I can just imagine tool companies coming out with whole product lines of internet-controlled lawn and garden tools. My neighbor (we call him Lefty now), has an internet-controlled chain saw. And Lorena down the street bought a hedge clipper from Snap-Off Tools.
OK, for $199, you'll be capable of browsing the internet, reading email, and run a variety of software... BUT the following items are required:
a monitor
an internet account
power
schooling to learn to read
food
water
shelter
ALL of these items are necessary, where do you draw the line?
We all take for granted that you have food, water, shelter, power, schooling, an internet account... why not assume a monitor as well!
For that matter, assume the PC, and you can do it all for free!:)
Many readers apparently found this to be boring and irrelavant reading. I think they may be missing the point.
In the "old school", professors would get recognized (and tenure) for their contributions thorugh publications (appearing in critical journals, for example).
Now though, you can make MAJOR contributions by writing "software" (not just programs, but anything published in a digital medium). Using the old rules, you wouldn't be recognized.
The article referenced implies that such digital contributions are equally relevant for recognition, PROVIDED that they follow the same sort of review process - peer review, unique contribution, etc.
This seems to be a good approach and good news for "hackers" - our value is being recognized in fields beyond software development.
I know a NUMBER of banks (and even Amazon.com [amazon.com] who should know better) who don't implement SSL properly. They have their login and password on a NON-SSL site, which posts to a secure page.
Wow, Amazon.com is non-secure? Mod this guy up, so that it hits the news.
Your assertion that being able to address every atom in the universe makes 64 bits sufficient is nonsense.
The average program has nothing to do with addressing atoms in the Universe. It's not as if programmers are trying to write a universe simulator, and with today's technology they can't finish the program, because they can only address the atoms in Philadelphia now.
The fact of the matter is that 64 bit is the next step in the evolution of processors. It's not as if 64 bits made sense back in 1985, but no one "thought of it". 64 bit computers 15 years ago were economically infeasible. Today, they are feasible.
As soon as 128 bit computers are economically feasible, they will be built. They would be valuable today, but just not worth the investment or cost to build.
There are more factors to bus width than just addressability range. Your EYE can see more than one atom at a time. If 128-bit computers were availabile and economical, I would think that the bus width would be used to address MULTIPLE 32-bit (or 8-bit) addresses at the same time. And the more, the better. It will translate to faster processing, just as parallelism has.
So big deal, there are less than 2^64 atoms in the known universe. This is irrelevant. No one wants to address the 3rd atom in a spec of dust buried 40 feet below Pluto's surface anyway!
It's simple. The more bits, the more things you can do at the same time, which generally translates to faster job completion. Address space is not the only thing to consider. So the correct answer to the query "is 64 bits enough" is "no, you can never have enough". Do you think that computer processor technology will stand still once 64 bits comes out? That's like the guy in 1900 who suggested closing the patent office because everything worthwhile had already been invented.
I wonder.... Do you think that it's more natural for us to see letters coming from the right and moving left, but Arabs would find it more comfortable for letters to come from the left, and Japanese for characters to come from the bottom?
Download this, and give it a serious try. More than 20 seconds. If you try it for five minutes, you'll see the power of it.
It's amazing how quickly you can pick up the basics (unlike Graffiti and other handwriting techniques).
good lower case, poor punctuation. But it's a start of something great, I think. Plus, just letting your mouse wander generates some interesting results!
Let it run in the background, as you work at your PC, in another window. It senses your mouse movement throughout the day, and leaves you with a profound poem after a hard day at work. My current poem (after typing this slashdot message says:
rokylneatlic chehsismore. daed si luap. aftbaty never communist work abour reap. loopholebulconariat
(how it came up with "never communist work", I'll never understand! But it did!) Don't play it backwards!
When someone infringes on my IP, the network detects a duplicate IP, and informs me immediately.
Seriously, it seems to me that a design or clever implementation (or marketing approach, or name recognition of customers) that can be carried out of the company "in your head" are fair game.
I'm sure the lawyers would tell you otherwise, but it's what we learn that makes us valuable in the job market!
If you carry it out on paper, on disk, or via the net, chances are it's a violation. If you can recreate from scratch from within your own brain, have at it!
