I just do not believe that the IAx86 is the best IA for the future. The idea that in 30 years we will be runing some mutant 128 bit X86 chip makes my skin crawl.
The RISC architectures went from 32-bit to 64-bit pretty smoothly. There is no reason they couldn't do the same for 128-bit, whenever 64-bit becomes too little. It took twenty years to exhaust 32-bit, so ubiquitous 128-bit is most likely not coming anytime soon.
I wanna see a memory modules with full processors on each memory core.
This has already been done in some capacity for at least seven years, now. My Sun Creator 3D video card, for exmaple, has 3DRAM which does some computation in the RAM itself.
When I was still in school, there was a lot of buzz among grad students about "processor in memory" research. So, the ball is definitely rolling for these architectures.
Geez, one board now has as much CPU power as a whole rack from several years ago. History repeats itself yet again. For even medium-sized companies, I can't imagine anything larger than a single rack for most of their infrastructure (two RAID arrays can easily handle more than 1TB, and a couple two-way or four-way servers provide a lot of oomph for databases and internal websites).
There is no El Dorado; however, there is usually someplace that is an incremental improvement if the current place is clearly unsatisfactory. This does require introspection, and impulsivly dumping one place for another will only deter progress. I'm not claiming this is easy, just possible when it is necessary.
We're slowly going to a system with only one global economy. I agree we're not there yet (thankfully) but for how long?
Our economy is already global. It has been, since even before the Roman empire. I think what many people are fearing is a global centralized government (a decentralized one might be okay; e.g. a global president to handle foreign policy with Mars, whatever aliens turn up, etc.).
And what do you do if there is a monopoly on steel AND wood?
Plastic, other metals, brick. If all these markets eventually merged and controlled prices across the board, which is unlikely, then people would be forced to resort to their own resources (adobe, log homes). The artificially controlled prices for other materials couldn't be high for too long (revenue has to come from somewhere, and if people stop providing it...).
Corporations are getting bigger while small mom and pop business are slowly disappearing.
This is an indication that that market is mature. Food is a commodity, so small grocery stores cannot compete on price. Hardware is a commodity, so small hardware stores cannot compete on price. This trend is inevitable, and it forces people who want to run a small store to seek out new markets.
Yes you can always find a niche market if you're really good but an ordinary not-a-genius-but-still-intelligent citizen can't.
It doesn't take huge intelligence or formal education to be shrewd and opportunistic. It also takes a willingness to dispense with tradition sometimes or to ditch a prior investment, such as a college specialization.
The problem is not consumers but unfair competition because your competitor has more money than you do.
Then that fact has to be incorporated into a business plan. For example, another Slashdot poster mentioned their indie music store that is 100% free of RIAA bands, yet they are profitable and growing. On a bigger scale, Sun is nearly 100% free of baggage with Microsoft (except perhaps the Java lawsuits, but they have no other big business relationships), yet Sun hasn't kicked the bucket and does show potential (we'll see how the next three to five years pan out).
Are you saying Walmart exists because of corruption in governments?
No, Wal-Mart is actually just fine (a beast to contend with, nonetheless). What I'm referring to is taxation, mainly, which stems from out-of-control political nitpicking in programs like the federal income tax, possible nationalized health care, and social security. I already pay something like 7% of my income to federal social programs that are essentially a black hole for money and will inevitably be no part of my medical or retirement planning. Tack on the other 15% or so that we are already overtaxed via the IRS and compound this over the next twenty years, and it's not suprising why it's hard to start a business.
must first have a job! We're back to square one : he won't have a choice but to accept the DNA test.
If there are no other jobs, then the same dilemma arrives: take the DNA-tested job or move. It is also arguable that forced DNA testing is extortion, anyway, and could be the subject of a lawsuit, possible a criminal one.
because their package had a drawing of a cow on it
If it was a trademark, and the cows were similar enough, then perhaps Parmalat had a real case. It was up to Agrinove to account for trademark disputes when designing their packaging. If I were to sell something, I would search far and wide for possible trademark problems, because it mitigates risk in a very clear and
Do you think he will refuse to sign a contract allowing his (possible) future boss to take a look at his DNA?
