Sun claims that the CPU cost of ZFS is only a few percent of a modern CPU, even when going full-tilt. They claim that even if you use a compressed ZFS filesystem, you will often see higher disk bandwidth due to decreasing the disk bandwidth bottleneck.
The chair is rather expensive, but certainly much cheaper than either going on disability or a Vicodin addiction. The Kinesis keyboard takes a bit of getting used to, and all my friends who I have suggested it to, have initially cursed at me over the learning curve. But all of them have also later come back to me and thanked me profusely for saving them from a life of torment.
I know that some people also swear by the DataHand, but that requires a lot more relearning than even the Kinesis. I would have tried that next, however, if the Kinesis keyboard hadn't solved my woes.
To survive more than another hundred years or two[1], first we have to solve the Artificial Intelligence problem, and then we have to figure out how to encode our human minds into computer programs. Once humans exist as software that can run on digital computers, in robotic bodies, etc., whether or not Earth can support human biological life anymore will be irrelevant. Furthermore, we'll then be able to make ourselves very small, immortal, and space-hardy. Once we've done that, we can spread like demon seed throughout the universe.
|>oug
P.S. Please don't claim that if we give up our human bodies, we won't be "human" anymore. Biologically speaking, that may be true, but philosophically, it is not. What makes us human is our minds, not our bodies. If this weren't the case, the term "brain dead" wouldn't have much meaning to us.
Footnote 1: Human beings, are, no doubt, like ants, and can survive in biological form until the sun burns out, but it seems unlikely that we'll be able to do so as a technological society for long periods of time. It seems more likely that we'll keep knocking ourselves back to medieval times, as depicted by Vernor Vinge in A Deepness in the Sky.
Mac minis have been using 2.5-inch drives on the desktop for quite some time now, and Sun has been using enterprise grade 2.5-inch SAS drives on many of their newer models of servers.
At some point the X86 will just run out of steam. At that point Intel will be in major trouble.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. The x86 is surely on its last gasps, but the x64 has risen from the ashes of the x86 and it has definitively won the CPU wars. RISC has failed: PowerPCs (with or without Cell processors) may dominate in the console market, and ARMs and the like may win out in PDA and cell phones, etc., but mainstream computing, both on the desktop and the server is surely rapidly marching toward the tune of x64.
Of course it was AMD that invented x64, not Intel, but Intel will no doubt try to claim credit for it as much as they can.
I'm sorry, but this is just not a realistic thing to do for an MIT education for most people. First of all, tuition alone is $33,400 per year. Add in room and board, etc, and you're up to $46,350 per year. You just can't make this kind of money or shore up your finances by working at Starbucks for a year.
Furthermore, the amount of information that you are expected to absorb at MIT is phenomenal. It's a serious challenge not to forget things at a faster rate than you learn new things. Take a while off, and it's very difficult to pick up where you left off.
Furthermore, to succeed at MIT, you need to develop and nuture relationships with friends, dorm mates, graduates students, and faculty. If you take time, off these relationships may suffer or disappear.
The OP is quite correct -- if the RIAA cared about the future of our country, they wouldn't be trying to derail the students who are its future. But it's become quite clear by now that they don't give a shit about the future of anything except their own pockets.
When I took Computer Science 101 at MIT, the first thing the proffessor said on day one, was, "If you already know Basic or Fortran please raise your hand."
After waiting for a bunch of students to raise their hands, he continued with, "You people are going to be at a serious disadvantage in this class."
Perl is not a great beginner's language. It's not even an adequate one. Anyone who learns it will learn bad habits that are in opposition to all the principles of good software engineering.
Python, on the other hand, is a great beginner's language.
You can never prove or disprove that one didn't precede the other. An argument can easily be made that God created all of it's creatures through evolution. To wit, that God created evolution.
I'm not sure that you are really doing the debate justice. There are many scientists who believe in God and who believe in evolution. The vast majority of such scientists are going to believe that God arranged to create a universe in which evolution takes place.
There are very few scientists, however, who believe in creationism, which says that the universe was created 5,000 years ago.
If you can show me a quote from Niven showing his awareness of its disastrous quality, then I'd consider reading it.
If you ask me, you seem pretty closed-minded, given that you have been presented with a number of people who claim that they hated the previous book but love this one.
|>oug
Re:Not suprising; I hope the book's good
on
Dive Into Python
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
From the article I noticed one interesting thing - his world didn't quite work out until that company chipped in some money for him to finish the thing.
