Honestly - go to Pricewatch.com. Look up prices for the parts you want. (I'd have to spend about the same amount of time researching Apple options as I would for Opteron parts, although I am more familiar with Opterons.) Here's a quick rundown on what I consider comparable:
dual Numa Motherboard: $250
1 244 (1.8GHz) Opteron processor: $326
256!! MB RAM: $42
Antec Case/PS: $100 (estimated)
Seagate SATA 80GB drive: $63
Plextor 8X DVD+-RW drive: $86
NVidia 5200 FX w/ TV out and 128MB: $54
56K internal modem: $5
Total: $926
Personally, I'd go do the following adds:
dual 242s: +$100
2GB RAM: +$254
Seagate 160GB SATA drive +$25
Plextor 12X 712A -$4!!
Total: $1301.
That leaves $198 to upgrade that $54 video card to something better, like an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro/All in wonder or Geforce 6800 (ok, that last one raises the cost just $20, but look at the performance improvement!)
You could also ditch the dual 242s for a single 246 2GHz processor, but that would run an additional $40.
Last, but not least, buy a single 1 series processor for that motherboard, and next year buy a couple of dual core processors, each one of which would smoke that dual unicore setup.
Basically, if money were the issue, the opteron smokes apple's cost. However, Apple's OS X doesn't run on an opteron, and OS X definitely has some pluses.
I think you're mistaken about that. Yes, he and Allen wrote a basic interpreter which was used. Then they tossed it in favor of GWU Basic, because the MS basic interpreter sucked rocks so bad they couldn't even fix it.
I personallly think the shame with Kildall is that he got so royally screwed by someone like Gates. But he wasn't the only one, the list of Gates's victims is long. Kildall was merely one of the first.
He's unscrupulous, conniving, immoral, and a thief.
shrewd doesn't come into the picture. That would assume he plays by the rules. It's quite evident he plays by no rules, which puts everyone on the other side of the table at a distinct disadvantage.
I've wondered something. Since when is being unscrupulous, immoral/amoral, and conniving "pretty good business decisions"?
Not to mention committing essentially theft, and several other illegal actions (IIRC, it's illegal to sell someone else's property - regards the initial SCP QDOS).
And here's a case where software patents would quite possibly have corrected a huge wrong. Just imagine if Kildall had been able to patent the various technologies in CP/M. Where would MS be today?
And people are wrong. Bill Gates invented nothing. (Ok, the Microsoft Bob concept maybe) Seriously, name something he invented. That's probably the biggest lie of Microsoft, that they invented or innovated anything.
Checked exceptions are a compiler time check. Exactly how does using checked exceptions result in higher quality code than unchecked exceptions? I'll readily admit there's a lot more cruft in there, and god help you if you have to change the exception thrown, or add one, through all the layers.
I think this point has been relatively belabored by others. In short, checked exceptions look good in theory by immediately letting you know that there's an exception. The above statement about maintenance is a major negative.
I also feel checked exceptions actually hurts the novice/intermediate programmer in that now they'll never have to think, or read the actual documentation, because things are spelled out for them. It reminds me of using a calculator in first grade. What's 1 + 1?... (Not that I believe using unchecked exceptions automatically forces coders to learn what they're coding, but at least it'll be easier to weed out the smarter ones from those that should be sent elsewhere)
In what way is using undeclared exceptions even slightly similar to checking for nulls? One is design, the other is a naive or unskilled programmer's error.
C#'s "override" is a language construct necessary for C#, much like adding "final" to any java class you do not wish overridden. What exactly is your point? Neither of your topics relate in even the smallest way to "reliable" coding in my book, at least not as presented. (hint: it's not my job to make your point for you.)
That's what documentation is for. You do document your code, right? Besides, most of the API's I write tend to handle errors internally, or they're runtime errors. I find declared errors to be a pain for all involved and generally unnecessary. I do not seem to be alone in this viewpoint.
