Simon,
While it's obvious you somewhat know what you're talking about, a LOT of your information is pretty dated. I use both super expensive top-of-the-line fpgas and middle of the road fpgas on a daily basis, so I'll just throw up a few "modern" corrections.
With Xilinx (which is *strictly* the brand I use) you get MASSIVE amounts of IP cores that are configurable / synthesizable / simulatable. Granted this comes with their tools license, but you have to have one of those for any of the decently large fpga's anyway. The main things that you have to pay for are the newer IO interfaces like: 10GigE, PCIE, Infiniband.
Almost all fpgas these days have some forms of specific logic (multipliers, etc) that helps with cleaner implementation of all kinds of math, the newest v4 and v5 chips have "DSP" chunks in them that make them approach true DSP chips in some ways.
The EDK is strictly for developing for either the powerpc chips imbedded in the fpga, or for use on a "soft cpu" core, it sounds like you're mixing it up with using fpgas "embedded" in a pc, which is very common, and we do lots of that.
The PCI interface is way simpler than writing the driver for the computer to interface with your card (in my opinion) I've had to modify the one that we use a lot, and that's not much fun.
FPGAs are very common in generation 1 consumer electronics as well, typically they do that so they can work the bugs out in systems that are shippable, later they'll spin an asic to achieve even lower costs. For the stuff I work on, we never need large quantity so we always ship with fpgas.
-SrJ
And the DFW area does curbside recycling, I'd imagine all the metro areas do.
Also, Texas, as a disconnected power grid (we do not have any AC tie lines to other states) does not sell excess power to other states. That means we also don't purposely import most of our electricity from other states so we can claim to be green because we don't "produce" emissions from power generation (see: California).
It's enough to employ (are you sitting down?) one point two MILLION people in $50k/year jobs. Um, no not on this planet, or any other planet. You think that a company that employs someone at a $50k/year job for a true cost of $50k/year, try a true cost for that person closer to $100k, so that already halves your number.
The other thing is, you have NO (that's zero, nadda) proof to back up your assertion that "most goes to upper management".
1. The 60billion employs LOTS of Americans (that's true citizens by the way, being intelligence and all).
2. You can't expect the government to feed every last person (I believe the word for that is communism, we'll all work, we'll all eat)
If you don't spend US government dollars on intelligence, soon they'll be no US to provide all of the things that you're asking the government to provide (and you better brush up on your Islamic teachings, or your Stalinism, or Marxism, choose your conquerer).
3) Haven't we figured out by now religion and science don't mix? Copernicus, Galileo, Da Vinci, and who knows who else? Well I guess we'd also have to realize that evolution and science don't mix as well. For something to be scientific it has to hold up to the standards of scientific method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method) which means it needs to be a) observable b) measurable c) repeatable, which means that evolution is as scientific as creationism.
5) Am I the only one that finds it odd that a bunch of nutballs who don't even bother to read their own holy book swear that the it is the literal word God even though it was originally written in Aramaic, translated in to Hebrew, then to Latin, then to Greek, and the back to Latin, and then to English? And that's a best case scenario for most of the books of the "Bible". Ummmm, no that's pretty much 100% incorrect. We have original language texts that all English translations are done from. They don't do translations of the Bible from other translations because there is no need to. I don't have all day, but lets take the New Testament, we have over 6000 copies that are less than 300 years older than when they were written. (compare that to any old "historical texts, the next closest is something like 300 copies). Also using written copies of "sermons" from the early church you can recreate 98% of the original text as well. As far as historical texts go the Bible is WAY ahead of anything else. You just have no idea what you're talking about on this point. (By the way, the Bible was written in 3 languages, Aramaic, Greek, and Hebrew)
6) Am I the only one who really questions the validity of the King James version,
Hey question the validity of any of the translations you want, knock yourself out, if you're really inclined, go back to the untranslated text (see above). Care to read a specific verse in the original language? Try blueletterbible.com (includes Greek and Hebrew lexicons for your enjoyment)
7) What about the places where the Bible contradicts itself? Since its the literal word of God, that makes God wrong and since God is infallible, he can't be wrong, therefore - using their own logic - God did not write the Bible OR God isn't God.
Got examples there buddy? Or do you just believe anything someone else tells you because it makes it easier to feel good about what you believe?
