their next hit of (fill in favorite narcotic here)/for being mean to them in school/whatever.
Guns are bad for humanity. Humans are worse. But humans without weapons are far less lethal than humans with them.
The point is that trying to fix a broken society by taking away their toys is a half-assed attempt. It won't fix the problem it will only make the problem a little more palatable in the short run.
I thought of this a few years ago. Then Handspring went and did it. Which is something everyone thought was very cool when they first came out.
All the Springboard expansion modules had drivers in the cards. Although, based on the more recent PDA offerings from Handspring, it looks like they're abandoning the technology. The Treo doesn't have a Springboard slot and the Visor Edge requires an extra caddy thing to plug the modules into (May or may not come with it. idunno).
However, including the drivers was made possible by the fact that there was only one platform to bundle drivers for, the platform is pretty static. There aren't that many PalmOS updates and they don't change that much between versions.
Otherwise there'd be no janitors because noone would want to clean up sh!t for a living.
Dude, it wouldn't be the first time.
The question of weather to go to college is generally easy for most techies anyway - that answer is "yes". The difficult question for most is weather to STAY in college.
I've been in college for three years. I am fully qualified for a very good developer position right now. I know this because I have that job this semester. My delima is I think the more common one. I could keep working and just go back to school whenever I need to. I'll be making plenty of money and be the envy of all my friends who are stuck in class all day trying to deal with such horror profs. as "Killer Cain".
Now its time for the drawbacks. I will probably never go back because saving money to do so is easier said than done. Next, any manager worth his salt will chose a college grad over some joe who knows stuff when faced with two people of the same skill level The resons have been discussed above. This leads to the biggest reason to finish college while you're there: without a degree, the schmucks in recruiting departments of companies will not take you seriously. If you want a good job without a degree you will HAVE to know someone on the inside. If you have a degree you don't always have to know someone, but it helps. And since college is the best preliminary networking resource there is, you probably WILL know someone on the inside anyway. These things added up will give a mediocre tech with a degree a huge edge over a really good tech with no degree.
However this only applies to people just entering the workforce. Once you get a few years worth of experience (and more importantly achievements) under your belt and on your resume things tend to even out over time.
The moral of the story is if you know people NOW in positions where they can get you the job you want/deserve, AND they are willing to do so, go for it. It'll be all good. You will get the resume fodder and hopefully the contacts that will help you later on. But for most people this isn't an option.
This is a great idea but... It still doesn't qualify to fulfill my car dream. That being a finley crafted automobile whose plush interior required the slaughter of at least one dozen cows. -"Drowning is for cats and blind puppies." -Othello
I live in the US so I don't know about having unusually powerful signals. However my Ericson (maybe thats why) has two noticable EM interferance symptoms.
1) about every 10 minutes my pc speakers click twice in rapid succession when my phone checks for voice-mail
2) right before I get a call my pc speakers click, buzz with ascending loudness untill it becomes almost unbearable (no matter what the volume is turned to) and then stops as soon as the phone rings. And if the phone is close enough to a monitor or two the image becomes purple and wavy. its pretty.
This is very convenient for confusing the crap out of callers. "How the crap did you answer so fast???"
Interestingly, there is a large tv in the next room and whenever it is turned on the automatic degaussing feature causes a fairly similar effect on my monitor as the phone.