Price has nothing to do with market segement (and incedenatally, I miss spoke, "mid-sized sedan" is technically a "classification", the market segment would be "family car" or "luxury car", etc.). A market segment is determined by intended use. If apple markets the G5 as something a home user would want that's the market segement it's in. I have never seen an advertisement for a dual processor x86 system intened for the "home use" market segment.
The gist of the banned add was that in that segment, the G5 was the fastest computer system. Based off of the evidence I have in front of me that's a plausible claim. While my personal opinion is that no one in that segment has a need for a G5, Apple has the right to try and prove me wrong.
And yes they cite workstations on their website because they also target that market with a version of the G5 with more RAM, fiberchanel cards, etc. Running with the car analogy, Honda uses the same platform for many different cars. The fact that an Acura RSX is equivilant to a Civic with different body panels and a leather interior, does not mean that all cars built on the Civic platform are "near-lux" cars. Again, I think the workstation market segment is irrelevent to this discusion reguardless of the fact the the G5 has targeted configurations in both segments. (Note however, that due to 64-bit address space, more registers, and faster floating point, it is entirely possible that the G5 is faster then Xeons for some workloads. In which case the distinction made by the "personal computer" tag would be moot.)
We obviously have different definitions of personal computers. To me a "personal computer" is a complete system marketed to a single user for typical personal use.
Yes, you can get high powered work stations if you are doing 3D or CAD. Yes, you can go buy a DP intel system from a vendor or from newegg. Yes, for a PC the G5 is probably WAY overkill.
BUT that does not change the fact that unlike any DP x86 system it is marketed as a PC (as opposed to a workstation or a server). Citing a different market segment doesn't count.
(Using another poster's example) If GM claims they have the highest horse power for a mid-sized sedan, they don't have to take into account my ability to build a higher horse power car by buying an engine, suspention, etc. They also don't have to point out that a Corvet Z06 has more hp.
My claim was not that you can't get dual processor intel systems, but that if you call up any x86 vendor and ask for a personal computer, you won't be presented with the option of a dual processor configuration. If you call Apple you will. Therefore from at least one point of view their claim can be viewed as correct.
you have been able to buy dual processor desktops for A LONG time.
I know that, I run a dual Xeon System. The fact that you and I (not to mention other computer geeks) have these systems and probably use them as personal systems, does not make them "personal computers".
Going to dell.com and looking under home, or students, you won't find dual processor systems. The same is true of almost every other x86 vendor. Apple on the other hand markets it's dual processor systems to home users.
This leads to my conclusion:
From the stand point of "personal computers" (and we can argue about what this really means all day), I'd be shocked if the highest end (dual processor) Apple couldn't out perform the highest end "personal computer" from an Intel vendor(which will inevitably be a UP).
While i would concede a point arguing that the current intel offerings are as fast or faster
The claim is that the G5 is the fastest personal computer. It'd dual processor @ 2GHz. Last I checked you couldn't get a personal dual processor system for the x86 platform. I find it hard to believe that for any reasonable work load, a dual processor system wouldn't beat a single proc one.
That's really what any review is about. The theory is that there are general charecteristics that make for a "good" (e.g. entertaining) book, movie, or whatever, as well as charecteristics that make for a "bad" one. Thousands upon thousands of pages have been written over hundreds of years about what these charecteristics are for speeches and books. A lot less has been written about movies. Almost nothing has been written about video games. As the article mentions some academics are trying.
I think the fundamental problem is that the world of games covers a lot more bredth then books or movies. In some cases (usually story-driven games like FFX) almost every metric that one could draw from a movie or book will apply. On the other hand, what do you do about a game like Quake? Mario? FlightSimulator? Zelda? Everquest? These games focus not on the presentation of a plot but on the interaction between the user and the world. Right now we don't really have good metrics to compare these games. As the genre progresses that will change.
>a large majority of games today being carbon copies of other games
The same can be said of books and movies. With any work there are two approaches:
One way is to try something new. Because it is new you won't get it perfect but because you are forging ahead you can be forgiven for imperfections. A good example of this would be Homer's Odessy.
The other way is to refine what's already there. The goal here is get as close to perfect as possible. Running with our Odessy example, Vergil's Aneid would fall into this catagory.
