And it seems to me that this is the primary benefit of Vista. I already turn it off in MacOS X. It appears Microsoft markets their OS as if it is an experience, like going to a movie or a theme park. What happened to running an OS for application support? To do stuff. I could care less about animated icons and 3D window warping.
I've posted a couple of jokes recently about old-time PDP-11 and CP/M software in relation to the modern stuff. But the joke has a bit of truth as well. Go grab a copy of WordPerfect 5.1 - the old DOS wordprocessor. Just what does the latest incarnation of Word do that WP5.1 couldn't? Sure - Word is wysisyg, WP5.1 is not. But if one needs document preparation and mailmerge that 20yo program still works just fine. It was moderately fast on a PC/AT - imagine how fast it would run on an Opteron!
There's something seriously wrong with just about every desktop OS - including Linux with KDE/Gnome. They do little more than a 20yo PC functionally and yet consume orders of magnitude more CPU/RAM/Disk. The only recent advances in need of the modern multi-megapixel displays and accelerated graphics are games, nonlinear video editing, and scientific / business imaging. Why aren't OSs -- even the free ones -- tuned to support these functions?
I never ran RSTS, but did run RT-11 and Venix on a PDP-11 at home back yonder in the days. But I did use it occasionally in high school and was under the impression it was a full multi-user BASIC interpreter. Our school had over twenty terminals connected to an underpowered PDP-11/34 at the time (early eighties). It did stand for "Resource Sharing Time Sharing"... I'm thinking you must mean RT-11, which was a single-user single process OS for most of its life. Or did I miss something on the internals of RSTS way back when?
Yup. Now all we need is Michael Shrayer, the original author of The Electric Pencil, to write a decent wordprocessor / text editor for Wiki and we'll have an online Office replacement with wiki capabilities....
Oh how I love all the recent computing innovation!
"Ever wondered what happened to RSX? With Digital Equipment Corporation officially abandoning the operating system, users are relying on a third party version of RSX -- and, increasingly, using free and open source software to keep it alive." From the article: "According to Strobe, the main reason that users stay with RSX is for 'features that RSTS and RT-11 don't have yet.' He singles out the Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System (or MUMPS), a database programming language known for its ease of use, a 'rock solid kernel,' 'excellent multitasking,' and low system requirements. Strobe also claims a lack of viruses and spyware and, referencing a report on RSX showing fewer security vulnerabilities."
There is the continuum from almost certain to highly unlikely. Then there is the continuum from highly unlikely to so improbable it wouldn't happen across the course of the creation and destruction of several universes. Dvorak's idea sits right at the far end of improbable that I highly doubt life in this universe will ever see it happen. But then again, one could draw a royal straight-flush twice in a row. Who knows?
Speaking as one who does not own a 360, but has field tested it in HD with a friend, I must say that the unit has quite the graphical and raw horsepower punch. I was never much impressed with the original Xbox, but the 360 is a different animal. It competes with a high end gaming PC rig, playing Quake 4 pretty damn well for a $400 toy. COD II is a damn fun game (even if it has had problems with multiplayer in Xbox live). Didn't much care for PDZ though. Not the point.
I don't think the PS3 will be significantly more powerful, particularly given that Cell SPEs are weighted toward SIMD single precision FP, whereas Xenos has three full integer and VMX (Altivec) cores. The 360 is an amazing deal for $400 - when it works. And that's the problem with the unit. It has an abysmal failure rate, even for a 1st gen product. So I'm holding out for a product update from MS and waiting to see how the PS3 will really perform.
But I'm not so dismissive of MS's latest offering. If fact, on raw power alone, I'm pretty damn impressed.
One might argue Plato, Aristotle, and the Roman Republic set forth more of a democratic model than the minor power sharing offered by the Monarchy after the English Civil War. Why was it that America broke off from England's King Edward and his tyranny? Or would you like to forget Calvin's and Luther's Protestant Reformation in Germany as a precondition to the whole Enlightenment shebang?
Have you read Edmund Burke'sReflections on the French Revolution? England lasted as a Republic for only eleven years between 1649 and 1660. King Charles II took care of that little rabble rousing "social experiment." All hail the King!!!
Straight up. However, it was Microsoft's willingness to support third party motherboard manufacturers for both Intel and AMD that put a stop to Intel's prior motherboard / CPU tie-in attempt. Should MS deem such a tie in appropriate - say to counter Apple's hardware and software compatibility engineering - and Intel's tactic might work. Anyway, my larger point that AMD is the better innovator and therefore must worry about losing is both snark and true. When was the last time you bought a desktop Alpha?
even while being a full lithographic generation behind, and so Intel shifts their market plan to exclusive alliances. Shall we see motherboard bundling next? Perhaps they can make the ultimate deal with both Microsoft and NVIDIA and wrap the whole post Vista market up to themselves.
AMD better watch out. The leading technology innovator always loses!
