Makes me a little sad to see people breaking their backs with these huge things, getting into fights over outlets in cafes...
Seems like if they had one of those plug type outlet extension boxes, this problem could be resolved simply. Every laptop I've seen always requires a massive transformer box somewhere along the power line.
I'm starting my PhD in computing science and I'm interested in understanding how computing technologies are shaped by the cultural environment where they are originally created.
A good place to start would be to do a literature survey on human-computer interaction. In this case, you're not just interested in the ideas that the researchers published, but also their cultural backgrounds. You could also look at the articles published by Wired and Slashdot which covered how the various icons became famous (the mouse pointer, the trash can/recycling bin icons, windowing systems). The actual physical structure of computing technologies is shaped by the limitations of heat removal, the outside appearance is shaped by the marketing requirements - having Apple Macs that are transparent or in different shades for example).
What I don't understand is that I thought GPUs were made to offload a lot of graphics computations from the CPU. So why are we merging them again? Isn't a GPU supposed to be an auxillary CPU only for graphics? I'm so confused.
GPU's are so powerful now, that some of the latest high-end scientific visualisation applications will actually do calculations on a supercomputer, transfer the data across to a PC, and then use the CPU to process the data so it can be visualised on the GPU in real-time. Similarly for game software (the physics engine will run on the CPU or physics card, then send the data over to the GPU). Engineers will always try and remove the bottleneck in performance whether its in the network, CPU, data bus, or GPU.
How about a more general-purpose parallel floating-point unit that could be more utilized? Something like the F@H GPU client, but for more apps? As a side effect, it could do graphics. A regular floating-point processor unit does vector and matrix based calculations with a variety of data types 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit integers.
The only way to make a floating-point processor unit more general purpose is to give it conditional branching. Then by definition you really just have a second CPU, or a dual-core system. Which is more or less what Sony have done with their Cell processor chip.
The first hits came from SUN in the form of their 'low end' workstations, coupled that with software moving to alternative platforms outside SGI,
Back in the mid-90's, Microsoft was hyping how "UNIX was legacy, Windows NT is the future". Many animation/game studios were simply interested in finding the cheapest reliable hardware to do the job and were only interested in the price/performance ratio regardless of the OS. SGI management still believed people would be willing to pay extra simply for the brand name, which really, really pissed off the beancounters. and investors. They would look at the annual financial report, and the equipment purchases/licenses would stick out like a rusty nail.
Third party suppliers also had this philosophy that UNIX customers would be willing to pay more than Windows customers; a graphics tablet for a PC would cost around $300, while the same graphics tablet "adapted" for an UNIX workstation (swapping two pins around on a RS232 interface) would cost $1000.
SGI had a good number of markets at the time (animation, CAD, medical imaging, GIS, defence, oil&gas). The profit margin on each market varied, and not all markets required the latest texture mapping technology. Customers compared the performance of each system by price over (lines/pixels/triangles per second) minus maintenance cost. SUN was able to capture the CAD market in this way by providing higher performance workstations in those yardstick measurements. SUN didn't have to take away SGI's entire customer base, they only had to take away enough for SGI not to make a profit.
If SGI had been able to provide a cheap mass-market workstation that did texture mapping like their Extreme's did, they might have been able to hold their ground. But they only came out with the Indy which did OpenGL in software, while 3Dfx started selling piggyback 3D graphics boards, and Sony came out the playstation console. SGI and Nintendo did eventually come out with the Ultra 64.
Now, even the laptops on the discount shelf on our local computer stores are dual-core Gigahertz, have 256Mbytes of texture memory and do both 2D and 3D texture mapping with programmable shaders.
Intersting stuff.. but when you consider time scales like this what kind of practical applications does this have?
A greater understanding of the laws of gravity. We can construct simulations of colliding galaxies, but being able to see the real thing helps confirm those theories.
I would have the thought the amount of time used to write a Python/Perl script to convert the animation data into a game engine script would be a one-off expense that would save itself through the elimination of rendering time?
I don't about the USA, but in the UK we've got problems with neds (non-educated delinquents) setting up bonfires to lure firefighters to their neighbourhood, then throwing stones at the firecrews and vehicles, all just for fun.
Look at the TVs in shops - they look awful, but it's the same technology, just setup poorly.
That's deliberate... they want to pawn off the existing stock they have in the store as quickly possible before the new models come in.
I once went into a mall store in Canada to buy a TV - nothing fancy, just a basic $200 20" cable ready TV. The model (S----) on show was definitely off-colour (slightly yellow compared to the other model). I go up to the sales desk and express my desire to make a purchase. "What's wrong with the R-- model?" asks the sales person - "it's got the same size of screen and a remote control". "No, I'd like the S---- model please". "Ok, you can have the S---- model, but it will take 3 days - we don't have any in stock just now."
The problem in the UK isn't with finding containers to store the radioactive waste - we're currently using rusty bins on outside concrete courtyards covered under plastic sheeting to store our radioactive waste.
