It is a classic ploy these days. You wait until the technology you think you own becomes entrenched at many other places and is a must have - then you drop the patent lawasuit threat, companies freak, pay you $$$ to not sue and life goes on. CMGI is doing this for MONEY, something they are short on lately.
Think I'm nuts? Got one word for ya - Rambus. Course it didn't work out quite like they hoped. THey patented all the JEDIC SDRAM stuff then tried to extort the SDRAM companies. Even boasted about it to stock analysts, how patent royalties would become a large portion of their future income (since RDRAM was sucking so bad given the price and marginal benefit) THey got a couple Japanese companies to cave, but now a few have stood up and called Rambus on it - now Rambus will spend millions trying to extort millions fromteh manufacturers. They'll lose (since the rules of JEDIC required that they not patent stuff that was developed there) and so will we since the millions spent on these BS lawsuits will raise the prices for the consumer. As usual, the only winners will be the freaking lawyers.
OK. First, I am a diehard AMD enthusiast and stock holder. I think they cleaned Intel's clock this past year and I believe that the P4 won't help much outside of multimedia apps (gee - sounds like competition for G4s!;) ) So keep that in mind as you read this - it'll surprise you.
Now that I'm don'e trolling... Seriously, this article was an EXCELLENT overview of the new IA-64 architecture. Intel did a great job on trying to fix the many problems of ia-32 and I believe they did very well. I don't think there will be any contest between the AMD x86-64 and the Intel IA-64 processors. Intel will win hands down on ONE condition. If they manage to develop the compilers to handle all of the parallel compilation and predicition. COmpilers are difficult enough to design. This design increases the complexity by a magnitude at least. A telling quote is "The compilers have been under development almost as long as the hardware"
So the next few years should be very interesting. If INtel and their partners can get compilers available that do what they need to, the IA-64 architecture will probably scare even the most diehard AMD person. Even at $4K a processor - the potential processing power is scary and would be a steal.
But they may not. And it will be interesting if the AMD x86-64 stuff comes out ready to go and the IA-64 processor is still hampered by compiler issues. The tables could be completely turned where AMD wins in the short term based mostly on the speed gain of mega memory and bus bandwidth while hte IA-64 lags due to compiler issues. By the time the compiler is really taking advantage of the IA-64's cuttin gedge features, Intel could possibly have a lot of ground to catch up. A complete reversal.
Who knows. I love my Athlons and still feel they are today's top performers for the price. I hope AMD scores a homerun with their x86-64 architecture and I really like how they are opening up the development efforts so early. It was a shrewd move on their part. But the next 5 years will be astonishing and I have to say, if Intel pulls this off and succeeds in developing these compilers, the first time I run IA-64 compiled software on an IA-64 would give me goosebumps at the massive amount of computing power at my fingertips in a mid tower case;)
Not doubt - one of the worst trailers I've ever seen (though the final title setup was cool) Gee - so it tells me about an 11 year old android - well um, Star Trek has androids too:) At least one scene or something would have been nice. Don't give everything away - but tease me a LITTLE! (Boy can THAT be taken out of context!:))
Oh please! "everything opensource and let me run anything I want on the network where I have total and absoulte control, and when it all blows up I just blame the other guy". All sorts of companies rely on Linux and open source software to run critical parts of their business! Just like others use Micro$oft products.
Who is being narrow minded now? Winblows is NOT always the right choice. Nor is it always the wrong choice. But as always - your milage may vary depending on what you do!
I used to work for a large North American telecom/network company (hint: the one that is still making money) THe CEO was looking to partner with Micro$oft and was forcing Microsoft onto a company whose R&D was almost exclusively Unix (Solaris and HPUX) THeir feeling was it had to be better because of market dominance, etc. I almost lost my job by putting together a presentation showing the costs of moving to an Exchange based email system was almost 10 times as expensive as going with a commercial Unix solution (they were deploying $80,000 Alpha RAID boxes for every 200 users or so and only running POP3, not IMAP) it was unreal.
