The AI network on board the starship the Chandrasurya was having a nightmare - as AI's go. It had concluded recently - about three or four years back - that the increasing number of micrometeorite impacts on its hull were not accidental at all. Micrometeorites do not in general leave an ionic trail behind them. It had used as much of the micrometeorite defense as was feasible; had upgraded its security environment to careful; but had not yet decided it was now critical. The hull was losing a microscopic amount of integrity, but the Chandrasurya had only reached the heliopause of Alpha Centauri. It predicted that on the grounds of the increasing number of impacts, it would soon reach a maximum level of impacts when it had decelerated to orbital speeds and had reached the Lagagrange 1 point between the two stars. At that stage hull integrity would be seriously, even fatally, compromised.
When you can accelerate a pack of micrometeorites to a high-enough speed, you don't need to be particularly precise in your aiming; when you're aiming at something travelling at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, you don't need a vast amount of mass. And the aim is to degrade hull integrity, as a starship breaking up from braking stress at speed is such a pretty sight!
Next they'll be requiring dive-bombing capacity in their passenger jets! And ejection seats in submarines!
Facetiously, fast aerial transport needs fuel with a high MMBTU and a light weight. A non-nuclear submarine needs a lot of batteries to move underwater for any reasonable length of time.
That number of batteries constitutes a weight penalty for an aircraft. That quantity of light jet fuel constitutes a massive buoyancy chamber for a submarine. And burning off the fuel to permit their use as ballast tanks in order to submerge... sends a terror-induced shiver up my spine. It puts a new meaning into Overuse Syndrome.
But for a nuclear geek I'd suggest plutonium. As long as it carries a disclaimer suggesting that aggregating these particular wedding rings is not a wise idea...;)
And by that I mean, these times are not the only ones to have faced the "threat" of "terrorism".
Can we classify the various Haiti independence movements during the 1700s as terrorists? Do we?
Would similar procedures apply to Tsarist Russia? When Tsar Alexander II had been killed in a bomb blast in Nevsky Prospekt on March the third, 1881?
In post-Krakatau-eruption Dutch East Indies? When there where a significant number of disaffected Javanese?
What about the Moro resistance to the US annexation of Mindanao? The Cebuan resistance to the US annexation of Cebu?
In the south of China around the time of the Long March?
During the Mau-Mau in Kenya?
You see, as they say, "One man's terrorist is another man's guerilla/Freedom Fighter/useful idiot/Republican senator/US President" etc, ad nauseam... and I doubt seriously that that book pays any attention to such obviously unimportant matters.
At various times, apparently terrorists were obviously Jews and homosexuals and Catholics and Protestants and Poles and Marxists and voodun priests and... and... and... and now they're Muslims and copyright infringers and Free-and-Open-Source-Software distributors and peer-to-peer networks users and....
We have some downright brilliant people in power, and they won't stop until everybody's been fucked up the arse with curare-tipped depleted uranium-covered thermonuclear fenceposts - themselves excluded, naturally.
I've tried to find Hilf's blog, but he doesn't appear to have one. These are some suggestions I've made to Microsoft's previous Shared (Scared?) Source Czar, Jason Matusow:
Now that there has been an attempt to halt license bloat, begin by releasing the MS WinCE under the unlimited MS Community License, replacing the four existing Shared Source Licenses with one, offering businesses a one-off lump sum license buy-out or an annual relicensing deal a la AT&T and Unix;
Microsoft wants the developing nations' markets but doesn't want to dirty its hands in developing them, while on the other hand, those markets are full of "pirated" Microsoft software. Ingredients for a full-on Cargo Cult! The cure? Simple. Microsoft to license the MS Windows 9x source tree to the various Developing World universities under the unlimited MS Community License, informing every University of the other recipients, and suggesting that they collaborate;
And likewise, licensing the older Windows NT source trees to Developing World Universities under the unlimited MS Community License.
Unlike many other Free/Libre Open Source Software supporters, I don't see the implosion/collapse of Microsoft as being necessarily a good thing, if it goes the way of the international economy in the 1920s. I'd much rather have it happen gracefully. That way fewer people get hurt, and the fewer the number, the happier I am.
I mean, Microsoft could do us all a favour by keeping an eye out, not by poking an eye out!
Of course, Linux names (and Unix ones before that) tend to pale in comparison to some of the beauties Microsoft has perpetrated.