The problem is trying to find somewhere underground to put the stuff. Every time there's a proposal to convert a disused mine-shaft, protesters will always raise the issue of groundwater contamination, geological fault lines, maintenance, monitoring and security. Not forgetting safety and security for transportation which will have to be by road (since air transport is out of the question, and rural railway lines are being dismantled). Having large containers with police escorts travelling on rural roads on a regular basis tends to upset local homeowners so just proposing a single site will invoke a request for a public inquiry on the selection of the transportation route.
Re:Will they decode Ballmer's genes as well?
on
The Next X Prize
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· Score: 1
Wouldn't that be on the same chromosome with the monkey dance gene?
The biggest losers with the passing of this act, are the British online gambling companies.
Personally, I'd prefer if British financial investors would invest their money on something more worthwhile like medical or scientific research, rather than gambling.
Faced with the challenged of building a large home on a small plot on the side of a steep ridge, the solution was to build the entire house on a single concrete column, with the entire floor space made octagonal to maintain stability.
I've never understood the purpose of "rainy day funds" that local cities create from tax surpluses. In normal times, they don't serve any purpose and when they there is a major disaster that disrupts the local economy, the fund gets depleted within months or even weeks.
That's very true - over here in the UK, the treasury effectively has a force of veto over any proposal by cities to improve public transportation, as every project has to factor in the resulting loss of taxes to the treasury.
If it is possible to get Linux or Windows to run on two core system, it shouldn't be too much trouble to run on a 64 or 80 core system. Although, I'd be worried about getting 80+ shell terminal messages:
CPU0: Temperature above threshold CPU0: Running in modulated clock mode... CPU80: Temperature above threshold CPU80: Running in modulated clock mode
I believe they would cancel out. The air being expelled from the fan would provide a negative velocity. As the air molecules bounced around, they would eventually hit the sail at a lower velocity, and provide a smaller positive velocity.
You would simply have the E-mail with an HTML attachment that referenced a web image or page somewhere ('img src="". Just a one pixel transparent image would do the trick. The filename would be so obscure, no web spider or wandering web user would find it.
Once the image was referenced, the sender would know the IP address of the computer that accessed the page.
Slashdot Mirror
The cargo container is the network?
Makes me a little sad to see people breaking their backs with these huge things, getting into fights over outlets in cafes...
Seems like if they had one of those plug type outlet extension boxes, this problem could be resolved simply. Every laptop I've seen always requires a massive transformer box somewhere along the power line.
I'm starting my PhD in computing science and I'm interested in understanding how computing technologies are shaped by the cultural environment where they are originally created.
A good place to start would be to do a literature survey on human-computer interaction. In this case, you're not just interested in the ideas that the researchers published, but also their cultural backgrounds. You could also look at the articles published by Wired and Slashdot which covered how the various icons became famous (the mouse pointer, the trash can/recycling bin icons, windowing systems).
The actual physical structure of computing technologies is shaped by the limitations of heat removal,
the outside appearance is shaped by the marketing requirements - having Apple Macs that are transparent or in different shades for example).
What I don't understand is that I thought GPUs were made to offload a lot of graphics computations from the CPU. So why are we merging them again? Isn't a GPU supposed to be an auxillary CPU only for graphics? I'm so confused.
GPU's are so powerful now, that some of the latest high-end scientific visualisation applications will actually do calculations on a supercomputer, transfer the data across to a PC, and then use the CPU to process the data so it can be visualised on the GPU in real-time. Similarly for game software (the physics engine will run on the CPU or physics card, then send the data over to the GPU). Engineers will always try and remove the bottleneck in performance whether its in the network, CPU, data bus, or GPU.
How about a more general-purpose parallel floating-point unit that could be more utilized? Something like the F@H GPU client, but for more apps? As a side effect, it could do graphics.
A regular floating-point processor unit does vector and matrix based calculations with a variety of data types 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit integers.
The only way to make a floating-point processor unit more general purpose is to give it conditional branching. Then by definition you really just have a second CPU, or a dual-core system. Which is more or less what Sony have done with their Cell processor chip.
Perhaps Slashdot should have a section just like the column in Scientific American where old research announcements from the 1800's are reprinted.
The first hits came from SUN in the form of their 'low end' workstations, coupled that with software moving to alternative platforms outside SGI,
Back in the mid-90's, Microsoft was hyping how "UNIX was legacy, Windows NT is the future". Many animation/game studios were simply interested in finding the cheapest reliable hardware to do the job and were only interested in the price/performance ratio regardless of the OS. SGI management still believed people would be willing to pay extra simply for the brand name, which really, really pissed off the beancounters. and investors. They would look at the annual financial report, and the equipment purchases/licenses would stick out like a rusty nail.
Third party suppliers also had this philosophy that UNIX customers would be willing to pay more than Windows customers; a graphics tablet for a PC would cost around $300, while the same graphics tablet "adapted" for an UNIX workstation (swapping two pins around on a RS232 interface) would cost $1000.
SGI had a good number of markets at the time (animation, CAD, medical imaging, GIS, defence, oil&gas). The profit margin on each market varied, and not all markets required the latest texture mapping technology. Customers compared the performance of each system by price over (lines/pixels/triangles per second) minus maintenance cost.
