companies selling products like VMWare and virtual pc wouldn't be too happy about emulators being banned. i suppose you could argue that java or.NET is an emulator of sorts, but i wouldn't mind seeing them banned;)
there's quite a lot of legacy stuff, more at the lower level tho.
16 (used to be 8) irq's: irq sharing in modern OS' is an example of such a "hack", something we could all do without.
A20 gate: in order for PC's to access more than 1MB of ram, the OS has to write to a port on the *keyboard* controller. useless, no longer needed, but remains for compatibility issues.
pci bus: this is fine for the current moment, altho soon (i hope) it will be replaced just as ISA was, 133mbytes/s (32bit pci) is not a lot of bandwidth. for most devices it's fine but consider gigabit ethernet cards and 10in/10out (or more) soundcards and other bandwidth intensive devices.
ram: lil hacks have to be added such as bank switching to allow more.
address bus: has to be expanded on every so often to accomodate large hard drives.
it may seem that all the legacy stuff is gone, but deep down inside it's pretty outdated and still remains for compatibility reasons.
(disclaimer: do not assume all of this info to be accurate, it's what i belive to be true from all the information i've read)
i would say 4gb or 4Gb meaning 4 gigabytes.
if i want to say bits i would say 4gbit.
this usually avoids confusion altho technically "b" is bit and "B" is byte.
they should just cut the crap and bring out 1024bit cpu's, that way they won't have to worry about upping to 128bit cpu's however many years down the line.
the whole pc architecture should ideally be replaced. we're still using something designed in the 80's, with lil hacks here and there to make it work in this current day. unfortunatly, it would be incredibly difficult to do, as all software and hardware would have to be remade. backward compatibilty slows us down from moving forward. even if everything was replaced, how long till it would be obsolete and need a further replacement?
you can purchase your very own working second-hand submarine for a mere £40,000. aphex twin (music artist) has one. "1,000 miles on the clock. only one careful owner, an old ladie who used it to pop down to the shops to pick up her groceries"
given that apparently every word in the dictionary is registered as a hotmail email addy (so i read somewhere), a spammer could just run thru a dictionary and stick an @hotmail.com suffix and mail it, in fact... u could prolly just use an incremental brute algorithm and prolly get 100% hits upto about 5chars. i do suspect that microsoft sell there hotmail members email addresses, as someone posted earlier about an inbox being spammed even when it hasn't been given out, i've tried this too. uni diploma's is a popular one;)
i never said i don't have a fast comp, i got an xp2200+ at home.
however... i can justify my use of it. someone who uses there 2.*ghz cpu and cable/dsl connection just to chat on msn, send a few emails and maybe write a doc in word from time to time (like a few of my friends) can't really justify there use of it, when a ~200mhz would probably be more than adaquate, and they'd hardly notice the diffrence. before i got my new machine it was quite anoying trying to do intensive tasks on a 500mhz machine (and couldn't afford new one) (which for some people would be plenty, not for me however) while a few of my mates got uber machines and didn't utilise them to there full extent.
it's not for a living, it's just spare time stuff (mainly music production which requires fast hardware), for a living i'm a php/mysql developer (and get paid very little) and altho i have an XP 1800+ as my work machine, i don't nessicerely need it this fast (not for the php stuff altho it does get used for some more intensive tasks from time to time). for the php, a 200mhz would more than likley be sufficent. from the coding at home (C/C++ mainly, 3d engines in opengl and other things), reducing compile times as much as possible always useful for big projects, since i usually recompile and test after making one little change, if it takes me 2mins to compile then that time adds up, if it takes 2secs, it's not so bad.
a long time ago when i was back in school, a class mate broke into one of the rooms in the middle of the night and replaced the schools 256mb dimm with a 32mb one. unfortunatly, they noticed and kindly announced that it would not take action if it was replaced, so my mate had to break in a second time and rereplace it. if you replace a component and they're none the wiser then fair enuff. school only noticed cos they had slightly more than half a brain.
personally it anoys me when morons with too much money buy an amazing spec computer and cable/dsl to use it just for chatting on msn and checking email from time to time. a ~200mhz machine would be perfect for them to do such things. as a power user (coding, compiling, 3d rendering, music production, etc) i need quite high spec machines, yet i cannot afford one. i propose a scheme to give crap spec computers to people with no use for such power in exchange for their uber-machines to go to people that need them. problem solved:) or perhaps charging minimal cost for computers but specs are given out on a need basis. crap people get crap, cheap machines and the more needy users get the powerful beasts. due to the law of averages costwise this would mean each person gets the speed of computer they need for minimal cost.
i've listened to some of McKenna's stuff and it's quite intresting. i agree with what he says, evolution and "intellegence" could of been caused by hallucinogens. the possibility of an animal eating some mushrooms and becoming self aware is more than credible. the question is... will the next stage in human evolution come around as the result of hallucinogenics? McKenna has certainly hinted towards and experienced mushrooms causing ESP. how long will it be until humans evolve into a higher form and ESP becomes common place among all, another 50,000 years perhaps?
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companies selling products like VMWare and virtual pc wouldn't be too happy about emulators being banned. i suppose you could argue that java or .NET is an emulator of sorts, but i wouldn't mind seeing them banned ;)
get out your wumpus-repellant-bat-spray
there's quite a lot of legacy stuff, more at the lower level tho.
