My comment (below) was entered as a reply to a comment that didn't exist when I began to write! I've been noticing numerous software failures like this at Slashdot. It appears to be database failures. Sometimes karma points are not added. Sometimes comments appear in a different order than the original order.
My comment:
Companies with virtual monopolies, like Microsoft, should be required to place their file formats in the public domain (make them public and free). Otherwise, monopolies can use file formats to compete unfairly.
One problem with putting the Microsoft Word file formats in the public domain is that the "file formats" include all of MS Word's quirkiness and bugs that affect the way documents are stored. These would have to be carefully documented, also.
Companies with virtual monopolies, like Microsoft, should be required to place their file formats in the public domain (make them public and free). Otherwise, monopolies can use file formats to compete unfairly.
One problem with putting the Microsoft Word file formats in the public domain is that the "file formats" include all of MS Word's quirkiness and bugs that affect the way documents are stored. These would have to be carefully documented, also.
I try to minimize my involvement with Microsoft because I don't like to associate with abusive people.
Personal growth comes from associating with idealistic people.
There was a reason the story gained acceptance back then. Gary Kildall, and Digital Research, were very, very unbusinesslike. The story about Kildall flying was just an easily related example, that everyone could believe, considering everything else they knew.
For example, CP/M operating system manuals from Digital Research sometimes were poor quality copies of originals printed using 8-pin dot-matrix printers that had worn ribbons.
You forgot to say:... and really buggy. The installation code will be 5000 characters long by then. Your computer will be completely controlled by MS computers. The EULA will give Microsoft complete control over all your possessions. Microsoft will be the state religion. You will be required to worship a statue of Bill Gates.
If you haven't tried Star Office or Open Office, try Open Office. It's free. It's excellent. Of the free word processors, it seems to be the best.
I've had a lot of problems with Microsoft Word being quirky. Sometimes Microsoft Word will move a footer to the top of the following page, for example. I don't have a huge amount of experience with Open Office, version 1.0 was released on May 1, I think, but it doesn't seem quirky.
Yes, that is true, but now that everyone has gotten it right, including the refillers, the price should be far less. The cost of the solvent is very small. The price charged for the remaining ingredients is outrageous; the remaining ingredients are not as rare as some chemicals in the human body, as is shown by the fact that the refillers sometimes have better ink than the originals.
Lew Platt, Hewlett-Packard's former CEO, was not a management wonder, but Ms.
Fiorina is worse. She just cannot handle the job. She does not have sufficient
technical background, for example. At present, one of the most common reasons
for corporate failure is thinking that a good salesperson with little
technical understanding can manage a high-tech company.
Ms. Fiorina's bad judgement at her previous job didn't become apparent until
after she was already working for HP. When you work at that level, however,
failure is successful. This [undated] Time Magazine story says she is worth
$2.2 Billion dollars: Carly Fiorina,
Makeover Artist. $2.2 Billion!
Ms. Fiorina was previously at Lucent. A January 12, 2002, Detroit News
article, New chief
for Lucent [Patricia Russo] is exception to numerous departures, tells of
Lucent's problems. A lot of Lucent stories are filled with positive spin, but
obviously something is very wrong. Apparently Ms. Fiorina led Lucent to
overspend seriously on investment in communications. Again apparently, the new
debt has crippled the company, making it a difficult place to work.
The September, 2001, BBC News article, Profile: HP's Carly Fiorina, mentions an interesting fact: "... she
has consolidated her power, now holding down the jobs of chief executive,
president and chairwoman - the only woman to control all three top jobs at a
major tech firm." Maybe someone who merely wants to have all three
top jobs should be considered incompetent.
The BBC News article also says, "A Business Week cover story in
February [2001] concluded that she was 'gambling with Silicon Valley's
proudest legacy' - and that was before she unveiled an 89% profits
slump..."
Your real hostility came out in this post. Read your post from the viewpoint of someone who is the target of that hostility. Would you know how to act around someone who is making you the target of hostility? Would you ever feel comfortable around hostility?
"Seriously people, if you want women to go to your parties, don't alienate them."
Seriously, a lot of programmers are the way they are because they were traumatized in childhood. They got into programming because they were needing the logic to counteract the illogic of their lives with their parents.
So, while your post is valuable, it is not easy for them to change. When they are around something that reminds them of the potential of being a warm and caring individual, they experience a huge amount of hidden inner conflict.