Sometimes giving up on a city and going elsewhere for the sake of moving on with one's life is necessary no matter the difficulty or apparent setback. Each person needs to determine how much they value the integrity of their self and their family and then accept the consequences of their decisions. It is never a matter of being in an inferior position (I can pack up and leave at any time and accept the risks of doing so); rather it is a constant test of one's will and desire for advancement and freedom. No matter what the Democrats will cry about, oppression in the USA is quite voluntary and persists largely due to people's unwillingness to take risks. The number of options available to people scale with the economy, and if there is nothing locally, the seeking elsewhere becomes the default remaining option. For example, inner cities should be ghost towns with no economy to support the people there, yet housing subsidies, welfare, medicaid, etc. come in and put band-aids on the gushing wounds of failing communities, while the drug war encourages organized crime and makes the costs of addiction so high that otherwise nice people turn into robbers and murderers. By locking people into a world with no options, the system of social justice creates a downward spiral of naive hope and local overpopulation.
But the problem is that starting a company requires lots of money...
It depends on your domain of business. An Internet-based storefront can be amazingly cheap requiring only a modest PC at home, a monthy hosting fee, and some level of advertising. Flea markets are also very inexpensive for those without computers. Of course, anything more than a sole proprietorship becomes almost oppressively expensive as mandatory minimum wages and benefits programs, liability insurance, and commercial office space come into the picture. The self-employment penalty income tax is merely the icing on the cake.
they'll be able to use their money to advertize more than you do, to temporally lower the price of their products below cost...
If this happens to your business, this means you are probably in the wrong line of business. If there is a monopoly on steel, sell wood. If there is a monopoly on oil, sell solar. If there is a monopoly on software, sell open source. The monopolists eventually crush themselves as people learn to do without them at a lower cost. I cannot think of a product that people cannot live without or where there is no alternative possible. Even municipal utilities can't price themselves too high before people seek out bottled water, fuel cell/solar power, or wireless telephone. Monopolies also breed invention, where the monopoly could simply be rendered obselete. OpenOffice.org, for example, really will make MS Office obselete (productivity software is a mature market that is becoming impossible to derive a profit from without the extortion of OEMs; Sun has no OEM relationship with Microsoft).
(and since the difference between rich and poor people is getting bigger you can be sure that in 20 years from now starting a small business from nothing will be close to impossible)
Only if corruption in the government is left to run out of control. Consolodation of power in the federal government will only worsen this. The scheme of independent state governments, county governments, and city governments works to mitigate this problem, but the decentralized nature of US government is under constant attack from all sides who are seeking greater power and influence.
So on one hand most people can't start a company because they don't have the money (and so are forced to be an employee), and on the other by being an employee you put yourself in a position of weakness where someone can legally use indirect violence ("accept my offer or you'll lose your house" is violence) to legally force you to agree to wh
As it does so it reflects bright light but blocks less and less of the background. As a result, it'll reflect something like the sunset and "suddenly" reduce in size where the reflection would tail off and there'd be no other apparent way of seeing the contrail.
Someone else posted a link, showing the trail from another angle. It defintely wasn't a sunlight/shadow relationship, where a darkish trail was noticable behind/above the red-glowing area.
There is a great picture of a F-14 (I think) going through Mach 1 over the Mediterranian. The back half of the aircraft is hidden in the condensing vapor. Beautiful.
It is beautiful, but the cone of vapor is only a few times bigger then the aircraft itself. Also, it is only momentary, and the photographer of that picture was very lucky.
The Power Mac version of the IBM POWER chips probably scales better with cost/performance. POWER/UltraSPARC/Itanic are really best suited to high-reliability workhorse servers. Clusters probably don't need ultra-high reliability if they can program around it.
I have never understood apples refusal to put a second button on the mouse.
Because you only need one button to get a mouse to squeak. Well, I suppose the second button could be used to operate the Pez dispensor at the back...mmmm.
Damn I felt so stupid...that was the worst indigestion I've ever had! Not only that, the packets had no ketchup in them at all! Not one drop! What a ripoff.
