It might be one of those things where telephone service is considered a critical utility, and thus excessive down time is fined and such by the government. The fact that DSL happens to use a phone line is an added bonus. Cable is just, well, cable. Most poeple consider both the video and internet to be non-critical, whereas telephone being down means that emergency services may not be easily contacted.
The reason why hyperthreading was interesting is that for the apps that can use it, it can stand to benefit by 10% or so, really nice for how tiny the HT section of the chip is, somewhere under 5% I've heard. With a dual core, many apps might be lucky to get 30% more performance, at possibly twice as many transistors.
Go look up storagereview.com. They run actual tests on actual drives to see if the manufacturer claims have merit - for the SCSI drives, they generally do.
SCSI on a 7200rpm drive is kind of silly unless you are running lots of drives or need the longer warranty.
While SCSI and IDE are just interfaces, that often isn't the only differences, because they are sold to different markets.
The IDE drives are sold to a consumer market where they don't need to be tested as vigorously. SCSI drives are often tested more vigorously from a mechanical, electrical and firmware aspects. Because the SCSI drives are often sold for heavy server use, they must be able to withstand constant use, around the clock for years.
While it is possible to get the same mechanicals in both SCSI and IDE formats, I don't think that is done for any of the cheapest drives, IIRC, WD Raptor is one. So far that I know, there aren't any 15k RPM SATA or IDE drives. It could be done, but it wouldn't be that much cheaper.
10k and 15k RPM drives also have different platters, cases and mechanicals - the platters are more like 2" in diameter than 3".
Generally a SCSI drive is expected to last for five years, and I suspect that there really is an improved build quality to make it worth putting the 5yr warranties that drive makers put on SCSI drives, in a day when a typical IDE drive gets 1 yr, or if you are lucky, three.
I know it isn't much, to say, but I've yet to have any of my SCSI drives fail on my, something I can't say for the IDEs.
I city can reasonably be covered if people can work out an alternating "honeycomb". With three channels, it is possible. Given that it seems to be a cooperative project, I'd say that it shouldn't be too hard.
I do wish the world goverments would grant more standard bands for stuff like this, I mean,.1 GHz at 2.4GHz isn't enough, and the 5GHz often doesn't have half the range.
Also, many of the "turbo G" and such devices aren't using a second band but rather using some odd frame bursting rather than wasting money on a second radio in both the AP and the client. They claim more than 54mbps, but that is in relation to 54mbps network performance where you are lucky to see 20mbps with one computer using one access point. There are a few that do use a second band and that's stupid. The "plus" and "turbo", etc, really only bet 30mbps actual performance.
Ah, the hyperbole. Just tell people not to buy shit.
I have a Pentium IIIm laptop that gets three to three and a half hours on a charge, and the battery is two years old, so I might get four hours if I bought a new battery.
People need to buy shitty desknotes and pretending they are true laptops. By weight (often 10lb), they are practiaclly luggables when a good laptop can weigh only half that.
You don't put a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 (desktop model) chip into a laptop and expect it to last more than an hour. That's stupid, they weren't made for that. Get a Pentium M or at the very least, Pentium 4 M. Forget the M and you can forget your battery life. Same goes for Athlon too.
I find my Palm easier to use than my cell phone, or any cell I've ever used.
I think the functionality is merging but other than the PalmPhones, they can't display much info at the same time. The color phone I bought last year only has a 100x100 screen, when a Palm now often has four times the addressable screen pixels, if not much more. I'd get a Palm Phone but they are often too small on the screen, IMO and cost hundreds more than separate Palm and phones with similar capacity and functionality.
The only data I store in my phone is phone numbers for quick dialing though its phone book, but using it to try to display a map is a total joke, and data entry is even harder. A lot of phones don't even include synch software or synch cable. Last I checked, it was $30 for the software, and $30 for the cable.
I use my Palm to keep my shopping list, materials lists, wish lists, addresses and phone numbers - should I lose my phone. I enter notes in it too when I'm away from a computer. One palm is still easier to tote than even an OQO, never mind a regular laptop. Palms also start up instantly. Even on standby, laptops take five to ten seconds to start. Compared to data entry to a phone, I have much more patience using the stylus than I do pressing a button several times to get the letter I want.
