As soon as there is a definitive loser in the hi-def wars, the loser will drop their prices to next-to-zero to spite the winner. And either disc would make an excellent data storage medium if the price was right.
It's happened twice to me at two different companies.
Whenever I need a machine scratch-pad, I boot up a VMWare machine. Test the software or do whatever I need to do and delete it. But while it's running, it broadcasts itself on the local net. Admins really freak out when a machine named//FAKEOUT or//BOGUS suddenly shows up on their net.
I've given two different IT guys at two different companies cardiac events over it.
He just happens to be one of the major players is all - hard to mention the topic *without* him coming up. Sort of like Pamela Jones and Groklaw. You really have to try to not have Groklaw come up in a SCO conversation.
In short, it's not like he's Roland Piquepaille or anything. The public good appears to be his motive, not a financial one.
I think I understand what you're saying. Sort of like how in Physics you learn that there is no such thing as "deceleration". You can't do it. You can only accelerate. People say decelerate when they mean acceleration 180 degrees relative to your path of motion.
But, I think I did meet your requirement:
One speed is slow only because another speed is faster. Therefore the one way to say something is 60 times slower is to compare two relative speeds.
That's what I did, I think. I said the C64 moved data at 300 baud, and a human being at 5 baud. Relative to zero, the C64 is 60 times as fast as a human, making the human 60 times slower than a C64. It will take a C64 1 second to move 300 characters, and it will take a human 60 seconds to move those same 300 characters. In effect, I was using slowness as the reciprocal of fastness, with zero being the implied baseline. It might be technically incorrect to phrase it that way though. I'll have to think about it.
BTW, that was a thoughtful post. You shouldn't have posted AC.
Mossberg says it is a better machine, but Vista and its built-in software make it inferior than Apple iMac's Leopard and iLife suite.
Who cares what's inside the box? It could be a box full of wet sand and duct tape for all I care. If it runs your software faster and provides a better user experience, that's the winner.
A Commodore 64's floppy disk, the 1541 runs at 300 baud. So that's 176160768/300 = 587203 seconds for an equivalent copy. That's 9786 minutes, or 163.1 hours. That's 6.796 days.
The same copy will take Vista 131 years. That's 47815 days.
That means that a Commodore 64 w. 1541 drive is roughly 47815/6.796 = 7036 times faster than Windows Vista.
Now, for a human number. An average typist gets about 50-70 wpm according to wiki. So we'll call the average 60wpm. Seems reasonable. That's 60*5 = 300 characters per minute. Since a C64 moves data at 300 characters per second, we can say that a human typist is 60 times slower than the Commodore 64. That means that a human typist is 7036/60 = 117 times faster than a Vista file copy.
Of course it can be done. Wine is about 90% functional and they got all that with simple observation and no access to the code whatsoever. Same goes for the Samba crew.
If you had the code in front of you, it would become simple.
Ok, Microsoft - if you're worried about all these destructive monopolies then I propose you arrange a swap with Google.
Google will give up on their advertising mergers if you release a fully documented API for Windows. One hundred percent, nothing hidden. You know, what you were ordered to do (and *still* haven't done) by the EU because of your monopoly desktop position. Detail everything. File formats, network protocols - the works. Make it something that the Wine guys could grab and implement.
That's because innovation isn't measurable by the number of patents you produce. Let me tell you my patent story.
I used to work at a company that made a widget. Details left out because of possible NDA/lawsuit goodness.
There were 3 or 4 other players in this widget space. There are about 3 or 4 useful functions any of these widgets can do.
One of the other players decides to patent "feature A from this widget, combined with feature B from this other widget". A multi function widget, merely taking two functions from two widgets and combining them. In other words, peanut butter is ok, and jelly is ok, but putting peanut butter with jelly is *hugely innovative* and deserves a patent.
We held meetings and began to file patents too. They were all equally insane.
There was NO INNOVATION going on in these meetings. Just carving up the widget patent space - that has existed for years - with each of these little companies nit-picking each other to death with patent suits and royalty fees.
