Maybe it'll lead to a generation of smart kids with balanced lives?
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, or something. Personally, I believe it will create a society of paranoid tin-foil helmet wearers with porn addictions. Critical thinking is a virtue disappointingly rare.
You're right. People here should take a step back and look at all the drivel being posted. I haven't seen so many tinfoil helmets attached to one story for a long time. It's the done thing to be disparaging of Sun here nowadays, and to come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories involving Microsoft, SCO and aliens with flying-saucers. However, people are not so quick to do the same to IBM and HP. It makes one wonder.
If you want great fun free from buzzwords, trendy new atrocities, arbitrary limits and preconcieved ideas, get yourself a C compiler and an assembler. There's tons of free documentation and tutorials out there. You can go right down to the lowest low level and hack out all kinds of cool stuff. There's so much to explore. #include ? Not likely! Do it all yourself!:-)
My central heating runs on oil. I should be able to convert that to vegetable oil quite simply. I'm also going to get a diesel car. In a similar manner, you can run that on vegetable oil. Then, all I'll need to do is to generate my own electricity. With an oil-powered generator, some solar panels and a wind turbine I should be OK. As for the rest of you, we'll that's not my problem. I only have one vote.
Setting aside the idiotic abbreviation "USicans" (hint: the proper term for citizens of the United States of America is "Americans", for citizens of the United States of Mexico is "Mexicans", etc.)...
...and residents of Texas are Texicans, or is that reserved for employees of the Texaco corporation?
Howay man, but it's not as far north as Newcastle (the real North Pole).
To me a Glaswegan is a soft southern shandy drinker, having been brought up mostly in Aberdeenshire. (I was born in Glasgow), but I do respect that people from Thurso are true northerners, if right enough, you don't count Shetland.
Us jocks get really angry when the English refer to Mancunians as "Northerners". Manchester's not even half way up the UK mainland. To me a Glaswegean is a soft southern shandy-drinker....
Yes. Since is it GPLd (c.f. LGPLd) if you link to it, your program must also be GPLd. This puts a spanner in the works if, for example, you want to distribute your program under a BSD type license. Of course, to get around that you can license the commercial version of QT....
This link may appeal to your style of reasoning and this internationally renowned public speaker, investigator and mystic may be able to help you find someone who can help you build your hyperspace drive.
Scientific research does not in general have to be a precursor to an engineering development with a view to making financial gains. By pursuing all avenues of fusion research, whether by plasmas, inertial confinement (lasers), or even "cold fusion", we gain an increased understanding of the workings of nature. By approaching the problem from all angles, we often make new and surprising dicoveries that can lead to new theories, or further confirmation of existing ones.
Unfortunately, politicians get in the way of scientific research, and in the last 25 years in particular here in the UK, blue-sky research has been cut in preference to that which looks promising from a commercial point of view. The accountants rule. Unfortunately, this reduces science to mere "refinement of engineering" at the expense of radical new and exciting discoveries and knowledge; and they wonder why no one wants to be a scientist any more.
NASA is way too risk adverse; paradoxically, I think that caused Columbia and Challenger.
No, NASA is not risk-averse, they are change-averse and some might say criticism-averse. I get the increasing impression that NASA is a top-heavy, beurocratic ivory tower run for the self-agrindisement of its managers and for taking advantage of huge government hand-outs by hoodwinking the customer.
If NASA was risk-averse, it wouldn't fly spacecraft. If NASA wasn't averse to self-criticism, it might fix safety problems rather than deny them, turn a blind eye and cause disasters.
Large-scale safety-critical engineering is possible, but it's about humility, perseverance, good management, opneness, honesty, ambition, meticulousness, rationality, self-discipline, quality and fit-for-purpose cost control.
There are other industries and organisations (in different countries even) that NASA could learn from, but I doubt that the culture of "we are the leaders and can't learn anything from anyone else (and especially foreigners)" will let it happen.
From a software point of view, the 8088 and 8086 are the same. The 8088 has a multiplexed 8-bit databus instead of a 16-bit one, making memory access slower, in the same way that the 80386sx had a 16-bit databus, but the 80386dx had a full 32 bits. Incidentally, the 68000 was internally 32-bit but had an externally 16-bit data bus. The 68008, as used in the Sinclair QL, had an 8-bit data bus, but was still 32-bit internally. It was all done to make motherboards cheaper by reducing the number of tracks, and being able to use the previous generation of peripheral chips.
So, yes the first IBM PC had the 8088, but it was just a crippled 8086.
Back in the day, CP/M (86) was supposed to be the OS for the IBM PC, but Gary Kildall had had an argument with his wife when the IBM guys came to do the deal, so she told them he was out flying his plane...
The rest, as they say, is history.
CP/M was interesting because it was portable. It was written mostly in PL/M (vs. 8086 assembler for MS-DOS). It started out on the 8080 and went to the Z80 (and enhanced 8080 clone from Zilog). There were also ports to 8086 (and enhanced but incompatible 8080 derivative from intel) and the Motorola 68000.
If IBM hadn't chosen MS-DOS inadvertantly, there would have been a more diverse early market of CP/M machines with various different binary architectures. Since the Z80 was so popular, there may have been more of a 3-way battle between Z80, 68k and 8086. The 8086 might not have been so successful (IBM wanted to use the 68k but it wasn't ready in time) and there may have been a significant market in Z80-derived enhanced processors i.e. 16-bit extensions and even 32-bit ones! If only IBM had chosen the 68k though, and Gary hadn't had a row with his wife, the abominations that were the 8086 architecture (and the Pentium) and MS-DOS (non-portable, proprietary, half-baked, buggy, etc.) would not have happened. Bill would not be the richest man in geekdom. IBM, it's all your fault.