The reason we have the bill of rights is because many of the Framers thought that police and government power cannot be inherently trusted. The justice system has often taken a stance that evidence illegally seized is not evidence at all.
I think DNA should only be required for convicted felons that commit some sort of physical crime (grand theft, rape, murder etc.). I bet that those that commited econimic ir IP crime would likely be thrown in, but DNA is irrelevant to those cases, because you don't leave that sort of evidence behind when embezzling and such.
Basically some of the people probably do buy this stuff, they only need a miniscule number of customers to pay for this.
That number of people is probably much less than 1% of the recipients, but they are probably people that don't want to discuss their inadequacies face to face with other people. It is also these people that won't report a fraud to the police because they are too embarased to say what they tried to buy and too embarased to say they've been swindled.
My understanding is that recording from radio is perfectly legal, and I wish it to remain legal and not encumbered by copy prohibitions.
Where people go wrong is that it is just as illegal as it ever was to redistribute the content without permission, the only thing changing is that it is easier. Being easy to do doesn't make an argument for legalization - there were almost always things that are easy to do yet were still illegal.
I knew a guy that was putting together a cluster of 486s. I think he succeeded with mostly donated and tossed hardware. He did get a one year internship setting up and maintaining a 16 node Athlon cluster.
I don't think 486 was just larger cache + FPU + faster clock because TI and AMD did exactly that with the 386 and they were pokey. There were some other tweaks, I think adding the pipelining was one of them, something the article said had only previously appeared on mainframes.
Why is Pentium 4 on your list of significant updates? And why say Pentium II when that is just a minor change to Pentium Pro? I'd say P4 is less significant than PPro simply because the core architecture is still being sold in new systems, though updated (Pentium M) and supposedly the Pentium M core will be used as a basis for Intel's mainstay dual core chip. I bet that it will be given 64 bit instruction updates too.
Really? Caviezel sounds so much like a Jewish name to me. He's probably slightly on the tall side but the facial features don't seem inconsistent. I haven't found anything that mentions his race.
Or were you thinking that he was supposed to be black?
The entire argument is that the people that understand assembly can write better programs even if they are using compiled or interpreted languages. The argument was never to see if you can get all programmers to use assembly all the time, that is stupid, even if half the programmers programmed asm half the time. It is about knowing how the computer works.
As I've said before, a good mechanic can tear down and reassemble an internal combustion engine, and that my argument is that a good programmer can do the same on an ASM level should the need arise.
The thing here is that assembly wasn't being promoted for general use, but for education. Education is this wonderful place where you learn lots of things, 90% of it which you may never find a use for, but you never know which 10% you need, so you learn a much broader range than you need.
If you only learn the skills that you need to perform a certain kind job, you just went to a trade school.
None of those arguments are terribly convincing, Being able to understand how the internals work can be critical to how well one can maintain a system. Would you want a mechanic that doesn't understand how an internal combustion engine works? If not, then why would you want a programmer that hasn't at least been exposed to how a basic CPU works?
I've done two or three major microcontroller architectures, and I think it's kind of fun for those tasks. I now have a C compiler, but there were still instances where I did a complete assembly program.
While most programmers may not use assembly in actual practice, I still believe it is a necessary part of computer science education, because education is often about blitkrieg - there isn't enough time to truly master anything, but at least you've covered it enough to understand the basics, whether it be compiled, interpreted or assembled.
I fully understand that very few programmers will program in assembly, but I think having mastered that skill helps create a better breed of programmer.
The job loss numbers also don't seem to tell the whole story, I think for those quarters quoted there was a net job gain overall.
Despite the harping, the last Labor department figure I've seen, I think for Q1 2004, was that unemployment was about 5.9% with other figures being favorable as well. I thought that figure is very nice, especially considering we were comming out of an overheated economy in the 90's where those considered completely unemployable were given a second look. I think unemployment was only slightly under 5% at some points in the 90s.