One thinks - or tries not to think - of poor Bob...
Then we have the infamous MS WinCE, which combined with its copartners NT and ME produced Microsoft's most solid OS, MS Windows CE/ME/NT
Which would be merely historical if it wasn't for the unfortunate coalescing of the sound of Microsoft's latest and greatest Beta with the solitary vice. Pronounce "e" in "beta" as the "ei" in "weight", run Vista hard up against it, and - do you vistabete?
I wish I knew Microsoft chose to identify with the solitary vice. Perhaps they've already gone blind. Oh well, different strokes for diggerent folks.;)
All this hoo-haa about "Intellectual Property Rights" has gone on with the casual obfuscation of Salvage Rights.
To wit, if on the high seas - if not yet on the High Internet - anyone coming across something abandoned, has rights to claim it, if the original owner has disappeared, or if the original owner has lost interest in it, or a significant portion of its value if the original owner has lost control of it.
We've heard an awful lot about "Property Rights" as applied to software - I think we need to hear a lot more about "Salvage Rights" - because that is part and parcel of the business risk assessment that insurers do for shipping lines, and that is nothing if not Property Rights.
Associate Member in Good Standing and Sheeps' Clothing, Founding Member of the
International Secret
Conspiracy for the Oppression of Teddybears, and Non-User of Condoms
We Thank You From the Bottom of Our Hearts, and the Hearts of Our Bottoms,
For Your Graciousness in Calling Us. (We may not be overly happy
with the abusive name you chose to call us, but hey, at least you called us!)
We carried out the test as per your instructions. The man and the
woman were duly connected with the Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom
(Registered Trade Mark) of The Pentagon (with three volume controls), and left
in [censored] National Park.
Unfortunately the current theory is wrong. The leopard ate them both.
So apparently the Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom (R) of The Pentagon
does not in fact work at the moment as a Leopard Repellent. (Note: We
pre-tested them with a house cat and the house cat was duly repelled -
perhaps the tuning was out? And perhaps, Dearest Darling Nigerian Scamster, we
were wrong
in theorizing that the
leopard would be repelled out of a sense of public duty? That if we had
theorized the leopard would be repelled by an existential dilemma, the pair
might still be alive today?)
Perhaps we need to find a more compliant leopard? Should we begin the next
stage of the plan - breeding a leopard that can be reliably predicted to be
repelled by a man and a woman connected by the Screw-in Screw-on
Stainless-Steel Condom(R) of The Pentagon? What would you suggest? More
volume controls? We are relying on your sterling reputation in the fields of
leopard repulsion and anti-leopard engineering, and your renowned ability to
keep a confidence.
We also need more volunteers. Would you, Dearest Darling Nigerian Scamster,
perhaps like to serve as a volunteer
for the new and improved Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom (R) The
PentagonLeopard Repellent (Patent Pending)? With electronic stimulation?
And eleven new volume controls?
When would be a good time to pick you up and take you to the [censored]
National Park? Morning or afternoon? And can we have your residential
address? We, Dearest Darling Nigerian Scamster, would not like to deprive your
family of the joy of seeing your
truly heroic partipation in what must be truly one of the last remaining
challenges for mankind.
We need more people like you, Dearest Darling Nigerian Scamster - young, fit and
courageous - to test the new
theories of leopard repulsion that have sprung out of the development of the
Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom (R) of The Pentagon.
And remember, if you repel the girl, you get to keep the leopard!
Signed,
With all due respect
The Grand Panjandrum
The Freak Show Manager
Late Breaking News: The person who has been tested with this all-new
penis-and-breast enlargement program, has escaped and is now on the loose.
If you should encounter a 3-foot high woman with a 2 foot three inch long
six inch thick penis and 2 foot diameter breasts, you are advised to take
all due care and advise the police of your whereabouts.
And you are requested to tell the ungrateful bitch that "All is forgiven,
please return", and in any case, the Freak Show Manager is breathing down my
butt and groping my neck and I worry about my safety - particularly as she
absconded with his money.
Notice - if she is still taking the pills she absconded with, she may now be
only 2 foot eight inches high, with a 2 foot seven inch long nine inch thick
penis and 2 foot 4 inch diameter breasts. Please remove the pills from her -
they are perfectly safe, and you may keep and use them as a sign of our
gratitude. (And try not to bend over in her presence - it can be painful,
extremely painful! And she LAUGHS about it! We still do not understand why
she does this - she never used to do any such thing before she was
volunteered!)
