for anyone else who enjoyed this story, check out the book that it was published in: R is for Rocket.
although 'A Sound of Thunder' is one of my favorite Bradbury stories, right up there with 'There Will Come Soft Rains' -- I think that the entire 'Maritian Chronicals' will forever be my favorite.
why have people forgotten about hardware/software efficiency? instead of using x86-based lap heaters, why not develop more low-power hardware around crusoe and or ppc-based processors.... ? my ppc laptop (500mhz G4) runs cool with no fan and accomplishes everything that a standard research student would be doing, plus many advanced modelling/GIS/rendering/image processing/ and map making functions... all with a 3hr+ battery time on 6 yr old Li-ion batteries...
furthermore: stop writting/using bloated software!!! i can run my word processor/ of choice on a couple mb or ram, with the HD spun down for hours.... on a machines with less than 20mb of ram and a 33mhz processor... of course i use these same applications on more modern hardware.
point is: efficient software/hardware can save much more power than these new batteries can provide. yeah, new batteries are great- but why does simple computing have to be so damn energy intensive???
indeed. that was our first reaction... however we can't afford the oracle license, and our dept. It people won't support it. therefore we are going to kill 2 brids with 1 stone: convert to a linux/mysql solution. it does everything we want, and is free.yeah!
hit the nail on the head. this is a research lab, not a data center- we don't have time to master oracle administration. our tech support people don't want to support oracle, and i don't blame them. only reason that it is in the lab in the first place is because it is a legacy system. we are now in the process of migrating to MySQL...
Our lab is in a sad state because our windows server and its security patches: Patch the server, oracle breaks / don't patch the server, someone hacks it... so now while we scramble to find an alternative DB engine we have to apply/un-apply this patch when ever we want to do any work. thanks M$ for wasting our time.
The real problem here is that students are forced to carry books around because there are not enough books for school / home copies. Furthermore! The publishers feel that they need to pack these books so full of shit that they weight 10lbs each... Why can't we have small, affordable paperback text books; printed on recylced paper- one copy for class and one copy for home...? This would certainly cost a LOT less than a laptop for each student.
Growing up in Fresno, Ca I can identify with the load of books on a 90+ september afternoon... no fun.
and just for the record i think that laptops for elementary school students is a big fucking waste of money.
I started with the 150 in 1 kit -- the one in the wooden box little springs... ah the fond memories..
however, it was the 300 in 1 kit that really got me excited about electronics. this kit came with a whole bunch of simple components and had a prototyping board in the middle... this eliminated a lot of the mess that the spring-based kits caused, and allowed you to plugin your own components. i still find ways to use it when designing new circuits - i think that it still has the original batteries!
Actually, it wasn't always that bad. Even though the IIci had an '030 it did have a 6882 math co-processor for floating point work. With a little extra RAM, an Apple 32k cache card, and an accelerated video card (like the Apple 8.24GC or better yet the Radius Thunder IV GX with 16Mb or RAM wow!!)... it wasn't a bad little machine.
as i mentioned upstream, POVRAY was a little unbearable- there were a host of smaller, wire-frame based packages out there. i remember working with some very large dxfs in turboCAD (?)
... however, the lack of a sound-in port was a little annoying...
my first computer wasn't a IIci, it was a 286. even so, the IIci was certainly my first love. i can remember those romantic hours that i would spend with my IIci, waiting for POVRAY to finish rendering...
of course those days are over, but i don't think that I could ever remove the IIci from its place in the corner of my room.
lets see here:
KARAOKE
from 'KARA' [japanese] = empty
and 'OKE' [short version of an english word adopted into japanese] = orchestra
...resulting in 'empty orchestra'.
goofy, but makes sense.
and now transform that mess into MOVIEOKE??? WTF:
'MOVIE' [english] = movie
and 'OKE' [japlish] = orchestra
...resulting in 'movie orchestra'...? WHAT?
it appears as if the people who came up with this are as dumb as the idea itself...
I used mine all thru highschool, until i saved up and bought a Quadra 700... another great machine.
I still have my ol' iici.... it is my backup router -- last i checked it was still chugging along just fine!
indeed they do!
i work for an certain organization, and am sending out emails to about 450 people at a time... the only people who fail to get these *legit* messages are people who use aol... go figure.
it might be because of many of the hypocrites here who get all defensive when you talk about their beloved government.
it is truely unfortunate that innocent people will die or be displaced due to the upcoming nonsense in the middle east. even more so, any actions will be portrayed as 'liberating the iraqi people' and 'backed by the american public' - when in reality none of us here in the US want to see any of this. Seriously, how can any decent human being say "Yes, I would like to drop bombs on starving civilains, and take their oil." The only people I know are those in the US Government.
Slashdot Mirror
for anyone else who enjoyed this story, check out the book that it was published in: R is for Rocket.
although 'A Sound of Thunder' is one of my favorite Bradbury stories, right up there with 'There Will Come Soft Rains' -- I think that the entire 'Maritian Chronicals' will forever be my favorite.
...For it's going round and round!