The only-stupid-people-don't-patch excuse doesn't work, when there are literally hundreds or thousands of unknown exploitable bugs in Windows, Outlook, IE, etc. One only needs a statistical argument here (a bug per thousand lines...100 million LOC...you do the math). Releasing four patches a week is only lip service to a problem bigger than the Hoover Dam.
Perhaps Slashdot could use line-item moderation? The above argument is obvious to anyone with programming experience.
What I don't know is if you are against this kind of law because you think anyone who is in a position of strength should be allowed to DNA test anyone he wishes or simply because you think we should live in a system without law.
Testing someone's DNA against their will is a violation of that person's body and property; there are more than adequate laws to deal with this. I would never argue for a system without law, as making things like murder, extortion, and willful destruction of property illegal are neccessary enablers for society. However, things have progressed so far that nothing is obvious to even professionals who know the system better than anyone else. The federal income tax is the quintessential example how laws should _not_ be.
Honestly, now, have you ever seen a contrail in that shape? Every contrail I've seen is roughly conical, with the greatest density being immediately behind the airplane. The contrail disperses over time to look like a long and thin strip of cloud in the sky.
Seriously, if that kind of fireball came out of afterburning turbojets, then the last 50 years' worth of military aviators should have some comments about this. I'm pretty sure that the flames from a jet engine don't go very far before being obviously turned into steam and other byproducts. Of course, if the Concorde had managed to go sub-orbital and burned up on re-entry, then that's one thing, but I think we would have heard about that happening, by now.
Industrial and graphic design are a very non-trivial part of our economy and will never die out as culture evolves. I can't wait until nostalgic TV shows in thirty years feature women with capri pants and those flipped out hair cuts. If you think we laugh at afros and bellbottoms today...you just wait!
Most north-americans that I know (including myself) would simply not survive in China, until they were taken to the cleaners several times and wisened up a little.
And likewise. There are ample stories about people in China being taken to the cleaners over stock investments and credit cards.
In fact, all humans are idiots out of ignorance. People learn from the school of hard knocks faster than any other method. Probably the most useful legislation the US goverment could ever do is require every student to memorize this single sentence "Follow the money trail." Once people learn how to spot financial conflicts of interest, 99% of naivete seems to evaporate almost immediately.
I'm guessing you haven't seen an OEM system since your mom bought you a Compaq Presario in 1997.
I guess the new Win XP machine a friend of mine got doesn't count, where McAffe won't work worth a damn and Blaster took the machine out before a person could say "What a POS."
Microsoft is doing practically nothing to protect their customers. It's like Ford putting a blasting cap into their gas tanks, just because.
The only-stupid-people-don't-patch excuse doesn't work, when there are literally hundreds or thousands of unknown exploitable bugs in Windows, Outlook, IE, etc. One only needs a statistical argument here (a bug per thousand lines...100 million LOC...you do the math). Releasing four patches a week is only lip service to a problem bigger than the Hoover Dam.
Microsoft will either renew themselves or evolution will take them out. My bet is on natural selection rather than their ability to suddenly become modest and revamp their work force of tens of thousands of people and years of counter-intuitive hiring and cultural indoctrination.
These are problems that were solved many years ago.
Are you really sure about this? Windows is built like a land fill. They just keep piling it on.
How much do you have in your short position on Microsoft...
My only stock interest in Microsoft is not due to my choice but that of Standard & Poors (i.e., an index fund). I don't know enough about the market to short stocks as an investment strategy.
Forbidding DNA testing is not "an absurd cobweb of legislation"!
Let's reserve judgement until after the exclusions, exemptions, allowances, and loopholes are created. First will be things regarding prisoners, then child molesters, then the children themselves, then the elderly, then security clearances, ad infinitum et ad nauseum.
Slashdot Mirror
I just do not believe that the IAx86 is the best IA for the future. The idea that in 30 years we will be runing some mutant 128 bit X86 chip makes my skin crawl.
The RISC architectures went from 32-bit to 64-bit pretty smoothly. There is no reason they couldn't do the same for 128-bit, whenever 64-bit becomes too little. It took twenty years to exhaust 32-bit, so ubiquitous 128-bit is most likely not coming anytime soon.
You know, just *thinking* of the cooling that kind of thing would need makes me shudder.
It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I wanna see a memory modules with full processors on each memory core.
