While your opinions are perfectly valid, I think you're mistaken by what actually constitutes Darwin.
Darwin does contain parts of FreeBSD - mainly the userland applications. However the kernel is completely different. As such, what you get from Darwin is actually quite different then what you get from FreeBSD.
Darwin uses the MACH microkernel with it's own, unique for OSX, IO kit. The IO kit is supposed to be a great piece of work and anyone researching OS design should have a look at it. I'm guessing one of the main reasons for using the MACH microkernel was for compatibility with the older OpenSTEP API. Darwin however isn't a true microkernel OS as other components also run in ring 0 in order to improve performance - similar to NT4.
Another note; userland applications were actually taken from multiple BSDs - mainly FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.
But your point is still valid. From the user perspective, what you get in Darwin is just like what you get in FreeBSD. Where my opinion differs from yours is that I don't believe that open sourcing the GUI is required to make OSX a relevant operating system.
Both computers have built in wireless as standard components. But another plus for the Powerbook is that the keyboard is much nicer to type on - at least from my experience.
The new G4 will have dual cores (probably ~1.5GHz) and a built in memory controller. As a result, the bus speed plays a far smaller role as it only has to communicate with peripherals and not memory. Overall, the performance should at least double over the current 1.5GHz G4.
But they won't be generating 100MW per installation. The point they are trying to make is that it will cost the same to setup X wind ladders giving a total of 100MW as one 100MW gas generator. So each wind ladder is only producing 1MW, if that.
This changes your 8-10lb/ft cable into a 8-10lb/100ft cable. If the sails were spaced 100ft between each other, each sail would only have to lift 8-10lbs. Since the sails have a wingspan of 27ft, this shouldn't be a problem.
You also don't need a safety factor of 3. There is no danger to life or property if a cable breaks. The sails have the ability to direct themselves so with a little programming, they should be able to glide down to the base of the ladder in the event a cable breaks. Also, by perfecting this technique now, it'll be ready when newer, stronger cables are available. Think carbon nano-tubes or that spider silk from genetically engineered goat's milk.
This is an interesting idea that might be applicable for some areas. It's not a "solve the world's energy problems" type of idea but it still warrants some investigation.
With 4 x 64MHz AtoD converters, this board could be easily turned into a descent digital oscilloscope. Right now such equipment is so very costly, but the right IO module might just make this a possibility for low frequency work.
There is a big difference between making something work and making something usable. Motorola may have already implemented the technical end of things but it's the user interface that makes or breaks a product. And creating a good user interface is just as hard, if not harder then making it work technically.
Not only can one search for the title of the bookmark, but also the content at the page the bookmarks points to. Bookmarks titles are often very misleading. People rarely spend the time required to give them a proper name. So if the search involved the bookmark name, and the content at that bookmark, it would result in more accurate results. Think of it as a mini-google on each computer.
One doesn't have to use solar panels. Another option is to use large mirrors on mechanical pivots that work together to reflect sunlight to a single point. At this point, water is boiled and the steam turns a turbine.
I doubt that this method is as technically efficient as using solar panels, but it probably is cheaper. But then future solar panels will likely change everything.
But what if the two ideas were combined? A few solar panels collecting energy from multiple mirrors. Depending on the efficiencies of future solar cells, this could be interesting.
So I guess my point is that solar energy shouldn't be discounted. There are places well suited to solar energy. Also, some places are well suited to wind energy. There are even places best suited to burning natural gas / alcohol / etc. For example, if the waste heat from such a plant can be recycled, like in a greenhouse, then such a plant can be very efficient. I'm told that do this in some European countries.
Future power will not come from a single source. Depending on circumstances, the best source of energy will be used. Solar will be one of those sources, as well hydro-electric, wind, nuclear, and the burning of hydrocarbons.
One gets a 40% discount on insurance for their second vehicle through ICBC for the reasons you've indicated. I don't know if this discount is on top of your safe driving discount or not but I know it's there.
They use liquid cooling because it's harder to disapate the heat from the small 90nm core. The CPU's don't use much power, it's just that the heat they do produce is concentrated in such a small area. Better cooling is required to disapate this heat.
90nm transiters require less power then their larger counterparts. The problem is, for the same die size they use more power. So you end up with a relatively low power CPU that requires massive cooling.
