"MSNBC is reporting that a geek is actually locking himself away from Internet access for a year, to prove that real-commerce makes it possible. He's even changed his legal name to NotDotComGuy. He says, 'I'm going to come back being a loon,' but I think you have to be crazy already to even think of doing this in the first place... " Actually, it does appear that he can go in the newsgroups - and can have check his email. But still, I think I'd have lost it after about two weeks or so.
Does a private individual have the right to make a program that executes a proprietary algorithm, if they used a clean-room method to find this algorithm?
Yes, unless the algorithm is patented.
Do individuals or companies have the right to keep data formats private?
Yes. They can keep it secret (trade secret). It's unlikely that they could copyright or patent a data format.
Here's an important question: can you sue for damages, a person or group who released a product using your patents, if they gave that product away for free?
Depends. If it's your patent, nobody can use it without your agreement. If they do, you can get your lawyers to point this out to them. With big sticks if needed.
The key points (as I understand them) are these:
A trade secret is yours until it leaks, then it's everybody's. Tough.
You have a copyright on anything you create, without having to register it. But anyone can "clean room" reproduce it. They can't just copy it.
If you get a patent, then it's yours. Your competitors will just have to smile sweetly until the patent expires. If they use your patented stuff without your approval, then they're stuffed. Unless they're richer than you.
Please remember that all court cases are determined by the judge examining the wallets of the opposing parties. The heavier wallet always wins.
Feed the hungry. Save the Whales. free() the malloc()s.
It's good to see Apple releasing this stuff, but why do they have to do it under Yet Another Licence? Is it just to keep their lawyers busy?
IANAL, but it seems to me that they could have used a BSD licence.
I am worried that the plethora of open/semi-open licences is going to cause serious integration problems. What happens if someone creates a 'larger work' containing code covered by two or more of thes 'commercial open source' licences? In the case of a dispute I can see a lot of lawyers getting rich.
Thasnks anyway Apple. It's a move in the rught direction.
This problem exists with all software projects, in fact with all engineering projects.
The only way I have seen it dealt with is by having a clear requirements document. These can only be generated by an iterative series of attempts. Sites like CoSource should consider a process like this:
All parties agree that any disputes will be definitively resolved by a panel of experienced open-source people - NOT in the courts
'Sponsor' submits reqs doc for developers to view
Developers ask for clarification of requirements, and suggest changes
'Sponsor' clarifies document, accepts changes etc (note - the 'sponsor' owns the document - only they can make changes)
Lather. Rinse. Repeat
A developer says 'OK, I can work with that.' I'll deliver by date X.'
The 'sponsor' says 'Go for it'
The project is marked as 'Work in Progress with developer {name}'
Developer starts work, and, if needed (and it will be on a significant piece of work) sends prototypes to 'Sponsor'
Developer says 'I've fulfilled the requirements - now pay me'
'Sponsor' pays up
Disputes are initially handled by referring to the requirements document.
Remaining disputes go to the panel of 'experts', and all adjudications are published promptly (within a week of complaint?)
I know this seems a bit formal, but it is the only way I know of delivering good software on time and keeping everybody happy. I've tried other ways, and they just don't work.
Linux, FreeBSD and HURD are all UNIX-like (whatever that means) operating systems/kernels. Is Debian considering any non-UNIX-like operating systems/kernels? I'm thinking about things like MVS, OS/400 (sorry, I work with a lot of IBM kit). I don't know a lot about HURD, but I suspect you could build something that looks like (for instance) OS/400 on top of it. Is this a direction that the Debian project would consider if the large corporates showed interest?
I agree. You'd need to have a good understanding of EM radiation, antenna design etc. Then you'd need some signal processing kit. Due to the amount of EM around, I thing DSP would be daft (in the initial stages of the processing setup at least). I'd look at doing filtering with tuned passive stuff first, then feeding that to some electronics to watch variations, then feed that to an output stage (I'd be doing at a lot of oscilloscope time before I considered digitising it).
I live near a large flock of ravens (corvid family - about 150 of them). They fly over at predictable times at between 30 and 120 feet. I'd calibrate the kit against them first. Calibrating the setup, and keeping it calibrated, would be the headache.
If I could detect the ravens, then I'd ask the US military for a stealth plane to play with. This is where the 'hobbyist' bit is limiting.