Then, I also hate the PPL - Paranoid Programming Language
http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/computing/paranoid-pro gramming-language.html for much the same reason.
Intercal http://catb.org/~esr/intercal/
is perhaps the easiest of the three to use, and is one I recommend heartily as the be-all-and-end-all of all possible programming languages
Western Australia's a much better measure of size. Just remember, Western Australia measures at least two Southern Australia's in area, which comes to about one and a half Quebecs, or two Frances... how many Ukraines would that amount to? How many Rhode Islands? Washington D.C.s?;^)
Alternatively, you could make a more celestial-based measuring tool with the "Antarctica". How many artarcticas to a texas, considering that the "texas" is a measurement based on human whim, a la the yard, while the "antarctica" is one based on solid physical reality, ie, the freezing point of water at sea level corresponding to a gravity field of one earth, and a partial air pressure corresponding to the current setup, etc.
if they quit their offensive pop-up assault on my computer. Just because they can, doesn't mean they should, and frankly I have had so much of it it doesn't matter if they open the source for their entire bl**dy fscking set of software, I for one wouldn't waste my time.
If they would only learn to stop offending people, then maybe I'd agree that they've got a worthwhile product - as it stands, they have wasted my time and crashed my computer on a number of occasions, and they're still going at it.
Thumbs down, macromedia, until you learn some basic manners.
QNX is sweet enough for any sweet-toothed hacker type. It isn't however Open Source/Free software. It is proprietary code that the QNX company allows access to, to "deserving hackers", etc.
If you want an open source microkernel, try vsta, or chaos, or openblt. And that's probably just starters.
When I first heard about the porting of Linux to the IBM mainframe I thought it was a good idea, as it would put Linux in a much fiercer test environment than the i80x86 platform permits. And if Linux succeeded in that, then it would be very much a feather in us Linux-users' caps.
Then I heard that maybe some of the mainframe technologies might come Linux's way. Even better, I thought. Though there wasn't much detail - and there still isn't much of it.
It's been at least three years since I first read about the Iron Penguin, and there hasn't been a lot of detail about Linux becoming a Emperor Penguin, well able to outlast a 3 month blizzard at subzero Antarctic temperatures, or so. Is IBM planning to bring any of the mainframe technologies over to Linux, or was that merely a hopeful buzz?
Bah, a group I knew back in the mid seventies were using a hand-wind-up cassette player for distributing information on. Making it in India, too, if my memory serves me right.
Hey, for all the "worthless code" grumbles I've read, I think Caldera deserves a lot of credit for this. I think it'll be useful to read and reread this code until I get some idea of how to handle multi-usered, multitasking memory in 64K or less.
That's one thing you won't get from reading code written for systems with >64M.
I hate to sound obvious, but it sounds much like you guys are basically regurgitating a comment I posted some time ago -
I had a dream, and this looks a little like...
I had an idea once, a far out, way out idea, a way far outre idea - in my lounge you see the avant garde sculpture with all those little boxes spiraling around a central pole - no, wait half a mo, that's the servers, and next to them you have the hard drives on a SAN - don't trip over the power cable, will you!? It's a fully Uninterruptable Power Supply, fully shielded from everything except a nuclear strike. No, the little boxes don't have power supplies all of their own! It's elementary - they communicate with the UPS over the power cable.
The CPUs communicate over a gigabit Fibre Channel with each other and with the SAN - SAN's an arbitrated loop of course, the CPUs are switched fabric - and these are my screens - a full seven times twenty-one inch! And all running Enlightenment on X on their own Graphics PUs. It's wonderful what you can do with switched fabric and a set of flat screens!
To enlarge upon - the boxes would be only the size needed for a CPU plus local memory plus network interface. They would be set vertical not flat, and would depend much more on ducting cooling air via a system of baffles (Hot air rises. Amazing!) than on forced air convection cooling. The central pillar would double as an air pipe and a fibre channel conduit. None of the boxes would be stacked on top of each other - no point in box B running sweet if it's frying box C.
The mass storage would be likewise stacked, since it would also be RAID of some description. And it's plug-n-forget, in essence.
