It probably is the power supply. In the UK, the cost of electricity went up dramatically a year or so ago. Now, space is practically free, bandwidth too, but 20A costs more than your firstborn.
We put some new servers in our machine room at work, nice 4U 6x4core CPUs, with 32Gb RAM, and 8 SAS drives in each chassis. Come to think of it, I can't think why everyone suddenly has a problem with insufficient supply of power to datacentres....:)
Sales of servers worldwide fell almost 25% in the first three months of 2009
Revenues for Unix servers fell 17.5% compared with the same period a year earlier. Microsoft Windows server revenues fell 28.9% to $3.7bn and Linux server revenues fell 24.8% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, its lowest in five years.
Though, people would still be using Linux, just not paying for it anymore. With Windows you can't say the same.
good analogy - except you forgot some important bits:
1. you have to ensure you drink all the beer, and not leave any in the can, or the servant will give it a little shake, and think "masters not finished with this one yet, I'd best leave it".
2. You are never surrounded by a clean room, there are always empty beer cans lying around waiting for the servant to collect them.
Now, as a C++ drinker, I have a mechanism that help out, every time I go to the fridge to get a beer, I pour it into the glass object and throw the can away immediately - thus never having empty cans lying around, when the glass is empty, I refill and find the empty can problem is a non-issue. (that's such a convoluted analogy for RAII!)
no, if 95% of C programmers moved to managed languages, we'd just get a lot more bugger, slower running software. Such languages are easier to use, so a developer can churn out more, but a poor programmer will always find ways to do things wrong.
Its true, java (and.NET) has more memory leaks than the old C++ code with RAII.
Really, the problem is that too many people have been told that they don;t have to worry about memory management (actually they mean object lifetime management) so they don't - they think the GC will magically handle everythign for them, and as a result, end up with held references all over the shop.
The classic morality tale about this is the Princeton DARPA challenge team, who pored over their C device driver code, line by line to find their memory leak, ignoring the C# code because that "couldn't possibly have a memory leak".
In.NET its very often caused by GUI development, C# has a nice sugary syntax to associate objects to event handlers, deleting the object later does not free it (as the event handler still contains the reference you never explicitly added), sometimes you can delete the GUI control too, and it still won't go (as it is referenced by a dialog or other controls).
In short, there's no magic bullets, every programmer should be made to do things properly, and 'easy to use' languages just mean you get the less skilled developers using them.
I was watching Channel4 news just a moment ago and they mentioned the BBC's Canvas platform that rivals this setup. The interesting thing though - they mentioned open source. On the tele! Wow.
Ahem, it might not be open source, but it is an open standard, they specifically mentioned it being used for BC and ITV programmes, but also for any content provider - like newspapers or, well anyone. This is not the same as the Project Kangaroo that would broadcast programmes from the 3 main UK broadcasters, this is a content-delivery platform, not the content.
... that the old Garbage collector was rubbish - we've been saying it for years, Java uses too much memory, is too slow, is just all about vendor lock-in....
And now, its proven - they've brought out a new GC that's so much better, it might actually fix all the problems with Java! Proof that the old one was pants.
Surely.
Of course.
The old one was unusable, wasn't it?
We were unable to make anything work properly using Java in the past, yes?
1. the media makes a fuss over it 2. Asus finds out that it's been targetted by a prank or hack-job, and takes steps to repair its marketing image by putting out lots of 'No, we really support linux, Linux is better, we're committed to Linux" messages.
end result - big PR win for Linux, whilst making Microsoft look stupid (at best).
"The 8Gb Simple SAN Connection Kit consists of an enterprise-class 8 Gbps switch, four 81Q HBAs, and SSCM - along with all the cables, 8 Gbps SFPs and documentation you need.
I did see one for $2000, which is what we were going to buy at one point, but I can't find the link. It wasn't an 8Gb san though! I have found a £2000 HP switch
Ok, I'm not going to have one at home, but if you're buying all the discs you need, another $8k is not much.
