The Japan Earth Simulator outperformed a computer at Los Alamos (previously the world's fastest) by a factor of three while using fewer, more specialized processors... What is the difference between processor designed to simulate earthquakes (et al) and an ordinary, off-the-shelf processor? I mean - so they optomized floating point operations. Is that it?
Just this week, I was registering to take the FE exam (for engineering certification) in October. DAPE (who adminsters the test) then sends you a packet including a pre-addressed card that has to be sent in immediately (You've already sent them all this information. I don't understand why they want it all again) You put your information on it and mail it back to them. They actually want people to put their SSN on the card (no envelope) and mail it back. I sent it back to them (in an envelope, of course) with a little sticky-note telling them that I didnt think it was wise sending my SSN in plain sight through the mail.
True, but as I pointed out here, the people buying the stuff transmetta is made for (portables) don't really care about what processor is on board. People buy pentium inside computers because the processor is the first spec listed. They know that that is important to its function. A portable, on the other hand, barely (if at all) mentions the processor. As someone else pointed out, marketing to the masses in this case is a waste of money.
Queens University in Belfast did a studying linking your major in college with your life expectancy. Scientists and Engineers live the longest next to pre-med. Sweet.
Transmetta specializes in low power computing. That's their niche - processors that don't eat up much energy. This really isn't a direct-sale market. The stuff they make is built into other devices. So their job is to convience sony and/or palm or whoever makes the low power (read - portable) devices that they are the ones to talk to. So I don't think there's really a need to become well known outside the computing industry.
Someone else pointed that out (but you were a tactful about it, which makes all the difference) I don't know whether or not it's changed since 9/11 though.
By "keeps their gold" I think it was an obvious implication that I didn't mean *all* of it. I do concede I could have been mistaken about the location - Ft Knox for the NY reserve, but the statement is still more or less correct. Trades are done by moving gold from one nation's room down the hall into a seperate nation's room. Sheesh, picky picky.
Let's put it another way. Consider the dollar and the Yen. Let's say both are backed by gold. Each dollar is backed up by one ounce of gold in the US federal reserve, while each yen is backed up by two ounces provided by the BOJ. You have now fixed the relationship of the dollar to the yen at 2 dollars/yen. So yes, the gold standard does in fact fix relationships. If everyone uses gold, then they all flucauate equally, so changes in the value of gold do not impact trade relationships
But let's say the japanese economy tanks, and they their buying power is really only 1 dollar/yen. People who have yen will trade them in (at the nominal rate of 2 dollars/yen) to get 2 dollars, and have thus doubled their real buying power. The BOJ then has to start buying yen with dollars (if they have them) or gold in order to equalize the value. But what happens if they run out of both? That was the trouble under the old system.
That system fell apart, and (even though some new ones were suggested) no replacement was ever implimented. The "chaos" that ensued was basically the best system possible.
My Int'l Econ prof talked about this in class. The gold-standard emerged (more or less) out of WWII and was pushed by the US. This is because the US had most of the gold. During the stagflation of the 70's, the value of the dollar dropped, and most of the gold left the US. We were down to like 40% of the WWII era. (Actually, technically, it never moved more than a few dozen feet. More or less every nation in the world except France keeps their gold at Fort Knox, and International trades are done by carting gold from one room to another inside the base)
Anyway, the gold standard fell apart because it "fixes" the relationship of one current with respect to another, and the gold acts as a kind of balast to compensate for changes in the relationship. But as you can imagine, this is pretty unstable. Floating currencies, which is what 95% of most currencies are today, automatically compensate by changing exchange rates. Geographic discrepencies are arbitraged away. The system works.
...My physical electronics prof (who has over 80 patents in chip fab) told us that germanium had certain problems in collecting electrons. Which is why gallium hasn't gone away yet. But I'm not 100% sure (it was a while ago) so I could very well be wrong.
I mean, I used to think of WD as the most reliable of the HD manufacturers. Now it seems they're in the toilet. What happened to cause such a drastic change? (Btw, I was the poster of the anon comment)
My understanding was that it doesn't appear to be electronic. That's the whole idea -- you're not reading off a CRT or LCD, which hurts the eyes after a while. You are reading it off of paper (or a reasonable facsimile thereof).
I remember seeing some articles about 2 or 3 years ago saying how they were working on ebook readers. The "paper" had dipole magnetics - if polarized one way, they would appear black; otherwise, they would appear white. The only time it needed power was to switched the paper -- IE, load a new book. Whatever happened to those?
I've had smiliar issues with Comcast before. My solution is rather simple - when I call up, I describe the problem in utter and complete detail in technospeak, and that usually does wonder to get me through to tier 2.
Slashdot Mirror
The Japan Earth Simulator outperformed a computer at Los Alamos (previously the world's fastest) by a factor of three while using fewer, more specialized processors...
What is the difference between processor designed to simulate earthquakes (et al) and an ordinary, off-the-shelf processor? I mean - so they optomized floating point operations. Is that it?
Common sense. Use it.