I suspect there would be major problems in a populated area with transmissions from electric motors, microwave ovens, mobile phones, overhead lines and all the other bits of electromagnetic technology we rely on. I'd give it a go if I had the time, though.
The Typhoon is easy to detect (for a submarine). NATO put a lot of effort into Magnetic Anomoly Detection kit (airborne, mostly) that was able to detect Alphas (mostly titanium). Then the USSR launched the 12,000+ ton Typhoons (steel construction). The MAD guys in NATO were delighted.
Does anybody know what the business model is? People of this calibre are going to want some return from their efforts. If they charge for access, a lot of people are going to be annoyed. They could try to support it with advertising, but that presents it's own problems.
Alternatively, they could make the resource freely available and charge a lot for consultancy.
Incidentally, however much you dislike Microsoft, their developer support (MSDN etc) has always been good. A significant part of their success is based on making it easy to develop software for their platforms. A similar quality resource for Linux in one location could provide a tremendous boost. Companies considering ports from other platforms would certainly see a single point for Linux development resources as a major benefit.
Transmeta are building a processor. For it to have any chance in the marketplace, obviously it needs an OS and Linux is a sensible choice. It seems to port well to platforms other than x86 (LinuxPPC, Alpha and others). It's stable, which is vital for embedded stuff, and it's easy to downscale.
However, processor manufacturers also need to ship compilers that are optimized for their chips. Intel do this very successfully. Their code profiler (VTune) also helps to generate code that takes advantage of every bit of the hardware. Because of these tools, Intel have a significant edge in benchmarks against other manufacturers who don't produce compilers.
Anyone know if Transmeta have been hiring compiler writers? Can we expect a set of Crusoe optimizations in egcs?
This ruling will change the world. But not very soon.
There will be (probably) years of legal wrangling before it's all over, but I don't think the key points (Microsoft is a monopoly and has abused it's position) can be seriously challenged.
My (extremely limited) understanding of the law is that the US Government now must (after appeals) do something to ensure that Microsoft doesn't abuse it's position again.
My bet is that the company will be broken up into at least three companies (Operating systems, Office applications and 'other stuff')
Before that happens, however, there is a good chance that the MS share price will collapse. Given that most MS employees are strongly motivated by stock options, this will make it hard for them to retain good people and hire new ones. This could lead to a very rapid vicious circle.
The next week will be very interesting.
Feed the hungry. Save the Whales. Free the mallocs.
If you deploy something like this on a large scale, you are adding an evolutionary pressure to the slug's environment. Speculating idly on how the slug's genome may respond:
Lower their metabolic rate so they show up less well on IR, or change shape so they don't look like slugs to the robot (stealth slugs).
Become too large for the thing to pick up (yuck)
Develop a mechanism so their exothermic decomposition becomes *much* faster. Exploding slugs (ultra-yuck)
There is at least one species of slug (huge brownish ones - too lazy to look up classification) that feeds primarily on other slugs. It would be interesting to do a trial to see if these could be used effectively for slug control. I'm not doing it though. Watching one slug eat another is easily the grossest thing I have ever seen.
Yes, but does talking to aliens count as 'export'? If it does, then people in US can't talk to aliens securely (without breaking the law) , but those in the rest of the world can.
The thing that worries me is that the US government has developed the same paternalistic attitude to other cultures that has lead to the downfall of empires (including the British empire).
Slashdot has a history of welcoming alien contributors (such as the one who says 'meeept')
If this story were true (which it isn't), Rob would have to stop the alien-generated posts being viewed by US citizens.
OTOH, the aliens I talk to use strong (>4096 bit) encryption , so US people can't talk to them legally anyway (In Europe we can use any key length we feel like).
Intel are deliberately delaying 820 in order to create an artificial demand for BX chipsets. Motherboard manufacturers then have to rely on Intel being nice and supplying them with lots of BX chipsets which weren't pre-ordered. Now, are Intel going to favour manufacturers who are also producing Athlon motherboards?
==END CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY
Of course, Intel wouldn't do anything so cynical.
Feed the hungry. Save the whales. Free the mallocs.
This makes a lot of sense for everyone. Creative makes excellent hardware. Software (drivers) is not their core business. By opening the source under an appropriate licence (I believe GPL in this case), they get access to a all the benefits of open source development (thousands of skilled programmers, many eyes to spot bugs etc)
What they risk is that it makes it a bit easier for their competitors to reverse engineer their products. This is a very small risk. I am sure their competitors are quite capable of reverse engineering without the source.