I remember a time when 7% was considered an acceptable compromise between inflation and unemployment, so the hand-wringing may be overblown. Sadly, the alarmists like to take the figures that fit their case best and play chicken little. Let's try a balanced approach, shall we?
This may just be a hold-over while Intel readies the P6 version of a dual core architecture. This particular iteration might only show up in workstations. I think this may have been one of those projects that were far elong enough to justify keeping it so that there isn't a big gap in the CPU line-up when compared to AMD.
Bluetooth works fine for me. I have a Compaq notebook that has a Multiport Bluetooth module and I got it working in maybe five to ten minutes. It seems to have support for every device type I can think of, PDAs, networks, virtual serial devices, file transfer and so on.
Some people seem to act as if "everybody" has to have or have heard of something in order to consider that something successful. Even if 95% of any particular population have no use for something, the remaining 5% might find an indispensible use for which it can find a strong niche.
Take Apple for example. We've gotten monthly predictions of their demise but somehow they still manage to mske a product that some people want and have a fair amount of liquid assets to boot.
AC mains really suck for small electronics. Power over Ethernet exists, but that's still a bit expensive. It is about $45 for an active one port POE injector, and the cost of a POE device vs. the same device without POE is about $15.
There's too many wires to go around. My computer has anywhere from seven to ten cables connected to it, and the mouse and keyboard wires tend to get in the way of other tasks. I have about eight power cables connected to the UPS & surge strip combined.
Well, devices commonly say 10M range. My Logitech Bluetooth MX combo came in today and I managed 20M with the signal passing through two walls and metal clad doors. That's well beyond the useful range of a keyboard and mouse, the only way I knew it was working was that the scroll wheel still scrolled the screen.
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It might be one of those things where telephone service is considered a critical utility, and thus excessive down time is fined and such by the government. The fact that DSL happens to use a phone line is an added bonus. Cable is just, well, cable. Most poeple consider both the video and internet to be non-critical, whereas telephone being down means that emergency services may not be easily contacted.
The reason why hyperthreading was interesting is that for the apps that can use it, it can stand to benefit by 10% or so, really nice for how tiny the HT section of the chip is, somewhere under 5% I've heard. With a dual core, many apps might be lucky to get 30% more performance, at possibly twice as many transistors.
It is pretty easy on Windows, I've done it myself to stripe two old 10k RPM drives for raw video capture.
Supposedly Windows doesn't allow RAIDing of Firewire or USB drives. I have not personally tried this, I only have one external Firewire drive.
Go look up storagereview.com. They run actual tests on actual drives to see if the manufacturer claims have merit - for the SCSI drives, they generally do.
SCSI on a 7200rpm drive is kind of silly unless you are running lots of drives or need the longer warranty.
While SCSI and IDE are just interfaces, that often isn't the only differences, because they are sold to different markets.
The IDE drives are sold to a consumer market where they don't need to be tested as vigorously. SCSI drives are often tested more vigorously from a mechanical, electrical and firmware aspects. Because the SCSI drives are often sold for heavy server use, they must be able to withstand constant use, around the clock for years.
While it is possible to get the same mechanicals in both SCSI and IDE formats, I don't think that is done for any of the cheapest drives, IIRC,
WD Raptor is one. So far that I know, there aren't any 15k RPM SATA or IDE drives. It could be done, but it wouldn't be that much cheaper.
10k and 15k RPM drives also have different platters, cases and mechanicals - the platters are more like 2" in diameter than 3".
Generally a SCSI drive is expected to last for five years, and I suspect that there really is an improved build quality to make it worth putting the 5yr warranties that drive makers put on SCSI drives, in a day when a typical IDE drive gets 1 yr, or if you are lucky, three.
I know it isn't much, to say, but I've yet to have any of my SCSI drives fail on my, something I can't say for the IDEs.
I city can reasonably be covered if people can work out an alternating "honeycomb". With three channels, it is possible. Given that it seems to be a cooperative project, I'd say that it shouldn't be too hard.
.1 GHz at 2.4GHz isn't enough, and the 5GHz often doesn't have half the range.