While there are a lot of worthless games that don't do either, most games fall squarely into the second catagory. Occasionally a game comes out that's in the first catagory. The reason you don't see more is that the industry moves so quickly. As soon as someone makes a truely "new" game, everyone else will make a better polished game that falls into the second catagory.
It's because the driver is compleate, utter crap (why they would call something like that "beta" is beyond me). Reading the fine print. It only implements Bi-linear filtering at the moment, i.e. most of the 3d is not using the hardware yet....
We won't know how good these are until they get some real drivers out.
NavTech doesn't do routing. What they do is take the census bureau's map's and put them in an easier to use format and then update them more regularly then every 10 years. Lately they've also been increasing precision using DGPS corrections.
NavTech started with a publicly available database used by the census bureau and have been updating, improving, and refining it since.
On the other hand the census bureau is planning on having a new improved database for the 2010 census that includes every home in America with relative precision in the centimeter range and absolute precision in the meter range. Some of the tech that they use for this is VERY cool stuff.
If the N-Gage is built like most other cell phones, there is a single GaAs transitor (specifically a MESFET) in there for amplifying the cellular signal. Since the tech to integrate GaAs transitors does not exist and yeilds are low, they are very expensive. That price really is about middle of the road for a cell phone (they probably are selling at a loss). You just don't usually see the price because the various carriers sell the phone on the cheep to get you to use their service.
If you read the FAQ they say that it's made using GaAs. Since they don't mention any revolutionary new manufacturing technique, we can assume that it's made the same way any other GaAs device is.
What this means: *It's a solid state device (no moving parts) *It uses the properties of GaAs semi-conductors to emit and absorb EM radiaton (this is why GaAs is used in cell phones and satilite dishes...) *It's PROBABLY NOT integrated, but a bunch of individual GaAs components assembled and packaged (explaining the big size). *It's going to cost a hell-of-a-lot. (The 300GHz GaAs Transistor used in a communications satelite is about $3000; this is why cell phones cost so much...)
if I have a closed source software, and use some
open source "bits" that have been distributed under
GPL, can't I just encapsulated the GPL stuff in a library and give the source to the library, and not the complete source to the software
No, if the software was LGPL you could, but under the GPL, any code that is used at runtime (e.g. the entire thing) has to be made available.
if it is ok by the GPL to pay for the exe and the code
Actually the GPL says you can't charge for the USE (i.e. a EULA), but you can charge for distribution. You also only have to give a copy of the source to people who have the binary. The problem is that under the GPL anyone is allowed to
redistribute both the source and the binary. Before the internet was wide spread this worked out really well (people used to pay over $100 for emacs). With the internet however the marginal cost to distribute the software is 0. So no matter how little you charge, someone will just give it away. Also the GPL isn't about making money with software, it's about getting the most USE out of your software. In that sense the people who benefit are the purchasers not the developers.
Hardware is a huge factor. Different hardware would net vary different results.
Reiser is optimized for lots of small files. This test only tested a "few" huge files; I was actually quite surprised to see that Reiser which has had almost no optimization for this did as well as it did.I'm not surprised JFS did as well as it did either. This is what it was optimized for.
That said, what do most people keep on their Linux boxes? I'm guessing mostly small files, e.g. webpages, and configurations. For them this benchmark won't tell them anything.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Reiser4 have atomic transactions built in? (i.e. it not only journals data but gaurantees it is in a consistant state) If that is the case shouldn't it be compared to ext3 instead of JFS?
My advice is for people to look at what their normal usage is and pick a file system that does well with that. (Reiser for small files, JFS for huge ones, etc.)
Keep in mind these rankings are what others in Academia think about them. Three years after graduation, your work experience will be all that really counts.
Here's what you should look for:
Low Student to Teacher Ratio
High rate of acceptace to Grad school / job placement
Sucessful alumni
How long it takes students to pay off loans on average (it may cost more, but you may make more).
Opportunities for work experience (this is what really counts on your resume).
You should think about going to a Co-op School (Kettering is the biggest). If you are mature enough to have a real job while going to college, the 2-3 years of work expericence you get will far out weigh the prestiege of a more expensive school.