As thousands of Unix workstations got swapped out for WIndows machines, our support costs SKYROCKETED (trust me - I managed x86 server & desktop support for one of their large R&D labs) We had rock solid Unix file and print servers. Yet when we deployed Dell Poweredge clusters running Win NT for file and print serving, it was a nightmare! The clusters locked up often, you couldn't swap nodes without hard booting the hung one which killed all sessions. It was a nightmare. Sure, Win2K is better - I agree. But, at the time it was awful. It got so bad we were ready to plunk down SERIOUS money for our mega Unix file servers to add SMB.
Any IT Director worth his or her salt goes with teh solution that WORKS reliably and also is cost effective because all IT employees know IT is looked at as a necessary evil. That gives OSS an advantage, but only if its reliable. Contrary to popular belief you CAN integrate Unix & Windoze boxes if necessary. The world ain't B/W!!
But that said, I'll deploy an stable OSS solution over Micro$oft anyday!:)
Nice to see Ergen not bow to pressure (yet) My friend just got a 65" Toshiba widescreen HDTV and the DISH 6000 receiver with HDTV off air tuner.
I was less than impressed with the differnece when watching a DVD, but he doesn't have a progressive scan DVD player yet which improves the picture markedly.
However, our local CBS affiliate here was one of the first to start sendign HDTV. While the primetime shows look better, you can't really tell the difference until you see a show shot entirely in HDTV with HD quality gear. They show a NASCAR short on a sunny day, clear sky, and all the color of a NASCAR race. It blows you away the clarity and vibrance of colors.
Sure, me pal plunked down a cool $5K for his complete setup (new TV, DISH rcvr, and DVD player), but it is impressive.
Needless to say, I think this decision could significantly hurt DirectTV is DISH manages to hold off putting CGMS in their boxes. The reason is the folks that would jump ship to DISH are the videophiles who don't want DirectTV to control their outputs and those customers are the ones paying $50 to $100/month in programming. This issue won't mean squat to your average DirectTV user, but they only pay $25 or $35/month usually. So it will be interesting to see how this shakes out. Needless to say I better get my DISH 6000 quick before the MPAA pummels DISH into submission!
1400x1050? Heck, according to the display properties, my Inspiron 5000e is running at 1600x1200 w/ 32bit color. What an awesome machine. It kills me to be running Winblows 2K on it:( But then Winblows on my laptop allowed me to turn my Athlon desktop into a killer Linux workstation! Eventually I plan to swap and have Linux on the laptop!
True - but if you stuff it with useless paper of some kind they still have to pay someone to take the opened envelope and 'process' the contents. Sure they see its bogus (you return other junk mail to them or something) but it still costs them time and the company more money.
Thats why I still return postage paid reply envelopes:)
"Incidentally, Win, of the 161,000 people who wrote to the DMA last year, 116,000 wanted more junk mail. They were sent a booklet entitled "How To Get More Interesting Mail" (as God is my witness, I am not making this up), which tells you various key catalogs that you can send for to guarantee you'll be deluged with stuff. Just in case you have a change of heart."
I can't believe that - unreal! No wonder direct mail firms think junk mail is the only way to attract business!
That was a great read. While I didn't get to touch a mini or mainframe system until I went to RPI in 1988 (PCs were just starting to become widespread), I remember many days of going to work with my Mom who was a mainframe programmer all her life from the late 1960's on. Talk about awe inspiring.
I thought the epilogue hit it right on:
"Meanwhile, many of us who lived through that era retain our old habits, still using text-based applications such as EMACS and MM (or its successor, Pine) rather than their fashionable GUI replacements, but on UNIX platforms (Solaris, Linux, etc) instead of PDP-10s. Each time a new PC virus plunges the entire organization into chaos and panic, we barely notice. There is something to be said for the old ways."
So true.
Another thing. THough today we have massive amounts of software available, its somehow less satisfying it seems. Sure, you can deploy a major system, joining lots of software packages together and perhaps even modifying them some to do the job, but how exciting it must have been to be part of the group blazing the trail of timesharing user access, email, TCP/IP via Arpanet, and more. How satisfying it must have been.