Apple and IBM had a lot of problems because they expected their new CPUs that consume less power to be easy to cool. They were wrong. For each square mm, more heat must be disapated.
Yup, the PC laptops are faster. But it's not just about speed. I have a 1.25GHz Powerbook and it's plenty fast. The difference is in usability. Partly, it's OSX that makes the Powerbook better. However, the hardware is also very nice. You can use it without the fan turning on, it's nice and small, the sleep function is just excellent, and when you're using it, it just feels like you're using a quality piece of equipment. Most (not all) of the PCs out there are huge, have a fan that turns on if you open a singe IE window, and are made of plastic that feels cheap.
I have a friend that bought a Dell ~6months ago. Over the summer he hung out with a guy that had a Powerbook. Now he says he wants to sell his Dell and get a Powerbook - they're that much better.
If you need speed, get a desktop. The Powerbooks are plenty fast for 99% of people in the market, just don't expect them to be faster. Expect them to be more productive.
If you need a reliable floppy drive then just scavenge one from an old 386. Back then they were built to last as people really relied upon them. Newer floppy drives are hardly ever used and it is reflected in their quality.
When working as tech support I would constantly have people coming to me with broken floppies. But the floppies worked fine with an older drive. Those newer $15 drives are really only worth $15.
Ok, I was reading over his page some more and it appears that DGS is dead. It has been replaced with an X extension. Not what you were looking for. Oh well, the page is still worth a read if you're interested in that sort of stuff.
Can be found here. It hasn't progressed much in the past 4 years but looks pretty cool. If only some generous developers would invest some time to make it into a usable project.
I don't think they mean for it to be mounted vertically. You can't see through it clearly so it would make for terrible windows in an office building. But if you have a large building with a glass roof, this would make sense. It would absorb the UV rays while still letting enough light through for lighting even on cloudy days (quoting their website.) Everyone here is misinterpreting the market this product is designed for. Just look at the web link in the article and you can clearly see that the panels are used horizontally, as a clear roof.
When launching applications, hard drive speed is the limiting factor. Laptop drives are much slower then those in a desktop. If you want to speed things up just get an external 1394b drive and more memory. Memory is essential because OSX uses a lot of it and more memory prevents VM swapping to the slow laptop drive.
I have the same Powerbook, and upgrading to 1Gig made a noticeable difference. By the way, Safari is under 2 seconds if it has been cached in memory. Granted it's slower when launched for the first time, but this just shows that initializing the app doesn't take long, it's loading it into memory that is the problem. This is a problem for all computers using 2.5" drives.
Semi-auto weapons are much more dangerous then bolt-action weapons for two basic reasons. First of all, with a bolt-action weapon you have to use one of your hands to reload the weapon. In doing so, you loose aim and thusly, have to spend a extra time to re-aim the weapon. Just try firing 10 rounds into a target with a semi-automatic weapon vs a bolt-action and you'll see the difference. The semi-automatic is at least twice as fast.
Now the second reason is a little different. With a semi-automatic weapon, after firing a shot, there is always a live round in the chamber. This makes semi-automatic weapons far more prone to accidental firings. With a bolt/lever/pump action, the new round only gets placed into the chamber when you put it there. So long as the shooter has some intelligence and doesn't load a new round when not required, there are no accidental firings. The problem with semi-automatic weapons is that they don't give you this option. (But granted, a gun in the hands of an idiot is dangerous regardless of it's type.)
(I know that to be true for the G4's, not so sure on the G5's)
You're absolutely right about the G4, and the problem was solved with the G5. In fact, the G5 uses the same bus as an Athlon64 which gives it a pile of bandwidth.
so it burns a couple million transistors and lengthens the pipe. Big deal.
But it is a big deal. First of all, a lengthened pipeline will result in more costly branches. As a result, more transistors will be required to beef up the branch prediction + cache. And all these extra transistors will add to the power consumption and manufacturing cost of the chip. So you end up with a chip that uses far more transistors then an equivalent chip with a smarter instruction set / design (just compare transistor counts between the P4ee, Power, and Athlon64 of the same speed - the extra long pipeline of the P4ee hurts).
