I'd love to see a graph of the amount of time it takes to compile the kernel source using the latest-and-greatest hardware, over the last 8 years or so.
My interest is based on the premise that software isn't "keeping up" with the advances in hardware. (No, I'm not suggesting that longer compile times implies better software).
I wonder how long, for instance, it will take to compile the kernel source in 10 years? Will it be a shorter amount of time because the hardware is so much faster, or will it actually be a longer amount of time because so much functionality has been added to the OS?
I remember seeing in a theater back in the late 80s a Luxo Jr. short that included, as the "punch line," Luxo Jr. rolling a bowling ball that pushed Luxo Sr. off the "stage" as he looked up in disbelief. Anybody know what I'm talking about, or am I just imagining things? Were there any Luxo Jr. sequels to the one that's on pixar.com?
Speaking of real programmers... has anyone seen dd/sh by Assurdo.com? I believe those insane freaks wrote a text editor using a language based only on dd. Unfortunately assurdo.com no longer resolves, but you can find some references to it using google. Don't suppose anyone has that site mirrorred anywhere?
When leaving the theater, I strained to come up with a worse movie that I had seen, and failed.
Suspension of disbelief? PLEASE. And Katz's comment about "nervous laughter" -- give me a break. People were laughing out-loud in the theater because of how ridiculously STUPID the final fighting scenes were.
The dialog was uninspired, the acting was nonexistant, the plot was random and yet predictable at the same time.
This was the most boring, predictable, and contrived movies I have ever seen. I'm sorry I spent $9.50 on it.
I am interested in adding wireless support to a web site that I maintain, but I haven't been able to find very much documentation on how to go about doing it. Does anybody have any pointers to docs or HOWTOs or anything?
Hands down (no pun intended) the best keyboard I've ever tried. I'd even go so far as to say it's the best money I've ever spent.
For a while my paid was so bad that I thought I'd have to stop programming. But three years later, thanks to the Kenisis, I'm still typing 100 hours a week with very little if any pain.
Indent a region? Vi users are an easy-to-plesae bunch, aren't they?
To indent an entire file that's compressed and sitting on a machine in the other hemisphere:
C-x C-f/user@host:path/to/file.c.gz RETemacs fetches, gunzipps and colorizes your source C-x hselect the entire contents of the file C-M-\indent the file (M-x indent-regionif you prefer) C-x C-ssave the file
...how can you call vi a programmer's editor if you can't program it?
-Pez
Re:Kinesis Ergonomic Keyboards
on
Interface Zen
·
· Score: 1
I couldn't agree more. Tom C. missed some very important points:
1. Having the keys vertically aligned is vastly superior to the normal QWERTY slant (which, by the way, only exists as a relic of the old lever- driven hammer-head mechanical typewriters). Once you've tried a keyboard with a more ergonomic vertical layout of the keys, you'll wonder why people torture themselves with the extra finger travel.
2. Using chords is a requirement for efficient programming. With the Kinesis this beccomes easier becuase the control and alt keys are under the stronger thumbs. There just aren't enough keys on the keyboard to map to the commands you want to do (even if you have three "modes" like in vi). Not even close.
3. The single biggest failing in the standard keyboard is the spacebar. Of the eight non- thumb digits, they each have on average about 5 different keys they can hit. The two thumbs (which are the strongest two of your 10 digits) have ONE key between them. Talk about inefficient. Luckily the Kinesis addresses this problem, with all the most frequently used keys under the strong thumbs: Enter, Space, Backspace, Delete, Ctrl, and Alt (and a few others).
If you haven't tried the Kenisis, I strongly suggest you give it a try. It's quite honestly the best money I've ever spent in my life.
Your argument may be true for the special case of a T1-connected PC running a simple web site, but as the bandwidth increases and the web site gets more sophisticated, you will find that indeed perl does slow you down.
We run a server farm of about 75 production boxes, and we regularly exceed 50Mbit of traffic (more than a T3). The web site is somewhat complex, with over 100,000 lines of perl code behind it, and every page view is served under mod_perl. At the busiest times, the load average on the boxes exceeds 15, but there is certainly still plenty of headroom available on each box's network card.
Basically, it all depends on your setup. For us, the combination of perl, mod_perl, and Apache has been fabulous. But if you need a little extra performance, writing your own Apache modules in C may be the only way to go.
I used one that was hooked up to a skiing game. While it sort of worked, it took a while before you could actually control it. And not much longer to figure out what was actually happening.
You stick your finger in a hole and press down on a few contacts, and then you're supposed to "think" the skiier to the left or the right to control him(her). But what I noticed was that in order to get the skiier to move, I would really have to concentrate -- to the point where I was using "body english" and leaning my whole body a bit to the left or right. Then I noticed what effect it was having on my finger, and it was a no-brainer to realize that tilting your finger a little to the left or the right was all it took to make the device "work", and that's in fact what was happening when you were "concentrating" on getting the skiier to move.