Devices like CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs, keyboards, mice, audio, cams, whatever, would be grouped around the monitor/s, since they are very much personal use devices. And they would be individual nodes on the network that would constitute this hypothetical PC replacement. That includes having CPUs and memory and network interfaces of their ownsome. (Though Central Processing Unit might be somewhat inaccurate - I prefer Nodal Processing Unit myself)
The sad fact is that the modern PC is essentially obsolete, and it irritates me that some people think that more and more can be stuffed into the CPU without congestion and overheating, whereas the PC is so much more efficient modelled as an "internal network" with small, highly efficient NPUs, and designed as a network in fact and in deed.
Slashdot Mirror
When you can accelerate a pack of micrometeorites to a high-enough speed, you don't need to be particularly precise in your aiming; when you're aiming at something travelling at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, you don't need a vast amount of mass. And the aim is to degrade hull integrity, as a starship breaking up from braking stress at speed is such a pretty sight!
Next they'll be requiring dive-bombing capacity in their passenger jets! And ejection seats in submarines!
Facetiously, fast aerial transport needs fuel with a high MMBTU and a light weight. A non-nuclear submarine needs a lot of batteries to move underwater for any reasonable length of time.
That number of batteries constitutes a weight penalty for an aircraft. That quantity of light jet fuel constitutes a massive buoyancy chamber for a submarine. And burning off the fuel to permit their use as ballast tanks in order to submerge ... sends a terror-induced shiver up my spine. It puts a new meaning into Overuse Syndrome.
To be blunt, it's a non-starter.
For a hardware geek I'd suggest germanium.
For an aviation geek I'd suggest duralium.
But for a nuclear geek I'd suggest plutonium. As long as it carries a disclaimer suggesting that aggregating these particular wedding rings is not a wise idea ... ;)
And by that I mean, these times are not the only ones to have faced the "threat" of "terrorism".
... and I doubt seriously that that book pays any attention to such obviously unimportant matters.
... and ... and ... and now they're Muslims and copyright infringers and Free-and-Open-Source-Software distributors and peer-to-peer networks users and ....
Can we classify the various Haiti independence movements during the 1700s as terrorists? Do we?
Would similar procedures apply to Tsarist Russia? When Tsar Alexander II had been killed in a bomb blast in Nevsky Prospekt on March the third, 1881?
In post-Krakatau-eruption Dutch East Indies? When there where a significant number of disaffected Javanese?
What about the Moro resistance to the US annexation of Mindanao? The Cebuan resistance to the US annexation of Cebu?
In the south of China around the time of the Long March?
During the Mau-Mau in Kenya?
You see, as they say, "One man's terrorist is another man's guerilla/Freedom Fighter/useful idiot/Republican senator/US President" etc, ad nauseam
At various times, apparently terrorists were obviously Jews and homosexuals and Catholics and Protestants and Poles and Marxists and voodun priests and
We have some downright brilliant people in power, and they won't stop until everybody's been fucked up the arse with curare-tipped depleted uranium-covered thermonuclear fenceposts - themselves excluded, naturally.
Stagflation
Gobbledygook, the real grammar. Not for the faint of heart!
I've tried to find Hilf's blog, but he doesn't appear to have one. These are some suggestions I've made to Microsoft's previous Shared (Scared?) Source Czar, Jason Matusow:
Now that there has been an attempt to halt license bloat, begin by releasing the MS WinCE under the unlimited MS Community License, replacing the four existing Shared Source Licenses with one, offering businesses a one-off lump sum license buy-out or an annual relicensing deal a la AT&T and Unix;
Microsoft wants the developing nations' markets but doesn't want to dirty its hands in developing them, while on the other hand, those markets are full of "pirated" Microsoft software. Ingredients for a full-on Cargo Cult! The cure? Simple. Microsoft to license the MS Windows 9x source tree to the various Developing World universities under the unlimited MS Community License, informing every University of the other recipients, and suggesting that they collaborate;
And likewise, licensing the older Windows NT source trees to Developing World Universities under the unlimited MS Community License.
Unlike many other Free/Libre Open Source Software supporters, I don't see the implosion/collapse of Microsoft as being necessarily a good thing, if it goes the way of the international economy in the 1920s. I'd much rather have it happen gracefully. That way fewer people get hurt, and the fewer the number, the happier I am.
I mean, Microsoft could do us all a favour by keeping an eye out , not by poking an eye out !