This has already been done in some capacity for at least seven years, now. My Sun Creator 3D video card, for exmaple, has 3DRAM which does some computation in the RAM itself.
When I was still in school, there was a lot of buzz among grad students about "processor in memory" research. So, the ball is definitely rolling for these architectures.
8-way Power5
Geez, one board now has as much CPU power as a whole rack from several years ago. History repeats itself yet again. For even medium-sized companies, I can't imagine anything larger than a single rack for most of their infrastructure (two RAID arrays can easily handle more than 1TB, and a couple two-way or four-way servers provide a lot of oomph for databases and internal websites).
And where is the el dorado?
There is no El Dorado; however, there is usually someplace that is an incremental improvement if the current place is clearly unsatisfactory. This does require introspection, and impulsivly dumping one place for another will only deter progress. I'm not claiming this is easy, just possible when it is necessary.
We're slowly going to a system with only one global economy. I agree we're not there yet (thankfully) but for how long?
Our economy is already global. It has been, since even before the Roman empire. I think what many people are fearing is a global centralized government (a decentralized one might be okay; e.g. a global president to handle foreign policy with Mars, whatever aliens turn up, etc.).
And what do you do if there is a monopoly on steel AND wood?
Plastic, other metals, brick. If all these markets eventually merged and controlled prices across the board, which is unlikely, then people would be forced to resort to their own resources (adobe, log homes). The artificially controlled prices for other materials couldn't be high for too long (revenue has to come from somewhere, and if people stop providing it...).
Corporations are getting bigger while small mom and pop business are slowly disappearing.
This is an indication that that market is mature. Food is a commodity, so small grocery stores cannot compete on price. Hardware is a commodity, so small hardware stores cannot compete on price. This trend is inevitable, and it forces people who want to run a small store to seek out new markets.
Yes you can always find a niche market if you're really good but an ordinary not-a-genius-but-still-intelligent citizen can't.
It doesn't take huge intelligence or formal education to be shrewd and opportunistic. It also takes a willingness to dispense with tradition sometimes or to ditch a prior investment, such as a college specialization.
The problem is not consumers but unfair competition because your competitor has more money than you do.
Then that fact has to be incorporated into a business plan. For example, another Slashdot poster mentioned their indie music store that is 100% free of RIAA bands, yet they are profitable and growing. On a bigger scale, Sun is nearly 100% free of baggage with Microsoft (except perhaps the Java lawsuits, but they have no other big business relationships), yet Sun hasn't kicked the bucket and does show potential (we'll see how the next three to five years pan out).
Are you saying Walmart exists because of corruption in governments?
No, Wal-Mart is actually just fine (a beast to contend with, nonetheless). What I'm referring to is taxation, mainly, which stems from out-of-control political nitpicking in programs like the federal income tax, possible nationalized health care, and social security. I already pay something like 7% of my income to federal social programs that are essentially a black hole for money and will inevitably be no part of my medical or retirement planning. Tack on the other 15% or so that we are already overtaxed via the IRS and compound this over the next twenty years, and it's not suprising why it's hard to start a business.
must first have a job! We're back to square one : he won't have a choice but to accept the DNA test.
If there are no other jobs, then the same dilemma arrives: take the DNA-tested job or move. It is also arguable that forced DNA testing is extortion, anyway, and could be the subject of a lawsuit, possible a criminal one.
because their package had a drawing of a cow on it
If it was a trademark, and the cows were similar enough, then perhaps Parmalat had a real case. It was up to Agrinove to account for trademark disputes when designing their packaging. If I were to sell something, I would search far and wide for possible trademark problems, because it mitigates risk in a very clear and
Do you think he will refuse to sign a contract allowing his (possible) future boss to take a look at his DNA?