The benefit is that this could give them a serious competitive edge. Their drivers should become significantly better than those of their closed-source competitors. They also stand to gain a significant amount of customer loyalty from Linux geeks.
This should allow them to increase their focus on producing great hardware.
I am a bit disappointed that they haven't opened the source to their drivers for other platforms. I suspect this is because they don't think there are enough open-source Win32 programmers. I think they are wrong on this. However, with the Linux source it should be possible (not easy, but possible) to write drivers for Windoze etc. if we want to.
I hope other hardware manufacturers follow. I have seen several brilliant bits of hardware totally compromised by shoddy drivers.
In effect, I already pay a per-minute fee for Internet access (It's about 1p per minute off-peak). So does just about everyone else in Europe. We have to pay for local calls.
I really envy Americans their unmetered local calls. If a telco offered me flat rate net access, I would jump at the chance.
I also live in a fairly rural area. The chances of getting DSL or Cable access here are remote.
People are right to be concerned about this. It will discourage many people from getting access. Particularly poorer people. But large companies don't seem to care about people without a lot of economic clout. One of the major reasons for having a government is to protect the rights of the weaker/poorer members of society. I wonder if anyone will consider poorer people when they make this decision? Or will the large telcos get their way again. Anyone want a bet?
Why is NetWare a bizarre choice for a web server? The primary purpose of a web server is to fulfil client's requests for files. NetWare excels at this. It certainly performs a lot better than another proprietary OS I could mention.
I'm sorry. Your logic is brought down by your assertion that our government also assisinates people.
I hope this isn't true. But if it were true, then who is to blame? Who is the assassin?
If you are living in a democracy (for example, the USA or UK) then it isn't 'The Government' that carries out the assasination (murder). It's you. In a democracy, we are each responsible for the acts of our government. There is no escape from that.
A very wise man once said 'All that is needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.'
I hide behind the facts that I am a hypocrite and a coward.
1m resolution isn't that high. You'd get better with an instant camera taking snaps from a Cessna at 1500 feet. But this will eventully photograph the entire Earth's surface (unless it's cloudy - living in UK has some benefits).
Also, you can be sure that military/government organisations are getting much better resolution. If theirs isn'tat least an order of magnitude better (0.1m) I'd be surprised.
Sorry, I'm too lazy to look up the orbital data on this bird, but it's obviously in low earth orbit. I seem to recall about 400km. How are you going to track anything small with it? It's orbital period is pretty low (i.e., speed over the ground is pretty high.)
Making some crass assumptions: (Note - all numbers are in SI. Interplanetary Spacecraft builders please take note.)
Satellite's orbit is circular
Height above Earth's surface=400Km Gravitational acceleration at 400Km~= g at surface ~=10m/s^2 Radius of Earth ~=6400Km
This gives an orbital distance of 6800Km = 6.8*10^6 m a=w^2*r => w^2=a/r
Plug some numbers in:
w^2=10/(6.8*10^6) => w= 0.0012 radians per second.
1 radian at Earth's surface = 1 * radius = 6.4*10^6 m.
In 1 second this satellite does 7700 m. That's fast.
Backing up a bit, it'll do an orbit in 2 * pi / 0.0012 seconds ~=5200 seconds ~= 87 minutes.
(Sanity check - this feels a bit fast, but is well within an order of magnitude of the expected result)
So how are you going to track *anything* with this? All your target has to do is hide for a few minutes (I'm too lazy to look up the field of view of the satellite) every 90 minutes and you'll never see it.
This is a very best estimate. Again, I'm too lazy to look this up, but this assumes that the satellite is in a polar orbit, and your target is at one of the poles. Otherwise your flybys will be at best many hours, and possibly days apart. Also, I doubt it's results through cloud are much good.
I want a StarFire too. But I can't really justify one for 800 users on an Oracle database. They've only given be a multi-node RS/6000 SP2 cluster. And a bunch of big 740-series AS/400s for DB2 (can you say 20GB of RAM). Overall , the system starts to lose performance at 12,500 interactive users. It's still usable at 20,000. But I still want a StarFire. (/offtopic)
I think the total 'multiply processor speed by processors' on that system must be quite a lot. Someone really ought to port Quake to the AS/400. It'd make a cracking server. 5,000 user deathmatch here we come....
Everybody knows what a handful of electrons feels like. It feels like your hand. *Everything* you can see/feel is directly due to electron/photon interactions.