Wesley Parish
Sure that 's intuitive - if you're a Classics major, and thus a Humanities ubergeek. Most end users aren't anything of the sort.
Of course, Linux names (and Unix ones before that) tend to pale in comparison to some of the beauties Microsoft has perpetrated.
One thinks - or tries not to think - of poor Bob ...
Then we have the infamous MS WinCE, which combined with its copartners NT and ME produced Microsoft's most solid OS, MS Windows CE/ME/NT
Which would be merely historical if it wasn't for the unfortunate coalescing of the sound of Microsoft's latest and greatest Beta with the solitary vice. Pronounce "e" in "beta" as the "ei" in "weight", run Vista hard up against it, and - do you vistabete?
I wish I knew Microsoft chose to identify with the solitary vice. Perhaps they've already gone blind. Oh well, different strokes for diggerent folks. ;)
[...]
Here's what you gotta do -
Pick up the phone
I'm always home
Call me any time
Just ring
36 24 36 hey [36 24 36 8]
I lead a life of crime
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Dirty Deeds and they're Done Dirt Cheap
In other news, the Aussie supergroups Regurgitator and Killing Heidi have joined together for a collaboration known as "Regurgitating Heidi"
Film at 11.
To wit, if on the high seas - if not yet on the High Internet - anyone coming across something abandoned, has rights to claim it, if the original owner has disappeared, or if the original owner has lost interest in it, or a significant portion of its value if the original owner has lost control of it.
We've heard an awful lot about "Property Rights" as applied to software - I think we need to hear a lot more about "Salvage Rights" - because that is part and parcel of the business risk assessment that insurers do for shipping lines, and that is nothing if not Property Rights.
Associate Member in Good Standing and Sheeps' Clothing, Founding Member of the International Secret Conspiracy for the Oppression of Teddybears, and Non-User of Condoms
We Thank You From the Bottom of Our Hearts, and the Hearts of Our Bottoms, For Your Graciousness in Calling Us. (We may not be overly happy with the abusive name you chose to call us, but hey, at least you called us!)
We carried out the test as per your instructions. The man and the woman were duly connected with the Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom (Registered Trade Mark) of The Pentagon (with three volume controls), and left in [censored] National Park.
Unfortunately the current theory is wrong. The leopard ate them both.
So apparently the Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom (R) of The Pentagon does not in fact work at the moment as a Leopard Repellent. (Note: We pre-tested them with a house cat and the house cat was duly repelled - perhaps the tuning was out? And perhaps, Dearest Darling Nigerian Scamster, we were wrong in theorizing that the leopard would be repelled out of a sense of public duty? That if we had theorized the leopard would be repelled by an existential dilemma, the pair might still be alive today?)
Perhaps we need to find a more compliant leopard? Should we begin the next stage of the plan - breeding a leopard that can be reliably predicted to be repelled by a man and a woman connected by the Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom(R) of The Pentagon? What would you suggest? More volume controls? We are relying on your sterling reputation in the fields of leopard repulsion and anti-leopard engineering, and your renowned ability to keep a confidence.
We also need more volunteers. Would you, Dearest Darling Nigerian Scamster, perhaps like to serve as a volunteer for the new and improved Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom (R) The Pentagon Leopard Repellent (Patent Pending)? With electronic stimulation? And eleven new volume controls?
When would be a good time to pick you up and take you to the [censored] National Park? Morning or afternoon? And can we have your residential address? We, Dearest Darling Nigerian Scamster, would not like to deprive your family of the joy of seeing your truly heroic partipation in what must be truly one of the last remaining challenges for mankind.
We need more people like you, Dearest Darling Nigerian Scamster - young, fit and courageous - to test the new theories of leopard repulsion that have sprung out of the development of the Screw-in Screw-on Stainless-Steel Condom (R) of The Pentagon.
And remember, if you repel the girl, you get to keep the leopard!
Signed,
With all due respect
The Grand Panjandrum
The Freak Show Manager
Late Breaking News: The person who has been tested with this all-new penis-and-breast enlargement program, has escaped and is now on the loose. If you should encounter a 3-foot high woman with a 2 foot three inch long six inch thick penis and 2 foot diameter breasts, you are advised to take all due care and advise the police of your whereabouts.