As far as historical reliable texts go, the Bible is way ahead of anything else (Homer's works, Socrates, etc)
That's a more logical argument to make against placing defenses in Alaska or the Canadian North. Interceptor missiles in Eastern Europe won't be very effective against missiles launched over the pole and aimed at North America. Ummm no, see you have to shoot down an ICBM before re-entry stage, once it's coming back through the atmosphere it's much too difficult of a problem to shoot it down effectively, or be able to count on when the multiple warheads will separate, given that they've already received all of the kinetic energy they need to reach their target.
I for one realize that Iran had no connection to 9/11 and that most Iranians are moderate and decent people. I for one realize that we've given the Iranian people lots of justifiable reasons for hating our guts at worst and for being wary of us at best. Oh really, you have proof that they had no connection?... about as much as we have that there was. Also, what have we done to the Iranians? Last I checked, nothing, except kidnap some soldiers.... oh wait, that was them taking British soldiers... Also, saying most of them are decent is about like a blanket "most Muslims are decent people" reference this: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007May22/0,4670,Poll MuslimAmericans,00.html
Sure I suppose if only 51% said bombing wasn't ok, you could say most of them are decent, but that's still a hell of a lot that aren't.
During the Cold War, at least a dozen Warsaw Pact and non-aligned countries produced copies and variants of the AK47, with the Soviet Union's tacit, if not overt, blessing. Even now, new AKs are being built by blacksmiths in Pakistan and US gunsmiths (the latter do this to comply with ATF regulations that prohibit import of receivers and assembled rifles).
Ummm, yeah, that used to be true (about importing assembled rifles), but it's never been true about recievers AFAIK. And in fact since the sunset of the "assault weapons" ban you can now import to your hearts content, assuming you live in the 44 or so US states with sane laws.
Actually, you must not have ever had this happen.
There's no "fraud police report" or whatever the heck you're talking about there. Here's what happens:
1. Call CC company tell them there are unauthorized charges
2. Person on the line marks said charges and gets you a new CC # in the pipeline
3. Bank mails you an affidavit that you must highlight fraudulent charges on, and sign stating that you're not lying about it.
4. CC company issues you credit with the note that *credit is not final until investigation is complete.
5. 1-2 months later you get a note saying "Credit is final"
Thats it, there's very little burden of proof on the consumer.
You're wrong, on at least two counts.
1. This is not a new tax law, techically sellers already have to pay taxes on their profit from selling stuff on ebay.
2. Anything you sell on ebay is NOT taxable, which is why they don't want people who sell one or two things reported. Tax is paid on the profit, not on the income. What this means is that if you sell some old furnature for $50 less than you paid for it, you haven't made any profit at all, thus you don't have to pay tax on it.
The IRS is only interested in "ebay stores" people who are purchasing something, and selling it for a profit, on a continuous basis, just like a normal business (which would have to pay taxes on profit).
I fully agree, only it's way worse than that. You're looking at the TVM of actually having the $100,000 upfront to pay for the solar panels. The reality is, people, unless independantly wealthy, have to finance stuff like this. So lets so that you finance it at the time of purchase of a house, at current interst rates, $100,000 adds roughly $1,000 to your house payment per month. I don't know about you, but my gas, electric, and gasoline cost for a month are nowhere near that much.
(I also dispute the claim that it will drop from 500k to 100k in cost that quickly). Also lets talk about the energy consumed to create those solar panels....
The issue is that the Chinese know where the computers are headed, and they are willing to do WHATEVER they can to get information on the US. Lets face it, any "nice" relationships between China and the US are merely a front for undercover relations. Lets see
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=1665
And it's pretty easy to find dozens more links like that. The US is merely trying to avoid obvious problems with computers trying to screw up sensitive information.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ incorrect.
Microsoft went with IBM because Intel was not willing to design a chip and then have Microsoft own the IP on the chip. You do know that Microsoft owns ALL of the silicon IP for the Xbox 360, they didn't own squat on the original Xbox and thus were held to the wall on the prices of chips because they didn't own them.
Also, maybe you should ask this "senior engineer" at Nvidia why they aren't doing the 360, it's for the SAME REASON, Nvidia wasn't willing to do all the design work and then not own anything.
Has nothing to do with x86 vs not x86, thanks for playing. (incidently why in the world would a company with so much expertise not want to go with an x86-style chip, see above).
Well I guess you have a lazy procurement department, a quick look at all of the workstations that HP offers shows that if you select "Customize" instead of "show selected models" they can all be ordered with "HP Linux installer kit"
I'm SO SO SO tired of the "Free Linux" argument in this discussion. These workstations come with Red Hat interprise, which is $179, it's not free if you buy it at the store, and It's not free to Dell, but one would guess they'd be making a profit from selling it just like Windows.