And yes, I feel the same way about a university's research. If that research was paid for by a company, they can control it how ever they like. But if that research was paid for by my tax dollars, then they can take their patent application and shove it up their collective ass.
Unless they're getting the patent so some corporate entity doesn't patent their idea and make money off of their work. And lock them out of further research.
A question is, though, do those laws apply at all times and places, or are we just "discovering" them here, and now? As far as I know, there's nothing prohibiting a gradual gauge change over time and space. Perhaps those innocuous gauge shifts really DO have an effect somewhere/when. What we generally call "laws" should be universally applicable
What does the speed limit in Dallas matter if you're driving in Cleveland?
Maybe the laws we perceive are just shadows of something more amazing, but for now we know pretty much what we're stuck with and what we are allowed to do and not do. But don't worry - science is all about adjustments. We thought Newton was right. And he was, as far as he could tell. Then along came Einstein and showed that for some cases Newton was wrong. So we adjusted. I imagine we'll continue to do that for probably as long as we exist, sculpting better laws as of refinements of existing laws.
I own a C64 with 1541 drive, and Apple IIe, a Mac Classic, two Mac SE 030s, Amiga 500, Amiga 2000 w 1.3 roms and GVP 8 meg expansion and scsi 120 meg drive.
I agree with you - there's nothing like real hardware. It's just a little difficult to download is all. =)
PS: My wife and I are new parents. I told her that I'd like to set up all my old gear around the house for when the kid grows up. Tell him that's what computers are. Then on his 12th birthday say "just kidding!" and get him a top of the line PC and a Playstation 6 or whatever's hot at the time and blow his mind.
We're getting improvements all the time - you don't just suddenly pop into being a new species. It's gradual.
Examples:
Autism. Most likely this is evolution trying out ideas for the next generation human brain. People with autism can occasionally do extraordinary things - but usually at a cost which makes the change non-beneficial, so evolution sorts them out. But eventually some selection will take place and we'll get a beneficial autism-like ability added to our species. Maybe someday soon we'll all be able to count cards ala Rain Man, or be able to tell you the square root of a six digit number without a calculator, or memorize the phone book.
It happens. Here's (most likely) a recent improvement to our species - extra cones in the eyes. Some women can see in more colors than the rest of us. They're called tetrachromats.
Any advanced server you should be able to kill with a few mouse clicks, so that way your janitor or your cat can kill the system. Killing the system through a root console is so 1970's.
I've always secretly hoped that all the high amplitude low frequency bass coming from overpowered car stereos these days matches some critical frequency in the testicles and causes male sterility. It could only help the gene pool.
The "he talks faggy" bit gave me a chuckle. I actually had to learn how to talk to people in my rural home town and not use language that confused them. The scary part is that I used to do it unconsciously. I'd go to college and communicate normally, then come home and "adjust" for the locals. First time I noticed what I was doing it gave me the serious creeps.
And I can still do it if I wish, and I haven't lived there in a dozen years. One minute I can be talking about Heisenberg, the next moment I can sound like I work at a gas station. Clevon would be ok with me. He'd probably give me a Budweiser and invite me to a BBQ.
Slashdot Mirror
As soon as there is a definitive loser in the hi-def wars, the loser will drop their prices to next-to-zero to spite the winner. And either disc would make an excellent data storage medium if the price was right.
http://xkcd.com/357/
I wasn't trying to be funny. I just wasn't thinking when I named them.
So it's not a failure of my sense of humor, it's a failure of my common sense.
Again, oops. Sorry fellas.
It's happened twice to me at two different companies.
Whenever I need a machine scratch-pad, I boot up a VMWare machine. Test the software or do whatever I need to do and delete it. But while it's running, it broadcasts itself on the local net. Admins really freak out when a machine named //FAKEOUT or //BOGUS suddenly shows up on their net.
I've given two different IT guys at two different companies cardiac events over it.
Sorry, fellas.
