In strict computer science terms, the kernel is the OS.
I'm wondering where you got this impression. Where would microkernel operating systems fit into this description? QNX certainly doesn't qualify as an operating system if you only load the kernel, because it can't do ANYTHING without the process scheduler loaded as well.
I have taken numerous courses on operating systems theory at the graduate and undergraduate level, and I have heard many different definitions of what an operating system is, but I've never heard anyone claim that the OS is just the kernel. (Generally, most computer scientists tend to agree that the concept of "operating system" is vague, and it is impossible to provide a single, universal definition of the term.)
The "strict computer science term" for the portion of the operating system you refer to as the kernel is . . . . . .
Just a small point, but "Self-Assembly" is a massively overused buzzword.
Self assembly of "macromolecules" has existed for over half a century. (Examples: nylon, teflon, etc)
Also, I haven't seen anything which mentions the SIZE of any of these molecules. Are we talking about molecules with 20-80 atoms, or are we talking about protein sized monsters. Storing one bit per protein would be an enormous waste of space. The value of this technology really depends on how big the molecules are.
The phrase "mild autism" should probably be replaced by "Asperger's Syndrome."
As psychiatrists and neurologists learn more about disorders such as manic depressive illness, depression, autism, obsessive compulsive disorder, ADD, ADHD, etc, they are learning that these are all "spectrum disorders."
The spectrum for ALL of these disorders ranges from so severe that it is CLEAR that there is a serious problem, to so mild that the issue would probably be better characterized as a personality trait rather than a disorder.
For Bipolar Disorder (manic depression) there is a whole range from the person who thinks he is Jesus, and jumps off a building thinking he can fly, to something called "cyclothymia" which is basically cyclical moodiness which isn't strong enough to result in depression or mania.
For the "Autism" spectrum, it is actually called "Pervasive Developmental Disorder." I have a diagnosis of "Asperger's Syndrome." My oldest son has "moderate autism." My youngest son has PDD-NOS (PDD- Not Otherwise Specified." We expect that when he is old enough to be evaluated for Asperger's Syndrome, he will be diagnosed with that instead. (He is currently 5)
I mention those two specrums because they are the ones I have personal experience with. (I also have something called "Bipolar Disorder Type-II,. which is like Manic Depression (Bipolar Type-I) except that I don't lose touch with reality when I get "hypomanic.")
Anyway, there are many documented benefits to being mildly bipolar. There is a book called "Touched by Fire" which discusses the fact that mood disorders are common among sucessful people in creative fields such as art, music, literature, etc.
Some of the benefits of Asperger's Syndrome are:
1) Hyperlexia -- Learning to read at a VERY early age
2) Visual Thinking -- Most people tend to think in terms of words rather than pictures
3) Literal Thinking -- People with Asperger's Syndrome tend to think very literaly. This is a definite plus for things like math, science, or computer programming, but it is a definite negative for things like social skills.
4) Learn from books -- Most people have a difficult time learning a complex subject by reading about it. They tend to need to have people explain it to them. On the other hand, people with Asperger's tend to learn from written materials better than they learn from lectures or personal explanations.
If Asperger's Syndrome was proposed as a "developmental disorder" all by itself, it probably would be laughed off by most people. (Just as many people in this thread seem to be doing.) The reason Asperger's Syndrome is accepted by most professionals is because of the very clear _spectrum_ from severe autism (called Kanner's Autism outside of the USA, I believe) to mild (also called high functioning) autism, to Asperger's Syndrome. Understanding Autism (and other spectrum disorders) will probably require understanding the very foundations of human personality. Spectrum disorders really appear to be generally based on good personality traits being pushed to the point where they become problems. People who are on the borderline between "typical" and "disordered" will often be quite superior at certain things, but quite inferior at other things, as the inherent trade offs of the disorder emerge.
Rather than viewing Asperger's Syndrome as a disability, perhaps it should be viewed as an "overclocked brain."