Finally, I still shake my head is disbelief how fast things have changed. Back in 88, PCs were available, but not widespread, mostly due to lack of network access. I remember thinking how cool it was to have a BITNET address and being able to communicate with folks around the world. TCP/IP was made available to us around 1990. But to think that was only 10 years ago! In 88 I had a 4 or 8MHz XT (can't recall) and graduated with a 33MHz 386 just as 486s were hitting the market. Now, 8 years later I'm reading Slashdot on this web thing using a Pentium III laptop running @ 700MHz, connected to the internet via wireless networking to my DSL internet connection. 8 years ago we were psyched to have 9600 baud serial modems in each dorm room connected to the campus network.
Mind boggling.
Re:How does a PDP-10 looks like?
on
PDP-10 Revival
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Yeah - brings back memories of Advanced (snicker) computer hardware design in college - designing a floppy disk interface from scratch for the PDP-11 and the funky bus architecture. Heck that was only 9 years ago! (RPI had some OLD equipment!)
I really hope that natural gas fed fuel cell generators for residential use pan out. I'd love to be 'off grid' and heat my hot water at the same time. It may be wishful thinking, but who knows what the next 20 years will bring? There are already McDonald's restaurants (HUGE users of electriciy for all that frying) that use their own small generators to power the entire building - using microturbine technology.
There has been a huge stink down here in North Carolina related to nuclear. The local power company wants to store tons of spent fuel rods in a storage facility here. They already do but want to like triple the capacity. Some worry that a catasrophic event could occur if cooling failed, etc. Others say its no big deal. They both have valid points.
I personally think nuclear is a technology that has to be used right now. I'd love to see fuel cells and residential microturbines that generate all my homes power and heat the water too! But thta's years away.
That said, I drive by CP&Ls nuclear plant frequently when visiting a friend. Its off in the woods away from dense population. Its dark out there at night and its always a little disconcerting driving right by it, past all the warning sirens and "What to do in case of emergency' signs. Worse - they use Mecury Vapor lights which always seem to make the plant area glow blue above the woods. Not a comforting sight!
2) The HUGE increase in high amp appliances. From toatsters, microwaves, washers, dryers, things that nearly every household now has. Its a safe guess that in the last twenty years our average household demand for electricity has risen dramatically. Not inlcuding the internet.
No doubt. I'm amazed at how even small houses today have 200Amp service. We're getting ready to remodel our home and it will likely have 400Amp service. Granted the home is close to 3000 sq ft, but still. Between appliances, computers (desktops and servers), 2 HVAC systems, the PBX:), the hottub, and the detached garage - you go through a lot of capacity in a hurry:)
But saying conservation is not the answer is a cop-out. Will it solve everything? Hell no. But every little bit helps. It amazes me how many friends and neighbors don't even know what EnergyStar or system standby even is. (or firewalls for that matter)
Pete Wilson and friends for thinking the power companies could stay in business with price caps on what they could charge but not on what they paid.
The power producers jacking prices to the sky.
The consumers thinking electricity is some kind of right.
Wanna solve CA's problem in a hurry? Lift the price caps on the power companies so their rates go through the roof to keep the power on (ie the power company doesn't go bankrupt) or better yet, let the power companies go bankrupt so they turn of ALL the power. See how fast change happens.
Yes - you should conserve. System standby, CF light bulbs, better insulation. But blaming the Internet. HAHAHAHA
And what a funny picture this paints. AOL, the laughing stock of the Internet world, is now being looked at as the savior of the non Micro$oft browsers. Not that I 100% agree, but it is funny.
Of course, I think if Netscape had held back NS6 until Mozilla was ready - the release would have gone much better. But people got their first look at NS 6, it sucked, and they won't bother again I'm sure. Too bad.
Mozilla locks up on HTTPS sites for users who don't read the install directions. If you don't install the PSM, Mozilla locks on HTTPS sites. Now that the PSM is going open source, its being included (starting with 0.7 I think) I took 0.7 to the URLs you posted and it worked fine.
Yes, Mozilla can be cranky (I sent corrupted resumes to a BUNCH of companies before I realized the build I had was boning attachements), yes Netscape 6 should NEVER have been released on such an unstable base. But the freaking thing is 0.7 BETA. Were you complaining about the v2.3 kernels? No because they were test loads. So is Mozilla. So until its released - give it a rest!