If you're looking at schools like that, then you might want to check out Kettering University
The EE program is excellent (ranked #9 for undergrad), and the classes are small. You'll personally know all of your professors, and you'll get to get REAL work experience (and money to pay for college). And oh, by the way, they've graduated more Fortune 500 executives then Harvard (and cost way less...).
ps: When I applied the application was one page so it won't take you much extra time.
It's really amusing that you assume I'm an American.
I didn't; I assumed we were talking about the American Judical System under which the RIAA will go to court.
The poster was confusing a crimal violation (at least where I'm from) with a civil one. There is a criminal aspect to copyright law. They COULD press criminal charges, but they chose not to. By putting downloading music on the same level as felonies like murder or rape, the poster was confusing the issue. There is a legal difference between slander or libel and murder. The poster seemed to imply there wasn't.
Most guys here either aren't lawyers or (as in my case) don't have easy access to one. Making the issue more confusing for people is never good.
And there are most certainly laws that don't involve criminal offenses.
Yes but they don't carry criminal penalties either. I can sue you in civil court for almost anything because the laws are broad and the burden of proof low. I can't have you arrested nearly as easily.
I WANT the RIAA to take these guys to court, I WANT them to have to convince a jury that they are criminals, I WANT to see the public out rage the media frenzy will (hopefully) generate. Unfortunately the are showing some sense and seem to be sticking to civil suits.
Note: I do not commit copyright infringment. My software, books, games, music, movies, etc. were all aquired legally. I simply disagree with what I feel is a law that runs counter to the intent of the founders and the intrests of the public.
"breaking the (criminal) law" means violating a local, state, or federal statute or regulation.
The RIAA is suing them in civil court and not pressing crimal charges. There is no law to break. They are simplay claiming that these guys did x so they are intitled to restituion.
Civil cases have lower burdens of proof then criminal cases. My guess is that the RIAA doesn't want to go after them criminally. I'd guess that means that they realize that those laws are a strawman and don't want to risk a crimal trial where the jury might call BS on them or a judge might decide the laws violate rights.
At most companies that I know of the logic works like this:
"If someone took the time to call/write our CEO, they must be really frustrated. This can be one isolated incident, what happened to everyone who DIDN'T call? This is loosing us money!"
This same logic is used by Congressmen. If one person cares enough to write there "must" be other people out there who didn't.
Slashdot Mirror
The gist of the banned add was that in that segment, the G5 was the fastest computer system. Based off of the evidence I have in front of me that's a plausible claim. While my personal opinion is that no one in that segment has a need for a G5, Apple has the right to try and prove me wrong.
And yes they cite workstations on their website because they also target that market with a version of the G5 with more RAM, fiberchanel cards, etc. Running with the car analogy, Honda uses the same platform for many different cars. The fact that an Acura RSX is equivilant to a Civic with different body panels and a leather interior, does not mean that all cars built on the Civic platform are "near-lux" cars. Again, I think the workstation market segment is irrelevent to this discusion reguardless of the fact the the G5 has targeted configurations in both segments. (Note however, that due to 64-bit address space, more registers, and faster floating point, it is entirely possible that the G5 is faster then Xeons for some workloads. In which case the distinction made by the "personal computer" tag would be moot.)
Yes, you can get high powered work stations if you are doing 3D or CAD. Yes, you can go buy a DP intel system from a vendor or from newegg. Yes, for a PC the G5 is probably WAY overkill.
BUT that does not change the fact that unlike any DP x86 system it is marketed as a PC (as opposed to a workstation or a server). Citing a different market segment doesn't count.
(Using another poster's example) If GM claims they have the highest horse power for a mid-sized sedan, they don't have to take into account my ability to build a higher horse power car by buying an engine, suspention, etc. They also don't have to point out that a Corvet Z06 has more hp.
My claim was not that you can't get dual processor intel systems, but that if you call up any x86 vendor and ask for a personal computer, you won't be presented with the option of a dual processor configuration. If you call Apple you will. Therefore from at least one point of view their claim can be viewed as correct.
I know that, I run a dual Xeon System. The fact that you and I (not to mention other computer geeks) have these systems and probably use them as personal systems, does not make them "personal computers".
Going to dell.com and looking under home, or students, you won't find dual processor systems. The same is true of almost every other x86 vendor. Apple on the other hand markets it's dual processor systems to home users.