--Will Fyffe
actually it was his fault, but we will excuse your typo.
the end
why have people forgotten about hardware/software efficiency? instead of using x86-based lap heaters, why not develop more low-power hardware around crusoe and or ppc-based processors.... ? my ppc laptop (500mhz G4) runs cool with no fan and accomplishes everything that a standard research student would be doing, plus many advanced modelling/GIS/rendering/image processing/ and map making functions... all with a 3hr+ battery time on 6 yr old Li-ion batteries...
furthermore: stop writting/using bloated software!!! i can run my word processor/ of choice on a couple mb or ram, with the HD spun down for hours.... on a machines with less than 20mb of ram and a 33mhz processor... of course i use these same applications on more modern hardware.
point is: efficient software/hardware can save much more power than these new batteries can provide. yeah, new batteries are great- but why does simple computing have to be so damn energy intensive???
indeed. that was our first reaction... however we can't afford the oracle license, and our dept. It people won't support it. therefore we are going to kill 2 brids with 1 stone: convert to a linux/mysql solution. it does everything we want, and is free.yeah!
hit the nail on the head. this is a research lab, not a data center- we don't have time to master oracle administration. our tech support people don't want to support oracle, and i don't blame them. only reason that it is in the lab in the first place is because it is a legacy system. we are now in the process of migrating to MySQL...
the end
I don't!
what a waste of processor cycles / memory / screen space !!
the end
So can I:
Our lab is in a sad state because our windows server and its security patches: Patch the server, oracle breaks / don't patch the server, someone hacks it... so now while we scramble to find an alternative DB engine we have to apply/un-apply this patch when ever we want to do any work. thanks M$ for wasting our time.
the end
yep, one of the patches that was issued 2 weeks ago broke our oracle server! damnit!
The real problem here is that students are forced to carry books around because there are not enough books for school / home copies. Furthermore! The publishers feel that they need to pack these books so full of shit that they weight 10lbs each... Why can't we have small, affordable paperback text books; printed on recylced paper- one copy for class and one copy for home...? This would certainly cost a LOT less than a laptop for each student.
Growing up in Fresno, Ca I can identify with the load of books on a 90+ september afternoon... no fun.
and just for the record i think that laptops for elementary school students is a big fucking waste of money.
I started with the 150 in 1 kit -- the one in the wooden box little springs... ah the fond memories..
however, it was the 300 in 1 kit that really got me excited about electronics. this kit came with a whole bunch of simple components and had a prototyping board in the middle... this eliminated a lot of the mess that the spring-based kits caused, and allowed you to plugin your own components. i still find ways to use it when designing new circuits - i think that it still has the original batteries!
the end
Ah!, but command+spacebar already has a function!
Thats how your switch keyboard layouts!
the end.
....or how about running linux with GRASS (open source GIS) on it...?
/. isn't it????
c'mon this
the end
Actually, it wasn't always that bad. Even though the IIci had an '030 it did have a 6882 math co-processor for floating point work. With a little extra RAM, an Apple 32k cache card, and an accelerated video card (like the Apple 8.24GC or better yet the Radius Thunder IV GX with 16Mb or RAM wow!!)... it wasn't a bad little machine.
... however, the lack of a sound-in port was a little annoying...
as i mentioned upstream, POVRAY was a little unbearable- there were a host of smaller, wire-frame based packages out there. i remember working with some very large dxfs in turboCAD (?)
my first computer wasn't a IIci, it was a 286. even so, the IIci was certainly my first love. i can remember those romantic hours that i would spend with my IIci, waiting for POVRAY to finish rendering...
of course those days are over, but i don't think that I could ever remove the IIci from its place in the corner of my room.
lets see here:
KARAOKE
from 'KARA' [japanese] = empty
and 'OKE' [short version of an english word adopted into japanese] = orchestra
...resulting in 'empty orchestra'.
goofy, but makes sense.
and now transform that mess into MOVIEOKE???
WTF:
'MOVIE' [english] = movie
and 'OKE' [japlish] = orchestra
...resulting in 'movie orchestra'...? WHAT?
it appears as if the people who came up with this are as dumb as the idea itself...
Definatley!
I used mine all thru highschool, until i saved up and bought a Quadra 700... another great machine. I still have my ol' iici.... it is my backup router -- last i checked it was still chugging along just fine!
here is an old picture of it when it was still in use: the old iici in action
and a new, slightly yellow picture of it now here
If not in the top 10, I think that the IIci was a great machine.
Who thought that a 25mhz 68030 with 6882 co-processor could be so sexy.
one word: ploticus
i use it here
Dale is that you!????
indeed they do!
i work for an certain organization, and am sending out emails to about 450 people at a time... the only people who fail to get these *legit* messages are people who use aol... go figure.
total lack of security:
/ We bServer/rkc/Documents/content.php
try this for fun--
sets up an infinite loop
http://www.college.ch/content.php?link=/Library
I used to work there! yeah! go M2!
it might be because of many of the hypocrites here who get all defensive when you talk about their beloved government.
it is truely unfortunate that innocent people will die or be displaced due to the upcoming nonsense in the middle east. even more so, any actions will be portrayed as 'liberating the iraqi people' and 'backed by the american public' - when in reality none of us here in the US want to see any of this. Seriously, how can any decent human being say "Yes, I would like to drop bombs on starving civilains, and take their oil." The only people I know are those in the US Government.
what a pile of shit.
Here I am doing all of my work on a 1998 Mainstreet PB, not one day of down time since it arrived.