I do wish the world goverments would grant more standard bands for stuff like this, I mean,
Also, many of the "turbo G" and such devices aren't using a second band but rather using some odd frame bursting rather than wasting money on a second radio in both the AP and the client. They claim more than 54mbps, but that is in relation to 54mbps network performance where you are lucky to see 20mbps with one computer using one access point. There are a few that do use a second band and that's stupid. The "plus" and "turbo", etc, really only bet 30mbps actual performance.
Ah, the hyperbole. Just tell people not to buy shit.
I have a Pentium IIIm laptop that gets three to three and a half hours on a charge, and the battery is two years old, so I might get four hours if I bought a new battery.
People need to buy shitty desknotes and pretending they are true laptops. By weight (often 10lb), they are practiaclly luggables when a good laptop can weigh only half that.
You don't put a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 (desktop model) chip into a laptop and expect it to last more than an hour. That's stupid, they weren't made for that. Get a Pentium M or at the very least, Pentium 4 M. Forget the M and you can forget your battery life. Same goes for Athlon too.
I find my Palm easier to use than my cell phone, or any cell I've ever used.
I think the functionality is merging but other than the PalmPhones, they can't display much info at the same time. The color phone I bought last year only has a 100x100 screen, when a Palm now often has four times the addressable screen pixels, if not much more. I'd get a Palm Phone but they are often too small on the screen, IMO and cost hundreds more than separate Palm and phones with similar capacity and functionality.
The only data I store in my phone is phone numbers for quick dialing though its phone book, but using it to try to display a map is a total joke, and data entry is even harder. A lot of phones don't even include synch software or synch cable. Last I checked, it was $30 for the software, and $30 for the cable.
I use my Palm to keep my shopping list, materials lists, wish lists, addresses and phone numbers - should I lose my phone. I enter notes in it too when I'm away from a computer. One palm is still easier to tote than even an OQO, never mind a regular laptop. Palms also start up instantly. Even on standby, laptops take five to ten seconds to start. Compared to data entry to a phone, I have much more patience using the stylus than I do pressing a button several times to get the letter I want.
The reason we have the bill of rights is because many of the Framers thought that police and government power cannot be inherently trusted. The justice system has often taken a stance that evidence illegally seized is not evidence at all.
I think DNA should only be required for convicted felons that commit some sort of physical crime (grand theft, rape, murder etc.). I bet that those that commited econimic ir IP crime would likely be thrown in, but DNA is irrelevant to those cases, because you don't leave that sort of evidence behind when embezzling and such.
Basically some of the people probably do buy this stuff, they only need a miniscule number of customers to pay for this.
That number of people is probably much less than 1% of the recipients, but they are probably people that don't want to discuss their inadequacies face to face with other people. It is also these people that won't report a fraud to the police because they are too embarased to say what they tried to buy and too embarased to say they've been swindled.
I agreem.
My understanding is that recording from radio is perfectly legal, and I wish it to remain legal and not encumbered by copy prohibitions.
Where people go wrong is that it is just as illegal as it ever was to redistribute the content without permission, the only thing changing is that it is easier. Being easy to do doesn't make an argument for legalization - there were almost always things that are easy to do yet were still illegal.
I knew a guy that was putting together a cluster of 486s. I think he succeeded with mostly donated and tossed hardware. He did get a one year internship setting up and maintaining a 16 node Athlon cluster.
Even some _new_ routers, switches and other network devices seem to feature 486 chips.
IIRC, 486 had a larger cache too.
I don't think 486 was just larger cache + FPU + faster clock because TI and AMD did exactly that with the 386 and they were pokey. There were some other tweaks, I think adding the pipelining was one of them, something the article said had only previously appeared on mainframes.
Why is Pentium 4 on your list of significant updates? And why say Pentium II when that is just a minor change to Pentium Pro? I'd say P4 is less significant than PPro simply because the core architecture is still being sold in new systems, though updated (Pentium M) and supposedly the Pentium M core will be used as a basis for Intel's mainstay dual core chip. I bet that it will be given 64 bit instruction updates too.
but Mel Gibson used a white Jesus.
Really? Caviezel sounds so much like a Jewish name to me. He's probably slightly on the tall side but the facial features don't seem inconsistent. I haven't found anything that mentions his race.