It'd be interesting to see if the money they got from their customers in '07 equals or exceeds that number.
If it doesn't, I'd think they have a somewhat skewed and short-sighted definition of success. Me, I'd call it getting paid off.
All those law courses and no time to take a single economics class?
Well, that'll teach you. =)
He just happens to be one of the major players is all - hard to mention the topic *without* him coming up. Sort of like Pamela Jones and Groklaw. You really have to try to not have Groklaw come up in a SCO conversation.
In short, it's not like he's Roland Piquepaille or anything. The public good appears to be his motive, not a financial one.
I believe I have it right. You're thinking that baud==bit rate, and it is not. Thus spake wiki:
The term "baud rate" is commonly used to mean bit rate; this usage is incorrect.
A 3000-bit per second modem that transmits symbols that each carry three bits should be described as operating at 1000 baud.
So, the C64 1541 drive operates at 300 baud, and we know that it is storing bytes. Therefore it can take 300 bytes from the copy every second.
I'm not trolling, the C64 *really is* that much better than Vista! =)
I think I understand what you're saying. Sort of like how in Physics you learn that there is no such thing as "deceleration". You can't do it. You can only accelerate. People say decelerate when they mean acceleration 180 degrees relative to your path of motion.
But, I think I did meet your requirement:
One speed is slow only because another speed is faster. Therefore the one way to say something is 60 times slower is to compare two relative speeds.
That's what I did, I think. I said the C64 moved data at 300 baud, and a human being at 5 baud. Relative to zero, the C64 is 60 times as fast as a human, making the human 60 times slower than a C64. It will take a C64 1 second to move 300 characters, and it will take a human 60 seconds to move those same 300 characters. In effect, I was using slowness as the reciprocal of fastness, with zero being the implied baseline. It might be technically incorrect to phrase it that way though. I'll have to think about it.
BTW, that was a thoughtful post. You shouldn't have posted AC.
Mossberg says it is a better machine, but Vista and its built-in software make it inferior than Apple iMac's Leopard and iLife suite.
Who cares what's inside the box? It could be a box full of wet sand and duct tape for all I care. If it runs your software faster and provides a better user experience, that's the winner.
Ok, 168 MB is 168*1024*1024 = 176,160,768 bytes.
A Commodore 64's floppy disk, the 1541 runs at 300 baud. So that's 176160768/300 = 587203 seconds for an equivalent copy. That's 9786 minutes, or 163.1 hours. That's 6.796 days.
The same copy will take Vista 131 years. That's 47815 days.
That means that a Commodore 64 w. 1541 drive is roughly 47815/6.796 = 7036 times faster than Windows Vista.
Now, for a human number. An average typist gets about 50-70 wpm according to wiki. So we'll call the average 60wpm. Seems reasonable. That's 60*5 = 300 characters per minute. Since a C64 moves data at 300 characters per second, we can say that a human typist is 60 times slower than the Commodore 64. That means that a human typist is 7036/60 = 117 times faster than a Vista file copy.
Impressive!
Ok, let's do a David Letterman style top-10 list on ways SCO could "restructure themselves for success"! Ready?
Of course it can be done. Wine is about 90% functional and they got all that with simple observation and no access to the code whatsoever. Same goes for the Samba crew.
If you had the code in front of you, it would become simple.
Ok, Microsoft - if you're worried about all these destructive monopolies then I propose you arrange a swap with Google.
Google will give up on their advertising mergers if you release a fully documented API for Windows. One hundred percent, nothing hidden. You know, what you were ordered to do (and *still* haven't done) by the EU because of your monopoly desktop position. Detail everything. File formats, network protocols - the works. Make it something that the Wine guys could grab and implement.
No? Didn't think so.
That's because innovation isn't measurable by the number of patents you produce. Let me tell you my patent story.
I used to work at a company that made a widget. Details left out because of possible NDA/lawsuit goodness.
There were 3 or 4 other players in this widget space. There are about 3 or 4 useful functions any of these widgets can do.