Agreed. If you have a company with many locations, especially divisions in other countries, IBM is able to help you. Smaller companies can't. There's a real need for the kind of support IBM gives.
From the interview: "If the company were to go under, then BitKeeper becomes GPLed."
This is, in my opinion, a big commercial selling point. Often companies have gone out of business due to mismanagement or other problems, and the people who bought from them were left with no support and an expensive conversion to something else.
The initial points of the original post, "Evaluate the Pentium IV design at 6 GHz" were: 1) Don't worry, the P4 will get there, and 2) We shouldn't be reading about the P4 from "Hoser McMoose" or Futurepower. If Intel's marketing communications department were doing a good job, none of this thread would have been necessary. Not that we shouldn't listen to Hoser McMoose, just that Intel should do a better job of communicating. Because of Intel's poor communication, we are probably all getting it a little bit wrong.
The article is confused. Several things are being discussed at the same time.
However, I talked to someone who said he saw a demonstration of a 5 GHz P4 at
the conference. I am able to find no other confirmation.
The elements the article discusses are at least proof of concept. And, the
article discusses results that are certainly the intention of Intel.
I was told several years ago by someone extremely familiar with the work at
Intel that the fabrication processes for the transistors of a new
microprocessor are designed about 4 years in advance. The fabrication
processes determines the design rules. They determine the voltage at which the
microprocessor will run. They determine the ultimate speed. So, everyone knows
what is coming 4 years before it arrives.
The depth of negativity toward Intel surprises me. Usually, everything Intel
does is examined for negative details, both in hardware reviews and on
Slashdot. As the 2.4 GHz P4 shows, Intel delivers, so the underlying facts are
positive.
I consider this negativity, which began, I think, with the recall of the 1.13
GHz PIII, and the initial slow speed of the P4, to be an enormous
communication failure at Intel.
Here is a quote from a May 6th, 2002 AnandTech article, Intel Introduces 533MHz
FSB CPUs -- Pentium 4 2.53 GHz: "Today Intel is working a bit ahead of
schedule. Originally Intel was going to release one CPU, the Pentium 4 2.4B
processor; the 'B' suffix denotes the use of a 133MHz quad-pumped FSB
(effectively 533MHz). But courtesy of high yields and good performance in
Intel's strict validation process, today you'll not only get one but two new
533MHz FSB processors - clocked at 2.4 and 2.53 GHz."
The Pentium 4 is beginning to get very positive reviews, but the tide of
sentiment has not turned yet. People seem to be saying negative things out of
habit. I suppose AnandTech is slightly ahead of the times.
Modern microprocessors are one of the most impressive scientific achievements.
But everything associated with them takes time. They require $3,000,000,000
fabrication plants, which take time to build. Yet, a 1.8 GHz P4 now costs only
$180. That's an amazing achievement.
If you examine the situation carefully, I think you will see that the evidence is that the baby with huge paws will grow up to be an impressive animal.
No, the P4 has an architecture that was designed for the computers of the
future. It's like a small dog with very big paws. It will be
impressive when it grows up.
The heat dissipation comes from using the P4 architecture with the larger
design rules. As the die sizes shrink, the heat dissipation will go down, and
the wisdom behind other elements of the design will become more apparent.
Notice that we are already seeing this effect. The 2.4 GHz P4 performs very
well.
Intel is demonstrating a 5 GHz P4 that runs cool with no fan. See, for
example, Intel to demo
fanless, cool 5 GHz chip. Quote: "Intel has now formally released
details of the 3MB cache on chip which it claims will deliver 1.5 to two
times [the] performance over the current designs." [My emphasis.]
The utter sadness of Intel's marketing is demonstrated by the fact that this
information is being brought to you by a guy [me] whose only connection with
the information is that he sells computers to business customers and that he
happens to live in the same city as Intel's design team. The guy happened to
meet two Intel engineers at parties. If Intel had good marketing, you would
already know these things.
The moral of the Intel marketing story is: Don't try to run a high-tech
company with low-tech employees in marketing. If I were running Intel's
marketing, your little brother and maybe even your mom would be asking you
about Intel's great new achievements.
It appears so. I got my information confused: Intel confirms P4 speed revs. I
confused the disappointing early P4 benchmarks and the problems with speeding
up the PIII.
The overall point is correct, however. Intel's marketing created big problems
for the company. Intel let events run the communication about the P4, rather
than their own marketing explanation. For example, see Pentium 4 yields 'not
impressive'. Someone leaked that story from a plant in Israel.