I believe the person in charge of the US patent office in the early 1900s applied to US Congress to have the patent office shut down 'because everything that can be invented, has been invented'
I agree. Intel have a serious interest in producing faster and faster chips; if they ever reach a real limit, they'll have to do something. There's quite a lot they can do, so Intel shareholders needn't worry yet.
If you analyze the performance of a modern PC (Intel PentiumIII, AMD K6, etc) in 'normal' use you'll see that the processor spends most of it's 'busy' time (90%+) waiting tor cache misses. A stupid interpretation of this is that a 50MHz processor would give you the same performance as a 500MHz chip. This isn't entirely true, but isn't a a bad guess. I run a processor-bound Oracle database on x86 architecture. At peak loads the (single) processor is reporting that it is very busy. What it is really doing is waiting for memory to respond. The system is designed not to need to swap to disk. The users think the system is very fast.
If Intel or (someone else) could improve memory performance to the level required by modern processors, we would see phenomenal improvements in overall sysstem performance. The x86 machine I am using at the moment is seriously disk-bound. If the disk performance was 20% better (which I could acheieve by buying better RAID) I would see something very close to a 20% performance improvement (It's *very* disk-bound). If I fed it another gigabyte of memory, I'd see a miraculous performance improvement, because it would stop being disk-bound and become memory bound.
If you take Moore's law as applying to silicon-based processors, then there is a limit that we are within about 5-10 years of. If you apply Moore's law to *whole* computer systems, then we've got a lot of room before we hit a major problem. Even then, there are a lot of things that can be done:
Chemical / molecular systems Biological systems Quantum logic etc.
Every computer on this planet is built on the von Neumann architecture. It's a good architecture, but there are others. Many are inherently faster. I will happily bet that Moore's law (applied to system performance) will be exceeded over the next 50 years. Anyone want to bet against that?
Slashdot Mirror
"MSNBC is reporting that a geek is actually locking himself away from Internet access for a year, to prove that real-commerce makes it possible. He's even changed his legal name to NotDotComGuy. He says, 'I'm going to come back being a loon,' but I think you have to be crazy already to even think of doing this in the first place... " Actually, it does appear that he can go in the newsgroups - and can have check his email. But still, I think I'd have lost it after about two weeks or so.
Does a private individual have the right to make a program that executes a proprietary algorithm, if they used a clean-room method to find this algorithm?
Yes, unless the algorithm is patented.
Do individuals or companies have the right to keep data formats private?
Yes. They can keep it secret (trade secret). It's unlikely that they could copyright or patent a data format.
Here's an important question: can you sue for damages, a person or group who released a product using your patents, if they gave that product away for free?
Depends. If it's your patent, nobody can use it without your agreement. If they do, you can get your lawyers to point this out to them. With big sticks if needed.
The key points (as I understand them) are these:
A trade secret is yours until it leaks, then it's everybody's. Tough.
You have a copyright on anything you create, without having to register it. But anyone can "clean room" reproduce it. They can't just copy it.
If you get a patent, then it's yours. Your competitors will just have to smile sweetly until the patent expires. If they use your patented stuff without your approval, then they're stuffed. Unless they're richer than you.
Please remember that all court cases are determined by the judge examining the wallets of the opposing parties. The heavier wallet always wins.
Feed the hungry. Save the Whales. free() the malloc()s.
It's good to see Apple releasing this stuff, but why do they have to do it under Yet Another Licence? Is it just to keep their lawyers busy?
IANAL, but it seems to me that they could have used a BSD licence.
I am worried that the plethora of open/semi-open licences is going to cause serious integration problems. What happens if someone creates a 'larger work' containing code covered by two or more of thes 'commercial open source' licences? In the case of a dispute I can see a lot of lawyers getting rich.
Thasnks anyway Apple. It's a move in the rught direction.
The only way I have seen it dealt with is by having a clear requirements document. These can only be generated by an iterative series of attempts. Sites like CoSource should consider a process like this:
All parties agree that any disputes will be definitively resolved by a panel of experienced open-source people - NOT in the courts
'Sponsor' submits reqs doc for developers to view
Developers ask for clarification of requirements, and suggest changes
'Sponsor' clarifies document, accepts changes etc (note - the 'sponsor' owns the document - only they can make changes)
Lather. Rinse. Repeat
A developer says 'OK, I can work with that.' I'll deliver by date X.'
