I'd disagree that they have not had, at several points in time, superior technology. However, they do appear to be hurting in the workstation arena -> their server processors are sought after, but the latest Bulldozers appear to need some work. It's nice to know that we are finally getting some Hyperthreading on AMD processors, the same way Intel did with theirs years ago, and that is even better than Intel's, but like Intel's, it will take at least a two years to begin to have the desired effect.
Hyperthreading, for those who remember, was hell on earth for those running a MS OS at the time. Windows saw two processors where there was only one (first was the actual processor, second was the Hyperthreading component), and because of this, would schedule things to the second unit while the first one was at 100% usage.
I guess if I were AMD, I'd keep packing on the cores to my processors, as that alone is enough to keep them afloat (single-threaded performance is so 1999, and with the advent of virtual machines & what not, there is a fair market for processors with more cores).
The examples are tied to where you live -> it's a nasty little fact that between federal, state, and local laws, it's possible to find a law on the book, typically, but not always an older law, whom someone in that jurisdiction is in violation thereof. Why? Because the older laws never really go away...which is how some people end up getting charged under esoteric laws from a year such as 1810 that non one has ever heard of, all because the DA really wanted to charge someone. There are Law libraries (not bookshelves, but entire libraries) for a reason, complete with research staff.
Do these exotic laws constitute a felony? Possibly.
The point being made is that you'd be unaware of a law that says your automobile must have fireworks set off in front of it before approaching a town's center, as would probably the district judge, your defense attorney, and 99% of said town's living population, but that doesn't mean you can't be charged with it. Naysayers would argue that such cases would be thrown out immediately after they come to light, but there are enough successfully prosecuted cases every year that seem to prove otherwise.
Indeed. I instantly thought of the microcode update as well.
Their other options are to do a processor recall (like Intel + the infamous Pentium bug), or inform the compiler manufacturers that 'there be the dragons' (special case inserted into the code for the affected processor / architecture to bypass the affliction).
Were I AMD, I'd keep my revenue streams rolling with whatever I could, while keeping a R&D side project for leapfrogging Intel off the books, so to speak. Simple gains (minor updates in their processes / designs) will not make the giant (Intel) hurt, they (AMD) need something a little more...special. Of course, the project will be risky, but the associated payoffs should be well worth the price -> that's including cost overruns, inflation, and assuming they screw-up their product launch.
I think the telecommuting debate can be easily answered by asking a single question-> which location offers the least amount of distractions?
If you have Office Space-style bosses, dropping by every 15 minutes, to see "how you're coming along with that project" then working at home is a godsend. You'll be more productive, and your code will show it.
If you have bosses who know to leave you alone while you're working on something (but they are known themselves for being generally available for when you have questions (you go to them) -> "What does the client want here?" or "Teach me how to Git" or "When you worked at Inuit, how did you guys solve this problem?"), and family life is filled with distractions (the GF is PMSing that week, the kids like to play loud music, the husband is in Marketing and has entered his mid-life crisis) than working at work would potentially be better. Hell, some of the most productive workers in human history are people who stay late at the office because they hate their family life.
And of course, if both home and work are filled with equal levels of annoyance, then you're kind of screwed. You can try working at a Starbucks or a Barnes and Noble, but it's still fairly rough. On the plus side, you do get the social interaction that you miss at both places, the coffee is usually hot, and there are lots of books on various subjects you might need to learn nearby (boss says learn Ruby, wander over to aisle with O'Reilly Ruby book in it).
If I had a choice in life, I'd have two offices -> one to meet with people in, and one to be productive in. The one to meet with people in would have conference chairs, a large Mahogany desk, and perhaps a small putting green next to the Koi pond (the palace at Versaille might be large enough). The one to be productive in would be at an undisclosed location, with a fiber connection & enough food / supplies to last me weeks (a Japanese sleeping tube might be slightly smaller than I'd potentially want here). The only people with knowledge of said undisclosed location would be the catering (for when I don't feel like cooking) and cleaning (for when I leave) staff, and they'd work for cash (no name given). I'd keep a separate email address and cellphone for said place; it's the only way to be productive. If you stumbled across the place, there'd be a pair of swords of the doorways, and a sound recording constantly being played over the outside speakers (said sound consisting of the last few moments of the life of the person who previously disturbed me while I was otherwise engaged in potentially deeper thoughts).