Now that I look at some of the old articles, I realize that Intel's marketing
communication was even worse than I thought. In general, companies are having
huge problems running highly technical operations with a large percentage of
people who have little technical understanding.
My contacts at Intel insist that the biggest problems are with communication, not with
fundamental details. To me, that seems right.
I talked about the architecture of the Pentium IV with two of the architects. (In Portland, Oregon, it is sometimes possible to meet them at parties, and we have become friendly.) In perhaps 18 months, the speed of the P4 will reach 6 GHz. That's when you will be seeing more of the benefits of the design.
Remember the 1 GHz P4? That was a marketing push to try to counter AMD's competition, not something the engineers wanted. In many ways, it made the P4 look bad, because the P4 was not designed to run at 1 GHz. People still remember the poor 1 GHz benchmarks; those benchmarks have done lasting damage.
In my opinion, Intel's marketing is not technically skilled, and not skilled overall. (One of the engineers strongly agrees with this.) One of the tasks of the marketing people now should be showing people how the much faster processing speed can be used. Intel marketing, having little technical knowledge, cannot possibly do the job.
Also, Intel's management has foundered since Andy Grove got tired of running the company. The problem with poor management pre-dated his cancer. No matter what you do, if you do it for too long, it stops being exciting and becomes boring, and it becomes difficult to give it proper attention.
Information from someone who wrote the book:
on
Choosing a Good Case
·
· Score: 2
Electrolytic capacitors have electrolyte: Electrolytic Capacitors, Chapter I. Some electrolyte is made available inside the capacitor so that, if there is a short between the plates, the insulating film can be re-formed.
Here is VERY valuable advice: If you have something with electrolytic capacitors inside, and it has not had power for a year or more, find some way to raise the voltage very slowly so that the insulating film can be re-formed. Otherwise, a capacitor may be shorted, and the application of full power will cause overload and destruction of other components.
Slashdot Mirror
The comment above was posted as a reply to the story, not as a reply to another comment. Slashcode is failing!
My comment (below) was entered as a reply to a comment that didn't exist when I began to write! I've been noticing numerous software failures like this at Slashdot. It appears to be database failures. Sometimes karma points are not added. Sometimes comments appear in a different order than the original order.
My comment:
Companies with virtual monopolies, like Microsoft, should be required to place their file formats in the public domain (make them public and free). Otherwise, monopolies can use file formats to compete unfairly.
One problem with putting the Microsoft Word file formats in the public domain is that the "file formats" include all of MS Word's quirkiness and bugs that affect the way documents are stored. These would have to be carefully documented, also.
Companies with virtual monopolies, like Microsoft, should be required to place their file formats in the public domain (make them public and free). Otherwise, monopolies can use file formats to compete unfairly.
One problem with putting the Microsoft Word file formats in the public domain is that the "file formats" include all of MS Word's quirkiness and bugs that affect the way documents are stored. These would have to be carefully documented, also.
"Consider the psychological..."
I try to minimize my involvement with Microsoft because I don't like to associate with abusive people. Personal growth comes from associating with idealistic people.
There was a reason the story gained acceptance back then. Gary Kildall, and Digital Research, were very, very unbusinesslike. The story about Kildall flying was just an easily related example, that everyone could believe, considering everything else they knew.
For example, CP/M operating system manuals from Digital Research sometimes were poor quality copies of originals printed using 8-pin dot-matrix printers that had worn ribbons.
You forgot to say: ... and really buggy. The installation code will be 5000 characters long by then. Your computer will be completely controlled by MS computers. The EULA will give Microsoft complete control over all your possessions. Microsoft will be the state religion. You will be required to worship a statue of Bill Gates.
If you haven't tried Star Office or Open Office, try Open Office. It's free. It's excellent. Of the free word processors, it seems to be the best.
I've had a lot of problems with Microsoft Word being quirky. Sometimes Microsoft Word will move a footer to the top of the following page, for example. I don't have a huge amount of experience with Open Office, version 1.0 was released on May 1, I think, but it doesn't seem quirky.
Yes, that is true, but now that everyone has gotten it right, including the refillers, the price should be far less. The cost of the solvent is very small. The price charged for the remaining ingredients is outrageous; the remaining ingredients are not as rare as some chemicals in the human body, as is shown by the fact that the refillers sometimes have better ink than the originals.
