I think your '99%' analogy is a bit off - I think more like 80% or so is probably accurate. I have friends who try to edit photos on older systems and have nothing but trouble, and the same with people gaming on inadequate hardware. At work, I help folks all the time that need to upgrade because the hardware they are on - sometimes from only a couple of years ago - just doesn't meet their needs.
Also, there is the idea of 'fast enough' itself. Where do you draw the line? If a modern, graphics-intensive website took several seconds to full render is that 'fast enough'? A lot of little delays can add up to wasted time and user frustration, but faster computer hardware can often alleviate those things... and with internet tasks, of course, more bandwidth can also help. How many people here would be okay if their ISP just capped everything at 5Mbps or less for the rest of eternity, just because 'its enough to watch low-res video, check email, and play games'?
Okay, I'll bite... do you think EC2 is running on cheap laptop processors? No?
I'm sure EC2 is running off some form of server-class x86 chips, which are developed alongside the desktop versions by Intel and AMD. There is no sense stopping production of desktop and workstation processors and focusing solely on servers.
Also, you are assuming work that can handle some added latency from the internet - which is often not the case - and then you are also advising that we shove a lot more communications on the current internet infrastructure. That is pointless, and would just waste vital bandwidth that is needed for other tasks. Not all computing can or should to move to a cloud-centric model.
"Computers long ago reached the point where they were fast enough..."
For you, maybe - but not for everyone. I work with people daily who need more computing power, and in fact would benefit even further if processors were faster even than they are today. "Fast enough" is a fallacy - there is always, and will always be, room for improvement. Folks doing media editing, 3D animation, scientific research, financial calculations, and a whole host of other things need more power from their computers - not to move away to a less capable platform.
Heck, even in games this is apparent. A lot of new games simply will not play well on processors from 2006 - that is seven years ago now, before quad-core processors were widely available! So please, don't take your one case and assume that means no one else has different needs for their computers.
No, answer: at the same company I'm at now, hopefully! My father has worked at Boeing for over 30 years now... why do people not think that spending most of your working life in a career at the same company is viable or a good idea?
If for some reason that didn't work out, I'd consider self-employment as a consultant in my field. After all, that is really what I do for my job now, just in the service of a great company.
You can't see clean air from space - it is clear. You can see heavily polluted air, though. The idea is that there are so many pollutants that the effect is visible on a large scale - you can see where it is heavier and where it is lighter (or completely not present, though I suspect little of China's populated area has truly clean air).
It started when people began to look not only at average frame rate, but at *minimum* frame rate during a benchmark run. That shows how low the FPS can dip, which was the beginning of acknowledging that something in the user-experience mattered beyond average frame rate. It has gotten a lot more advanced, as pointed out in the article here, and this sort of information is very helpful for people building or buying gaming computers. I use info like this on an almost daily basis to help my customers get the best system for their needs, and I greatly appreciate the enthusiasts and websites which continue to push the ways we do testing!
The educational system in this country is BS at this point. I dropped out of college 3 times - the first time, to pursue an internship which my university didn't officially endorse, then again after returning to that same university, and then again from an online college. I began to realize that what I was learning was in no way going to help me in my chosen field, and I have a perfectly fine job which could not possibly benefit from a degree anyhow.
The problem is not that people should need a 4-year degree for basic jobs, but that the K-12 system is no longer sufficiently educating many graduates - and that HR departments are either lazy or overloaded to the point where they just slap a 4-year degree down as a minimum requirement (whether the position really needs it or not). Because I graduated from a very good private high school, and actually tried during those years, not just sliding by, I have plenty of knowledge, skill, and experience to hold myself just fine in the sorts of jobs that interest me.
I've held my current job for over seven years now, which is a good indication of interest in a career, rather than just a paycheck - and ought to be plenty of proof to any future companies I might want to work for that I can 'stick with something'... when it is worthwhile. Frankly, any company not willing to look over my full resume and consider my value without regard to my college education is one I wouldn't want to work for anyways.