Towards the end of an article that's desperately trying to sound unbiased, this leaks out:
"But many are simply curious about why a new user would choose Linux over FreeBSD, despite FreeBSD's technical superiority."
I was unaware that it is generally accepted that FreeBSD is technically superior. I'll have to go and rebuild the 80 machines we have in our production system right now.
I'm not sure how much I agree. When you've got that much money you've got to give it to *someone* when you die. Either it's going to be to your heirs, or it's going to be to society (or a little to both). What Bill is doing by donating it all to society is making sure his name gets in all the history books for years to come.
We do in excess of 2 million highly dynamic page views per day on Linux using Apache/mod_perl.
In 3 years of operation we've had exactly 2 outages, both of which were caused by Bell Atlantic cutting a wire. That was before we moved our servers to a high-availability data center.
You're joking, right? Always? In 20 years when you can store a terabyte on the head of a pin you think that film will be better? It's just a matter of time before digital storage outpaces the alternatives. Audio first, then video, then high-performance video.
Something I wonder about from time to time is that in X years it will be trivially inexpensive to build one of those voice-recorder gadgets that has a recording capacity greater than a human lifetime. Imagine storing everything you've ever heard in your entire life? Imagine if everyone did?
Slashdot Mirror
Well let's hope we don't see this story again (with another name presumably :-)
Just curious whether people will still be posting to this article a week from now. Opinions?
Taco, let me know if you need my current address to send the invitation :-)
-Pez
As one of your earliest users (note user #) I offer a hearty congratulations. You couldn't have proposed in a more interesting way.
Good luck and best wishes for the future.
Funny, that's not my finding:
pez@delos: ~ ->cat wildcard.htm | gzip -c9 | wc -c
10176
pez@delos: ~ ->cat wildcard.htm | gzip -c9 | gzip -c9 | wc -c
10199
pez@delos: ~ ->cat wildcard.htm | gzip -c9 | gzip -c9 | gzip -c9 | wc -c
10222
pez@delos: ~ ->cat wildcard.htm | gzip -c9 | gzip -c9 | gzip -c9 | gzip -c9 | wc -c
10245
pez@delos: ~ ->
I'd love to see a graph of the amount of time it takes to compile the kernel source using the latest-and-greatest hardware, over the last 8 years or so.
My interest is based on the premise that software isn't "keeping up" with the advances in hardware. (No, I'm not suggesting that longer compile times implies better software).
I wonder how long, for instance, it will take to compile the kernel source in 10 years? Will it be a shorter amount of time because the hardware is so much faster, or will it actually be a longer amount of time because so much functionality has been added to the OS?
Anybody know if such an analysis exists?
I remember seeing in a theater back in the late 80s a Luxo Jr. short that included, as the "punch line," Luxo Jr. rolling a bowling ball that pushed Luxo Sr. off the "stage" as he looked up in disbelief. Anybody know what I'm talking about, or am I just imagining things? Were there any Luxo Jr. sequels to the one that's on pixar.com?
Do you have any idea how they book revenue? For instance if I use paypal to pay a friend $10, is that ten dollars of revenue?
Speaking of real programmers... has anyone seen dd/sh by Assurdo.com? I believe those insane freaks wrote a text editor using a language based only on dd. Unfortunately assurdo.com no longer resolves, but you can find some references to it using google. Don't suppose anyone has that site mirrorred anywhere?
Funniest Slashdot thread ever. Seriously. (Coming from avid /. reader and user #54). Wish I had mod points today.
When leaving the theater, I strained to come up with a worse movie that I had seen, and failed.
Suspension of disbelief? PLEASE. And Katz's comment about "nervous laughter" -- give me a break. People were laughing out-loud in the theater because of how ridiculously STUPID the final fighting scenes were.
The dialog was uninspired, the acting was nonexistant, the plot was random and yet predictable at the same time.
This was the most boring, predictable, and contrived movies I have ever seen. I'm sorry I spent $9.50 on it.
I am interested in adding wireless support
to a web site that I maintain, but I haven't
been able to find very much documentation on
how to go about doing it. Does anybody have
any pointers to docs or HOWTOs or anything?
Thanks in advance,
Pez
Hands down (no pun intended) the best keyboard
I've ever tried. I'd even go so far as to say
it's the best money I've ever spent.
For a while my paid was so bad that I thought
I'd have to stop programming. But three years
later, thanks to the Kenisis, I'm still typing
100 hours a week with very little if any pain.
-Pez
Indent a region? Vi users are an easy-to-plesae bunch, aren't they?