Lew Platt, Hewlett-Packard's former CEO, was not a management wonder, but Ms. Fiorina is worse. She just cannot handle the job. She does not have sufficient technical background, for example. At present, one of the most common reasons for corporate failure is thinking that a good salesperson with little technical understanding can manage a high-tech company.
Ms. Fiorina's bad judgement at her previous job didn't become apparent until after she was already working for HP. When you work at that level, however, failure is successful. This [undated] Time Magazine story says she is worth $2.2 Billion dollars: Carly Fiorina, Makeover Artist. $2.2 Billion!
Ms. Fiorina was previously at Lucent. A January 12, 2002, Detroit News article, New chief for Lucent [Patricia Russo] is exception to numerous departures, tells of Lucent's problems. A lot of Lucent stories are filled with positive spin, but obviously something is very wrong. Apparently Ms. Fiorina led Lucent to overspend seriously on investment in communications. Again apparently, the new debt has crippled the company, making it a difficult place to work.
The September, 2001, BBC News article, Profile: HP's Carly Fiorina, mentions an interesting fact: "... she has consolidated her power, now holding down the jobs of chief executive, president and chairwoman - the only woman to control all three top jobs at a major tech firm." Maybe someone who merely wants to have all three top jobs should be considered incompetent.
The BBC News article also says, "A Business Week cover story in February [2001] concluded that she was 'gambling with Silicon Valley's proudest legacy' - and that was before she unveiled an 89% profits slump..."
Remove the cheap solvent, and, by weight, inkjet ink is more expensive than gold.
Don't you just hate how the "R" cartridge runs out before the others? Happens a lot with Slashdot because they use so many words.
Carly Fiorina: Leading the way in abusing us.
(There are probably some people who don't know she is CEO of Hew-Paq.)
Your real hostility came out in this post. Read your post from the viewpoint of someone who is the target of that hostility. Would you know how to act around someone who is making you the target of hostility? Would you ever feel comfortable around hostility?
"Seriously people, if you want women to go to your parties, don't alienate them."
Seriously, a lot of programmers are the way they are because they were traumatized in childhood. They got into programming because they were needing the logic to counteract the illogic of their lives with their parents.
So, while your post is valuable, it is not easy for them to change. When they are around something that reminds them of the potential of being a warm and caring individual, they experience a huge amount of hidden inner conflict.
Maybe they will continue with the "dorky guys in space suits" approach.
The woman at Ogilvy and Mather (I forget her name.) who runs that campaign obviously doesn't like technology, or know anything about it.
Agreed. If you have a company with many locations, especially divisions in other countries, IBM is able to help you. Smaller companies can't. There's a real need for the kind of support IBM gives.
Portland, Oregon is better for the rain. The rain keeps the air clean. If you have to live in a city with reciprocating engines, you need rain.
Anyhow, I'm looking out my window, and today the weather is wonderful.
From the interview: "If the company were to go under, then BitKeeper becomes GPLed."
This is, in my opinion, a big commercial selling point. Often companies have gone out of business due to mismanagement or other problems, and the people who bought from them were left with no support and an expensive conversion to something else.
See my earlier post, Several things discussed at the same time. (#3595451)
The initial points of the original post, "Evaluate the Pentium IV design at 6 GHz" were: 1) Don't worry, the P4 will get there, and 2) We shouldn't be reading about the P4 from "Hoser McMoose" or Futurepower. If Intel's marketing communications department were doing a good job, none of this thread would have been necessary. Not that we shouldn't listen to Hoser McMoose, just that Intel should do a better job of communicating. Because of Intel's poor communication, we are probably all getting it a little bit wrong.
The article is confused. Several things are being discussed at the same time. However, I talked to someone who said he saw a demonstration of a 5 GHz P4 at the conference. I am able to find no other confirmation.
The elements the article discusses are at least proof of concept. And, the article discusses results that are certainly the intention of Intel.
I was told several years ago by someone extremely familiar with the work at Intel that the fabrication processes for the transistors of a new microprocessor are designed about 4 years in advance. The fabrication processes determines the design rules. They determine the voltage at which the microprocessor will run. They determine the ultimate speed. So, everyone knows what is coming 4 years before it arrives.
The depth of negativity toward Intel surprises me. Usually, everything Intel does is examined for negative details, both in hardware reviews and on Slashdot. As the 2.4 GHz P4 shows, Intel delivers, so the underlying facts are positive.
I consider this negativity, which began, I think, with the recall of the 1.13 GHz PIII, and the initial slow speed of the P4, to be an enormous communication failure at Intel.