Sometimes giving up on a city and going elsewhere for the sake of moving on with one's life is necessary no matter the difficulty or apparent setback. Each person needs to determine how much they value the integrity of their self and their family and then accept the consequences of their decisions. It is never a matter of being in an inferior position (I can pack up and leave at any time and accept the risks of doing so); rather it is a constant test of one's will and desire for advancement and freedom. No matter what the Democrats will cry about, oppression in the USA is quite voluntary and persists largely due to people's unwillingness to take risks. The number of options available to people scale with the economy, and if there is nothing locally, the seeking elsewhere becomes the default remaining option. For example, inner cities should be ghost towns with no economy to support the people there, yet housing subsidies, welfare, medicaid, etc. come in and put band-aids on the gushing wounds of failing communities, while the drug war encourages organized crime and makes the costs of addiction so high that otherwise nice people turn into robbers and murderers. By locking people into a world with no options, the system of social justice creates a downward spiral of naive hope and local overpopulation.
But the problem is that starting a company requires lots of money...
It depends on your domain of business. An Internet-based storefront can be amazingly cheap requiring only a modest PC at home, a monthy hosting fee, and some level of advertising. Flea markets are also very inexpensive for those without computers. Of course, anything more than a sole proprietorship becomes almost oppressively expensive as mandatory minimum wages and benefits programs, liability insurance, and commercial office space come into the picture. The self-employment penalty income tax is merely the icing on the cake.
they'll be able to use their money to advertize more than you do, to temporally lower the price of their products below cost...
If this happens to your business, this means you are probably in the wrong line of business. If there is a monopoly on steel, sell wood. If there is a monopoly on oil, sell solar. If there is a monopoly on software, sell open source. The monopolists eventually crush themselves as people learn to do without them at a lower cost. I cannot think of a product that people cannot live without or where there is no alternative possible. Even municipal utilities can't price themselves too high before people seek out bottled water, fuel cell/solar power, or wireless telephone. Monopolies also breed invention, where the monopoly could simply be rendered obselete. OpenOffice.org, for example, really will make MS Office obselete (productivity software is a mature market that is becoming impossible to derive a profit from without the extortion of OEMs; Sun has no OEM relationship with Microsoft).
(and since the difference between rich and poor people is getting bigger you can be sure that in 20 years from now starting a small business from nothing will be close to impossible)
Only if corruption in the government is left to run out of control. Consolodation of power in the federal government will only worsen this. The scheme of independent state governments, county governments, and city governments works to mitigate this problem, but the decentralized nature of US government is under constant attack from all sides who are seeking greater power and influence.
So on one hand most people can't start a company because they don't have the money (and so are forced to be an employee), and on the other by being an employee you put yourself in a position of weakness where someone can legally use indirect violence ("accept my offer or you'll lose your house" is violence) to legally force you to agree to wh
As it does so it reflects bright light but blocks less and less of the background. As a result, it'll reflect something like the sunset and "suddenly" reduce in size where the reflection would tail off and there'd be no other apparent way of seeing the contrail.
Someone else posted a link, showing the trail from another angle. It defintely wasn't a sunlight/shadow relationship, where a darkish trail was noticable behind/above the red-glowing area.
There is a great picture of a F-14 (I think) going through Mach 1 over the Mediterranian. The back half of the aircraft is hidden in the condensing vapor. Beautiful.
It is beautiful, but the cone of vapor is only a few times bigger then the aircraft itself. Also, it is only momentary, and the photographer of that picture was very lucky.
Big Mac cluster?
Sure, as long as the cooling system is pumping Mylanta.
what about clusters of Power4's and 5's?
The Power Mac version of the IBM POWER chips probably scales better with cost/performance. POWER/UltraSPARC/Itanic are really best suited to high-reliability workhorse servers. Clusters probably don't need ultra-high reliability if they can program around it.
It would be cheaper to just give the scientists each a Trans Am so then at least the general masses would be aware of the scientists' penis envy.
Depending on the age of the trans am, all it will do is make your penis like either country or metal. Envy simply isn't a part of the equation.
I have never understood apples refusal to put a second button on the mouse.
Because you only need one button to get a mouse to squeak. Well, I suppose the second button could be used to operate the Pez dispensor at the back...mmmm.
Happy Meal Ethernet
Damn I felt so stupid...that was the worst indigestion I've ever had! Not only that, the packets had no ketchup in them at all! Not one drop! What a ripoff.
The only-stupid-people-don't-patch excuse doesn't work, when there are literally hundreds or thousands of unknown exploitable bugs in Windows, Outlook, IE, etc. One only needs a statistical argument here (a bug per thousand lines...100 million LOC...you do the math). Releasing four patches a week is only lip service to a problem bigger than the Hoover Dam.