And you are requested to tell the ungrateful bitch that "All is forgiven, please return", and in any case, the Freak Show Manager is breathing down my butt and groping my neck and I worry about my safety - particularly as she absconded with his money.
Notice - if she is still taking the pills she absconded with, she may now be only 2 foot eight inches high, with a 2 foot seven inch long nine inch thick penis and 2 foot 4 inch diameter breasts. Please remove the pills from her - they are perfectly safe, and you may keep and use them as a sign of our gratitude. (And try not to bend over in her presence - it can be painful, extremely painful! And she LAUGHS about it! We still do not understand why she does this - she never used to do any such thing before she was volunteered!)
The Freak Show Accountant.
is the senses of paranoia it engenderz
Then, I also hate the PPL - Paranoid Programming Languageo gramming-language.html
http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/computing/paranoid-pr
for much the same reason.
Intercal
http://catb.org/~esr/intercal/
is perhaps the easiest of the three to use, and is one I recommend heartily as the be-all-and-end-all of all possible programming languages
Because it's True!!!
Poor Microsoft. Maybe someone should sic the law onto Microsoft again. Perjury this scale is surely a crime - maybe even treasonous.
Alternatively, you could make a more celestial-based measuring tool with the "Antarctica". How many artarcticas to a texas, considering that the "texas" is a measurement based on human whim, a la the yard, while the "antarctica" is one based on solid physical reality, ie, the freezing point of water at sea level corresponding to a gravity field of one earth, and a partial air pressure corresponding to the current setup, etc.
Think about it.
If they would only learn to stop offending people, then maybe I'd agree that they've got a worthwhile product - as it stands, they have wasted my time and crashed my computer on a number of occasions, and they're still going at it.
Thumbs down, macromedia, until you learn some basic manners.
Steven's books on TCP/IP
Any of Stallman's books on networks
Brinch Hansen's "Operating System Principles" and related books
Lion's Commentary on Unix (r) Sixth Edition
Linux Core Kernel Commentary, formerly published by Coriolis
A whole list of Linux Kernel books
Most of Tanenbaum's books
"FreeDOS Kernel" and "Dissecting DOS" if you're into that sort of thing
A whole skerrick of "Undocumented
"The Magic Garden Explained" for SysVR4
A room big enough to store them all. And that's not inculding the Elec.Eng. books.
Ciao
If you want an open source microkernel, try vsta, or chaos, or openblt. And that's probably just starters.
Then I heard that maybe some of the mainframe technologies might come Linux's way. Even better, I thought. Though there wasn't much detail - and there still isn't much of it.
It's been at least three years since I first read about the Iron Penguin, and there hasn't been a lot of detail about Linux becoming a Emperor Penguin, well able to outlast a 3 month blizzard at subzero Antarctic temperatures, or so. Is IBM planning to bring any of the mainframe technologies over to Linux, or was that merely a hopeful buzz?
That's one thing you won't get from reading code written for systems with >64M.
Still haven't got the geteit chemosit yet, glory be. Lord tegeus-Cromis was moby cool.
Anybody know what I'm talking about?
I had a dream, and this looks a little like
To enlarge upon - the boxes would be only the size needed for a CPU plus local memory plus network interface. They would be set vertical not flat, and would depend much more on ducting cooling air via a system of baffles (Hot air rises. Amazing!) than on forced air convection cooling. The central pillar would double as an air pipe and a fibre channel conduit. None of the boxes would be stacked on top of each other - no point in box B running sweet if it's frying box C.
The mass storage would be likewise stacked, since it would also be RAID of some description. And it's plug-n-forget, in essence.
Devices like CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs, keyboards, mice, audio, cams, whatever, would be grouped around the monitor/s, since they are very much personal use devices. And they would be individual nodes on the network that would constitute this hypothetical PC replacement. That includes having CPUs and memory and network interfaces of their ownsome. (Though Central Processing Unit might be somewhat inaccurate - I prefer Nodal Processing Unit myself)
The sad fact is that the modern PC is essentially obsolete, and it irritates me that some people think that more and more can be stuffed into the CPU without congestion and overheating, whereas the PC is so much more efficient modelled as an "internal network" with small, highly efficient NPUs, and designed as a network in fact and in deed.
Horace ate himself one day
He didn't stop to say his grace
He just sat down and ate his face
..."Stop him, someone," Mother cried
"Those eyeballs would be better fried."
And then you wonder why you can't get no dates