If you want to do the power-education, do anything and go anywhere route, then location probably won't be too important to you.
On the other hand, whatever school you choose will also determine what city you live in for the next couple of years. As a guy from a small Oregon town who went to MIT for my undergrad work, I realised that the fast paced East Coast way of life just isn't for me. Oregon isn't exactly a CS powerhouse, but it's in a beautiful location, and it's close to my family. I've been able to have a family and raise my children close to their grandparents while I persue my degree.
But, my choices would DEFINITELY be different if I wanted to get a PhD and go into academia, rather than getting a MS and working for a Portland area company. The "prestige" of the school you go to is much more important if you plan on being an academic researcher. If you want to go straight into industry after you graduate, then you can afford to consider quality of life issues a bit more when you make your decision.
This hoax has been circulating for at least 2 1/2 - 3 months. I would expect slashdot to do at least _minimal_ screening for this type of thing.
Next thing you know, we'll be seeing warnings for the Good Times virus in AskSlashdot.
Anyone who hears any of this "I heard that blah blah blah computer blah blah government blah blah virus blah blah cyberwar" crap should check out these sites before they pass this stuff on:
Computer Virus Myths home page: http://kumite.com/myths/ (has info on this email BS too)
Hoax du Jour http://korova.com/virus/hoax.htm
The Crypt Newsletter http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/
These three sources alone are enough to disprove almost all of the computer related "mass-hysteria" type of misinformation which pervades all levels of media from the net, all the way to newsprint and TV.
Please think before you spew out the latest rumor. Especially if you are a "news website."
I've been researching 3D cards a bit, because I'm considering applying for a job doing OpenGL programming. Anyway, any card which implements OpenGL will do the coordinate transformations as well as the actual rendering.
Perhaps the KNI was a good idea which is about to be eclipsed by the next generation of 3D video cards.
BTW, the Vodoo2 chipset does OpenGL and Direct3D as well as 3Dfx.
For real-time 3D multimedia, people who are interested in performance will probably invest in a 3D accelerator card anyway. So the KNI instructions won't ever get used because all the rendering is passed off to the graphics card.
And for the 2D stuff, everyone already HAS graphics acceleration anyway. Since when is the main system CPU doing any multimedia calculations in a modern high-end PC? (Except for video decoding)
It seems to me that the only time these KNI instructions would help speed up a 3D app would be when you are rendering in non-realtime, such as when you use POV to raytrace an image. But that certainly doesn't seem to be the market Intel is aiming for.
Someone please correct me if I have made some mistake in my brief analysis.
The Crypt newsletter devotes itself to debunking common military techno-myths.
It turns out that the story about Russians stealing money from a bank by deactivating the security system with one of these guns was a JOKE on this website several years ago.
Now it found its way into the BS stories of these info-terrorism experts, and is being reported as fact.
The web site mentions the 20/20 episode specifically at the end of the page.
Anyone who understands the 2nd law of thermodynamics knows that it only applies to CLOSED systems. The Earth is not a closed system. The energy released by the nuclear reactions in the Sun allows any system which can make use of that energy to decrease in entropy. Meanwhile, the Sun is increasing in entropy at a much faster rate. The net change is that the entire Solar System has increasing entropy, even though some individual portions of the Solar System have decreasing entropy.
Using your argument about the 2nd law, it is possible to prove that BIRTH is just a myth, because we can't create a new being out of the disorder of food, water, and air.
If you actually read the entire article, ONE company is using Open Source to develop their application.
Shortly after the Open Source development is mentioned, the article continues on stating that another company has received FAA approval to use Windows NT for their application.
Slashdot Mirror
From "slim":
In strict computer science terms, the kernel is the OS.
I'm wondering where you got this impression. Where would microkernel operating systems fit into this description? QNX certainly doesn't qualify as an operating system if you only load the kernel, because it can't do ANYTHING without the process scheduler loaded as well.