Perhaps Slashdot could use line-item moderation? The above argument is obvious to anyone with programming experience.
There is no fire in the photo, you are looking at light from the sunset highlighting the concorde vapor trail.
When does a aircraft vapor trail take on that shape, especially considering the aircraft is travelling at a constant speed through the air?
Please be less stupid in the future.
No.
What I don't know is if you are against this kind of law because you think anyone who is in a position of strength should be allowed to DNA test anyone he wishes or simply because you think we should live in a system without law.
Testing someone's DNA against their will is a violation of that person's body and property; there are more than adequate laws to deal with this. I would never argue for a system without law, as making things like murder, extortion, and willful destruction of property illegal are neccessary enablers for society. However, things have progressed so far that nothing is obvious to even professionals who know the system better than anyone else. The federal income tax is the quintessential example how laws should _not_ be.
Nothing you mentioned is valid. And even if it was, how is it any worse than buying hardware for Linux?
1) it is valid
2) yes, Windows is generally no better than Linux, except, perhaps, in it's root-by-default ease of destruction.
Honestly, now, have you ever seen a contrail in that shape? Every contrail I've seen is roughly conical, with the greatest density being immediately behind the airplane. The contrail disperses over time to look like a long and thin strip of cloud in the sky.
All together, now: BULLSHIT!
Seriously, if that kind of fireball came out of afterburning turbojets, then the last 50 years' worth of military aviators should have some comments about this. I'm pretty sure that the flames from a jet engine don't go very far before being obviously turned into steam and other byproducts. Of course, if the Concorde had managed to go sub-orbital and burned up on re-entry, then that's one thing, but I think we would have heard about that happening, by now.
Industrial and graphic design are a very non-trivial part of our economy and will never die out as culture evolves. I can't wait until nostalgic TV shows in thirty years feature women with capri pants and those flipped out hair cuts. If you think we laugh at afros and bellbottoms today...you just wait!
Most north-americans that I know (including myself) would simply not survive in China, until they were taken to the cleaners several times and wisened up a little.
And likewise. There are ample stories about people in China being taken to the cleaners over stock investments and credit cards.
In fact, all humans are idiots out of ignorance. People learn from the school of hard knocks faster than any other method. Probably the most useful legislation the US goverment could ever do is require every student to memorize this single sentence "Follow the money trail." Once people learn how to spot financial conflicts of interest, 99% of naivete seems to evaporate almost immediately.
I'm guessing you haven't seen an OEM system since your mom bought you a Compaq Presario in 1997.
I guess the new Win XP machine a friend of mine got doesn't count, where McAffe won't work worth a damn and Blaster took the machine out before a person could say "What a POS."
Microsoft is doing practically nothing to protect their customers. It's like Ford putting a blasting cap into their gas tanks, just because.
The only-stupid-people-don't-patch excuse doesn't work, when there are literally hundreds or thousands of unknown exploitable bugs in Windows, Outlook, IE, etc. One only needs a statistical argument here (a bug per thousand lines...100 million LOC...you do the math). Releasing four patches a week is only lip service to a problem bigger than the Hoover Dam.
Microsoft will either renew themselves or evolution will take them out. My bet is on natural selection rather than their ability to suddenly become modest and revamp their work force of tens of thousands of people and years of counter-intuitive hiring and cultural indoctrination.
These are problems that were solved many years ago.
Are you really sure about this? Windows is built like a land fill. They just keep piling it on.
How much do you have in your short position on Microsoft...
My only stock interest in Microsoft is not due to my choice but that of Standard & Poors (i.e., an index fund). I don't know enough about the market to short stocks as an investment strategy.
Forbidding DNA testing is not "an absurd cobweb of legislation"!
Let's reserve judgement until after the exclusions, exemptions, allowances, and loopholes are created.
First will be things regarding prisoners, then child molesters, then the children themselves, then the elderly, then security clearances, ad infinitum et ad nauseum.
A contract signed under the pressure of extortion is invalid.
:)
In your other reply, you said you were an anarcho-capitalist, but the statement above sounds downright libertarian