I did not RTFA. I didn't even scan the responses up to this point.
But...
This makes so much sense! We know the Hubble has been a extraordinary success. The basic architecture is sound. The 'problem' it attacked (basically, getting above the atmosphere) is obviously real.
So, refactor! Take the overall design, study it closely, decide *both* what worked well and should be kept, and what needs improvement, and make a incremental but substantial re-design.
This works in our field (software), it will work for space-based instruments as well.
Do the simple thing!
Sigh! Doing the simple thing just ain't sexy. Oh, well...
Actually, the Insurance industry has known for years exactly who the worst drivers are: males. Especially the young ones, filled with 10x more testosterone than brains...
"During the last few years of his life, he was treated with a lung disease."
You mean, someone wanted to do something really nice for him, so they gave him lung disease? "Thank you so much for all you contributions to Science, Dr. Einstein -- here, have some tuberculosis."
So, how will multi-core CPUs ala Intel stack up against the 'cell' architecture that IBM is about to release? I don't mean just the physical differences. Do they attempt to solve the same problem? Will I see cell-based Macs, or will the PPC go multi-core along the lines of the Intel design, leaving the cell tech for specialized applications like games?
"Last week, IBM jettisoned its efforts in the Windows desktop market..."
What utter nonsense. IBM has decided to stop making PC systems (desktops or laptops). It has not decided to abandon the Windows desktop (read, 'software') market.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association picked up the governor's proposal with a gravity gun and smashed it against a huge boulder, sayin it is a way for retailers to become "the violence and sensitivity police for the state of Illinois."
The first 'Star Wars' game I played on a computer was an ASCII-art version, in 1980. Using the VT100 control set, a 10x10 grid of single-character symbols was displayed (lots of extra whitespace was used, so the grid way probably 20 colums wide by 10 lines long). The 'interface' was a simple command line parser. The characters in the grid were a '.' for empty space, a '*' for a star, a 'p' for a planet, an 'E' for the Enterprise, a 'K' for a Klingon, and an 'S' for the dreaded 'Super Commander' (oooooo!)
The command line interface allowed you to move, to shoot photon torpedoes (an 'o' would track across the 10x10 grid as the torpedo moved), call for help, etc.
This was on a Prime 500. The game was, IIRC, written in Fortran and originally written an a PDP (8 or 11?).
...carefully doing all the exercises, you can then go back to the first page and see that you have no idea what the first example is trying to do -- it is, after all, Perl.:)
Face it! Ancient vac-tubes from old Russian radar units (putting out, oh, 15 watts) and getting their signal from running a sharp-pointed stick 'round a piece of congealed petroleum is the best audio technology in the world!
Get back to me when there's a military robot that can acquire, identify, track and autonomously decide to fire on a enemy. Until then they're just either remote-controlled gun carriages or the equivalent of a semi-mobile but still completely indiscriminate mine.
Face it, he really didn't do it to save money. He did it so one of his buds on that web site would say he was "wooooooot worthy" or some such. Teenage peer-approval is a very powerful incentive -- look at the rise of Linux, for example...:D
Slashdot Mirror
But...
This makes so much sense! We know the Hubble has been a extraordinary success. The basic architecture is sound. The 'problem' it attacked (basically, getting above the atmosphere) is obviously real.
So, refactor! Take the overall design, study it closely, decide *both* what worked well and should be kept, and what needs improvement, and make a incremental but substantial re-design.
This works in our field (software), it will work for space-based instruments as well.
Do the simple thing!
Sigh! Doing the simple thing just ain't sexy. Oh, well...
sorry -- here's the right link (cut and paste it...) http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cn.gif
This is the flag (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/c/cn.gif/) that will be painted on the side of the next manned mission to the Moon:
No, xeriously!
You mean, someone wanted to do something really nice for him, so they gave him lung disease? "Thank you so much for all you contributions to Science, Dr. Einstein -- here, have some tuberculosis."
What utter nonsense. IBM has decided to stop making PC systems (desktops or laptops). It has not decided to abandon the Windows desktop (read, 'software') market.
Is that better?
And before someone points out that 'Star Trek' != 'Star Wars', I ask, what's the difference? :D
The command line interface allowed you to move, to shoot photon torpedoes (an 'o' would track across the 10x10 grid as the torpedo moved), call for help, etc.
This was on a Prime 500. The game was, IIRC, written in Fortran and originally written an a PDP (8 or 11?).
Sigh! Those were the days! :)
This is the most ridiculous things I've seen on /. (and, I've seen plenty! :)
Just my $.02
-- Mr. Luddite