Most of the statements you made were dead on and I would generally consider your post to be a good one. But I can't help but imagine what todays CPUs would be like if everyone used an open source OS that could be run on any CPU architecture. This would result in a more competitive market by making it easier for new companies to enter the market with cool new designs. I'm willing to bet that x86 chips would have died off long ago.
Personal taste. I'll agree that the people are much friendlier, it's just that the town sucks, even compared to other smaller towns. If you want a rural lifestyle with lots of outdoor activities, there are better towns to live. For example, Smithers or Fort St. James. If you want the luxuries of a city without living in a big city (and I'm no fan of big cities), try the Island or Okanagan area. Prince George kind of sits in the middle and has the worst of both worlds, and best of neither. OK, maybe I'm not being that fair, it's just I've lived in a lot of different BC cities (8) and I don't think PG has much going for it - with exception of the university. And considering that house prices / rent are so outrageously cheap, it appears that there aren't that many other people who like it either. Or maybe people like it - it's just there is no work.
Regardless of what I think, it all boils down to personal opinion. Some people love PG, but most don't. But this is actually a good thing because if everyone wanted to be in PG, it would loose those qualities that people currently love it for. If you're one of those people who wants to stay in PG then that's just great. Like I said, there are lots of great people here. But I still think that one of the main reasons UNBC is reducing the price of post-grad tuition is so that it can attract people to UNBC that otherwise wouldn't want to live in PG.
at least in Canada. Typically, PhD students teach while they're working on their PhD. They don't have to, but they can typically pay their way through school. Other then that there is always student loans. My sister has ~100g of debt from ~8 years of student loans, but with her MD it won't take her long to pay it off.
On a side note, The University of Northern British Columbia, UNBC, has recently halved their tuition for Master degrees and removed tuition completely for their PhD programs. Granted, it'll still be a couple of years before they offer a PhD in CompSci, but one can't complain about being free.. I guess they're doing this because they want to become a more research oriented university - and it sucks to live in northern BC... trust me, I know.. (On the bright side, there are some great profs and a really low student/prof ratio. And the cost of living - I'm paying $300/month cnd, everything included.)
Slashdot Mirror
While your opinions are perfectly valid, I think you're mistaken by what actually constitutes Darwin.
Darwin does contain parts of FreeBSD - mainly the userland applications. However the kernel is completely different. As such, what you get from Darwin is actually quite different then what you get from FreeBSD.
Darwin uses the MACH microkernel with it's own, unique for OSX, IO kit. The IO kit is supposed to be a great piece of work and anyone researching OS design should have a look at it. I'm guessing one of the main reasons for using the MACH microkernel was for compatibility with the older OpenSTEP API. Darwin however isn't a true microkernel OS as other components also run in ring 0 in order to improve performance - similar to NT4.
Another note; userland applications were actually taken from multiple BSDs - mainly FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.
But your point is still valid. From the user perspective, what you get in Darwin is just like what you get in FreeBSD. Where my opinion differs from yours is that I don't believe that open sourcing the GUI is required to make OSX a relevant operating system.
Both computers have built in wireless as standard components. But another plus for the Powerbook is that the keyboard is much nicer to type on - at least from my experience.
The Register
Freescale marketing doc
Freescale PDF - more technical
The chip has an integrated memory controller so memory access speeds should be on par with the G5.
The new G4 will have dual cores (probably ~1.5GHz) and a built in memory controller. As a result, the bus speed plays a far smaller role as it only has to communicate with peripherals and not memory. Overall, the performance should at least double over the current 1.5GHz G4.
But they won't be generating 100MW per installation. The point they are trying to make is that it will cost the same to setup X wind ladders giving a total of 100MW as one 100MW gas generator. So each wind ladder is only producing 1MW, if that.
This changes your 8-10lb/ft cable into a 8-10lb/100ft cable. If the sails were spaced 100ft between each other, each sail would only have to lift 8-10lbs. Since the sails have a wingspan of 27ft, this shouldn't be a problem.
You also don't need a safety factor of 3. There is no danger to life or property if a cable breaks. The sails have the ability to direct themselves so with a little programming, they should be able to glide down to the base of the ladder in the event a cable breaks. Also, by perfecting this technique now, it'll be ready when newer, stronger cables are available. Think carbon nano-tubes or that spider silk from genetically engineered goat's milk.