The 'sponsor' says 'Go for it'
The project is marked as 'Work in Progress with developer {name}'
Developer starts work, and, if needed (and it will be on a significant piece of work) sends prototypes to 'Sponsor'
Developer says 'I've fulfilled the requirements - now pay me'
'Sponsor' pays up
Disputes are initially handled by referring to the requirements document.
Remaining disputes go to the panel of 'experts', and all adjudications are published promptly (within a week of complaint?)
I know this seems a bit formal, but it is the only way I know of delivering good software on time and keeping everybody happy. I've tried other ways, and they just don't work.
Linux, FreeBSD and HURD are all UNIX-like (whatever that means) operating systems/kernels. Is Debian considering any non-UNIX-like operating systems/kernels? I'm thinking about things like MVS, OS/400 (sorry, I work with a lot of IBM kit). I don't know a lot about HURD, but I suspect you could build something that looks like (for instance) OS/400 on top of it. Is this a direction that the Debian project would consider if the large corporates showed interest?
I agree. You'd need to have a good understanding of EM radiation, antenna design etc. Then you'd need some signal processing kit. Due to the amount of EM around, I thing DSP would be daft (in the initial stages of the processing setup at least). I'd look at doing filtering with tuned passive stuff first, then feeding that to some electronics to watch variations, then feed that to an output stage (I'd be doing at a lot of oscilloscope time before I considered digitising it).
I live near a large flock of ravens (corvid family - about 150 of them). They fly over at predictable times at between 30 and 120 feet. I'd calibrate the kit against them first. Calibrating the setup, and keeping it calibrated, would be the headache.
If I could detect the ravens, then I'd ask the US military for a stealth plane to play with. This is where the 'hobbyist' bit is limiting.
I suspect there would be major problems in a populated area with transmissions from electric motors, microwave ovens, mobile phones, overhead lines and all the other bits of electromagnetic technology we rely on. I'd give it a go if I had the time, though.
The Typhoon is easy to detect (for a submarine). NATO put a lot of effort into Magnetic Anomoly Detection kit (airborne, mostly) that was able to detect Alphas (mostly titanium). Then the USSR launched the 12,000+ ton Typhoons (steel construction). The MAD guys in NATO were delighted.
Does anybody know what the business model is? People of this calibre are going to want some return from their efforts. If they charge for access, a lot of people are going to be annoyed. They could try to support it with advertising, but that presents it's own problems.
Alternatively, they could make the resource freely available and charge a lot for consultancy.
Incidentally, however much you dislike Microsoft, their developer support (MSDN etc) has always been good. A significant part of their success is based on making it easy to develop software for their platforms. A similar quality resource for Linux in one location could provide a tremendous boost. Companies considering ports from other platforms would certainly see a single point for Linux development resources as a major benefit.
I wish them well.
Transmeta are building a processor. For it to have any chance in the marketplace, obviously it needs an OS and Linux is a sensible choice. It seems to port well to platforms other than x86 (LinuxPPC, Alpha and others). It's stable, which is vital for embedded stuff, and it's easy to downscale.
However, processor manufacturers also need to ship compilers that are optimized for their chips. Intel do this very successfully. Their code profiler (VTune) also helps to generate code that takes advantage of every bit of the hardware. Because of these tools, Intel have a significant edge in benchmarks against other manufacturers who don't produce compilers.
Anyone know if Transmeta have been hiring compiler writers? Can we expect a set of Crusoe optimizations in egcs?
This ruling will change the world. But not very soon.
There will be (probably) years of legal wrangling before it's all over, but I don't think the key points (Microsoft is a monopoly and has abused it's position) can be seriously challenged.
My (extremely limited) understanding of the law is that the US Government now must (after appeals) do something to ensure that Microsoft doesn't abuse it's position again.
My bet is that the company will be broken up into at least three companies (Operating systems, Office applications and 'other stuff')
Before that happens, however, there is a good chance that the MS share price will collapse. Given that most MS employees are strongly motivated by stock options, this will make it hard for them to retain good people and hire new ones. This could lead to a very rapid vicious circle.
The next week will be very interesting.
Feed the hungry. Save the Whales. Free the mallocs.
If you deploy something like this on a large scale, you are adding an evolutionary pressure to the slug's environment. Speculating idly on how the slug's genome may respond:
Lower their metabolic rate so they show up less well on IR, or change shape so they don't look like slugs to the robot (stealth slugs).