This leads to my conclusion: From the stand point of "personal computers" (and we can argue about what this really means all day), I'd be shocked if the highest end (dual processor) Apple couldn't out perform the highest end "personal computer" from an Intel vendor(which will inevitably be a UP).
The claim is that the G5 is the fastest personal computer. It'd dual processor @ 2GHz. Last I checked you couldn't get a personal dual processor system for the x86 platform. I find it hard to believe that for any reasonable work load, a dual processor system wouldn't beat a single proc one.
That's really what any review is about. The theory is that there are general charecteristics that make for a "good" (e.g. entertaining) book, movie, or whatever, as well as charecteristics that make for a "bad" one. Thousands upon thousands of pages have been written over hundreds of years about what these charecteristics are for speeches and books. A lot less has been written about movies. Almost nothing has been written about video games. As the article mentions some academics are trying.
I think the fundamental problem is that the world of games covers a lot more bredth then books or movies. In some cases (usually story-driven games like FFX) almost every metric that one could draw from a movie or book will apply. On the other hand, what do you do about a game like Quake? Mario? FlightSimulator? Zelda? Everquest? These games focus not on the presentation of a plot but on the interaction between the user and the world. Right now we don't really have good metrics to compare these games. As the genre progresses that will change.
>a large majority of games today being carbon copies of other games
The same can be said of books and movies. With any work there are two approaches:
One way is to try something new. Because it is new you won't get it perfect but because you are forging ahead you can be forgiven for imperfections. A good example of this would be Homer's Odessy.
The other way is to refine what's already there. The goal here is get as close to perfect as possible. Running with our Odessy example, Vergil's Aneid would fall into this catagory.
While there are a lot of worthless games that don't do either, most games fall squarely into the second catagory. Occasionally a game comes out that's in the first catagory. The reason you don't see more is that the industry moves so quickly. As soon as someone makes a truely "new" game, everyone else will make a better polished game that falls into the second catagory.
It's because the driver is compleate, utter crap (why they would call something like that "beta" is beyond me). Reading the fine print. It only implements Bi-linear filtering at the moment, i.e. most of the 3d is not using the hardware yet....
We won't know how good these are until they get some real drivers out.
NavTech doesn't do routing. What they do is take the census bureau's map's and put them in an easier to use format and then update them more regularly then every 10 years. Lately they've also been increasing precision using DGPS corrections.
NavTech just makes a map database, the path plotting algorithm doesn't come from them. That's why mapquest and yahoo will give you different results.
and by Yahoo
On the other hand the census bureau is planning on having a new improved database for the 2010 census that includes every home in America with relative precision in the centimeter range and absolute precision in the meter range. Some of the tech that they use for this is VERY cool stuff.
You can start learning here.
> Less phony Kung Fu
I thought that they used Wu Shu in the movies?
If the N-Gage is built like most other cell phones, there is a single GaAs transitor (specifically a MESFET) in there for amplifying the cellular signal. Since the tech to integrate GaAs transitors does not exist and yeilds are low, they are very expensive. That price really is about middle of the road for a cell phone (they probably are selling at a loss). You just don't usually see the price because the various carriers sell the phone on the cheep to get you to use their service.
If you read the FAQ they say that it's made using GaAs. Since they don't mention any revolutionary new manufacturing technique, we can assume that it's made the same way any other GaAs device is.
What this means:
*It's a solid state device (no moving parts)
*It uses the properties of GaAs semi-conductors to emit and absorb EM radiaton (this is why GaAs is used in cell phones and satilite dishes...)
*It's PROBABLY NOT integrated, but a bunch of individual GaAs components assembled and packaged (explaining the big size).
*It's going to cost a hell-of-a-lot. (The 300GHz GaAs Transistor used in a communications satelite is about $3000; this is why cell phones cost so much...)
Not so, your code only must be under a compatible license. A good example of this is "X-style" licensed code in the Linux kernel.
if I have a closed source software, and use some open source "bits" that have been distributed under GPL, can't I just encapsulated the GPL stuff in a library and give the source to the library, and not the complete source to the software
No, if the software was LGPL you could, but under the GPL, any code that is used at runtime (e.g. the entire thing) has to be made available.
if it is ok by the GPL to pay for the exe and the code
Actually the GPL says you can't charge for the USE (i.e. a EULA), but you can charge for distribution. You also only have to give a copy of the source to people who have the binary. The problem is that under the GPL anyone is allowed to redistribute both the source and the binary. Before the internet was wide spread this worked out really well (people used to pay over $100 for emacs). With the internet however the marginal cost to distribute the software is 0. So no matter how little you charge, someone will just give it away. Also the GPL isn't about making money with software, it's about getting the most USE out of your software. In that sense the people who benefit are the purchasers not the developers.