Here is a quote from a May 6th, 2002 AnandTech article, Intel Introduces 533MHz FSB CPUs -- Pentium 4 2.53 GHz: "Today Intel is working a bit ahead of schedule. Originally Intel was going to release one CPU, the Pentium 4 2.4B processor; the 'B' suffix denotes the use of a 133MHz quad-pumped FSB (effectively 533MHz). But courtesy of high yields and good performance in Intel's strict validation process, today you'll not only get one but two new 533MHz FSB processors - clocked at 2.4 and 2.53 GHz."
The Pentium 4 is beginning to get very positive reviews, but the tide of sentiment has not turned yet. People seem to be saying negative things out of habit. I suppose AnandTech is slightly ahead of the times.
Modern microprocessors are one of the most impressive scientific achievements. But everything associated with them takes time. They require $3,000,000,000 fabrication plants, which take time to build. Yet, a 1.8 GHz P4 now costs only $180. That's an amazing achievement.
If you examine the situation carefully, I think you will see that the evidence is that the baby with huge paws will grow up to be an impressive animal.
I made a mistake. See my (earlier) post at I got my information confused, #3592385
No, the P4 has an architecture that was designed for the computers of the future. It's like a small dog with very big paws. It will be impressive when it grows up.
The heat dissipation comes from using the P4 architecture with the larger design rules. As the die sizes shrink, the heat dissipation will go down, and the wisdom behind other elements of the design will become more apparent.
Notice that we are already seeing this effect. The 2.4 GHz P4 performs very well.
Intel is demonstrating a 5 GHz P4 that runs cool with no fan. See, for example, Intel to demo fanless, cool 5 GHz chip. Quote: "Intel has now formally released details of the 3MB cache on chip which it claims will deliver 1.5 to two times [the] performance over the current designs." [My emphasis.]
The utter sadness of Intel's marketing is demonstrated by the fact that this information is being brought to you by a guy [me] whose only connection with the information is that he sells computers to business customers and that he happens to live in the same city as Intel's design team. The guy happened to meet two Intel engineers at parties. If Intel had good marketing, you would already know these things.
The moral of the Intel marketing story is: Don't try to run a high-tech company with low-tech employees in marketing. If I were running Intel's marketing, your little brother and maybe even your mom would be asking you about Intel's great new achievements.
It appears so. I got my information confused: Intel confirms P4 speed revs. I confused the disappointing early P4 benchmarks and the problems with speeding up the PIII.
The overall point is correct, however. Intel's marketing created big problems for the company. Intel let events run the communication about the P4, rather than their own marketing explanation. For example, see Pentium 4 yields 'not impressive'. Someone leaked that story from a plant in Israel.
Now that I look at some of the old articles, I realize that Intel's marketing communication was even worse than I thought. In general, companies are having huge problems running highly technical operations with a large percentage of people who have little technical understanding.
My contacts at Intel insist that the biggest problems are with communication, not with fundamental details. To me, that seems right.
I talked about the architecture of the Pentium IV with two of the architects. (In Portland, Oregon, it is sometimes possible to meet them at parties, and we have become friendly.) In perhaps 18 months, the speed of the P4 will reach 6 GHz. That's when you will be seeing more of the benefits of the design.
Remember the 1 GHz P4? That was a marketing push to try to counter AMD's competition, not something the engineers wanted. In many ways, it made the P4 look bad, because the P4 was not designed to run at 1 GHz. People still remember the poor 1 GHz benchmarks; those benchmarks have done lasting damage.
In my opinion, Intel's marketing is not technically skilled, and not skilled overall. (One of the engineers strongly agrees with this.) One of the tasks of the marketing people now should be showing people how the much faster processing speed can be used. Intel marketing, having little technical knowledge, cannot possibly do the job.
Also, Intel's management has foundered since Andy Grove got tired of running the company. The problem with poor management pre-dated his cancer. No matter what you do, if you do it for too long, it stops being exciting and becomes boring, and it becomes difficult to give it proper attention.
Electrolytic capacitors have electrolyte: Electrolytic Capacitors, Chapter I. Some electrolyte is made available inside the capacitor so that, if there is a short between the plates, the insulating film can be re-formed.
Here is VERY valuable advice: If you have something with electrolytic capacitors inside, and it has not had power for a year or more, find some way to raise the voltage very slowly so that the insulating film can be re-formed. Otherwise, a capacitor may be shorted, and the application of full power will cause overload and destruction of other components.