We're pretty used to referring to Sol as "the sun" but the truth is, a sun is a thing and there are many of them. It is silly to call ours THE sun, because it clearly isn't. In actually, it is ONE OF the suns. Sol is our sun's Latin name. Similarly, Luna is our moon's Latin name.
Which sucks for us speaking Spanish (and most languages derived from Latin) since the literal translation for "Sun" is "Sol" and for "Moon" is "Luna":)
Rendezvous with Rama has a particulary stunning description of an asteroid hitting earth on its first pages (which can be seen here in Amazon). The book as a whole is fantastic, but i always found that snippet very powerful and visual. In the book, it triggers the creation of an near-earth object monitoring system which sets the events for the rest of the story.
I'm so looking forward to reconfigurable hardware; that'll make the whole argument moot. The CPU as we know it will do nothing but setup reconfigurable logic units and direct data streams. You want hardware networking? Bam. Hardware complex math? Bam. Hardware neural net? Bam.
Because Ethernet is a physical component of the networking chain; protocols other than TCP or UDP can (and are!) be implemented.
Besides, networking is something that barely taxes CPU power on every processor made from the Intel Pentium days to this date, unlike 3D acceleration. There's little justification to loose the flexibility provided by running it in software to get a negligible CPU performance increase.
And yes, hardware can be buggy too. There's a shitload of issues with specific hardware that are addressed on their device drivers - again, easier to solve in software than to fix in hardware. Even CPUs suffer from this.
It is a good point though - CFLs are no magic, and most people just dismiss bulbs altogheter because of CFLs low consumption. Other points rarely considered are:
* Complexity: A bulb is nothing more than a tungsten wire stuck in vaccum / low pressure gas. CFLs include the phosphor-coated tube containing mercury and a complete switching circuit to provide the high voltage required by it. This, of course, impacts in...
* Cost. Bulbs can be made for cents while CFLs are several times more expensive. This can be compensed by power consumption savings though. Also impacts...
* Reilabilty: Bulbs, while fragile, are quite reliable and have a well defined working life, and are very electrically rugged devices. CFLs can fail for a number of reasons - construction, heat, power fluctuations. This is not a problem in most homes, but still, something to be taken into consideration.
* Strobing: CFLs flicker at high frequencies, but, much like a fluorescent tube, the effect can be noticed (in cheaper models specially) and gets worse in all devices with age.
* Enviroment handling: Bulbs are very rugged, and in fact, if you need to light in very cold or hot areas, might be your only choices.
* Control: Bulbs, being basically resistances, can be easily dimmed.
* Color rendition: Bulbs have a very good color rendition and temperature - they can even be bought with coatings for "daylight" color and such. Power ratings provide a nice variation on intensities too. Still, CFLs have got a lot better in this respect lately.
* Unity power factor: Bulbs, being resisitve devices, have an unity power factor, while CFLs will usually be much lower - anywhere from 0.6 to 0.2. This means that for a given power rating the device has to draw more energy than it consumes which is promptly "returned" to the source, but the power plant and wiring has to account for this behaviour.
More food for thought in this excellent article. I like CFLs and use them extensively at home, but to dismiss (and ban!) bulbs altogheter only because they consume less power is shortsighted, to say the least. They still have their place, and both technologies can coexist in the future.
However, I don't think most of Microsoft's programmers necessarily go into work every day saying to themselves "today, I'm going to build the shittiest, most resource-hogging chunk of code I can, so help me God.
Not that i like to nitpick - and obviously, if someone can afford to hire the best programmers out there, that's Microsoft - but from what i've seen, a lot of developers simply know no better. The rise and popularity of interpreted, memory-management-free languages (Java,.Net, Perl, Python, etc) only made this worse, IMHO.
Hell, with how lawyer crazy they are, I bet the RIAA would go crazy if someone even went around making CD's that just screwed up Windows computers and put Sony's name on it.
HUSH! Based on their track record, i guess Sony themselves could do that. Don't give them any ideas!
This almost makes it sound like the tempurature and pressure are news. Various Soviet and US probes have already landed on the surface and measured both the tempurature and pressure.
Amen to that. Russia sent a number of probes to Venus, and managed to take orbital and surface pictures of it. In color. Circa 1975.
I'm always amazed when i read about the Venera program. The soviets did some incredible advances in the aerospace field back then.
Wasn't Bill Hicks who said (about the first Gulf War) that after a certain point it would be more effective to simply drop the price of weapons in pennies from a plane?
By the time you're blocking half the stuff that appears on/. lately, the site is simply not worth the visit anymore. Sometimes i feel the people running this site simply don't care.