Though circumstantial evidence seems to indicate that latent cyst infection within both muscle tissue and brain tissue appears to affect gene expression. But that's still speculation. Please note that I wrote that article as a lay person writer and not as an experienced researcher in the field.
There are numerous studies which indicate that latest T. gondii cyst infection produces a noticeable drop in motor skills and intelligence. I wrote an article on this over at K5 a couple weeks ago. One of the comments linked to a study which showed a significant increase in risk of traffic accidents for those with latent T. gondii infection.
However, the notion that this is a "mind control" parasite in humans is completely off base. A previous study showed that mice infected with T. gondii had increased risk of cat predation. Researchers believe that may be caused by increased dopamine levels in mouse brains as a result. But that is still speculative.
I could add that I submitted this story to/. almost three weeks ago and was rejected within an hour... but that would be off topic.
and Sun isn't far behind. IRIX 6.x was great technology five - seven years ago, but it's old hat now. And Solaris x86 is no Solaris/SPARC. MS should have no trouble scaling Windows up to four - eight cores in the next iteration. The only issue is what they will want to charge. Linux is already there.
There's a live culture HIV vaccination program you might consider too. And something that not quite resembles tea - or is it MDMA? Whatever. Me, I'll wait for the navigation computer to plot safe course before engaging the hyperdrive to jump to lightspeed... You could run into a star, or an asteroid, and that'd ruin a perfectly good day!
Ahh yes, what matters is that nonfiction contain a certain measure of truthiness. The work should be truthy, not facty. Welcome to a world where spin has overtaken factual reality in book publishing, where what is said by Dr. Phil, Oprah Winfrey or on cable news has more substance than direct experience itself. Truthiness! Share and Enjoy!
And here I thought I was going to learn how I might have a shot at Kate Beckinsale or Lucy Liu, but instead it's only some lame story about astronomy. Thanks for getting my hopes up once again slashdot!!!
when it's been the frightful beaver all along. Well, we do know that bunnies - with their razor sharp front teeth - are still highly dangerous. I'm told shrubbery or a wood shield can help a person defend themselves. That Holy Grail. It's a vile quest that ensnares only the most upright and honorable. *sigh*
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And it seems to me that this is the primary benefit of Vista. I already turn it off in MacOS X. It appears Microsoft markets their OS as if it is an experience, like going to a movie or a theme park. What happened to running an OS for application support? To do stuff. I could care less about animated icons and 3D window warping.
I've posted a couple of jokes recently about old-time PDP-11 and CP/M software in relation to the modern stuff. But the joke has a bit of truth as well. Go grab a copy of WordPerfect 5.1 - the old DOS wordprocessor. Just what does the latest incarnation of Word do that WP5.1 couldn't? Sure - Word is wysisyg, WP5.1 is not. But if one needs document preparation and mailmerge that 20yo program still works just fine. It was moderately fast on a PC/AT - imagine how fast it would run on an Opteron!
There's something seriously wrong with just about every desktop OS - including Linux with KDE/Gnome. They do little more than a 20yo PC functionally and yet consume orders of magnitude more CPU/RAM/Disk. The only recent advances in need of the modern multi-megapixel displays and accelerated graphics are games, nonlinear video editing, and scientific / business imaging. Why aren't OSs -- even the free ones -- tuned to support these functions?
I never ran RSTS, but did run RT-11 and Venix on a PDP-11 at home back yonder in the days. But I did use it occasionally in high school and was under the impression it was a full multi-user BASIC interpreter. Our school had over twenty terminals connected to an underpowered PDP-11/34 at the time (early eighties). It did stand for "Resource Sharing Time Sharing"... I'm thinking you must mean RT-11, which was a single-user single process OS for most of its life. Or did I miss something on the internals of RSTS way back when?
Yup. Now all we need is Michael Shrayer, the original author of The Electric Pencil, to write a decent wordprocessor / text editor for Wiki and we'll have an online Office replacement with wiki capabilities....
Oh how I love all the recent computing innovation!
"Ever wondered what happened to RSX? With Digital Equipment Corporation officially abandoning the operating system, users are relying on a third party version of RSX -- and, increasingly, using free and open source software to keep it alive." From the article: "According to Strobe, the main reason that users stay with RSX is for 'features that RSTS and RT-11 don't have yet.' He singles out the Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System (or MUMPS), a database programming language known for its ease of use, a 'rock solid kernel,' 'excellent multitasking,' and low system requirements. Strobe also claims a lack of viruses and spyware and, referencing a report on RSX showing fewer security vulnerabilities."
There is the continuum from almost certain to highly unlikely. Then there is the continuum from highly unlikely to so improbable it wouldn't happen across the course of the creation and destruction of several universes. Dvorak's idea sits right at the far end of improbable that I highly doubt life in this universe will ever see it happen. But then again, one could draw a royal straight-flush twice in a row. Who knows?
Care to explain how I am wrong?