As for IntelliJ, I'm sure it's a good IDE, but I prefer Eclipse by far. (last time I used IntelliJ it was pretty clunky, although Eclipse 2.0 wasn't great either at that time....
Re:Meanwhile, C++ goes nowhere
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
The same can be said for COBOL. I bet somewhere in the world there is a guy that likes COBOL.
Hey - I work with that guy!!!! (and girl!)
Re:Java checked exceptions suck, but how to fix th
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
This actually sounds like a good use of annotations.
Pretty much any place where the action to multiple exceptions is the same log statement. Kind of silly to use multiple catch blocks in that scenario. (Technically correct, yes, but a waste of effort, when all you're doing is logging the exception)
I generally prefer unchecked exceptions. Mainly because the entire process of declaring a thrown exception through mutliple layers is an asinine waste of my time.
True - I haven't bought a dell nor recommended them since around 2000. They were relatively good machines back then. For personal machines, I've built my own ever since, getting a much better hardware platform for about half the price, or even less.
I believe they designed it to be multi-core. I believe in the initial papers they were talking about dual core being released in 2004/2005 (don't recall exact dates) and that quad and 8-way cores were on the horizon. How much was vapor, who knows.
Dell's bottom end PC's aside, no decent PC should come with less than 512MB RAM. That's just so that you can truly multi-task (why shut down your email and browser when loading Doom 3, for instance?)
Also, 1GB is chump change even in the land of 32 bit computing. 4GB is the max, whether MS can support it or not. 64 bit processing is important for things other than maximum memory access. Photo/sound processing comes to mind, not to mention video editing. That's just for starters.
I'll end this with saying that 99% of everyday PC tasks don't need any of the above. Heck, the only reason they need anything above the original Pentium or 486 is that MS's ubiquitous bloatware office apps create 100KB 2 line documents.
Dell has started making some of the same mistakes that Gateway made in the 90s. Namely, low-bidding. While this is not as huge a mistake now as it was back in the 90s, the quality of Dell computers is falling because of it.
I think the biggest issue is that a lot of people don't realize you have to be registered prior to being able to vote. That's all these programs do, is get you registered and raise awareness of a coming election.
Once you've gone through the trouble of registering, will you be more likely to vote? Well, at least you can vote. I still wonder why a driver's license/gov issued ID and voter regestration are separate functions, but that's another rant.
One reason I believe the "liberals" are working hard with programs like these is because the "conservatives" already have their program - churches. I mean when 'god' himself speaks to you via the talking head on the pulpit to go out and vote, and you already have the "flock" mentality anyways, and then they're told vote for guy A.... That's a lot of potential voters. Is it any miracle that Bush's numbers are holding pretty rock steady above 37%?
In short - MTV has sucked since around 1988. MTV2 was only a weak copy of the original MTV, and rapidly faded away as well. Today, Fuse offers some hope as a music video station, at least they play new music.
Here's a question though - why can you only get Viacom video music stations? Just recently, Mush Music America (why was there a different station for the US? They're in the same time zones and speak the same language for all intents!) became Fuse, whom I do not know the owner of. Why can't my satellite provider offer me Canadian and European music channels?
Back to the topic at hand, I recall when MTV debuted with all music, all the time. Granted, it was the same 20 videos for a while, and they played a then somewhat cute and dangerous Joan Jet to death. I didn't have cable at the time, but a friend did, and even in the little bit of time we were at his house after school, you quickly got tired of that same small refrain.
Then something truly wonderful happened. A renaissance of music, as talented artists started sending in videos of their music. (Not the main stream artists of the time, most of them didn't want anything to do with this "video" thing, music was where it's at, baby!) We got all sorts of interesting new acts (Talking Heads, Devo, Concrete Blonde, Eurythmics, even Men Without Hats;) Then the major labels stepped in, and it's been downhill ever since.
Have software patents. However, make them good for only 5 years from the date of filing and on a first come first serve basis.