Why give even the appearance of legitimizing an election where none of the candidates concur with your own (perhaps idealistic, perhaps pragmatic) system of values at a percentage higher than 25%?
It's part of the "everything old is new" campaign where we trot out old ideas and present them as new ones. Usually a sign that something is critically wrong.
*Looks around* we get bad leaders all the time in democracy. We just don't hear about their true corruption until long after they've left office, by which point we have a new leader.
And it's anything but painless.
Personally, I'd like to find out, first-hand, whether or democracy truly is superior. I mean, you get it brow-beaten into you from a young age, that it is a superior system, but frankly, what experience, living under a different system, do you have to compare it to? I suppose if you've immigrated from another country, using a different system, you might have a better idea.
“I come in peace,” it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, “take me to your Lizard.”
”It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see”
“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I though you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
“What?”
“I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?”
“I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.”
Ford shrugged again.
“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”
Slashdot Mirror
So, how many organs will these cost?
Switching to a non-US TLD....
I'd disagree that they have not had, at several points in time, superior technology. However, they do appear to be hurting in the workstation arena -> their server processors are sought after, but the latest Bulldozers appear to need some work. It's nice to know that we are finally getting some Hyperthreading on AMD processors, the same way Intel did with theirs years ago, and that is even better than Intel's, but like Intel's, it will take at least a two years to begin to have the desired effect.
Hyperthreading, for those who remember, was hell on earth for those running a MS OS at the time. Windows saw two processors where there was only one (first was the actual processor, second was the Hyperthreading component), and because of this, would schedule things to the second unit while the first one was at 100% usage.
I guess if I were AMD, I'd keep packing on the cores to my processors, as that alone is enough to keep them afloat (single-threaded performance is so 1999, and with the advent of virtual machines & what not, there is a fair market for processors with more cores).
The examples are tied to where you live -> it's a nasty little fact that between federal, state, and local laws, it's possible to find a law on the book, typically, but not always an older law, whom someone in that jurisdiction is in violation thereof. Why? Because the older laws never really go away...which is how some people end up getting charged under esoteric laws from a year such as 1810 that non one has ever heard of, all because the DA really wanted to charge someone. There are Law libraries (not bookshelves, but entire libraries) for a reason, complete with research staff.
Do these exotic laws constitute a felony? Possibly.
The point being made is that you'd be unaware of a law that says your automobile must have fireworks set off in front of it before approaching a town's center, as would probably the district judge, your defense attorney, and 99% of said town's living population, but that doesn't mean you can't be charged with it. Naysayers would argue that such cases would be thrown out immediately after they come to light, but there are enough successfully prosecuted cases every year that seem to prove otherwise.
Nonsense. The jack-booted thugs divisions are a part of the MPAA / RIAA organs, respectively.
Indeed. I instantly thought of the microcode update as well.
Their other options are to do a processor recall (like Intel + the infamous Pentium bug), or inform the compiler manufacturers that 'there be the dragons' (special case inserted into the code for the affected processor / architecture to bypass the affliction).
*shrugs*
Were I AMD, I'd keep my revenue streams rolling with whatever I could, while keeping a R&D side project for leapfrogging Intel off the books, so to speak. Simple gains (minor updates in their processes / designs) will not make the giant (Intel) hurt, they (AMD) need something a little more...special. Of course, the project will be risky, but the associated payoffs should be well worth the price -> that's including cost overruns, inflation, and assuming they screw-up their product launch.
I think the telecommuting debate can be easily answered by asking a single question-> which location offers the least amount of distractions?