And my site logs show 64% IE, 20% Netscape, the rest all sorts of stuff. So what? It all depends on your target audience - and any boss worth his salt (and who depends on the site for his salary) isn't going to risk alienating ANY customers. You never know - one of them could place a massive order if their browser worked. Is that a chance you are willing to take? If so - there are plenty of other sites that would be happy to serve all the NS users you turn away!
I noticed they don't have a website yet (or didn't publish it anyway) - gee I wonder why - because it would become target #1 for the hacker community?
I can see the news story now "The Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center website, used to share vital security information among members including Micro$oft, Oracle, Inhell, and more, has been shutdown after it was discovered that hackers had broken into it months ago and had replaced the real security and hacker info with false information making it even easier to gain access to systems from these companies"
I stumbled across this 'announcement' on CNNFN too. The one phrase that sent a shiver down my spine was "The 19 board members, scheduled to meet Tuesday for the first time, eventually will determine how much of that information to share with other industries or the U.S. government, according to Bob Cohen, a spokesman for the group."
So what - will they withhold vital info to help prevent hacking until you join their group or buy their solution - it could happen!
Slashdot Mirror
Think I'm nuts? Got one word for ya - Rambus. Course it didn't work out quite like they hoped. THey patented all the JEDIC SDRAM stuff then tried to extort the SDRAM companies. Even boasted about it to stock analysts, how patent royalties would become a large portion of their future income (since RDRAM was sucking so bad given the price and marginal benefit) THey got a couple Japanese companies to cave, but now a few have stood up and called Rambus on it - now Rambus will spend millions trying to extort millions fromteh manufacturers. They'll lose (since the rules of JEDIC required that they not patent stuff that was developed there) and so will we since the millions spent on these BS lawsuits will raise the prices for the consumer. As usual, the only winners will be the freaking lawyers.
Now that I'm don'e trolling... Seriously, this article was an EXCELLENT overview of the new IA-64 architecture. Intel did a great job on trying to fix the many problems of ia-32 and I believe they did very well. I don't think there will be any contest between the AMD x86-64 and the Intel IA-64 processors. Intel will win hands down on ONE condition. If they manage to develop the compilers to handle all of the parallel compilation and predicition. COmpilers are difficult enough to design. This design increases the complexity by a magnitude at least. A telling quote is "The compilers have been under development almost as long as the hardware"
So the next few years should be very interesting. If INtel and their partners can get compilers available that do what they need to, the IA-64 architecture will probably scare even the most diehard AMD person. Even at $4K a processor - the potential processing power is scary and would be a steal.
But they may not. And it will be interesting if the AMD x86-64 stuff comes out ready to go and the IA-64 processor is still hampered by compiler issues. The tables could be completely turned where AMD wins in the short term based mostly on the speed gain of mega memory and bus bandwidth while hte IA-64 lags due to compiler issues. By the time the compiler is really taking advantage of the IA-64's cuttin gedge features, Intel could possibly have a lot of ground to catch up. A complete reversal.
Who knows. I love my Athlons and still feel they are today's top performers for the price. I hope AMD scores a homerun with their x86-64 architecture and I really like how they are opening up the development efforts so early. It was a shrewd move on their part. But the next 5 years will be astonishing and I have to say, if Intel pulls this off and succeeds in developing these compilers, the first time I run IA-64 compiled software on an IA-64 would give me goosebumps at the massive amount of computing power at my fingertips in a mid tower case ;)
Not doubt - one of the worst trailers I've ever seen (though the final title setup was cool) Gee - so it tells me about an 11 year old android - well um, Star Trek has androids too :) At least one scene or something would have been nice. Don't give everything away - but tease me a LITTLE! (Boy can THAT be taken out of context! :))
Who is being narrow minded now? Winblows is NOT always the right choice. Nor is it always the wrong choice. But as always - your milage may vary depending on what you do!
I used to work for a large North American telecom/network company (hint: the one that is still making money) THe CEO was looking to partner with Micro$oft and was forcing Microsoft onto a company whose R&D was almost exclusively Unix (Solaris and HPUX) THeir feeling was it had to be better because of market dominance, etc. I almost lost my job by putting together a presentation showing the costs of moving to an Exchange based email system was almost 10 times as expensive as going with a commercial Unix solution (they were deploying $80,000 Alpha RAID boxes for every 200 users or so and only running POP3, not IMAP) it was unreal.