I have taken numerous courses on operating systems theory at the graduate and undergraduate level, and I have heard many different definitions of what an operating system is, but I've never heard anyone claim that the OS is just the kernel. (Generally, most computer scientists tend to agree that the concept of "operating system" is vague, and it is impossible to provide a single, universal definition of the term.)
The "strict computer science term" for the portion of the operating system you refer to as the kernel is . . . . . .
"The Kernel"
Question #2 seems to show that the people who designed the poll don't have a clue about this issue.
If there's one thing I've learned from following this case, it's that there is no such thing as an illegal monopoly.
Microsoft is NOT on trial for _being_ a monopoly.
They are on trial because they are engaging in practices which are illegal for a monopoly.
This trial is not about who/what Microsoft is.
This trial is about the illegal things Microsoft has done.
Just a small point, but "Self-Assembly" is a massively overused buzzword.
Self assembly of "macromolecules" has existed for over half a century. (Examples: nylon, teflon, etc)
Also, I haven't seen anything which mentions the SIZE of any of these molecules. Are we talking about molecules with 20-80 atoms, or are we talking about protein sized monsters. Storing one bit per protein would be an enormous waste of space. The value of this technology really depends on how big the molecules are.
The phrase "mild autism" should probably be replaced by "Asperger's Syndrome."
As psychiatrists and neurologists learn more about disorders such as manic depressive illness, depression, autism, obsessive compulsive disorder, ADD, ADHD, etc, they are learning that these are all "spectrum disorders."
The spectrum for ALL of these disorders ranges from so severe that it is CLEAR that there is a serious problem, to so mild that the issue would probably be better characterized as a personality trait rather than a disorder.
For Bipolar Disorder (manic depression) there is a whole range from the person who thinks he is Jesus, and jumps off a building thinking he can fly, to something called "cyclothymia" which is basically cyclical moodiness which isn't strong enough to result in depression or mania.
For the "Autism" spectrum, it is actually called "Pervasive Developmental Disorder." I have a diagnosis of "Asperger's Syndrome." My oldest son has "moderate autism." My youngest son has PDD-NOS (PDD- Not Otherwise Specified." We expect that when he is old enough to be evaluated for Asperger's Syndrome, he will be diagnosed with that instead. (He is currently 5)
I mention those two specrums because they are the ones I have personal experience with. (I also have something called "Bipolar Disorder Type-II,. which is like Manic Depression (Bipolar Type-I) except that I don't lose touch with reality when I get "hypomanic.")
Anyway, there are many documented benefits to being mildly bipolar. There is a book called "Touched by Fire" which discusses the fact that mood disorders are common among sucessful people in creative fields such as art, music, literature, etc.
Some of the benefits of Asperger's Syndrome are:
1) Hyperlexia -- Learning to read at a VERY early age
2) Visual Thinking -- Most people tend to think in terms of words rather than pictures
3) Literal Thinking -- People with Asperger's Syndrome tend to think very literaly. This is a definite plus for things like math, science, or computer programming, but it is a definite negative for things like social skills.
4) Learn from books -- Most people have a difficult time learning a complex subject by reading about it. They tend to need to have people explain it to them. On the other hand, people with Asperger's tend to learn from written materials better than they learn from lectures or personal explanations.
If Asperger's Syndrome was proposed as a "developmental disorder" all by itself, it probably would be laughed off by most people. (Just as many people in this thread seem to be doing.) The reason Asperger's Syndrome is accepted by most professionals is because of the very clear _spectrum_ from severe autism (called Kanner's Autism outside of the USA, I believe) to mild (also called high functioning) autism, to Asperger's Syndrome. Understanding Autism (and other spectrum disorders) will probably require understanding the very foundations of human personality. Spectrum disorders really appear to be generally based on good personality traits being pushed to the point where they become problems. People who are on the borderline between "typical" and "disordered" will often be quite superior at certain things, but quite inferior at other things, as the inherent trade offs of the disorder emerge.