Didn't Andreesen and company recreate Netscape Navigator from memories of designs and implementations at former work?
Slashdot Mirror
I can just imagine tool companies coming out with whole product lines of internet-controlled lawn and garden tools. My neighbor (we call him Lefty now), has an internet-controlled chain saw. And Lorena down the street bought a hedge clipper from Snap-Off Tools.
- a monitor
- an internet account
- power
- schooling to learn to read
- food
- water
- shelter
ALL of these items are necessary, where do you draw the line? We all take for granted that you have food, water, shelter, power, schooling, an internet account... why not assume a monitor as well! For that matter, assume the PC, and you can do it all for free!I bet Verizon would like to get this guy to design the furniture for their offices to put the $22,000 workstations on!
Many readers apparently found this to be boring and irrelavant reading. I think they may be missing the point.
In the "old school", professors would get recognized (and tenure) for their contributions thorugh publications (appearing in critical journals, for example).
Now though, you can make MAJOR contributions by writing "software" (not just programs, but anything published in a digital medium). Using the old rules, you wouldn't be recognized.
The article referenced implies that such digital contributions are equally relevant for recognition, PROVIDED that they follow the same sort of review process - peer review, unique contribution, etc.
This seems to be a good approach and good news for "hackers" - our value is being recognized in fields beyond software development.
I know a NUMBER of banks (and even Amazon.com [amazon.com] who should know better) who don't implement SSL properly. They have their login and password on a NON-SSL site, which posts to a secure page. Wow, Amazon.com is non-secure? Mod this guy up, so that it hits the news.
The average program has nothing to do with addressing atoms in the Universe. It's not as if programmers are trying to write a universe simulator, and with today's technology they can't finish the program, because they can only address the atoms in Philadelphia now.
The fact of the matter is that 64 bit is the next step in the evolution of processors. It's not as if 64 bits made sense back in 1985, but no one "thought of it". 64 bit computers 15 years ago were economically infeasible. Today, they are feasible.
As soon as 128 bit computers are economically feasible, they will be built. They would be valuable today, but just not worth the investment or cost to build.
There are more factors to bus width than just addressability range. Your EYE can see more than one atom at a time. If 128-bit computers were availabile and economical, I would think that the bus width would be used to address MULTIPLE 32-bit (or 8-bit) addresses at the same time. And the more, the better. It will translate to faster processing, just as parallelism has.
So big deal, there are less than 2^64 atoms in the known universe. This is irrelevant. No one wants to address the 3rd atom in a spec of dust buried 40 feet below Pluto's surface anyway!
It's simple. The more bits, the more things you can do at the same time, which generally translates to faster job completion. Address space is not the only thing to consider. So the correct answer to the query "is 64 bits enough" is "no, you can never have enough". Do you think that computer processor technology will stand still once 64 bits comes out? That's like the guy in 1900 who suggested closing the patent office because everything worthwhile had already been invented.
I took a honetpot to Prom, and it took me 28 hours to crack her and analyze it too....
I wonder.... Do you think that it's more natural for us to see letters coming from the right and moving left, but Arabs would find it more comfortable for letters to come from the left, and Japanese for characters to come from the bottom?
It's amazing how quickly you can pick up the basics (unlike Graffiti and other handwriting techniques).
good lower case, poor punctuation. But it's a start of something great, I think. Plus, just letting your mouse wander generates some interesting results!
Let it run in the background, as you work at your PC, in another window. It senses your mouse movement throughout the day, and leaves you with a profound poem after a hard day at work. My current poem (after typing this slashdot message says:
rokylneatlic chehsismore. daed si luap. aftbaty never communist work abour reap. loopholebulconariat
(how it came up with "never communist work", I'll never understand! But it did!) Don't play it backwards!
When someone infringes on my IP, the network detects a duplicate IP, and informs me immediately. Seriously, it seems to me that a design or clever implementation (or marketing approach, or name recognition of customers) that can be carried out of the company "in your head" are fair game. I'm sure the lawyers would tell you otherwise, but it's what we learn that makes us valuable in the job market! If you carry it out on paper, on disk, or via the net, chances are it's a violation. If you can recreate from scratch from within your own brain, have at it! Didn't Andreesen and company recreate Netscape Navigator from memories of designs and implementations at former work?