Entire fields of technology come and go in 5 years time, so that seems like more than enough time to "profit" from a patent. Also, it reduces the incentive for filing patents for "ideas" that allow a lock on said "idea" with no intent of using said idea. If the "idea" is suitably ahead of its time, well, then you could attempt to hold off on filing it...then again, mere ideas aren't invention. (See flight as one idea that was around for ages, but the actual invention didn't occur until 1908, I believe it was)
Additionally, the shorter time span would prompt immediate use of said patent, or it would be no longer useful to the patentee. Bad patents such as the infamous "one click" patent would go out the window in a reasonably short period of time.
I'm willing to bet the simplicity of such a solution is also the reason it would never be adopted, as companies wouldn't be able to profit from the current system (like SCO's attempts, for one)
ahh - but it was in 1993, I believe, that I actually purchased a $15K graphics card... not for a PC though.:) It was an SGI Z-buffer card that I don't recall the exact ID of.
The most expensive graphics card for a PC I actually purchased (work related - CAD station) was $2500.
So, it's not hyperbole for me, even today. Actually, you can still buy these super expensive cards, not that they're especially geared towards running Doom 3 @ 300 fps: Matrox's HR256 for a mere ~$2500.
#2: I haven't seen a PC level graphics card approach the price of a mortgage payment in my area in about 10 years. Mortgage payments of $1300/month is considered cheap here.
#3: Mortgage prices vary widely, and I'm aware of this - see point #1.
wow - less than $600 CDN every month!?! You must have bought a while ago, for a 5 bed room house. The current cost in the states is a minimum $100K for a 5 bedroom house, at least near any decent sized city.
Actually, the build cost for a little over 2500 sq ft house with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths is about $100K, not including property. (Yes, houses are still measured in sq ft here, divide by 9 for a rough approximation) from what I recall from about 4-5 years ago.
Mortgages, while payable biweekly, is generally understood (by me anyways;) as a monthly payment.
Slashdot Mirror
- dual Numa Motherboard: $250
- 1 244 (1.8GHz) Opteron processor: $326
- 256!! MB RAM: $42
- Antec Case/PS: $100 (estimated)
- Seagate SATA 80GB drive: $63
- Plextor 8X DVD+-RW drive: $86
- NVidia 5200 FX w/ TV out and 128MB: $54
- 56K internal modem: $5
Total: $926 Personally, I'd go do the following adds:- dual 242s: +$100
- 2GB RAM: +$254
- Seagate 160GB SATA drive +$25
- Plextor 12X 712A -$4!!
Total: $1301.That leaves $198 to upgrade that $54 video card to something better, like an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro/All in wonder or Geforce 6800 (ok, that last one raises the cost just $20, but look at the performance improvement!)
You could also ditch the dual 242s for a single 246 2GHz processor, but that would run an additional $40.
Last, but not least, buy a single 1 series processor for that motherboard, and next year buy a couple of dual core processors, each one of which would smoke that dual unicore setup.
Basically, if money were the issue, the opteron smokes apple's cost. However, Apple's OS X doesn't run on an opteron, and OS X definitely has some pluses.
I think you're mistaken about that. Yes, he and Allen wrote a basic interpreter which was used. Then they tossed it in favor of GWU Basic, because the MS basic interpreter sucked rocks so bad they couldn't even fix it.
I personallly think the shame with Kildall is that he got so royally screwed by someone like Gates. But he wasn't the only one, the list of Gates's victims is long. Kildall was merely one of the first.
He's unscrupulous, conniving, immoral, and a thief.
shrewd doesn't come into the picture. That would assume he plays by the rules. It's quite evident he plays by no rules, which puts everyone on the other side of the table at a distinct disadvantage.
I've wondered something. Since when is being unscrupulous, immoral/amoral, and conniving "pretty good business decisions"?
Not to mention committing essentially theft, and several other illegal actions (IIRC, it's illegal to sell someone else's property - regards the initial SCP QDOS).