As thousands of Unix workstations got swapped out for WIndows machines, our support costs SKYROCKETED (trust me - I managed x86 server & desktop support for one of their large R&D labs) We had rock solid Unix file and print servers. Yet when we deployed Dell Poweredge clusters running Win NT for file and print serving, it was a nightmare! The clusters locked up often, you couldn't swap nodes without hard booting the hung one which killed all sessions. It was a nightmare. Sure, Win2K is better - I agree. But, at the time it was awful. It got so bad we were ready to plunk down SERIOUS money for our mega Unix file servers to add SMB.
Any IT Director worth his or her salt goes with teh solution that WORKS reliably and also is cost effective because all IT employees know IT is looked at as a necessary evil. That gives OSS an advantage, but only if its reliable. Contrary to popular belief you CAN integrate Unix & Windoze boxes if necessary. The world ain't B/W!!
But that said, I'll deploy an stable OSS solution over Micro$oft anyday! :)
Nice to see Ergen not bow to pressure (yet) My friend just got a 65" Toshiba widescreen HDTV and the DISH 6000 receiver with HDTV off air tuner. I was less than impressed with the differnece when watching a DVD, but he doesn't have a progressive scan DVD player yet which improves the picture markedly. However, our local CBS affiliate here was one of the first to start sendign HDTV. While the primetime shows look better, you can't really tell the difference until you see a show shot entirely in HDTV with HD quality gear. They show a NASCAR short on a sunny day, clear sky, and all the color of a NASCAR race. It blows you away the clarity and vibrance of colors. Sure, me pal plunked down a cool $5K for his complete setup (new TV, DISH rcvr, and DVD player), but it is impressive. Needless to say, I think this decision could significantly hurt DirectTV is DISH manages to hold off putting CGMS in their boxes. The reason is the folks that would jump ship to DISH are the videophiles who don't want DirectTV to control their outputs and those customers are the ones paying $50 to $100/month in programming. This issue won't mean squat to your average DirectTV user, but they only pay $25 or $35/month usually. So it will be interesting to see how this shakes out. Needless to say I better get my DISH 6000 quick before the MPAA pummels DISH into submission!
1400x1050? Heck, according to the display properties, my Inspiron 5000e is running at 1600x1200 w/ 32bit color. What an awesome machine. It kills me to be running Winblows 2K on it :( But then Winblows on my laptop allowed me to turn my Athlon desktop into a killer Linux workstation! Eventually I plan to swap and have Linux on the laptop!
Thats why I still return postage paid reply envelopes :)
"Incidentally, Win, of the 161,000 people who wrote to the DMA last year, 116,000 wanted more junk mail. They were sent a booklet entitled "How To Get More Interesting Mail" (as God is my witness, I am not making this up), which tells you various key catalogs that you can send for to guarantee you'll be deluged with stuff. Just in case you have a change of heart."
I can't believe that - unreal! No wonder direct mail firms think junk mail is the only way to attract business!
I thought the epilogue hit it right on: "Meanwhile, many of us who lived through that era retain our old habits, still using text-based applications such as EMACS and MM (or its successor, Pine) rather than their fashionable GUI replacements, but on UNIX platforms (Solaris, Linux, etc) instead of PDP-10s. Each time a new PC virus plunges the entire organization into chaos and panic, we barely notice. There is something to be said for the old ways."
So true.
Another thing. THough today we have massive amounts of software available, its somehow less satisfying it seems. Sure, you can deploy a major system, joining lots of software packages together and perhaps even modifying them some to do the job, but how exciting it must have been to be part of the group blazing the trail of timesharing user access, email, TCP/IP via Arpanet, and more. How satisfying it must have been.