Just this week, I was registering to take the FE exam (for engineering certification) in October. DAPE (who adminsters the test) then sends you a packet including a pre-addressed card that has to be sent in immediately (You've already sent them all this information. I don't understand why they want it all again) You put your information on it and mail it back to them. They actually want people to put their SSN on the card (no envelope) and mail it back. I sent it back to them (in an envelope, of course) with a little sticky-note telling them that I didnt think it was wise sending my SSN in plain sight through the mail.
True, but as I pointed out here, the people buying the stuff transmetta is made for (portables) don't really care about what processor is on board. People buy pentium inside computers because the processor is the first spec listed. They know that that is important to its function. A portable, on the other hand, barely (if at all) mentions the processor. As someone else pointed out, marketing to the masses in this case is a waste of money.
Queens University in Belfast did a studying linking your major in college with your life expectancy. Scientists and Engineers live the longest next to pre-med. Sweet.
My retirement grease!
Transmetta specializes in low power computing. That's their niche - processors that don't eat up much energy. This really isn't a direct-sale market. The stuff they make is built into other devices. So their job is to convience sony and/or palm or whoever makes the low power (read - portable) devices that they are the ones to talk to. So I don't think there's really a need to become well known outside the computing industry.
Let's not write off Astro too soon :)
Someone else pointed that out (but you were a tactful about it, which makes all the difference) I don't know whether or not it's changed since 9/11 though.
Which country?
The immortality of Gold
:)
I seriously read that as "the immorality of gold" the first two times I saw it
By "keeps their gold" I think it was an obvious implication that I didn't mean *all* of it. I do concede I could have been mistaken about the location - Ft Knox for the NY reserve, but the statement is still more or less correct. Trades are done by moving gold from one nation's room down the hall into a seperate nation's room. Sheesh, picky picky.
Let's put it another way. Consider the dollar and the Yen. Let's say both are backed by gold. Each dollar is backed up by one ounce of gold in the US federal reserve, while each yen is backed up by two ounces provided by the BOJ. You have now fixed the relationship of the dollar to the yen at 2 dollars/yen. So yes, the gold standard does in fact fix relationships. If everyone uses gold, then they all flucauate equally, so changes in the value of gold do not impact trade relationships
But let's say the japanese economy tanks, and they their buying power is really only 1 dollar/yen. People who have yen will trade them in (at the nominal rate of 2 dollars/yen) to get 2 dollars, and have thus doubled their real buying power. The BOJ then has to start buying yen with dollars (if they have them) or gold in order to equalize the value. But what happens if they run out of both? That was the trouble under the old system.
That system fell apart, and (even though some new ones were suggested) no replacement was ever implimented. The "chaos" that ensued was basically the best system possible.
My Int'l Econ prof talked about this in class. The gold-standard emerged (more or less) out of WWII and was pushed by the US. This is because the US had most of the gold. During the stagflation of the 70's, the value of the dollar dropped, and most of the gold left the US. We were down to like 40% of the WWII era. (Actually, technically, it never moved more than a few dozen feet. More or less every nation in the world except France keeps their gold at Fort Knox, and International trades are done by carting gold from one room to another inside the base)
Anyway, the gold standard fell apart because it "fixes" the relationship of one current with respect to another, and the gold acts as a kind of balast to compensate for changes in the relationship. But as you can imagine, this is pretty unstable. Floating currencies, which is what 95% of most currencies are today, automatically compensate by changing exchange rates. Geographic discrepencies are arbitraged away. The system works.
...My physical electronics prof (who has over 80 patents in chip fab) told us that germanium had certain problems in collecting electrons. Which is why gallium hasn't gone away yet. But I'm not 100% sure (it was a while ago) so I could very well be wrong.
I think "she" might have a surprise in store for you
"Factory refurbished" -- does that mean they took someone else's defective drive and fixed it or something?
It would inevitably be modded as offtopic. So I saw no reason to.
The trick is to make sure that they don't fail at the same time
I mean, I used to think of WD as the most reliable of the HD manufacturers. Now it seems they're in the toilet. What happened to cause such a drastic change? (Btw, I was the poster of the anon comment)
I was doing this stuff in the early 80's.
I even replaced platters on 10 gig drives..
Blindfolded. As did any respectable man back then. And we liked it.
--When I was your age, had to walk 40 miles through the freezing rain to get an operating system, with no shoes. And system calls?! Forget about it...
My mom, a teacher, made a banner with this quote and posted it in a faculty lounge:
Blessed are the pessemists, for they have made backups.
RPGs: They kill. They ruin lives. Just say no.
My understanding was that it doesn't appear to be electronic. That's the whole idea -- you're not reading off a CRT or LCD, which hurts the eyes after a while. You are reading it off of paper (or a reasonable facsimile thereof).
I remember seeing some articles about 2 or 3 years ago saying how they were working on ebook readers. The "paper" had dipole magnetics - if polarized one way, they would appear black; otherwise, they would appear white. The only time it needed power was to switched the paper -- IE, load a new book. Whatever happened to those?
I've had smiliar issues with Comcast before. My solution is rather simple - when I call up, I describe the problem in utter and complete detail in technospeak, and that usually does wonder to get me through to tier 2.