Actually you've bought a RedHat License at a $30 discount. A RedHat workstation licesnse is $179 direct from the source. Once again LAFF (Linux Ain't Free Folks). Dell can't sell them cheaper because the cost for the OS is basically the same to them.
1. Sure there's a Microsoft Tax, but lets face it, it's really an OS tax, see below.
2. Linux is free to home users who want to figure out support issues on their own. I propose a new acronym LAFF (Linux Ain't Free Folks). Lets look real quick at some costs for a "Real" installation of Linux, we'll go with Red Hat as it's a business friendly OS (and has lots of gov't certs to let it be in all kinds of installations). For a workstation a license is $189 PER YEAR, from Redhat, it's probably a bit "cheaper" through Dell. Now sure people will say "just install Fedora" ok fine, but when whatever company specific software issue pops up the sysadmins are screwed. To put that in different terms COMPANIES NEED OS SUPPORT FROM THE OS VENDORS, pick your poison, my company deals with Linux, Solaris, Windows, and we constantly get support from all three Vendors. (Oh and BTW lets talk about server licensing, $1500/YEAR for Redhat).
As a side note, if you buy Linux from Dell, your linux support comes from Dell, but when they can't figure it out, it goes internally to RedHat support. If you buy RedHat from RedHat you get support from them, but if they think it's a hardware interaction, they tell you to go to Dell, it's a freaking mess.
3. Very true, but for business workstation / servers (NEED SUPPORT) you're stuck with RH or SUSE.
4. The real business case issue is that since they are required to provide the RH / SUSE support themselves if they sell it, they better be selling a ton to make it worth their while, and I'll go out on a limb and say they aren't selling a ton of Linux desktops.
You can go through and replace "Dell" with "Sun x64" or "HP" the issues are all exactly the same from any of these vendors.
My guess is no. The 20Z and 40Z are more full-featured type servers. These guys are stripped down, "transactional computing" type servers. Also the 40Z is available with 4-dual core processors which makes it more attractive than these guys. It looks like for scientific computing SPARC replacements the Vx0z servers will still be the way to go. I'm still looking over the information, but this looks mostly like non-news to me. Sun has been making x86 - 64 bit servers for awhile now.
As someone who has to build, integrate, then deliver systems to other peoples' server floors I have some things that would be nice to know.
How much power does the thing ACTUALLY use, not what the manual says, but real world usage (all you need is a clamp annmeter and a split extension cord)
This test helps us determine power requirements if we deliver 100 of these, and cooling requirements.
So I read most of this, and a few things struck me.
The first is his ability to state a fact such as:
The electoral College having a 3/5ths rule
Which is of course true. But the problem is he draws a completely unrelated conclusion:
The electoral College is racist
That makes about as much sense as saying: Black people picked cotton
And then concluding that cotton, or those who wear it are racist. The conclusion is not even remotely supported by the argument.
Example 2 of this:
The war on drugs is racist b/c more coloreds (is that really the PC term?) are incarcerated.
Ok, well it could be that or the fact that more colored people are violating the law. I guess that the war on business executives doing illegal things is also racist since more whites are imprisoned in the fighting of that war.
I won't even get started on the innaccuracies and stupidities dealing with his stance on Nuclear power or GM foods....
I see a lot of comments talking about "anal sysadmins" and such. In a commercial environment that may be true. But there's an area where it is even MORE important to be able to lock these devices out: The government / sensitive info computers of the world. Think about all of the work that goes on in these places and the number of computers, many of which are on Solaris and Windows (some Linux is approved, but not much) They have to implement these features to keep national-security type information from walking out on someones keychain. (course those items cannot be in secured areas anyway, but I digress).