SUN was able to capture the CAD market in this way by providing higher performance workstations in those yardstick measurements. SUN didn't have to take away SGI's entire customer base, they only had to take away enough for SGI not to make a profit.
If SGI had been able to provide a cheap mass-market workstation that did texture mapping like their Extreme's did, they might have been able to hold their ground. But they only came out with the Indy which did OpenGL in software, while 3Dfx started selling piggyback 3D graphics boards, and Sony came out the playstation console.
SGI and Nintendo did eventually come out with the Ultra 64.
Now, even the laptops on the discount shelf on our local computer stores are dual-core Gigahertz, have 256Mbytes of texture memory and do both 2D and 3D texture mapping with programmable shaders.
From Stargate SG-1:
"If you're reading this notice, you're not WORKING!!!"
Intersting stuff.. but when you consider time scales like this what kind of practical applications does this have?
A greater understanding of the laws of gravity. We can construct simulations of colliding galaxies, but being able to see the real thing helps confirm those theories.
I would have the thought the amount of time used to write a Python/Perl script to convert the animation data into a game engine script would be a one-off expense that would save itself through the elimination of rendering time?
It seems to be the Sci-Fi channel here in the UK - Emmanuelle 2000, Dark Angel, V, She Spies - not counting broadcasts of "Lexx".
But to give Sci-Fi channel credit, they are playing reruns of Logan's Run.
Those large red vehicles with ladders, flashing lights and loud sirens tend to give the game away :)
I don't about the USA, but in the UK we've got problems with neds (non-educated delinquents) setting up bonfires to lure firefighters to their neighbourhood, then throwing stones at the firecrews and vehicles, all just for fun.
You haven't seen a H1-B work visa petition :)
Previously undisclosed details of the security system classification scheme:
small white dots = passengers
large yellow circle with a wedge missing = suspicious person
large white circles = eating areas and wireless zones
red, orange, pink and blue ghost figures with eyes = security personnel
airport walls = blue lines
Look at the TVs in shops - they look awful, but it's the same technology, just setup poorly.
... they want to pawn off the existing stock they have in the store as quickly possible before the new models come in.
That's deliberate
I once went into a mall store in Canada to buy a TV - nothing fancy, just a basic $200 20" cable ready TV. The model (S----) on show was definitely off-colour (slightly yellow compared to the other model). I go up to the sales desk and express my desire to make a purchase. "What's wrong with the R-- model?" asks the sales person - "it's got the same size of screen and a remote control". "No, I'd like the S---- model please". "Ok, you can have the S---- model, but it will take 3 days - we don't have any in stock just now."
The problem in the UK isn't with finding containers to store the radioactive waste - we're currently using rusty bins on outside concrete courtyards covered under plastic sheeting to store our radioactive waste.
The problem is trying to find somewhere underground to put the stuff. Every time there's a proposal to convert a disused mine-shaft, protesters will always raise the issue of groundwater contamination, geological fault lines, maintenance, monitoring and security. Not forgetting safety and security for transportation which will have to be by road (since air transport is out of the question, and rural railway lines are being dismantled). Having large containers with police escorts travelling on rural roads on a regular basis tends to upset local homeowners so just proposing a single site will invoke a request for a public inquiry on the selection of the transportation route.
Wouldn't that be on the same chromosome with the monkey dance gene?
The biggest losers with the passing of this act, are the British online gambling companies.
Personally, I'd prefer if British financial investors would invest their money on something more worthwhile like medical or scientific research, rather than gambling.
You should look at these places:
Faced with the challenged of building a large home on a small plot on the side of a steep ridge, the solution was to build the entire house on a single concrete column, with the entire floor space made octagonal to maintain stability.
Chemosphere (or Malin House) by John Lautner
Outside and inside the living room
Or maybe even a Pod house
And there's always Dymaxion House
I've never understood the purpose of "rainy day funds" that local cities create from tax surpluses. In normal times, they don't serve any purpose and when they there is a major disaster that disrupts the local economy, the fund gets depleted within months or even weeks.
That's very true - over here in the UK, the treasury effectively has a force of veto over any proposal by cities to improve public transportation, as every project has to factor in the resulting loss of taxes to the treasury.
If it is possible to get Linux or Windows to run on two core system, it shouldn't be too much trouble to run on a 64 or 80 core system. Although, I'd be worried about getting 80+ shell terminal messages:
...
CPU0: Temperature above threshold
CPU0: Running in modulated clock mode
CPU80: Temperature above threshold
CPU80: Running in modulated clock mode
I believe they would cancel out. The air being expelled from the fan would provide a negative velocity. As the air molecules bounced around, they would eventually hit the sail at a lower velocity, and provide a smaller positive velocity.
You would simply have the E-mail with an HTML attachment that referenced a web image or page somewhere ('img src="". Just a one pixel transparent image would do the trick. The filename would be so obscure, no web spider or wandering web user would find it.
Once the image was referenced, the sender would know the IP address of the computer that accessed the page.