Speaking as one who does not own a 360, but has field tested it in HD with a friend, I must say that the unit has quite the graphical and raw horsepower punch. I was never much impressed with the original Xbox, but the 360 is a different animal. It competes with a high end gaming PC rig, playing Quake 4 pretty damn well for a $400 toy. COD II is a damn fun game (even if it has had problems with multiplayer in Xbox live). Didn't much care for PDZ though. Not the point.
I don't think the PS3 will be significantly more powerful, particularly given that Cell SPEs are weighted toward SIMD single precision FP, whereas Xenos has three full integer and VMX (Altivec) cores. The 360 is an amazing deal for $400 - when it works. And that's the problem with the unit. It has an abysmal failure rate, even for a 1st gen product. So I'm holding out for a product update from MS and waiting to see how the PS3 will really perform.
But I'm not so dismissive of MS's latest offering. If fact, on raw power alone, I'm pretty damn impressed.
Absolutely right. My error.
Hat tip to you, Sir!
One might argue Plato, Aristotle, and the Roman Republic set forth more of a democratic model than the minor power sharing offered by the Monarchy after the English Civil War. Why was it that America broke off from England's King Edward and his tyranny? Or would you like to forget Calvin's and Luther's Protestant Reformation in Germany as a precondition to the whole Enlightenment shebang?
Have you read Edmund Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution? England lasted as a Republic for only eleven years between 1649 and 1660. King Charles II took care of that little rabble rousing "social experiment." All hail the King!!!
Straight up. However, it was Microsoft's willingness to support third party motherboard manufacturers for both Intel and AMD that put a stop to Intel's prior motherboard / CPU tie-in attempt. Should MS deem such a tie in appropriate - say to counter Apple's hardware and software compatibility engineering - and Intel's tactic might work. Anyway, my larger point that AMD is the better innovator and therefore must worry about losing is both snark and true. When was the last time you bought a desktop Alpha?
even while being a full lithographic generation behind, and so Intel shifts their market plan to exclusive alliances. Shall we see motherboard bundling next? Perhaps they can make the ultimate deal with both Microsoft and NVIDIA and wrap the whole post Vista market up to themselves.
AMD better watch out. The leading technology innovator always loses!
here is a recipie for you and your friend. Enjoy!
Just dig into the cat box and chow away. Pretend they're tootsie rolls - that always helps. Mmmmmmm... tootsie rolls.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Though circumstantial evidence seems to indicate that latent cyst infection within both muscle tissue and brain tissue appears to affect gene expression. But that's still speculation. Please note that I wrote that article as a lay person writer and not as an experienced researcher in the field.
There are numerous studies which indicate that latest T. gondii cyst infection produces a noticeable drop in motor skills and intelligence. I wrote an article on this over at K5 a couple weeks ago. One of the comments linked to a study which showed a significant increase in risk of traffic accidents for those with latent T. gondii infection.
/. almost three weeks ago and was rejected within an hour... but that would be off topic.
However, the notion that this is a "mind control" parasite in humans is completely off base. A previous study showed that mice infected with T. gondii had increased risk of cat predation. Researchers believe that may be caused by increased dopamine levels in mouse brains as a result. But that is still speculative.
I could add that I submitted this story to
32 procs. Well, that's certainly enough for a desktop over the next few years.
and Sun isn't far behind. IRIX 6.x was great technology five - seven years ago, but it's old hat now. And Solaris x86 is no Solaris/SPARC. MS should have no trouble scaling Windows up to four - eight cores in the next iteration. The only issue is what they will want to charge. Linux is already there.
SGI and Sun aren't the winners here, I think....
There's a live culture HIV vaccination program you might consider too. And something that not quite resembles tea - or is it MDMA? Whatever. Me, I'll wait for the navigation computer to plot safe course before engaging the hyperdrive to jump to lightspeed... You could run into a star, or an asteroid, and that'd ruin a perfectly good day!
*cough!*
Instead of sending a single ship, we send hundreds or thousands, until one makes it. It's not like we're exactly running out of people any time soon.
Ah ha. I see. May I be the first to volunteer you for the most incredible ride of your life? Or the shortest. We're not really sure. Game?
Ahh yes, what matters is that nonfiction contain a certain measure of truthiness. The work should be truthy, not facty. Welcome to a world where spin has overtaken factual reality in book publishing, where what is said by Dr. Phil, Oprah Winfrey or on cable news has more substance than direct experience itself. Truthiness! Share and Enjoy!
That counts. Ummm um ummm um um!!!
And here I thought I was going to learn how I might have a shot at Kate Beckinsale or Lucy Liu, but instead it's only some lame story about astronomy. Thanks for getting my hopes up once again slashdot!!!
sheesh!
when it's been the frightful beaver all along. Well, we do know that bunnies - with their razor sharp front teeth - are still highly dangerous. I'm told shrubbery or a wood shield can help a person defend themselves. That Holy Grail. It's a vile quest that ensnares only the most upright and honorable. *sigh*