This is a review from PCWorld. Granted, they're not the most reliable source on earth, but hey, those where the only highlights mentioned. No performance changes? UAC annoyances under control? Improved speed on top-of-the-line hardware?
I guess will see when it's out. The official info is fuzzy, to say the least.
Seriously, "improves stability, performance, and reliability when reactivating a machine from Hibernate or Suspend mode"? 20 seconds faster to boot, or copying 2GB from a SD card? And it only takes 7GB? I'm sold.
I mean, sometimes people at/. bash Windows for the most ridiculous things, but this time they're asking for it.
No, those are peak current requirements - the PSU may deliver 120A but for brief high current draw periods. It's easy, if you take a 400W PSU (which is overkill for most systems), and use it to somehow power the 5VDC rail alone you get 80A maximum draw. In reality, available power is more or less balanced between the 12V and 5V, so it's really half that. That is, if the system actually gets to require full power.
Now we have multi-CPU and multi-core CPU; that easily hundreds of amps on a MOBO; it mind boggling but your computer might be consuming as many amps at 1.33 volts as you4 entire house at 225/117VAC.
Actually, modern multicore CPUs are well behaved (relatively - they still draw power like hell) in that sense; such systems usually draw about 200W under load (specs here).
Then again, it's not surprising that a motherboard is running as many amps as your house wiring, since the issue here is power draw, and for computers this is still relatively low - 200-500W isn't really much outside household usage. Like i said, building a switching system for a industrial applications is not easy, nor cheap, and prone to malfunction; there's a reason most power distribtution systems run on AC.
Switching power supplies can be more efficient than most of them are today. Switching power supplies are not the enemy.
Much agreed, but my point is (or tried to be:) that AC is used for a reason, and that is that it allows ease of voltage conversion, which is crucial when you talk about distributing power. Switching systems do this for DC, but with added complexity, costs and decreased reilabilty.
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We're pretty used to referring to Sol as "the sun" but the truth is, a sun is a thing and there are many of them. It is silly to call ours THE sun, because it clearly isn't. In actually, it is ONE OF the suns. Sol is our sun's Latin name. Similarly, Luna is our moon's Latin name.
:)
Which sucks for us speaking Spanish (and most languages derived from Latin) since the literal translation for "Sun" is "Sol" and for "Moon" is "Luna"
Rendezvous with Rama has a particulary stunning description of an asteroid hitting earth on its first pages (which can be seen here in Amazon). The book as a whole is fantastic, but i always found that snippet very powerful and visual. In the book, it triggers the creation of an near-earth object monitoring system which sets the events for the rest of the story.
I agree, maybe we need such a wake-up call.
Its sad to see something placed without naming the inventor.
:)
Actually, the guy didn't invent them, you know, as long as we're nitpicking
Still, i'm floored. Great video.
I'm so looking forward to reconfigurable hardware; that'll make the whole argument moot. The CPU as we know it will do nothing but setup reconfigurable logic units and direct data streams. You want hardware networking? Bam. Hardware complex math? Bam. Hardware neural net? Bam.
Behold, the bright future!
Because Ethernet is a physical component of the networking chain; protocols other than TCP or UDP can (and are!) be implemented.
Besides, networking is something that barely taxes CPU power on every processor made from the Intel Pentium days to this date, unlike 3D acceleration. There's little justification to loose the flexibility provided by running it in software to get a negligible CPU performance increase.
And yes, hardware can be buggy too. There's a shitload of issues with specific hardware that are addressed on their device drivers - again, easier to solve in software than to fix in hardware. Even CPUs suffer from this.
Am i the only one who misread that and was eager for a comment? I need more coffee these mornings...
Big brother is watching. And he loves you!
It is a good point though - CFLs are no magic, and most people just dismiss bulbs altogheter because of CFLs low consumption. Other points rarely considered are:
* Complexity: A bulb is nothing more than a tungsten wire stuck in vaccum / low pressure gas. CFLs include the phosphor-coated tube containing mercury and a complete switching circuit to provide the high voltage required by it. This, of course, impacts in...
* Cost. Bulbs can be made for cents while CFLs are several times more expensive. This can be compensed by power consumption savings though. Also impacts...
* Reilabilty: Bulbs, while fragile, are quite reliable and have a well defined working life, and are very electrically rugged devices. CFLs can fail for a number of reasons - construction, heat, power fluctuations. This is not a problem in most homes, but still, something to be taken into consideration.
* Strobing: CFLs flicker at high frequencies, but, much like a fluorescent tube, the effect can be noticed (in cheaper models specially) and gets worse in all devices with age.
* Enviroment handling: Bulbs are very rugged, and in fact, if you need to light in very cold or hot areas, might be your only choices.
* Control: Bulbs, being basically resistances, can be easily dimmed.