Where does this come from?
Every UI study I've ever read has concluded that the keyboard FELT faster, but that if you timed things, using a mouse was faster.
I did read a study that concluded having one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse was the most efficent method....
Reiser is optimized for lots of small files. This test only tested a "few" huge files; I was actually quite surprised to see that Reiser which has had almost no optimization for this did as well as it did.I'm not surprised JFS did as well as it did either. This is what it was optimized for.
That said, what do most people keep on their Linux boxes? I'm guessing mostly small files, e.g. webpages, and configurations. For them this benchmark won't tell them anything.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Reiser4 have atomic transactions built in? (i.e. it not only journals data but gaurantees it is in a consistant state) If that is the case shouldn't it be compared to ext3 instead of JFS?
My advice is for people to look at what their normal usage is and pick a file system that does well with that. (Reiser for small files, JFS for huge ones, etc.)
Keep in mind these rankings are what others in Academia think about them. Three years after graduation, your work experience will be all that really counts.
Here's what you should look for:
- Low Student to Teacher Ratio
- High rate of acceptace to Grad school / job placement
- Sucessful alumni
- How long it takes students to pay off loans on average (it may cost more, but you may make more).
- Opportunities for work experience (this is what really counts on your resume).
You should think about going to a Co-op School (Kettering is the biggest). If you are mature enough to have a real job while going to college, the 2-3 years of work expericence you get will far out weigh the prestiege of a more expensive school.The EE program is excellent (ranked #9 for undergrad), and the classes are small. You'll personally know all of your professors, and you'll get to get REAL work experience (and money to pay for college). And oh, by the way, they've graduated more Fortune 500 executives then Harvard (and cost way less...).
ps: When I applied the application was one page so it won't take you much extra time.
I didn't; I assumed we were talking about the American Judical System under which the RIAA will go to court.
The poster was confusing a crimal violation (at least where I'm from) with a civil one. There is a criminal aspect to copyright law. They COULD press criminal charges, but they chose not to. By putting downloading music on the same level as felonies like murder or rape, the poster was confusing the issue. There is a legal difference between slander or libel and murder. The poster seemed to imply there wasn't.
Most guys here either aren't lawyers or (as in my case) don't have easy access to one. Making the issue more confusing for people is never good.
And there are most certainly laws that don't involve criminal offenses.
Yes but they don't carry criminal penalties either. I can sue you in civil court for almost anything because the laws are broad and the burden of proof low. I can't have you arrested nearly as easily.
I WANT the RIAA to take these guys to court, I WANT them to have to convince a jury that they are criminals, I WANT to see the public out rage the media frenzy will (hopefully) generate. Unfortunately the are showing some sense and seem to be sticking to civil suits.
Note: I do not commit copyright infringment. My software, books, games, music, movies, etc. were all aquired legally. I simply disagree with what I feel is a law that runs counter to the intent of the founders and the intrests of the public.
What part of the American Judicial System don't you understand?
a civil case means a tort or a law suit.
"breaking the (criminal) law" means violating a local, state, or federal statute or regulation.
The RIAA is suing them in civil court and not pressing crimal charges. There is no law to break. They are simplay claiming that these guys did x so they are intitled to restituion.
Civil cases have lower burdens of proof then criminal cases. My guess is that the RIAA doesn't want to go after them criminally. I'd guess that means that they realize that those laws are a strawman and don't want to risk a crimal trial where the jury might call BS on them or a judge might decide the laws violate rights.
"If someone took the time to call/write our CEO, they must be really frustrated. This can be one isolated incident, what happened to everyone who DIDN'T call? This is loosing us money!"
This same logic is used by Congressmen. If one person cares enough to write there "must" be other people out there who didn't.
This is a civil case, the RIAA is sueing in CIVIL court. They are not pressing criminal charges at this time.
Therefore, these guys didn't "break the law". They aren't even accused of breaking the law as the police havn't arrested even them.