Slashdot Mirror
If people just chilled out, learned to respect nature and loved one another, they could get all the energy they need from the ley lines.
You don't skin a Leghorn, so much as pluck it.
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, or something. Personally, I believe it will create a society of paranoid tin-foil helmet wearers with porn addictions. Critical thinking is a virtue disappointingly rare.
Isn't there something about this in Revelations? I'm sure that Nostradamus must also have had some inkling that this was going to happen.
You're right. People here should take a step back and look at all the drivel being posted. I haven't seen so many tinfoil helmets attached to one story for a long time. It's the done thing to be disparaging of Sun here nowadays, and to come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories involving Microsoft, SCO and aliens with flying-saucers. However, people are not so quick to do the same to IBM and HP. It makes one wonder.
If you want great fun free from buzzwords, trendy new atrocities, arbitrary limits and preconcieved ideas, get yourself a C compiler and an assembler. There's tons of free documentation and tutorials out there. You can go right down to the lowest low level and hack out all kinds of cool stuff. There's so much to explore. #include ? Not likely! Do it all yourself! :-)
My central heating runs on oil. I should be able to convert that to vegetable oil quite simply. I'm also going to get a diesel car. In a similar manner, you can run that on vegetable oil. Then, all I'll need to do is to generate my own electricity. With an oil-powered generator, some solar panels and a wind turbine I should be OK. As for the rest of you, we'll that's not my problem. I only have one vote.
...and residents of Texas are Texicans, or is that reserved for employees of the Texaco corporation?
It sounds to me like you're getting conservation of energy and conservation of momentum mixed up.
Howay man, but it's not as far north as Newcastle (the real North Pole).
To me a Glaswegan is a soft southern shandy drinker, having been brought up mostly in Aberdeenshire. (I was born in Glasgow), but I do respect that people from Thurso are true northerners, if right enough, you don't count Shetland.
No, I emigrated to South-East England in 1996 :-)
Us jocks get really angry when the English refer to Mancunians as "Northerners". Manchester's not even half way up the UK mainland. To me a Glaswegean is a soft southern shandy-drinker....
Blimey! Really? I must get with the times.
Yes. Since is it GPLd (c.f. LGPLd) if you link to it, your program must also be GPLd. This puts a spanner in the works if, for example, you want to distribute your program under a BSD type license. Of course, to get around that you can license the commercial version of QT....
That's all... it's not rocket science!!! :)
Quite.
Not since Saturday night, and I only had one can of Stella and 3 glasses of wine.
Maybe the moderators are on the same drugs at the same rave as the poster?
Marvel Comics are rarely a good source of scientific education.
"This is the age of the train." - Jimmy Saville.
Unfortunately, politicians get in the way of scientific research, and in the last 25 years in particular here in the UK, blue-sky research has been cut in preference to that which looks promising from a commercial point of view. The accountants rule. Unfortunately, this reduces science to mere "refinement of engineering" at the expense of radical new and exciting discoveries and knowledge; and they wonder why no one wants to be a scientist any more.
I think they did, but way too late (Z180?). By that time the world had moved on and the 68000 and 80386 were well established.
No, NASA is not risk-averse, they are change-averse and some might say criticism-averse. I get the increasing impression that NASA is a top-heavy, beurocratic ivory tower run for the self-agrindisement of its managers and for taking advantage of huge government hand-outs by hoodwinking the customer.
If NASA was risk-averse, it wouldn't fly spacecraft. If NASA wasn't averse to self-criticism, it might fix safety problems rather than deny them, turn a blind eye and cause disasters.
Large-scale safety-critical engineering is possible, but it's about humility, perseverance, good management, opneness, honesty, ambition, meticulousness, rationality, self-discipline, quality and fit-for-purpose cost control.
There are other industries and organisations (in different countries even) that NASA could learn from, but I doubt that the culture of "we are the leaders and can't learn anything from anyone else (and especially foreigners)" will let it happen.
This has been a Random Rant production.
So, yes the first IBM PC had the 8088, but it was just a crippled 8086.
:-) The Z80,000 was an awesome design: way ahead of the intel 80386. I didn't realise that they never actually sold any :-(
The rest, as they say, is history.
CP/M was interesting because it was portable. It was written mostly in PL/M (vs. 8086 assembler for MS-DOS). It started out on the 8080 and went to the Z80 (and enhanced 8080 clone from Zilog). There were also ports to 8086 (and enhanced but incompatible 8080 derivative from intel) and the Motorola 68000.
If IBM hadn't chosen MS-DOS inadvertantly, there would have been a more diverse early market of CP/M machines with various different binary architectures. Since the Z80 was so popular, there may have been more of a 3-way battle between Z80, 68k and 8086. The 8086 might not have been so successful (IBM wanted to use the 68k but it wasn't ready in time) and there may have been a significant market in Z80-derived enhanced processors i.e. 16-bit extensions and even 32-bit ones! If only IBM had chosen the 68k though, and Gary hadn't had a row with his wife, the abominations that were the 8086 architecture (and the Pentium) and MS-DOS (non-portable, proprietary, half-baked, buggy, etc.) would not have happened. Bill would not be the richest man in geekdom. IBM, it's all your fault.