This is an interesting idea that might be applicable for some areas. It's not a "solve the world's energy problems" type of idea but it still warrants some investigation.
With 4 x 64MHz AtoD converters, this board could be easily turned into a descent digital oscilloscope. Right now such equipment is so very costly, but the right IO module might just make this a possibility for low frequency work.
There is a big difference between making something work and making something usable. Motorola may have already implemented the technical end of things but it's the user interface that makes or breaks a product. And creating a good user interface is just as hard, if not harder then making it work technically.
Not only can one search for the title of the bookmark, but also the content at the page the bookmarks points to. Bookmarks titles are often very misleading. People rarely spend the time required to give them a proper name. So if the search involved the bookmark name, and the content at that bookmark, it would result in more accurate results. Think of it as a mini-google on each computer.
William
One doesn't have to use solar panels. Another option is to use large mirrors on mechanical pivots that work together to reflect sunlight to a single point. At this point, water is boiled and the steam turns a turbine.
I doubt that this method is as technically efficient as using solar panels, but it probably is cheaper. But then future solar panels will likely change everything.
But what if the two ideas were combined? A few solar panels collecting energy from multiple mirrors. Depending on the efficiencies of future solar cells, this could be interesting.
So I guess my point is that solar energy shouldn't be discounted. There are places well suited to solar energy. Also, some places are well suited to wind energy. There are even places best suited to burning natural gas / alcohol / etc. For example, if the waste heat from such a plant can be recycled, like in a greenhouse, then such a plant can be very efficient. I'm told that do this in some European countries.
Future power will not come from a single source. Depending on circumstances, the best source of energy will be used. Solar will be one of those sources, as well hydro-electric, wind, nuclear, and the burning of hydrocarbons.
William
One gets a 40% discount on insurance for their second vehicle through ICBC for the reasons you've indicated. I don't know if this discount is on top of your safe driving discount or not but I know it's there.
They use liquid cooling because it's harder to disapate the heat from the small 90nm core. The CPU's don't use much power, it's just that the heat they do produce is concentrated in such a small area. Better cooling is required to disapate this heat.
90nm transiters require less power then their larger counterparts. The problem is, for the same die size they use more power. So you end up with a relatively low power CPU that requires massive cooling.
Apple and IBM had a lot of problems because they expected their new CPUs that consume less power to be easy to cool. They were wrong. For each square mm, more heat must be disapated.
Yup, the PC laptops are faster. But it's not just about speed. I have a 1.25GHz Powerbook and it's plenty fast. The difference is in usability. Partly, it's OSX that makes the Powerbook better. However, the hardware is also very nice. You can use it without the fan turning on, it's nice and small, the sleep function is just excellent, and when you're using it, it just feels like you're using a quality piece of equipment. Most (not all) of the PCs out there are huge, have a fan that turns on if you open a singe IE window, and are made of plastic that feels cheap.
I have a friend that bought a Dell ~6months ago. Over the summer he hung out with a guy that had a Powerbook. Now he says he wants to sell his Dell and get a Powerbook - they're that much better.
If you need speed, get a desktop. The Powerbooks are plenty fast for 99% of people in the market, just don't expect them to be faster. Expect them to be more productive.
AMD has their own fabs, they just share technologies with IBM. As a result, fabs from IBM and AMD are quite similar.
If you need a reliable floppy drive then just scavenge one from an old 386. Back then they were built to last as people really relied upon them. Newer floppy drives are hardly ever used and it is reflected in their quality.
When working as tech support I would constantly have people coming to me with broken floppies. But the floppies worked fine with an older drive. Those newer $15 drives are really only worth $15.
Ok, I was reading over his page some more and it appears that DGS is dead. It has been replaced with an X extension. Not what you were looking for. Oh well, the page is still worth a read if you're interested in that sort of stuff.
Can be found here. It hasn't progressed much in the past 4 years but looks pretty cool. If only some generous developers would invest some time to make it into a usable project.
I don't think they mean for it to be mounted vertically. You can't see through it clearly so it would make for terrible windows in an office building. But if you have a large building with a glass roof, this would make sense. It would absorb the UV rays while still letting enough light through for lighting even on cloudy days (quoting their website.) Everyone here is misinterpreting the market this product is designed for. Just look at the web link in the article and you can clearly see that the panels are used horizontally, as a clear roof.