So? His world still worked out the way that he wanted it to. He still gives out the book for free if you don't want to pay for it. Proponents of free information have never said that the creators of the information shouldn't also be able to make money from it.
Of course there are full-featured IDE's for Lisp. In fact, the very first IDE's were made for Smalltalk and Lisp.
The fact that you can't understand Lisp speaks more to your intelligence than to the merits of Lisp. As Paul Graham says, he is talking about the tools preferred by the best and the brightest programmers, not by average programmers.
|>oug
Re:Unix Program For Scrabble?
on
Word Up
·
· Score: 3, Informative
There used to be a software version of Scrabble which allowed you to play against other players by E-mail.
I'm not a software dev but is it common for people to develop on a platform different than the one they are developing for?
I develop for Windows under Linux because I find Linux much easier to use than Windows. I do so using Python and Tkinter. Code written using these is typically quite portable.
It takes a wise person to admit when they've been wrong! And such wisdom is rare to find on the Internet. Thank you also for pointing out that the ASR33 put its Control key next to the "A" key. I had forgotten that.
Personally, I was just all-to-familiar with Sun's break with tradition because they caused DEC to also break with tradition when they changed to low profile keyboards. I still also used VT100's and Z19's when DEC changed to Sun's scheme, so it was very annoying to have to switch constantly between the two notions of how a keyboard should be.
Now, I just use a Kinesis Ergnomic Keyboard, and bring it with me whereever I go.
Although you speak it very boldly, you know not of what you speak -- first you claimed that manual typewriters did not place the Shift Lock key next to the "A" key, when they most certainly did, as did electric typewriters. You conveniently seem to have forgotten your original claim when it suits you. And now, with regard to your new claim that computer keyboards placed the Caps Lock key next to the "A" key as "standard practice" for over two decades before Sun: VT52's VT100's, H19's, Z19's, Decwriters, and IBM Selectric terminals all had the Caps Lock key next to the "A" key. Bringing up the ASR33 is a bit disingenuous of you, since it was certainly not designed to touch type on, and had no Caps Lock key at all.
Irrelevant. Even on ancient manual typewriters it was never placed up there next to the 'A' key.
Incorrect. Manual typewriters certain did place the Shift Lock key next to the 'A' key. Sun, despite those around here who seem to think otherwiese, did not invent the keyboard, and it was Sun who swapped the traditional location fo the Control and CapsLock keys, not IBM and Microsoft.
Plus, when the console goes obsolete, don't expect backwards compatibility on the next one either. The PS2's backwards compatibility, lest we forget, was a colossal fluke.
Considering that it's also part of the reason for the PS2 's colossal success, I'd be very surprised if Sony didn't duplicate this feature in the future.
Slashdot Mirror
|>oug
Sun claims that the CPU cost of ZFS is only a few percent of a modern CPU, even when going full-tilt. They claim that even if you use a compressed ZFS filesystem, you will often see higher disk bandwidth due to decreasing the disk bandwidth bottleneck.
|>oug
How do I mod down this entire post? And where's the "Crackpot" choice in the moderation OptionMenu pop-up?
|>oug
Personally, when I've tried to use foot switches for clicking, I just ended up moving the problem from my hands to my knees.
|>oug
I haven't used this myself, but the ErgoClick uses the palm for clicking, and thus should relieve a lot of stress from the thumb.
What's kept my RSI problems at bay for the last 13 years is the Kinesis Contoured Keyboard and a BodyBilt chair with linear tracking arms. I cannot recommend these highly enough. They have saved me from being in terrible agony every day.
The chair is rather expensive, but certainly much cheaper than either going on disability or a Vicodin addiction. The Kinesis keyboard takes a bit of getting used to, and all my friends who I have suggested it to, have initially cursed at me over the learning curve. But all of them have also later come back to me and thanked me profusely for saving them from a life of torment.
I know that some people also swear by the DataHand, but that requires a lot more relearning than even the Kinesis. I would have tried that next, however, if the Kinesis keyboard hadn't solved my woes.
|>oug
To survive more than another hundred years or two[1], first we have to solve the Artificial Intelligence problem, and then we have to figure out how to encode our human minds into computer programs. Once humans exist as software that can run on digital computers, in robotic bodies, etc., whether or not Earth can support human biological life anymore will be irrelevant. Furthermore, we'll then be able to make ourselves very small, immortal, and space-hardy. Once we've done that, we can spread like demon seed throughout the universe.
|>oug
P.S. Please don't claim that if we give up our human bodies, we won't be "human" anymore. Biologically speaking, that may be true, but philosophically, it is not. What makes us human is our minds, not our bodies. If this weren't the case, the term "brain dead" wouldn't have much meaning to us.