Rather than viewing Asperger's Syndrome as a disability, perhaps it should be viewed as an "overclocked brain."
*grin*
If you want to do the power-education, do anything
and go anywhere route, then location probably won't
be too important to you.
On the other hand, whatever school you choose
will also determine what city you live in for the next
couple of years. As a guy from a small Oregon
town who went to MIT for my undergrad work, I
realised that the fast paced East Coast way of
life just isn't for me. Oregon isn't exactly a CS
powerhouse, but it's in a beautiful location, and
it's close to my family. I've been able to have
a family and raise my children close to their
grandparents while I persue my degree.
But, my choices would DEFINITELY be different
if I wanted to get a PhD and go into academia,
rather than getting a MS and working for a
Portland area company. The "prestige" of the
school you go to is much more important if you
plan on being an academic researcher. If you
want to go straight into industry after you graduate,
then you can afford to consider quality of life issues
a bit more when you make your decision.
This hoax has been circulating for at least
2 1/2 - 3 months. I would expect slashdot
to do at least _minimal_ screening for this
type of thing.
Next thing you know, we'll be seeing warnings
for the Good Times virus in AskSlashdot.
Anyone who hears any of this "I heard that
blah blah blah computer blah blah government
blah blah virus blah blah cyberwar" crap
should check out these sites before they
pass this stuff on:
Computer Virus Myths home page:
http://kumite.com/myths/
(has info on this email BS too)
Hoax du Jour
http://korova.com/virus/hoax.htm
The Crypt Newsletter
http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/
These three sources alone are enough to disprove
almost all of the computer related "mass-hysteria"
type of misinformation which pervades all levels
of media from the net, all the way to newsprint
and TV.
Please think before you spew out the latest rumor.
Especially if you are a "news website."
I've been researching 3D cards a bit, because
I'm considering applying for a job doing
OpenGL programming. Anyway, any card which
implements OpenGL will do the coordinate
transformations as well as the actual
rendering.
Perhaps the KNI was a good idea which is
about to be eclipsed by the next generation
of 3D video cards.
BTW, the Vodoo2 chipset does OpenGL and
Direct3D as well as 3Dfx.
For real-time 3D multimedia, people who are
interested in performance will probably
invest in a 3D accelerator card anyway.
So the KNI instructions won't ever get
used because all the rendering is passed
off to the graphics card.
And for the 2D stuff, everyone already
HAS graphics acceleration anyway. Since
when is the main system CPU doing any
multimedia calculations in a modern
high-end PC? (Except for video decoding)
It seems to me that the only time these
KNI instructions would help speed up a
3D app would be when you are rendering
in non-realtime, such as when you use
POV to raytrace an image. But that
certainly doesn't seem to be the market
Intel is aiming for.
Someone please correct me if I have made
some mistake in my brief analysis.
http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/other/kooks.htm
The Crypt newsletter devotes itself to debunking
common military techno-myths.
It turns out that the story about Russians
stealing money from a bank by deactivating
the security system with one of these guns
was a JOKE on this website several years ago.
Now it found its way into the BS stories of
these info-terrorism experts, and is being
reported as fact.
The web site mentions the 20/20 episode
specifically at the end of the page.
Anyone who understands the 2nd law of
thermodynamics knows that it only applies to
CLOSED systems. The Earth is not a closed
system. The energy released by the nuclear
reactions in the Sun allows any system which
can make use of that energy to decrease in
entropy. Meanwhile, the Sun is increasing
in entropy at a much faster rate. The net
change is that the entire Solar System has
increasing entropy, even though some individual
portions of the Solar System have decreasing
entropy.
Using your argument about the 2nd law, it
is possible to prove that BIRTH is just a
myth, because we can't create a new being
out of the disorder of food, water, and air.
If you actually read the entire article,
ONE company is using Open Source to develop
their application.
Shortly after the Open Source development
is mentioned, the article continues on stating
that another company has received FAA approval
to use Windows NT for their application.