* Color rendition: Bulbs have a very good color rendition and temperature - they can even be bought with coatings for "daylight" color and such. Power ratings provide a nice variation on intensities too. Still, CFLs have got a lot better in this respect lately.
* Unity power factor: Bulbs, being resisitve devices, have an unity power factor, while CFLs will usually be much lower - anywhere from 0.6 to 0.2. This means that for a given power rating the device has to draw more energy than it consumes which is promptly "returned" to the source, but the power plant and wiring has to account for this behaviour.
More food for thought in this excellent article. I like CFLs and use them extensively at home, but to dismiss (and ban!) bulbs altogheter only because they consume less power is shortsighted, to say the least. They still have their place, and both technologies can coexist in the future.
However, I don't think most of Microsoft's programmers necessarily go into work every day saying to themselves "today, I'm going to build the shittiest, most resource-hogging chunk of code I can, so help me God.
.Net, Perl, Python, etc) only made this worse, IMHO.
Not that i like to nitpick - and obviously, if someone can afford to hire the best programmers out there, that's Microsoft - but from what i've seen, a lot of developers simply know no better. The rise and popularity of interpreted, memory-management-free languages (Java,
Son of a bitch. I really liked my keyboard and monitor!
Blasphemer! That would be UltraJesus!
Cool! Just in time for cold fusion power!
And Duke Nukem Forever, you know. Gotta do something while those little fellas get their work done.
So what happens when somebody has 257 of these keyboards in one office ?
256 keyboard within range of one receiver? I'd say lack of air from the crowd.
You! You with your "common sense"! We don't like your kind here!
Hell, with how lawyer crazy they are, I bet the RIAA would go crazy if someone even went around making CD's that just screwed up Windows computers and put Sony's name on it.
HUSH! Based on their track record, i guess Sony themselves could do that. Don't give them any ideas!
This almost makes it sound like the tempurature and pressure are news. Various Soviet and US probes have already landed on the surface and measured both the tempurature and pressure.
Amen to that. Russia sent a number of probes to Venus, and managed to take orbital and surface pictures of it. In color. Circa 1975.
I'm always amazed when i read about the Venera program. The soviets did some incredible advances in the aerospace field back then.
That probe sure took some stunning artist rendition images!
Wasn't Bill Hicks who said (about the first Gulf War) that after a certain point it would be more effective to simply drop the price of weapons in pennies from a plane?
Sadly, he was right.
By the time you're blocking half the stuff that appears on /. lately, the site is simply not worth the visit anymore. Sometimes i feel the people running this site simply don't care.
Talk? Mine tried to stab me!
I may be prejudiced, but I have a hard time taking somebody seriously as an IT professional when they have a disk partition just for porn.
:)
Funny, i have a hard time imagining somebody seriously as an IT professional without a disk partition just for porn.
And yes, i speak from experience
This is a review from PCWorld. Granted, they're not the most reliable source on earth, but hey, those where the only highlights mentioned. No performance changes? UAC annoyances under control? Improved speed on top-of-the-line hardware?
I guess will see when it's out. The official info is fuzzy, to say the least.
Seriously, "improves stability, performance, and reliability when reactivating a machine from Hibernate or Suspend mode"? 20 seconds faster to boot, or copying 2GB from a SD card? And it only takes 7GB? I'm sold.
/. bash Windows for the most ridiculous things, but this time they're asking for it.
I mean, sometimes people at
No, those are peak current requirements - the PSU may deliver 120A but for brief high current draw periods. It's easy, if you take a 400W PSU (which is overkill for most systems), and use it to somehow power the 5VDC rail alone you get 80A maximum draw. In reality, available power is more or less balanced between the 12V and 5V, so it's really half that. That is, if the system actually gets to require full power.
Now we have multi-CPU and multi-core CPU; that easily hundreds of amps on a MOBO; it mind boggling but your computer might be consuming as many amps at 1.33 volts as you4 entire house at 225/117VAC.
Actually, modern multicore CPUs are well behaved (relatively - they still draw power like hell) in that sense; such systems usually draw about 200W under load (specs here).
Then again, it's not surprising that a motherboard is running as many amps as your house wiring, since the issue here is power draw, and for computers this is still relatively low - 200-500W isn't really much outside household usage. Like i said, building a switching system for a industrial applications is not easy, nor cheap, and prone to malfunction; there's a reason most power distribtution systems run on AC.
Switching power supplies can be more efficient than most of them are today. Switching power supplies are not the enemy.
:) that AC is used for a reason, and that is that it allows ease of voltage conversion, which is crucial when you talk about distributing power. Switching systems do this for DC, but with added complexity, costs and decreased reilabilty.
Much agreed, but my point is (or tried to be