16 (used to be 8) irq's: irq sharing in modern OS' is an example of such a "hack", something we could all do without.
A20 gate: in order for PC's to access more than 1MB of ram, the OS has to write to a port on the *keyboard* controller. useless, no longer needed, but remains for compatibility issues.
pci bus: this is fine for the current moment, altho soon (i hope) it will be replaced just as ISA was, 133mbytes/s (32bit pci) is not a lot of bandwidth. for most devices it's fine but consider gigabit ethernet cards and 10in/10out (or more) soundcards and other bandwidth intensive devices.
ram: lil hacks have to be added such as bank switching to allow more.
address bus: has to be expanded on every so often to accomodate large hard drives.
it may seem that all the legacy stuff is gone, but deep down inside it's pretty outdated and still remains for compatibility reasons.
(disclaimer: do not assume all of this info to be accurate, it's what i belive to be true from all the information i've read)
i would say 4gb or 4Gb meaning 4 gigabytes. if i want to say bits i would say 4gbit. this usually avoids confusion altho technically "b" is bit and "B" is byte.
they should just cut the crap and bring out 1024bit cpu's, that way they won't have to worry about upping to 128bit cpu's however many years down the line.
the whole pc architecture should ideally be replaced. we're still using something designed in the 80's, with lil hacks here and there to make it work in this current day. unfortunatly, it would be incredibly difficult to do, as all software and hardware would have to be remade. backward compatibilty slows us down from moving forward. even if everything was replaced, how long till it would be obsolete and need a further replacement?
well microsoft have 5,000 people working on windows... that about sums up your statement :)
you can purchase your very own working second-hand submarine for a mere £40,000. aphex twin (music artist) has one.
"1,000 miles on the clock. only one careful owner, an old ladie who used it to pop down to the shops to pick up her groceries"
given that apparently every word in the dictionary is registered as a hotmail email addy (so i read somewhere), a spammer could just run thru a dictionary and stick an @hotmail.com suffix and mail it, in fact... u could prolly just use an incremental brute algorithm and prolly get 100% hits upto about 5chars. i do suspect that microsoft sell there hotmail members email addresses, as someone posted earlier about an inbox being spammed even when it hasn't been given out, i've tried this too. uni diploma's is a popular one ;)
i never said i don't have a fast comp, i got an xp2200+ at home. however... i can justify my use of it. someone who uses there 2.*ghz cpu and cable/dsl connection just to chat on msn, send a few emails and maybe write a doc in word from time to time (like a few of my friends) can't really justify there use of it, when a ~200mhz would probably be more than adaquate, and they'd hardly notice the diffrence. before i got my new machine it was quite anoying trying to do intensive tasks on a 500mhz machine (and couldn't afford new one) (which for some people would be plenty, not for me however) while a few of my mates got uber machines and didn't utilise them to there full extent.
silence, or i shall butter your loved ones!
it's not for a living, it's just spare time stuff (mainly music production which requires fast hardware), for a living i'm a php/mysql developer (and get paid very little) and altho i have an XP 1800+ as my work machine, i don't nessicerely need it this fast (not for the php stuff altho it does get used for some more intensive tasks from time to time). for the php, a 200mhz would more than likley be sufficent.
from the coding at home (C/C++ mainly, 3d engines in opengl and other things), reducing compile times as much as possible always useful for big projects, since i usually recompile and test after making one little change, if it takes me 2mins to compile then that time adds up, if it takes 2secs, it's not so bad.
a long time ago when i was back in school, a class mate broke into one of the rooms in the middle of the night and replaced the schools 256mb dimm with a 32mb one. unfortunatly, they noticed and kindly announced that it would not take action if it was replaced, so my mate had to break in a second time and rereplace it. if you replace a component and they're none the wiser then fair enuff. school only noticed cos they had slightly more than half a brain.
personally it anoys me when morons with too much money buy an amazing spec computer and cable/dsl to use it just for chatting on msn and checking email from time to time. a ~200mhz machine would be perfect for them to do such things. as a power user (coding, compiling, 3d rendering, music production, etc) i need quite high spec machines, yet i cannot afford one. :)
i propose a scheme to give crap spec computers to people with no use for such power in exchange for their uber-machines to go to people that need them.
problem solved
or perhaps charging minimal cost for computers but specs are given out on a need basis. crap people get crap, cheap machines and the more needy users get the powerful beasts.
due to the law of averages costwise this would mean each person gets the speed of computer they need for minimal cost.
additionally: McKenna Speeches (Audio (mp3))
you could join the half-mile high club. ;)
i've listened to some of McKenna's stuff and it's quite intresting. i agree with what he says, evolution and "intellegence" could of been caused by hallucinogens. the possibility of an animal eating some mushrooms and becoming self aware is more than credible. the question is... will the next stage in human evolution come around as the result of hallucinogenics? McKenna has certainly hinted towards and experienced mushrooms causing ESP. how long will it be until humans evolve into a higher form and ESP becomes common place among all, another 50,000 years perhaps?
glftpd :)
it's a bastard to setup, but once it's going it's more robust and flexible than any of the windows ones i've seen.