Become too large for the thing to pick up (yuck)
Develop a mechanism so their exothermic decomposition becomes *much* faster. Exploding slugs (ultra-yuck)
There is at least one species of slug (huge brownish ones - too lazy to look up classification) that feeds primarily on other slugs. It would be interesting to do a trial to see if these could be used effectively for slug control. I'm not doing it though. Watching one slug eat another is easily the grossest thing I have ever seen.
Yes, but does talking to aliens count as 'export'? If it does, then people in US can't talk to aliens securely (without breaking the law) , but those in the rest of the world can.
The thing that worries me is that the US government has developed the same paternalistic attitude to other cultures that has lead to the downfall of empires (including the British empire).
Slashdot has a history of welcoming alien contributors (such as the one who says 'meeept')
If this story were true (which it isn't), Rob would have to stop the alien-generated posts being viewed by US citizens.
OTOH, the aliens I talk to use strong (>4096 bit) encryption , so US people can't talk to them legally anyway (In Europe we can use any key length we feel like).
Oook.
(Apologies to T. Pratchett)
==BEGIN CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY
Intel are deliberately delaying 820 in order to create an artificial demand for BX chipsets. Motherboard manufacturers then have to rely on Intel being nice and supplying them with lots of BX chipsets which weren't pre-ordered. Now, are Intel going to favour manufacturers who are also producing Athlon motherboards?
==END CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY
Of course, Intel wouldn't do anything so cynical.
Feed the hungry. Save the whales. Free the mallocs.
This makes a lot of sense for everyone. Creative makes excellent hardware. Software (drivers) is not their core business. By opening the source under an appropriate licence (I believe GPL in this case), they get access to a all the benefits of open source development (thousands of skilled programmers, many eyes to spot bugs etc)
What they risk is that it makes it a bit easier for their competitors to reverse engineer their products. This is a very small risk. I am sure their competitors are quite capable of reverse engineering without the source.
The benefit is that this could give them a serious competitive edge. Their drivers should become significantly better than those of their closed-source competitors. They also stand to gain a significant amount of customer loyalty from Linux geeks.
This should allow them to increase their focus on producing great hardware.
I am a bit disappointed that they haven't opened the source to their drivers for other platforms. I suspect this is because they don't think there are enough open-source Win32 programmers. I think they are wrong on this. However, with the Linux source it should be possible (not easy, but possible) to write drivers for Windoze etc. if we want to.
I hope other hardware manufacturers follow. I have seen several brilliant bits of hardware totally compromised by shoddy drivers.
In effect, I already pay a per-minute fee for Internet access (It's about 1p per minute off-peak). So does just about everyone else in Europe. We have to pay for local calls.
I really envy Americans their unmetered local calls. If a telco offered me flat rate net access, I would jump at the chance.
I also live in a fairly rural area. The chances of getting DSL or Cable access here are remote.
People are right to be concerned about this. It will discourage many people from getting access. Particularly poorer people. But large companies don't seem to care about people without a lot of economic clout. One of the major reasons for having a government is to protect the rights of the weaker/poorer members of society. I wonder if anyone will consider poorer people when they make this decision? Or will the large telcos get their way again. Anyone want a bet?
Why is NetWare a bizarre choice for a web server? The primary purpose of a web server is to fulfil client's requests for files. NetWare excels at this. It certainly performs a lot better than another proprietary OS I could mention.
But it does blow Sun away in 'Bangs per Buck', which was the point being made.
I agree that a big Solaris box will outperform *any* Intel system, but at the lower end you get a much better hit/cost ratio with Intel & Linux.
I've also heard reports that Linux can outperform Solaris on low-end Sun hardware. Don't know if it's true though.
I actually run Solaris as well as Linux and FreeBSD because I like it.
Feed the hungry. Save the whales. Free the mallocs
I'm sorry. Your logic is brought down by your assertion that our government also assisinates people.
I hope this isn't true. But if it were true, then who is to blame? Who is the assassin?
If you are living in a democracy (for example, the USA or UK) then it isn't 'The Government' that carries out the assasination (murder). It's you. In a democracy, we are each responsible for the acts of our government. There is no escape from that.
A very wise man once said 'All that is needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.'
I hide behind the facts that I am a hypocrite and a coward.
1m resolution isn't that high. You'd get better with an instant camera taking snaps from a Cessna at 1500 feet. But this will eventully photograph the entire Earth's surface (unless it's cloudy - living in UK has some benefits).