When launching applications, hard drive speed is the limiting factor. Laptop drives are much slower then those in a desktop. If you want to speed things up just get an external 1394b drive and more memory. Memory is essential because OSX uses a lot of it and more memory prevents VM swapping to the slow laptop drive.
I have the same Powerbook, and upgrading to 1Gig made a noticeable difference. By the way, Safari is under 2 seconds if it has been cached in memory. Granted it's slower when launched for the first time, but this just shows that initializing the app doesn't take long, it's loading it into memory that is the problem. This is a problem for all computers using 2.5" drives.
Semi-auto weapons are much more dangerous then bolt-action weapons for two basic reasons. First of all, with a bolt-action weapon you have to use one of your hands to reload the weapon. In doing so, you loose aim and thusly, have to spend a extra time to re-aim the weapon. Just try firing 10 rounds into a target with a semi-automatic weapon vs a bolt-action and you'll see the difference. The semi-automatic is at least twice as fast.
Now the second reason is a little different. With a semi-automatic weapon, after firing a shot, there is always a live round in the chamber. This makes semi-automatic weapons far more prone to accidental firings. With a bolt/lever/pump action, the new round only gets placed into the chamber when you put it there. So long as the shooter has some intelligence and doesn't load a new round when not required, there are no accidental firings. The problem with semi-automatic weapons is that they don't give you this option. (But granted, a gun in the hands of an idiot is dangerous regardless of it's type.)
William
http://www-306.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/t echdocs/7874C7DA8607C0B287256BF3006FBE54/$file/PPC _QRG_2-22-04.pdf
You're absolutely right about the G4, and the problem was solved with the G5. In fact, the G5 uses the same bus as an Athlon64 which gives it a pile of bandwidth.
But it is a big deal. First of all, a lengthened pipeline will result in more costly branches. As a result, more transistors will be required to beef up the branch prediction + cache. And all these extra transistors will add to the power consumption and manufacturing cost of the chip. So you end up with a chip that uses far more transistors then an equivalent chip with a smarter instruction set / design (just compare transistor counts between the P4ee, Power, and Athlon64 of the same speed - the extra long pipeline of the P4ee hurts).
Most of the statements you made were dead on and I would generally consider your post to be a good one. But I can't help but imagine what todays CPUs would be like if everyone used an open source OS that could be run on any CPU architecture. This would result in a more competitive market by making it easier for new companies to enter the market with cool new designs. I'm willing to bet that x86 chips would have died off long ago.
Personal taste. I'll agree that the people are much friendlier, it's just that the town sucks, even compared to other smaller towns. If you want a rural lifestyle with lots of outdoor activities, there are better towns to live. For example, Smithers or Fort St. James. If you want the luxuries of a city without living in a big city (and I'm no fan of big cities), try the Island or Okanagan area. Prince George kind of sits in the middle and has the worst of both worlds, and best of neither. OK, maybe I'm not being that fair, it's just I've lived in a lot of different BC cities (8) and I don't think PG has much going for it - with exception of the university. And considering that house prices / rent are so outrageously cheap, it appears that there aren't that many other people who like it either. Or maybe people like it - it's just there is no work.
Regardless of what I think, it all boils down to personal opinion. Some people love PG, but most don't. But this is actually a good thing because if everyone wanted to be in PG, it would loose those qualities that people currently love it for. If you're one of those people who wants to stay in PG then that's just great. Like I said, there are lots of great people here. But I still think that one of the main reasons UNBC is reducing the price of post-grad tuition is so that it can attract people to UNBC that otherwise wouldn't want to live in PG.
On a side note, The University of Northern British Columbia, UNBC, has recently halved their tuition for Master degrees and removed tuition completely for their PhD programs. Granted, it'll still be a couple of years before they offer a PhD in CompSci, but one can't complain about being free.. I guess they're doing this because they want to become a more research oriented university - and it sucks to live in northern BC... trust me, I know.. (On the bright side, there are some great profs and a really low student/prof ratio. And the cost of living - I'm paying $300/month cnd, everything included.)