Footnote 1: Human beings, are, no doubt, like ants, and can survive in biological form until the sun burns out, but it seems unlikely that we'll be able to do so as a technological society for long periods of time. It seems more likely that we'll keep knocking ourselves back to medieval times, as depicted by Vernor Vinge in A Deepness in the Sky.
|>oug
Mac minis have been using 2.5-inch drives on the desktop for quite some time now, and Sun has been using enterprise grade 2.5-inch SAS drives on many of their newer models of servers.
Of course it was AMD that invented x64, not Intel, but Intel will no doubt try to claim credit for it as much as they can.
|>oug
I think that everyone is entitled to a decent education, and, in fact, that the future of our nation depends on it.
If you don't agree, you can take up the issue with Adam Smith, as he felt the same way.
I think that you're the type of person who would argue that a $3700 fine for driving 56 in a 55 MPH zone is a just punishment.
I'm sorry, but this is just not a realistic thing to do for an MIT education for most people. First of all, tuition alone is $33,400 per year. Add in room and board, etc, and you're up to $46,350 per year. You just can't make this kind of money or shore up your finances by working at Starbucks for a year.
Furthermore, the amount of information that you are expected to absorb at MIT is phenomenal. It's a serious challenge not to forget things at a faster rate than you learn new things. Take a while off, and it's very difficult to pick up where you left off.
Furthermore, to succeed at MIT, you need to develop and nuture relationships with friends, dorm mates, graduates students, and faculty. If you take time, off these relationships may suffer or disappear.
The OP is quite correct -- if the RIAA cared about the future of our country, they wouldn't be trying to derail the students who are its future. But it's become quite clear by now that they don't give a shit about the future of anything except their own pockets.
|>oug
After waiting for a bunch of students to raise their hands, he continued with, "You people are going to be at a serious disadvantage in this class."
Perl is not a great beginner's language. It's not even an adequate one. Anyone who learns it will learn bad habits that are in opposition to all the principles of good software engineering.
Python, on the other hand, is a great beginner's language.
|>oug
There are very few scientists, however, who believe in creationism, which says that the universe was created 5,000 years ago.
|>oug
|>oug
|>oug
Of course there are full-featured IDE's for Lisp. In fact, the very first IDE's were made for Smalltalk and Lisp.
The fact that you can't understand Lisp speaks more to your intelligence than to the merits of Lisp. As Paul Graham says, he is talking about the tools preferred by the best and the brightest programmers, not by average programmers.
|>oug
http://www.thepixiepit.co.uk/scrabble/index.htm
You mean like
http://www.a2zwordfinder.com/main.html
?
|>oug
|>oug
|>oug
It takes a wise person to admit when they've been wrong! And such wisdom is rare to find on the Internet. Thank you also for pointing out that the ASR33 put its Control key next to the "A" key. I had forgotten that.
Personally, I was just all-to-familiar with Sun's break with tradition because they caused DEC to also break with tradition when they changed to low profile keyboards. I still also used VT100's and Z19's when DEC changed to Sun's scheme, so it was very annoying to have to switch constantly between the two notions of how a keyboard should be.
Now, I just use a Kinesis Ergnomic Keyboard, and bring it with me whereever I go.
|>oug
Although you speak it very boldly, you know not of what you speak -- first you claimed that manual typewriters did not place the Shift Lock key next to the "A" key, when they most certainly did, as did electric typewriters. You conveniently seem to have forgotten your original claim when it suits you. And now, with regard to your new claim that computer keyboards placed the Caps Lock key next to the "A" key as "standard practice" for over two decades before Sun: VT52's VT100's, H19's, Z19's, Decwriters, and IBM Selectric terminals all had the Caps Lock key next to the "A" key. Bringing up the ASR33 is a bit disingenuous of you, since it was certainly not designed to touch type on, and had no Caps Lock key at all.
|>oug
|>oug
|>oug
Date a graduate student, like I am. Then she'll only have time to see you on the weekends anyway.
|>oug