And here's a case where software patents would quite possibly have corrected a huge wrong. Just imagine if Kildall had been able to patent the various technologies in CP/M. Where would MS be today?
And people are wrong. Bill Gates invented nothing. (Ok, the Microsoft Bob concept maybe) Seriously, name something he invented. That's probably the biggest lie of Microsoft, that they invented or innovated anything.
Lie, cheat, steal? Absolutely.
This is a laugh. I work with Java.
... (Not that I believe using unchecked exceptions automatically forces coders to learn what they're coding, but at least it'll be easier to weed out the smarter ones from those that should be sent elsewhere)
Checked exceptions are a compiler time check. Exactly how does using checked exceptions result in higher quality code than unchecked exceptions? I'll readily admit there's a lot more cruft in there, and god help you if you have to change the exception thrown, or add one, through all the layers.
I think this point has been relatively belabored by others. In short, checked exceptions look good in theory by immediately letting you know that there's an exception. The above statement about maintenance is a major negative.
I also feel checked exceptions actually hurts the novice/intermediate programmer in that now they'll never have to think, or read the actual documentation, because things are spelled out for them. It reminds me of using a calculator in first grade. What's 1 + 1?
In what way is using undeclared exceptions even slightly similar to checking for nulls? One is design, the other is a naive or unskilled programmer's error.
C#'s "override" is a language construct necessary for C#, much like adding "final" to any java class you do not wish overridden. What exactly is your point? Neither of your topics relate in even the smallest way to "reliable" coding in my book, at least not as presented. (hint: it's not my job to make your point for you.)
That's what documentation is for. You do document your code, right? Besides, most of the API's I write tend to handle errors internally, or they're runtime errors. I find declared errors to be a pain for all involved and generally unnecessary. I do not seem to be alone in this viewpoint.
As for IntelliJ, I'm sure it's a good IDE, but I prefer Eclipse by far. (last time I used IntelliJ it was pretty clunky, although Eclipse 2.0 wasn't great either at that time....
The same can be said for COBOL. I bet somewhere in the world there is a guy that likes COBOL.
Hey - I work with that guy!!!! (and girl!)
This actually sounds like a good use of annotations.
Pretty much any place where the action to multiple exceptions is the same log statement. Kind of silly to use multiple catch blocks in that scenario. (Technically correct, yes, but a waste of effort, when all you're doing is logging the exception)
I generally prefer unchecked exceptions. Mainly because the entire process of declaring a thrown exception through mutliple layers is an asinine waste of my time.
Just watched "SuperSize me".
I'd say calling McDonalds toxic might be more appropriate. Yick.
(Disclaimer: I never cared much for McDonalds. I did like Burger King, but I'm sure their current fare isn't any better)
True - I haven't bought a dell nor recommended them since around 2000. They were relatively good machines back then. For personal machines, I've built my own ever since, getting a much better hardware platform for about half the price, or even less.
I believe they designed it to be multi-core. I believe in the initial papers they were talking about dual core being released in 2004/2005 (don't recall exact dates) and that quad and 8-way cores were on the horizon. How much was vapor, who knows.
Dell's bottom end PC's aside, no decent PC should come with less than 512MB RAM. That's just so that you can truly multi-task (why shut down your email and browser when loading Doom 3, for instance?)
Also, 1GB is chump change even in the land of 32 bit computing. 4GB is the max, whether MS can support it or not. 64 bit processing is important for things other than maximum memory access. Photo/sound processing comes to mind, not to mention video editing. That's just for starters.
I'll end this with saying that 99% of everyday PC tasks don't need any of the above. Heck, the only reason they need anything above the original Pentium or 486 is that MS's ubiquitous bloatware office apps create 100KB 2 line documents.
Dell has started making some of the same mistakes that Gateway made in the 90s. Namely, low-bidding. While this is not as huge a mistake now as it was back in the 90s, the quality of Dell computers is falling because of it.