Most people do not care for their cars - they fill them with petrol, some check the tyre pressure, and once a year will take it for a service. That's it.
Some people service the cars themselves, but they are enthusiasts, or professionals. Like you are with computers. The vast majority of people want the product they buy to work all the time, and to have it repaired when it goes wrong. They do not want it to slowly degrade over time almost as if it was designed that way.
you jest, but there are other sites like Slashdot that offer rewards that are addictive. ServerFault and StackOverflow for example, has posts and comments from people laughingly saying that they are addicted to them, posting answers and questions in order to be awarded points along with a leaderboard and badges.
They are game-like, you keep in wanting to 'level up'. Ultimately its pointless (ha!) but we keep on wanting to play. I think its a social thing, where our position in society is mirrored (in a simple way) to a real-life social hierarchy. We all want to be the alpha male and win the herd of females. Which, in itself is why girls don't like the same games we play, they like the sexual thrill of chase games like pacman rather than the compete-for-position games men like.
It turns out Sun had a fit about MS Java because MS really was trying to destroy it.
See the groklaw link for the summary. Poor Bill Gates said he was kept awake at night worrying about this competitor!
I see the attitude towards Google already starting to change, compared to how they were received as perfect in every way when they started out. As long as they don't act like MS has done in the pages of lawsuit after lawsuit, then I don't care so much if they do become more monopolistic. they'll be just another big company.
Sure, its laziness, but we're all lazy. Sometimes we want a computer to act like a device that just works, without hassle, at all.
Now, I know that's a pipe dream of a utopian future we'll probably never have. But, when things go wrong, consider the difference between Windows and Linux - with Windows you type a search in google and get some results that nearly always apply to you, do what they say and you're done. With Linux, type a search into google and you get a load of results, too many results, some fixing your problem... but for a different distro, some requiring you to have a lot more knowledge and skill that an ordinary user should have to use a modern computer, and some just obscure and wrong.
That's the difference, that's why you have to go extra to help people out with Linux instead of treating them like n00bs. Until we get support sites for distros that really are helpful to the common user (hmm.. perhaps an Ubuntu wiki of common issues, solutions, and so on) then we'll have to take up the slack and help people out.
Mind you, I have to help out my Windows-using friends as well:(
in other words, it can spend a fair few cpu cycles (plus VM memory) continually recognizing these patterns, and recompiling the code.
Sounds just like it goes faster to me!
C is compiled once, in a long, slow compile that can implement lots of optimisations that your JIT cannot. The only real benefit of JIT is that it knows the CPU features it can use that you might have to ignore on a pre-compile step (eg SSE).
Also, in my experience, the high-level managed languages have additional locks to protect you - last thing you want is a thread-unsafe app going wonky because the JIT thought it knew a lock was unneeded (it a seriously difficult task, most VMs ensure locking around data structures on multi-cpu pcs just to be safe).
Nowadays, I suppose you'd want a SAN and a beefy server to put your DB on, then you can add an 8-way powerstrip of these things as nicely load-balanced web frontends, all connected over iSCSI to the SAN too!
That's if you need the kind of power that a 512Mb device can't handle for you - remember that a lot of web servers fitted with 512MB were considered midrange not that long ago (and it is considerably more than most people get with their VPSs)
yes, they realised that Firefly DVD sales are still strong so.... they give Dollhouse another season while cancelling all the good shows.
SCC had its moments, and I think overall it was very good, even if I had to yawn through the moody pauses as Sarah says "so, John, how do you feel", as he just looks moody in the half-distance. Perhaps they were trying to increase the female watching figures.
well... add fast javascript, and it really does become an OS, one where you run your online applications in and barely ever visit the local filesystem.
That's the way things are going, Google wants it, Microsoft is scared sh**less about it. I can't see it not happening for mainstream users as we move the primary computer from a desktop to a netbook to your television set.
Sure Firefox is getting more bloated, and I think some of that fat needs to be removed and placed in plugins or extensions; but the basic mechanism of choosing a page to view is one of the basic essentials that needs to stay.