yeah, I figured out how to make this puppy purr:
case (topic)
SCO : goto http://groklaw.net; break;
Gadget : goto http://arstechnica.com; break;
Linux : goto http://linuxtoday.com; break;
journalism : goto http://theregister.co.uk; break;
default: goto http://news.bbc.co.uk;
endcase;
Slashdot Mirror
Simon, While it's obvious you somewhat know what you're talking about, a LOT of your information is pretty dated. I use both super expensive top-of-the-line fpgas and middle of the road fpgas on a daily basis, so I'll just throw up a few "modern" corrections. With Xilinx (which is *strictly* the brand I use) you get MASSIVE amounts of IP cores that are configurable / synthesizable / simulatable. Granted this comes with their tools license, but you have to have one of those for any of the decently large fpga's anyway. The main things that you have to pay for are the newer IO interfaces like: 10GigE, PCIE, Infiniband. Almost all fpgas these days have some forms of specific logic (multipliers, etc) that helps with cleaner implementation of all kinds of math, the newest v4 and v5 chips have "DSP" chunks in them that make them approach true DSP chips in some ways. The EDK is strictly for developing for either the powerpc chips imbedded in the fpga, or for use on a "soft cpu" core, it sounds like you're mixing it up with using fpgas "embedded" in a pc, which is very common, and we do lots of that. The PCI interface is way simpler than writing the driver for the computer to interface with your card (in my opinion) I've had to modify the one that we use a lot, and that's not much fun. FPGAs are very common in generation 1 consumer electronics as well, typically they do that so they can work the bugs out in systems that are shippable, later they'll spin an asic to achieve even lower costs. For the stuff I work on, we never need large quantity so we always ship with fpgas. -SrJ
And the DFW area does curbside recycling, I'd imagine all the metro areas do.
Also, Texas, as a disconnected power grid (we do not have any AC tie lines to other states) does not sell excess power to other states. That means we also don't purposely import most of our electricity from other states so we can claim to be green because we don't "produce" emissions from power generation (see: California).
During the Cold War, at least a dozen Warsaw Pact and non-aligned countries produced copies and variants of the AK47, with the Soviet Union's tacit, if not overt, blessing. Even now, new AKs are being built by blacksmiths in Pakistan and US gunsmiths (the latter do this to comply with ATF regulations that prohibit import of receivers and assembled rifles). Ummm, yeah, that used to be true (about importing assembled rifles), but it's never been true about recievers AFAIK. And in fact since the sunset of the "assault weapons" ban you can now import to your hearts content, assuming you live in the 44 or so US states with sane laws.
Actually, you must not have ever had this happen. There's no "fraud police report" or whatever the heck you're talking about there. Here's what happens: 1. Call CC company tell them there are unauthorized charges 2. Person on the line marks said charges and gets you a new CC # in the pipeline 3. Bank mails you an affidavit that you must highlight fraudulent charges on, and sign stating that you're not lying about it. 4. CC company issues you credit with the note that *credit is not final until investigation is complete. 5. 1-2 months later you get a note saying "Credit is final" Thats it, there's very little burden of proof on the consumer.
You're wrong, on at least two counts. 1. This is not a new tax law, techically sellers already have to pay taxes on their profit from selling stuff on ebay. 2. Anything you sell on ebay is NOT taxable, which is why they don't want people who sell one or two things reported. Tax is paid on the profit, not on the income. What this means is that if you sell some old furnature for $50 less than you paid for it, you haven't made any profit at all, thus you don't have to pay tax on it. The IRS is only interested in "ebay stores" people who are purchasing something, and selling it for a profit, on a continuous basis, just like a normal business (which would have to pay taxes on profit).
I fully agree, only it's way worse than that. You're looking at the TVM of actually having the $100,000 upfront to pay for the solar panels. The reality is, people, unless independantly wealthy, have to finance stuff like this. So lets so that you finance it at the time of purchase of a house, at current interst rates, $100,000 adds roughly $1,000 to your house payment per month. I don't know about you, but my gas, electric, and gasoline cost for a month are nowhere near that much. (I also dispute the claim that it will drop from 500k to 100k in cost that quickly). Also lets talk about the energy consumed to create those solar panels....
The issue is that the Chinese know where the computers are headed, and they are willing to do WHATEVER they can to get information on the US. Lets face it, any "nice" relationships between China and the US are merely a front for undercover relations. Lets see http://government.zdnet.com/?p=1665 And it's pretty easy to find dozens more links like that. The US is merely trying to avoid obvious problems with computers trying to screw up sensitive information.
would have been more efficient if he had a tattoo with ZZ, just a thought though.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ incorrect. Microsoft went with IBM because Intel was not willing to design a chip and then have Microsoft own the IP on the chip. You do know that Microsoft owns ALL of the silicon IP for the Xbox 360, they didn't own squat on the original Xbox and thus were held to the wall on the prices of chips because they didn't own them. Also, maybe you should ask this "senior engineer" at Nvidia why they aren't doing the 360, it's for the SAME REASON, Nvidia wasn't willing to do all the design work and then not own anything. Has nothing to do with x86 vs not x86, thanks for playing. (incidently why in the world would a company with so much expertise not want to go with an x86-style chip, see above).