/user@host:path/to/file.c.gz RET emacs fetches, gunzipps and colorizes your source
To indent an entire file that's compressed and sitting on a machine in the other hemisphere:
C-x C-f
C-x h select the entire contents of the file
C-M-\ indent the file (M-x indent-region if you prefer)
C-x C-s save the file
...how can you call vi a programmer's editor if you can't program it?
-Pez
I couldn't agree more. Tom C. missed some very
important points:
1. Having the keys vertically aligned is vastly
superior to the normal QWERTY slant (which, by
the way, only exists as a relic of the old lever-
driven hammer-head mechanical typewriters). Once
you've tried a keyboard with a more ergonomic
vertical layout of the keys, you'll wonder why
people torture themselves with the extra finger
travel.
2. Using chords is a requirement for efficient
programming. With the Kinesis this beccomes
easier becuase the control and alt keys are
under the stronger thumbs. There just aren't
enough keys on the keyboard to map to the
commands you want to do (even if you have three
"modes" like in vi). Not even close.
3. The single biggest failing in the standard
keyboard is the spacebar. Of the eight non-
thumb digits, they each have on average about
5 different keys they can hit. The two thumbs
(which are the strongest two of your 10 digits)
have ONE key between them. Talk about
inefficient. Luckily the Kinesis addresses this
problem, with all the most frequently used keys
under the strong thumbs: Enter, Space, Backspace,
Delete, Ctrl, and Alt (and a few others).
If you haven't tried the Kenisis, I strongly
suggest you give it a try. It's quite honestly
the best money I've ever spent in my life.
Your argument may be true for the special
case of a T1-connected PC running a simple
web site, but as the bandwidth increases and
the web site gets more sophisticated, you will
find that indeed perl does slow you down.
We run a server farm of about 75 production
boxes, and we regularly exceed 50Mbit of
traffic (more than a T3). The web site is
somewhat complex, with over 100,000 lines of
perl code behind it, and every page view is
served under mod_perl. At the busiest times,
the load average on the boxes exceeds 15,
but there is certainly still plenty of
headroom available on each box's network
card.
Basically, it all depends on your setup. For
us, the combination of perl, mod_perl, and
Apache has been fabulous. But if you need
a little extra performance, writing your own
Apache modules in C may be the only way to go.
I used one that was hooked up to a skiing
game. While it sort of worked, it took a while
before you could actually control it. And not
much longer to figure out what was actually
happening.
You stick your finger in a hole and press down
on a few contacts, and then you're supposed to
"think" the skiier to the left or the right to
control him(her). But what I noticed was that
in order to get the skiier to move, I would
really have to concentrate -- to the point where
I was using "body english" and leaning my whole
body a bit to the left or right. Then I noticed what
effect it was having on my finger, and it was
a no-brainer to realize that tilting your finger
a little to the left or the right was all it took
to make the device "work", and that's in fact
what was happening when you were "concentrating"
on getting the skiier to move.
So I'd have to say that, yes, it's a hoax.
Just had to respond here...
My name is Peter Pezaris (ironic, eh?), and
for about 20 years now people have referred
to me as Pez.
When I first got involved with the web in 1995
I thought about registering pez.com, but opted
against it fearing a law suit down the road.
-Pez
Towards the end of an article that's desperately
trying to sound unbiased, this leaks out:
"But many are simply curious about why a new user
would choose Linux over FreeBSD, despite
FreeBSD's technical superiority."
I was unaware that it is generally accepted that
FreeBSD is technically superior. I'll have to
go and rebuild the 80 machines we have in our
production system right now.
I'm not sure how much I agree. When you've got
that much money you've got to give it to *someone*
when you die. Either it's going to be to your heirs,
or it's going to be to society (or a little to both).
What Bill is doing by donating it all to society
is making sure his name gets in all the history
books for years to come.
We do in excess of 2 million highly dynamic page views per day on Linux using Apache/mod_perl.
In 3 years of operation we've had exactly 2 outages, both of which were caused by Bell Atlantic cutting a wire. That was before we moved our servers to a high-availability data center.
And so Red Had would release a binary only E, so?
The free software community would be free to continue to develop the GPL'd version of E. That is the beauty of the GPL.
One has to wonder whether this is a joke or not...
-Pez
>Film will always be better.
You're joking, right? Always? In 20 years when you can store a terabyte on the head of a pin you think that film will be better? It's just a matter of time before digital storage outpaces the alternatives. Audio first, then video, then high-performance video.
Something I wonder about from time to time is that in X years it will be trivially inexpensive to build one of those voice-recorder gadgets that has a recording capacity greater than a human lifetime. Imagine storing everything you've ever heard in your entire life? Imagine if everyone did?
-Pez
It's a LOT more than that. See
http://perl.apache.org/