Also, you can be sure that military/government organisations are getting much better resolution. If theirs isn'tat least an order of magnitude better (0.1m) I'd be surprised.
Sorry, I'm too lazy to look up the orbital data on this bird, but it's obviously in low earth orbit. I seem to recall about 400km. How are you going to track anything small with it? It's orbital period is pretty low (i.e., speed over the ground is pretty high.)
Making some crass assumptions:
(Note - all numbers are in SI. Interplanetary Spacecraft builders please take note.)
Satellite's orbit is circular
Height above Earth's surface=400Km
Gravitational acceleration at 400Km~= g at surface ~=10m/s^2
Radius of Earth ~=6400Km
This gives an orbital distance of 6800Km = 6.8*10^6 m
a=w^2*r
=> w^2=a/r
Plug some numbers in:
w^2=10/(6.8*10^6)
=> w= 0.0012 radians per second.
1 radian at Earth's surface = 1 * radius = 6.4*10^6 m.
In 1 second this satellite does 7700 m. That's fast.
Backing up a bit, it'll do an orbit in 2 * pi / 0.0012 seconds ~=5200 seconds ~= 87 minutes.
(Sanity check - this feels a bit fast, but is well within an order of magnitude of the expected result)
So how are you going to track *anything* with this? All your target has to do is hide for a few minutes (I'm too lazy to look up the field of view of the satellite) every 90 minutes and you'll never see it.
This is a very best estimate. Again, I'm too lazy to look this up, but this assumes that the satellite is in a polar orbit, and your target is at one of the poles. Otherwise your flybys will be at best many hours, and possibly days apart. Also, I doubt it's results through cloud are much good.
Nice desktop pics though.
(Offtopic)
I want a StarFire too. But I can't really justify one for 800 users on an Oracle database. They've only given be a multi-node RS/6000 SP2 cluster. And a bunch of big 740-series AS/400s for DB2 (can you say 20GB of RAM). Overall , the system starts to lose performance at 12,500 interactive users. It's still usable at 20,000. But I still want a StarFire.
(/offtopic)
I think the total 'multiply processor speed by processors' on that system must be quite a lot. Someone really ought to port Quake to the AS/400. It'd make a cracking server. 5,000 user deathmatch here we come....
Chaz
Everybody knows what a handful of electrons feels like. It feels like your hand. *Everything* you can see/feel is directly due to electron/photon interactions.
Sorry to be so pedantic.
Chaz
I believe the person in charge of the US patent office in the early 1900s applied to US Congress to have the patent office shut down 'because everything that can be invented, has been invented'
I suspect that he was just bored with the job.
I agree. Intel have a serious interest in producing faster and faster chips; if they ever reach a real limit, they'll have to do something. There's quite a lot they can do, so Intel shareholders needn't worry yet.
If you analyze the performance of a modern PC (Intel PentiumIII, AMD K6, etc) in 'normal' use you'll see that the processor spends most of it's 'busy' time (90%+) waiting tor cache misses. A stupid interpretation of this is that a 50MHz processor would give you the same performance as a 500MHz chip. This isn't entirely true, but isn't a a bad guess. I run a processor-bound Oracle database on x86 architecture. At peak loads the (single) processor is reporting that it is very busy. What it is really doing is waiting for memory to respond. The system is designed not to need to swap to disk. The users think the system is very fast.
If Intel or (someone else) could improve memory performance to the level required by modern processors, we would see phenomenal improvements in overall sysstem performance. The x86 machine I am using at the moment is seriously disk-bound. If the disk performance was 20% better (which I could acheieve by buying better RAID) I would see something very close to a 20% performance improvement (It's *very* disk-bound). If I fed it another gigabyte of memory, I'd see a miraculous performance improvement, because it would stop being disk-bound and become memory bound.
If you take Moore's law as applying to silicon-based processors, then there is a limit that we are within about 5-10 years of. If you apply Moore's law to *whole* computer systems, then we've got a lot of room before we hit a major problem. Even then, there are a lot of things that can be done:
Chemical / molecular systems
Biological systems
Quantum logic
etc.
Every computer on this planet is built on the von Neumann architecture. It's a good architecture, but there are others. Many are inherently faster. I will happily bet that Moore's law (applied to system performance) will be exceeded over the next 50 years. Anyone want to bet against that?