If you have Office Space-style bosses, dropping by every 15 minutes, to see "how you're coming along with that project" then working at home is a godsend. You'll be more productive, and your code will show it.
If you have bosses who know to leave you alone while you're working on something (but they are known themselves for being generally available for when you have questions (you go to them) -> "What does the client want here?" or "Teach me how to Git" or "When you worked at Inuit, how did you guys solve this problem?"), and family life is filled with distractions (the GF is PMSing that week, the kids like to play loud music, the husband is in Marketing and has entered his mid-life crisis) than working at work would potentially be better. Hell, some of the most productive workers in human history are people who stay late at the office because they hate their family life.
And of course, if both home and work are filled with equal levels of annoyance, then you're kind of screwed. You can try working at a Starbucks or a Barnes and Noble, but it's still fairly rough. On the plus side, you do get the social interaction that you miss at both places, the coffee is usually hot, and there are lots of books on various subjects you might need to learn nearby (boss says learn Ruby, wander over to aisle with O'Reilly Ruby book in it).
If I had a choice in life, I'd have two offices -> one to meet with people in, and one to be productive in. The one to meet with people in would have conference chairs, a large Mahogany desk, and perhaps a small putting green next to the Koi pond (the palace at Versaille might be large enough). The one to be productive in would be at an undisclosed location, with a fiber connection & enough food / supplies to last me weeks (a Japanese sleeping tube might be slightly smaller than I'd potentially want here). The only people with knowledge of said undisclosed location would be the catering (for when I don't feel like cooking) and cleaning (for when I leave) staff, and they'd work for cash (no name given). I'd keep a separate email address and cellphone for said place; it's the only way to be productive. If you stumbled across the place, there'd be a pair of swords of the doorways, and a sound recording constantly being played over the outside speakers (said sound consisting of the last few moments of the life of the person who previously disturbed me while I was otherwise engaged in potentially deeper thoughts).
It's a Friday, productivity is going to take a hit no matter which location you are working from.
Why give even the appearance of legitimizing an election where none of the candidates concur with your own (perhaps idealistic, perhaps pragmatic) system of values at a percentage higher than 25%?
I have a different idea (while we are throwing spaghetti at the wall),
Let's just randomly choose people for positions, and see if it's an improvement.
It's part of the "everything old is new" campaign where we trot out old ideas and present them as new ones. Usually a sign that something is critically wrong.
So long as we live in a universe filled with scarce resources, purging that dishonesty might give you some trouble.
The problem with the political system is the political system itself.
Might as well ask how to get a lead balloon to fly.
That depends. Does she have a laser?
$20 says the robots take one look at mankind, and flee to the stars.
Nonsense.
Aliens. Aliens, with big tits.
Slows corruption of the system, doesn't stop it.
*Looks around* we get bad leaders all the time in democracy. We just don't hear about their true corruption until long after they've left office, by which point we have a new leader.
And it's anything but painless.
Personally, I'd like to find out, first-hand, whether or democracy truly is superior. I mean, you get it brow-beaten into you from a young age, that it is a superior system, but frankly, what experience, living under a different system, do you have to compare it to? I suppose if you've immigrated from another country, using a different system, you might have a better idea.
It's quite obvious. I do.
As you said, history is filled with examples of other people deciding who could vote. None of these examples, of course, include me.
So, your choice are a series of systems that you know have failed, or me. ^_^
Some days the US is a republic, some days a democracy.
“I come in peace,” it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, “take me to your Lizard.”
”It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see”
“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I though you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
“What?”
“I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?”
“I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.”
Ford shrugged again.
“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”
An enlightened / benevolent people would be great as well; so much easier for a monarch then to be enlightened / benevolent as well.
Other popular sites, with edit functions, do not suffer from this problem.
If someone pulls a troll, they'll just be nuked by the mods.
"And let's be honest-> It's more manly [way] to win a war."
Forgot a word. Somewhat tempted to see if SlashCode can be updated to include an edit function.