One of the other players decides to patent "feature A from this widget, combined with feature B from this other widget". A multi function widget, merely taking two functions from two widgets and combining them. In other words, peanut butter is ok, and jelly is ok, but putting peanut butter with jelly is *hugely innovative* and deserves a patent.
We held meetings and began to file patents too. They were all equally insane.
There was NO INNOVATION going on in these meetings. Just carving up the widget patent space - that has existed for years - with each of these little companies nit-picking each other to death with patent suits and royalty fees.
Patents do not equal innovation.
And yes, I feel the same way about a university's research. If that research was paid for by a company, they can control it how ever they like. But if that research was paid for by my tax dollars, then they can take their patent application and shove it up their collective ass.
Unless they're getting the patent so some corporate entity doesn't patent their idea and make money off of their work. And lock them out of further research.
There are defensive patents, you know.
A question is, though, do those laws apply at all times and places, or are we just "discovering" them here, and now? As far as I know, there's nothing prohibiting a gradual gauge change over time and space. Perhaps those innocuous gauge shifts really DO have an effect somewhere/when. What we generally call "laws" should be universally applicable
What does the speed limit in Dallas matter if you're driving in Cleveland?
Maybe the laws we perceive are just shadows of something more amazing, but for now we know pretty much what we're stuck with and what we are allowed to do and not do. But don't worry - science is all about adjustments. We thought Newton was right. And he was, as far as he could tell. Then along came Einstein and showed that for some cases Newton was wrong. So we adjusted. I imagine we'll continue to do that for probably as long as we exist, sculpting better laws as of refinements of existing laws.
I own a C64 with 1541 drive, and Apple IIe, a Mac Classic, two Mac SE 030s, Amiga 500, Amiga 2000 w 1.3 roms and GVP 8 meg expansion and scsi 120 meg drive.
I agree with you - there's nothing like real hardware. It's just a little difficult to download is all. =)
PS: My wife and I are new parents. I told her that I'd like to set up all my old gear around the house for when the kid grows up. Tell him that's what computers are. Then on his 12th birthday say "just kidding!" and get him a top of the line PC and a Playstation 6 or whatever's hot at the time and blow his mind.
Or, they could make an actual 3D museum, sort of like google earth, only inside. Now THAT would be awesome.
With emulations of the machines at each display point. Not too difficult to do these days. Use this, or maybe something like this.
We're getting improvements all the time - you don't just suddenly pop into being a new species. It's gradual.
Examples:
Autism. Most likely this is evolution trying out ideas for the next generation human brain. People with autism can occasionally do extraordinary things - but usually at a cost which makes the change non-beneficial, so evolution sorts them out. But eventually some selection will take place and we'll get a beneficial autism-like ability added to our species. Maybe someday soon we'll all be able to count cards ala Rain Man, or be able to tell you the square root of a six digit number without a calculator, or memorize the phone book.
It happens. Here's (most likely) a recent improvement to our species - extra cones in the eyes. Some women can see in more colors than the rest of us. They're called tetrachromats.
Any advanced server you should be able to kill with a few mouse clicks, so that way your janitor or your cat can kill the system. Killing the system through a root console is so 1970's.
Is the Bradley Trainer they made from hacking an Atari Battlezone game.
Not a fantastic game of course, but it's old school and a neat hack.
Seriously.
I've always secretly hoped that all the high amplitude low frequency bass coming from overpowered car stereos these days matches some critical frequency in the testicles and causes male sterility. It could only help the gene pool.
The "he talks faggy" bit gave me a chuckle. I actually had to learn how to talk to people in my rural home town and not use language that confused them. The scary part is that I used to do it unconsciously. I'd go to college and communicate normally, then come home and "adjust" for the locals. First time I noticed what I was doing it gave me the serious creeps.
And I can still do it if I wish, and I haven't lived there in a dozen years. One minute I can be talking about Heisenberg, the next moment I can sound like I work at a gas station. Clevon would be ok with me. He'd probably give me a Budweiser and invite me to a BBQ.