Finally, I still shake my head is disbelief how fast things have changed. Back in 88, PCs were available, but not widespread, mostly due to lack of network access. I remember thinking how cool it was to have a BITNET address and being able to communicate with folks around the world. TCP/IP was made available to us around 1990. But to think that was only 10 years ago! In 88 I had a 4 or 8MHz XT (can't recall) and graduated with a 33MHz 386 just as 486s were hitting the market. Now, 8 years later I'm reading Slashdot on this web thing using a Pentium III laptop running @ 700MHz, connected to the internet via wireless networking to my DSL internet connection. 8 years ago we were psyched to have 9600 baud serial modems in each dorm room connected to the campus network.
Mind boggling.
Yeah - brings back memories of Advanced (snicker) computer hardware design in college - designing a floppy disk interface from scratch for the PDP-11 and the funky bus architecture. Heck that was only 9 years ago! (RPI had some OLD equipment!)
I really hope that natural gas fed fuel cell generators for residential use pan out. I'd love to be 'off grid' and heat my hot water at the same time. It may be wishful thinking, but who knows what the next 20 years will bring? There are already McDonald's restaurants (HUGE users of electriciy for all that frying) that use their own small generators to power the entire building - using microturbine technology.
I personally think nuclear is a technology that has to be used right now. I'd love to see fuel cells and residential microturbines that generate all my homes power and heat the water too! But thta's years away.
That said, I drive by CP&Ls nuclear plant frequently when visiting a friend. Its off in the woods away from dense population. Its dark out there at night and its always a little disconcerting driving right by it, past all the warning sirens and "What to do in case of emergency' signs. Worse - they use Mecury Vapor lights which always seem to make the plant area glow blue above the woods. Not a comforting sight!
No doubt. I'm amazed at how even small houses today have 200Amp service. We're getting ready to remodel our home and it will likely have 400Amp service. Granted the home is close to 3000 sq ft, but still. Between appliances, computers (desktops and servers), 2 HVAC systems, the PBX :), the hottub, and the detached garage - you go through a lot of capacity in a hurry :)
But saying conservation is not the answer is a cop-out. Will it solve everything? Hell no. But every little bit helps. It amazes me how many friends and neighbors don't even know what EnergyStar or system standby even is. (or firewalls for that matter)
The power producers jacking prices to the sky.
The consumers thinking electricity is some kind of right.
Wanna solve CA's problem in a hurry? Lift the price caps on the power companies so their rates go through the roof to keep the power on (ie the power company doesn't go bankrupt) or better yet, let the power companies go bankrupt so they turn of ALL the power. See how fast change happens.
Yes - you should conserve. System standby, CF light bulbs, better insulation. But blaming the Internet. HAHAHAHA
What makes even more sense - using an Athlon without an integrated chipset! :) :)
Patiently waiting for the 760MP!
And what a funny picture this paints. AOL, the laughing stock of the Internet world, is now being looked at as the savior of the non Micro$oft browsers. Not that I 100% agree, but it is funny. Of course, I think if Netscape had held back NS6 until Mozilla was ready - the release would have gone much better. But people got their first look at NS 6, it sucked, and they won't bother again I'm sure. Too bad.
Mozilla locks up on HTTPS sites for users who don't read the install directions. If you don't install the PSM, Mozilla locks on HTTPS sites. Now that the PSM is going open source, its being included (starting with 0.7 I think) I took 0.7 to the URLs you posted and it worked fine. Yes, Mozilla can be cranky (I sent corrupted resumes to a BUNCH of companies before I realized the build I had was boning attachements), yes Netscape 6 should NEVER have been released on such an unstable base. But the freaking thing is 0.7 BETA. Were you complaining about the v2.3 kernels? No because they were test loads. So is Mozilla. So until its released - give it a rest!
And my site logs show 64% IE, 20% Netscape, the rest all sorts of stuff. So what? It all depends on your target audience - and any boss worth his salt (and who depends on the site for his salary) isn't going to risk alienating ANY customers. You never know - one of them could place a massive order if their browser worked. Is that a chance you are willing to take? If so - there are plenty of other sites that would be happy to serve all the NS users you turn away!
I can see the news story now "The Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center website, used to share vital security information among members including Micro$oft, Oracle, Inhell, and more, has been shutdown after it was discovered that hackers had broken into it months ago and had replaced the real security and hacker info with false information making it even easier to gain access to systems from these companies"
So what - will they withhold vital info to help prevent hacking until you join their group or buy their solution - it could happen!