Or were you thinking that he was supposed to be black?
The entire argument is that the people that understand assembly can write better programs even if they are using compiled or interpreted languages. The argument was never to see if you can get all programmers to use assembly all the time, that is stupid, even if half the programmers programmed asm half the time. It is about knowing how the computer works.
As I've said before, a good mechanic can tear down and reassemble an internal combustion engine, and that my argument is that a good programmer can do the same on an ASM level should the need arise.
The thing here is that assembly wasn't being promoted for general use, but for education. Education is this wonderful place where you learn lots of things, 90% of it which you may never find a use for, but you never know which 10% you need, so you learn a much broader range than you need.
If you only learn the skills that you need to perform a certain kind job, you just went to a trade school.
None of those arguments are terribly convincing, Being able to understand how the internals work can be critical to how well one can maintain a system. Would you want a mechanic that doesn't understand how an internal combustion engine works? If not, then why would you want a programmer that hasn't at least been exposed to how a basic CPU works?
I've done two or three major microcontroller architectures, and I think it's kind of fun for those tasks. I now have a C compiler, but there were still instances where I did a complete assembly program.
While most programmers may not use assembly in actual practice, I still believe it is a necessary part of computer science education, because education is often about blitkrieg - there isn't enough time to truly master anything, but at least you've covered it enough to understand the basics, whether it be compiled, interpreted or assembled.
I fully understand that very few programmers will program in assembly, but I think having mastered that skill helps create a better breed of programmer.
Somehow I thought there were still _some_ limits as to what fraction of any market a company can own.
Even then, I think satellite radio is still a viable option.
I pretty much agree.
The job loss numbers also don't seem to tell the whole story, I think for those quarters quoted there was a net job gain overall.
Despite the harping, the last Labor department figure I've seen, I think for Q1 2004, was that unemployment was about 5.9% with other figures being favorable as well. I thought that figure is very nice, especially considering we were comming out of an overheated economy in the 90's where those considered completely unemployable were given a second look. I think unemployment was only slightly under 5% at some points in the 90s.
I remember a time when 7% was considered an acceptable compromise between inflation and unemployment, so the hand-wringing may be overblown. Sadly, the alarmists like to take the figures that fit their case best and play chicken little. Let's try a balanced approach, shall we?
This may just be a hold-over while Intel readies the P6 version of a dual core architecture. This particular iteration might only show up in workstations. I think this may have been one of those projects that were far elong enough to justify keeping it so that there isn't a big gap in the CPU line-up when compared to AMD.
Bluetooth works fine for me. I have a Compaq notebook that has a Multiport Bluetooth module and I got it working in maybe five to ten minutes. It seems to have support for every device type I can think of, PDAs, networks, virtual serial devices, file transfer and so on.
I don't understand it much either.
Some people seem to act as if "everybody" has to have or have heard of something in order to consider that something successful. Even if 95% of any particular population have no use for something, the remaining 5% might find an indispensible use for which it can find a strong niche.
Take Apple for example. We've gotten monthly predictions of their demise but somehow they still manage to mske a product that some people want and have a fair amount of liquid assets to boot.
AC mains really suck for small electronics. Power over Ethernet exists, but that's still a bit expensive. It is about $45 for an active one port POE injector, and the cost of a POE device vs. the same device without POE is about $15.
There's too many wires to go around. My computer has anywhere from seven to ten cables connected to it, and the mouse and keyboard wires tend to get in the way of other tasks. I have about eight power cables connected to the UPS & surge strip combined.
Gasp! Provide a useful feature such that people would actually be willing to pay money for added services? Who would have thunk?
Really, I hadn't thought of that, but it sounds like a perfectly exploitable opportunity for cell service providers.
I'm not sure what Sprint's problem would be since supposedly you can use your cell phone as a modem on their unlimited internet plan.
Well, devices commonly say 10M range. My Logitech Bluetooth MX combo came in today and I managed 20M with the signal passing through two walls and metal clad doors. That's well beyond the useful range of a keyboard and mouse, the only way I knew it was working was that the scroll wheel still scrolled the screen.