Looking at the screenshots Visio is not present - only "Visio Viewer". Perhaps it'll be an additional-cost addon?
Same applies to Groove (not that anyone I know uses it). Its not listed in the installer list. Possibly this is a good thing.
As for Excel, fair enough, excel is pretty powerful. However I think that is a problem. If you need all that power with it scripting and macros and so on, you're creating the worst kind of monstrosity spreadsheets that should never, ever have been created in the first place.
fibre channel isn't that expensive, well not any more. But the biggest problem for all of this is latency - you can't use a 10Gbps link for data storage if it takes 500ms to send a packet, you'll be able to stream data across it well though. This is like the difference between adsl and cable.
Still, we shouldn't stop scientists from playing with this stuff as you never know, they might just make it work, and then we'll invent some application to make use of it!
Its never what you think of the state of today, its what you think it'll be like tomorrow. As a result, no-one cares that Oracle bought MySQL, they care what Oracle will do with it - and a lack of vocal support usually means no interest in it.
As a result, the fork is a very pragmatic solution, get it forked today, get some impetus and media interest in it, and either Oracle will come out and confirm its continued support; or you'll know where to go to get MySQLv2.
And Oracle bought Sun for Solaris, I reckon they don't give 2 figs for MySQL.
and to give you another idea of how bad hyperinflation is, in Zimbabwe recently it was cheaper to take a taxi than to take the bus. Why - because on the bus you pay a dollar up front, in a taxi you pay ten dollars at the end of the journey, at which time they've become worth 1/10 of what they were!
Slashdot Mirror
It probably is the power supply. In the UK, the cost of electricity went up dramatically a year or so ago. Now, space is practically free, bandwidth too, but 20A costs more than your firstborn.
We put some new servers in our machine room at work, nice 4U 6x4core CPUs, with 32Gb RAM, and 8 SAS drives in each chassis. Come to think of it, I can't think why everyone suddenly has a problem with insufficient supply of power to datacentres.... :)
Unfortunately, as the supply of data space dwindles, so does the number of servers to put in there. So all's well.
Sales of servers worldwide fell almost 25% in the first three months of 2009
Revenues for Unix servers fell 17.5% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Microsoft Windows server revenues fell 28.9% to $3.7bn and Linux server revenues fell 24.8% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, its lowest in five years.
Though, people would still be using Linux, just not paying for it anymore. With Windows you can't say the same.
good analogy - except you forgot some important bits:
1. you have to ensure you drink all the beer, and not leave any in the can, or the servant will give it a little shake, and think "masters not finished with this one yet, I'd best leave it".
2. You are never surrounded by a clean room, there are always empty beer cans lying around waiting for the servant to collect them.
Now, as a C++ drinker, I have a mechanism that help out, every time I go to the fridge to get a beer, I pour it into the glass object and throw the can away immediately - thus never having empty cans lying around, when the glass is empty, I refill and find the empty can problem is a non-issue. (that's such a convoluted analogy for RAII!)
no, if 95% of C programmers moved to managed languages, we'd just get a lot more bugger, slower running software. Such languages are easier to use, so a developer can churn out more, but a poor programmer will always find ways to do things wrong.
Its true, java (and .NET) has more memory leaks than the old C++ code with RAII.
Really, the problem is that too many people have been told that they don;t have to worry about memory management (actually they mean object lifetime management) so they don't - they think the GC will magically handle everythign for them, and as a result, end up with held references all over the shop.
The classic morality tale about this is the Princeton DARPA challenge team, who pored over their C device driver code, line by line to find their memory leak, ignoring the C# code because that "couldn't possibly have a memory leak".
In .NET its very often caused by GUI development, C# has a nice sugary syntax to associate objects to event handlers, deleting the object later does not free it (as the event handler still contains the reference you never explicitly added), sometimes you can delete the GUI control too, and it still won't go (as it is referenced by a dialog or other controls).