I think the biggest issue is that a lot of people don't realize you have to be registered prior to being able to vote. That's all these programs do, is get you registered and raise awareness of a coming election.
Once you've gone through the trouble of registering, will you be more likely to vote? Well, at least you can vote. I still wonder why a driver's license/gov issued ID and voter regestration are separate functions, but that's another rant.
One reason I believe the "liberals" are working hard with programs like these is because the "conservatives" already have their program - churches. I mean when 'god' himself speaks to you via the talking head on the pulpit to go out and vote, and you already have the "flock" mentality anyways, and then they're told vote for guy A.... That's a lot of potential voters. Is it any miracle that Bush's numbers are holding pretty rock steady above 37%?
In short - MTV has sucked since around 1988. MTV2 was only a weak copy of the original MTV, and rapidly faded away as well. Today, Fuse offers some hope as a music video station, at least they play new music.
Here's a question though - why can you only get Viacom video music stations? Just recently, Mush Music America (why was there a different station for the US? They're in the same time zones and speak the same language for all intents!) became Fuse, whom I do not know the owner of. Why can't my satellite provider offer me Canadian and European music channels?
Back to the topic at hand, I recall when MTV debuted with all music, all the time. Granted, it was the same 20 videos for a while, and they played a then somewhat cute and dangerous Joan Jet to death. I didn't have cable at the time, but a friend did, and even in the little bit of time we were at his house after school, you quickly got tired of that same small refrain.
Then something truly wonderful happened. A renaissance of music, as talented artists started sending in videos of their music. (Not the main stream artists of the time, most of them didn't want anything to do with this "video" thing, music was where it's at, baby!) We got all sorts of interesting new acts (Talking Heads, Devo, Concrete Blonde, Eurythmics, even Men Without Hats;) Then the major labels stepped in, and it's been downhill ever since.
Have software patents. However, make them good for only 5 years from the date of filing and on a first come first serve basis.
Entire fields of technology come and go in 5 years time, so that seems like more than enough time to "profit" from a patent. Also, it reduces the incentive for filing patents for "ideas" that allow a lock on said "idea" with no intent of using said idea. If the "idea" is suitably ahead of its time, well, then you could attempt to hold off on filing it...then again, mere ideas aren't invention. (See flight as one idea that was around for ages, but the actual invention didn't occur until 1908, I believe it was)
Additionally, the shorter time span would prompt immediate use of said patent, or it would be no longer useful to the patentee. Bad patents such as the infamous "one click" patent would go out the window in a reasonably short period of time.
I'm willing to bet the simplicity of such a solution is also the reason it would never be adopted, as companies wouldn't be able to profit from the current system (like SCO's attempts, for one)
ahh - but it was in 1993, I believe, that I actually purchased a $15K graphics card... not for a PC though. :) It was an SGI Z-buffer card that I don't recall the exact ID of.
The most expensive graphics card for a PC I actually purchased (work related - CAD station) was $2500.
So, it's not hyperbole for me, even today. Actually, you can still buy these super expensive cards, not that they're especially geared towards running Doom 3 @ 300 fps: Matrox's HR256 for a mere ~$2500.
What really matters is what's left over after all required payments are made.
#1: this was meant in humor
#2: I haven't seen a PC level graphics card approach the price of a mortgage payment in my area in about 10 years. Mortgage payments of $1300/month is considered cheap here.
#3: Mortgage prices vary widely, and I'm aware of this - see point #1.
wow - less than $600 CDN every month!?! You must have bought a while ago, for a 5 bed room house. The current cost in the states is a minimum $100K for a 5 bedroom house, at least near any decent sized city.
Actually, the build cost for a little over 2500 sq ft house with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths is about $100K, not including property. (Yes, houses are still measured in sq ft here, divide by 9 for a rough approximation) from what I recall from about 4-5 years ago.
Mortgages, while payable biweekly, is generally understood (by me anyways;) as a monthly payment.