I was confused by MTBF. There are several simplified explanations in the responses to this article, but I found them to be incomplete and, I think, contradictory. I was intrigued. How does MTBF really work? So, I wen to Google and found these pages which appear to be consistent and authoratative (good checks for the reliability of information):
As an aside, this is an interesting example of the breakdown of moderation on Slashdot. Several people are posting fairly coherent and, at least, pseudo-technical explanations about the calculation of MTBF, but I wasn't able to resolve who was right. The moderation points did not help me either, because they are being assigned by random people I can't trust. I thought, "It is unlikely that very many people on Slashdot actually know how how MTBF is done," and, "It is unlikely that those who actually do know MTBF have the moderation points."
It sounds kind of silly, but an important part of the net taking over established "old school" domains is for net activities to approximate activities from those domains.
For example, how does a politician "kiss babies" on the net? That is, how does a politician, in a "spontaneous" moment of kindness and warmth endear him or herself to the voters?
Isn't all of this speculation about the release of firmware to support G4's on Yosemite (the motherboard in Blue and White Macs) a little bit premature? I'm nowhere near being able to understand the detailes of firmware and processors but...
The low-end G4 that was just announced is a Yosemite motherboard (the Yikes! project, right?). Won't this mean that Apple will have to release firmware to support G4 on Yosemite?
This may be a little bit simplistic, but can't the firmware from the G4 Yosemite (grey) be pushed back to Blue and White Yosemite?
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/arch-storage/part2/sectio n-151.html (Very thorough and careful)
http://www.westerndigital.com/products/drives/driv ers-ed/mtbf.html (What Western Digital has to say about MTBF)
http://www.storage.ibm.com/storage/oem/tech/mtbf.h tm (What IBM has to say about MTBF)
--------------------
As an aside, this is an interesting example of the breakdown of moderation on Slashdot. Several people are posting fairly coherent and, at least, pseudo-technical explanations about the calculation of MTBF, but I wasn't able to resolve who was right. The moderation points did not help me either, because they are being assigned by random people I can't trust. I thought, "It is unlikely that very many people on Slashdot actually know how how MTBF is done," and, "It is unlikely that those who actually do know MTBF have the moderation points."
Yeah. I read the wired article and had the same reaction you did. I thought I'd post the link since it is a very good article: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/2181 0.html
It sounds kind of silly, but an important part of the net taking over established "old school" domains is for net activities to approximate activities from those domains.
For example, how does a politician "kiss babies" on the net? That is, how does a politician, in a "spontaneous" moment of kindness and warmth endear him or herself to the voters?
Isn't all of this speculation about the release of firmware to support G4's on Yosemite (the motherboard in Blue and White Macs) a little bit premature? I'm nowhere near being able to understand the detailes of firmware and processors but...
The low-end G4 that was just announced is a Yosemite motherboard (the Yikes! project, right?). Won't this mean that Apple will have to release firmware to support G4 on Yosemite?
This may be a little bit simplistic, but can't the firmware from the G4 Yosemite (grey) be pushed back to Blue and White Yosemite?