In short, there's no magic bullets, every programmer should be made to do things properly, and 'easy to use' languages just mean you get the less skilled developers using them.
* <- joke
o
-|- <- you.
/ \
I was watching Channel4 news just a moment ago and they mentioned the BBC's Canvas platform that rivals this setup. The interesting thing though - they mentioned open source. On the tele! Wow.
Ahem, it might not be open source, but it is an open standard, they specifically mentioned it being used for BC and ITV programmes, but also for any content provider - like newspapers or, well anyone. This is not the same as the Project Kangaroo that would broadcast programmes from the 3 main UK broadcasters, this is a content-delivery platform, not the content.
This blog talks about it in a bit more detail.
http://informitv.com/articles/2008/10/14/bbcopenscanvas/
Unusually BskyB has complained about having to suffer from competition!.
... that the old Garbage collector was rubbish - we've been saying it for years, Java uses too much memory, is too slow, is just all about vendor lock-in....
And now, its proven - they've brought out a new GC that's so much better, it might actually fix all the problems with Java! Proof that the old one was pants.
Surely.
Of course.
The old one was unusable, wasn't it?
We were unable to make anything work properly using Java in the past, yes?
maybe? ... :)
It'll all work out ok in the end.
1. the media makes a fuss over it
2. Asus finds out that it's been targetted by a prank or hack-job, and takes steps to repair its marketing image by putting out lots of 'No, we really support linux, Linux is better, we're committed to Linux" messages.
end result - big PR win for Linux, whilst making Microsoft look stupid (at best).
$8000 for the HP Storageworks San kit
"The 8Gb Simple SAN Connection Kit consists of an enterprise-class 8 Gbps switch, four 81Q HBAs, and SSCM - along with all the cables, 8 Gbps SFPs and documentation you need.
I did see one for $2000, which is what we were going to buy at one point, but I can't find the link. It wasn't an 8Gb san though! I have found a £2000 HP switch
Ok, I'm not going to have one at home, but if you're buying all the discs you need, another $8k is not much.
buffer overflows are not the only source of crap programs.
Most people do not care for their cars - they fill them with petrol, some check the tyre pressure, and once a year will take it for a service. That's it.
Some people service the cars themselves, but they are enthusiasts, or professionals. Like you are with computers. The vast majority of people want the product they buy to work all the time, and to have it repaired when it goes wrong. They do not want it to slowly degrade over time almost as if it was designed that way.
you jest, but there are other sites like Slashdot that offer rewards that are addictive. ServerFault and StackOverflow for example, has posts and comments from people laughingly saying that they are addicted to them, posting answers and questions in order to be awarded points along with a leaderboard and badges.
They are game-like, you keep in wanting to 'level up'. Ultimately its pointless (ha!) but we keep on wanting to play. I think its a social thing, where our position in society is mirrored (in a simple way) to a real-life social hierarchy. We all want to be the alpha male and win the herd of females. Which, in itself is why girls don't like the same games we play, they like the sexual thrill of chase games like pacman rather than the compete-for-position games men like.
It turns out Sun had a fit about MS Java because MS really was trying to destroy it.
See the groklaw link for the summary. Poor Bill Gates said he was kept awake at night worrying about this competitor!
I see the attitude towards Google already starting to change, compared to how they were received as perfect in every way when they started out. As long as they don't act like MS has done in the pages of lawsuit after lawsuit, then I don't care so much if they do become more monopolistic. they'll be just another big company.
Sure, its laziness, but we're all lazy. Sometimes we want a computer to act like a device that just works, without hassle, at all.
Now, I know that's a pipe dream of a utopian future we'll probably never have. But, when things go wrong, consider the difference between Windows and Linux - with Windows you type a search in google and get some results that nearly always apply to you, do what they say and you're done. With Linux, type a search into google and you get a load of results, too many results, some fixing your problem... but for a different distro, some requiring you to have a lot more knowledge and skill that an ordinary user should have to use a modern computer, and some just obscure and wrong.