Well I guess you have a lazy procurement department, a quick look at all of the workstations that HP offers shows that if you select "Customize" instead of "show selected models" they can all be ordered with "HP Linux installer kit"
I'm SO SO SO tired of the "Free Linux" argument in this discussion. These workstations come with Red Hat interprise, which is $179, it's not free if you buy it at the store, and It's not free to Dell, but one would guess they'd be making a profit from selling it just like Windows.
Actually you've bought a RedHat License at a $30 discount. A RedHat workstation licesnse is $179 direct from the source. Once again LAFF (Linux Ain't Free Folks). Dell can't sell them cheaper because the cost for the OS is basically the same to them.
1. Sure there's a Microsoft Tax, but lets face it, it's really an OS tax, see below. 2. Linux is free to home users who want to figure out support issues on their own. I propose a new acronym LAFF (Linux Ain't Free Folks). Lets look real quick at some costs for a "Real" installation of Linux, we'll go with Red Hat as it's a business friendly OS (and has lots of gov't certs to let it be in all kinds of installations). For a workstation a license is $189 PER YEAR, from Redhat, it's probably a bit "cheaper" through Dell. Now sure people will say "just install Fedora" ok fine, but when whatever company specific software issue pops up the sysadmins are screwed. To put that in different terms COMPANIES NEED OS SUPPORT FROM THE OS VENDORS, pick your poison, my company deals with Linux, Solaris, Windows, and we constantly get support from all three Vendors. (Oh and BTW lets talk about server licensing, $1500/YEAR for Redhat). As a side note, if you buy Linux from Dell, your linux support comes from Dell, but when they can't figure it out, it goes internally to RedHat support. If you buy RedHat from RedHat you get support from them, but if they think it's a hardware interaction, they tell you to go to Dell, it's a freaking mess. 3. Very true, but for business workstation / servers (NEED SUPPORT) you're stuck with RH or SUSE. 4. The real business case issue is that since they are required to provide the RH / SUSE support themselves if they sell it, they better be selling a ton to make it worth their while, and I'll go out on a limb and say they aren't selling a ton of Linux desktops. You can go through and replace "Dell" with "Sun x64" or "HP" the issues are all exactly the same from any of these vendors.
My guess is no. The 20Z and 40Z are more full-featured type servers. These guys are stripped down, "transactional computing" type servers. Also the 40Z is available with 4-dual core processors which makes it more attractive than these guys. It looks like for scientific computing SPARC replacements the Vx0z servers will still be the way to go. I'm still looking over the information, but this looks mostly like non-news to me. Sun has been making x86 - 64 bit servers for awhile now.
As someone who has to build, integrate, then deliver systems to other peoples' server floors I have some things that would be nice to know. How much power does the thing ACTUALLY use, not what the manual says, but real world usage (all you need is a clamp annmeter and a split extension cord) This test helps us determine power requirements if we deliver 100 of these, and cooling requirements.
The first is his ability to state a fact such as: The electoral College having a 3/5ths rule
Which is of course true. But the problem is he draws a completely unrelated conclusion: The electoral College is racist
That makes about as much sense as saying: Black people picked cotton
And then concluding that cotton, or those who wear it are racist. The conclusion is not even remotely supported by the argument.
Example 2 of this: The war on drugs is racist b/c more coloreds (is that really the PC term?) are incarcerated.
Ok, well it could be that or the fact that more colored people are violating the law. I guess that the war on business executives doing illegal things is also racist since more whites are imprisoned in the fighting of that war.
I won't even get started on the innaccuracies and stupidities dealing with his stance on Nuclear power or GM foods....
Scary...
I see a lot of comments talking about "anal sysadmins" and such. In a commercial environment that may be true. But there's an area where it is even MORE important to be able to lock these devices out: The government / sensitive info computers of the world. Think about all of the work that goes on in these places and the number of computers, many of which are on Solaris and Windows (some Linux is approved, but not much) They have to implement these features to keep national-security type information from walking out on someones keychain. (course those items cannot be in secured areas anyway, but I digress).
yeah, I figured out how to make this puppy purr: case (topic) SCO : goto http://groklaw.net; break; Gadget : goto http://arstechnica.com; break; Linux : goto http://linuxtoday.com; break; journalism : goto http://theregister.co.uk; break; default: goto http://news.bbc.co.uk; endcase;
while moving my men across the landscape to slaughter my oponenet, it used to take weeks to go 80feet, now they can do it in days, that's amazing.