That's the difference, that's why you have to go extra to help people out with Linux instead of treating them like n00bs. Until we get support sites for distros that really are helpful to the common user (hmm.. perhaps an Ubuntu wiki of common issues, solutions, and so on) then we'll have to take up the slack and help people out.
Mind you, I have to help out my Windows-using friends as well :(
in other words, it can spend a fair few cpu cycles (plus VM memory) continually recognizing these patterns, and recompiling the code.
Sounds just like it goes faster to me!
C is compiled once, in a long, slow compile that can implement lots of optimisations that your JIT cannot. The only real benefit of JIT is that it knows the CPU features it can use that you might have to ignore on a pre-compile step (eg SSE).
Also, in my experience, the high-level managed languages have additional locks to protect you - last thing you want is a thread-unsafe app going wonky because the JIT thought it knew a lock was unneeded (it a seriously difficult task, most VMs ensure locking around data structures on multi-cpu pcs just to be safe).
Nowadays, I suppose you'd want a SAN and a beefy server to put your DB on, then you can add an 8-way powerstrip of these things as nicely load-balanced web frontends, all connected over iSCSI to the SAN too!
That's if you need the kind of power that a 512Mb device can't handle for you - remember that a lot of web servers fitted with 512MB were considered midrange not that long ago (and it is considerably more than most people get with their VPSs)
yes, they realised that Firefly DVD sales are still strong so.... they give Dollhouse another season while cancelling all the good shows.
SCC had its moments, and I think overall it was very good, even if I had to yawn through the moody pauses as Sarah says "so, John, how do you feel", as he just looks moody in the half-distance. Perhaps they were trying to increase the female watching figures.
I think you want Tabkit, but I tend to prefer the fancier FoxTab.
well... add fast javascript, and it really does become an OS, one where you run your online applications in and barely ever visit the local filesystem.
That's the way things are going, Google wants it, Microsoft is scared sh**less about it. I can't see it not happening for mainstream users as we move the primary computer from a desktop to a netbook to your television set.
Sure Firefox is getting more bloated, and I think some of that fat needs to be removed and placed in plugins or extensions; but the basic mechanism of choosing a page to view is one of the basic essentials that needs to stay.
Looking at the screenshots Visio is not present - only "Visio Viewer". Perhaps it'll be an additional-cost addon?
Same applies to Groove (not that anyone I know uses it). Its not listed in the installer list. Possibly this is a good thing.
As for Excel, fair enough, excel is pretty powerful. However I think that is a problem. If you need all that power with it scripting and macros and so on, you're creating the worst kind of monstrosity spreadsheets that should never, ever have been created in the first place.
fibre channel isn't that expensive, well not any more. But the biggest problem for all of this is latency - you can't use a 10Gbps link for data storage if it takes 500ms to send a packet, you'll be able to stream data across it well though. This is like the difference between adsl and cable.
Still, we shouldn't stop scientists from playing with this stuff as you never know, they might just make it work, and then we'll invent some application to make use of it!
If reliability is more important than maximum performance and flexibility, don't use C in the first place.
Yeah, its *much* easier to make unreliable programs in higher level languages, especially the ones designed for the "enterprise".
Its never what you think of the state of today, its what you think it'll be like tomorrow. As a result, no-one cares that Oracle bought MySQL, they care what Oracle will do with it - and a lack of vocal support usually means no interest in it.
As a result, the fork is a very pragmatic solution, get it forked today, get some impetus and media interest in it, and either Oracle will come out and confirm its continued support; or you'll know where to go to get MySQLv2.
And Oracle bought Sun for Solaris, I reckon they don't give 2 figs for MySQL.
and to give you another idea of how bad hyperinflation is, in Zimbabwe recently it was cheaper to take a taxi than to take the bus. Why - because on the bus you pay a dollar up front, in a taxi you pay ten dollars at the end of the journey, at which time they've become worth 1/10 of what they were!