I have mod points, but where is the option for 'Informative - but a jerk'? Granted, it can be annoying to help someone when the answer to their question is a short Google search away... but the question there at the end seems unkind (at best). Lets keep things civil:)
I don't generally like to flash credentials, but here it may be appropriate. I am the Customer Service Lead at one of the 'boutique' system builders - Puget Systems:
I've written quite a bit for our website over my years here, including numerous technical articles and blog posts, keep up on the computer hardware industry daily, and have assisted thousands of people in selecting the right components to meet their needs. So yes, I 'work at a PC shop':)
It is indeed a pity that the associates - especially at 'tech' stores, like BestBuy - aren't better able to help folks out. Having done a stint at Circuit City myself, many years ago, I know first-hand how little quality training they get about the real important stuff inside computers. Sometimes you get lucky and find a knowledgeable person, though, and really there is vastly more info available just surfing the online websites for those companies (thanks to customer parts reviews and the like now).
WEI was never very impressive, and still isn't. It uses the lowest 'score' out of its several parts for the overall system score, which can be very misleading, and its graphics tests are really not too demanding at all. It is an example of why such arbitrary scores or ratings *don't* work.
1920x1080 may be the most popular for a new monitor these days, but many people still use older screens. I get folks ranging from 1280x1024 on up, and many these days running higher resolutions like 2560x1440 and 2560x1600. Further, on the gaming side, there are AMD's Eyefinity and NVIDIA's Surround View modes - so you can put three screens side by side for an impressive, immersive experience. Either of those later options demands a lot more out of the hardware - especially the video card - than a 1080P display.
I've been using computers since the late 80s, and I don't recall this term at all. I do remember people talking about "Multimedia PCs", which must be the verbal expression of that (just saying the letters MPC seems odd - makes me think of the MCP from Tron). But I don't recall it being a big deal... at least not as a home user in middle school and high school, building my own computers (and some for friends). Maybe it was a bigger deal among the major brands at the time?
Anyways, as a professional who helps folks figure out what they need in a computer today, I don't see how this would be all that helpful. Maybe as a guide for those who know nothing about specs, have no interest in learning, and are buying from a source where they cannot get decent advice... but there is such a wide range of specs and performance these days that a simple label would have a hard time encapsulating enough info. All modern computers (save some servers) have audio, some level of 3D performance, etc - and while not all have optical drives that isn't always a big deal, since the advent of Steam and similar services.
On the other hand, if you want to ensure decent game performance then you have wildly different specs to aim for depending on the game, the resolution the user will be running, the quality and FPS settings that they consider reasonable, and future-proofing. I don't think that can all be covered by one arbitrary standard, personally.
Not weighing in one way or the other, but just pointing out that there is a difference between global warming and AGW (human-caused global warming). One can believe that the first is happening, without believing that humanity is the leading contributor (as the second implies). There are potentially other factors at play as well.
I'm not sure about Linux, but years ago when I was in school there was a Windows emulator for a lot of different TI calcs. You had to upload your ROM from your own calc, though, so that it wasn't stealing IP: you were basically cloning your TI calc onto your computer. It worked really nicely, and was great for programming in TI Basic and testing stuff out.
Nice - I'm glad that is still the norm at a lot of smaller computer shops:)
It is also rather amusing that Microsoft's 'Signature' service - at their physical Microsoft Stores and corresponding website - involves taking the junk software *off* of big-brand computer systems that they sell. Even they know it is a problem for customers, but they don't do anything to discourage their OEMs from installing it in the first place.
I really like working here - been here since 2005, so a little more than half the time the company has been around (started in 2000). Working for a smaller company with little / no BS bureaucracy and a positive employee culture is great. Very flexible, and able to take care of our customers well:)
As for the inability to remove parts, we decided a while back that for the best customer experience we are going to require all the core components to be included in any system sold. That means the motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, RAM, some sort of internal drive (SSD / hard drive), video output (either a dedicated card or onboard), chassis, and power supply. As long as those are all in there, and supplied by us, we can ensure that every time a computer leaves here it is fully functional - so if it arrives to a customer and doesn't work, we don't have to troubleshoot whether stuff they added caused the problem.
Now folks are, of course, welcome to add items on their own - or even to send in more parts to us to be added to a system (if they already have a second drive with data, for example). We used to allow a couple of the core items to be supplied by customers, but it caused too many problem situations. If a customer sent in four sticks of RAM, and the system starts throwing memory errors (we run Prime95 before installing the OS) then we have to spend time troubleshooting which memory module is the defective one... and all of that for an item we made no money on. Not only the time, though: once we figure out the defective module, we'd have to send it back to the customer (with the system only running on partial RAM) and they'd then have to RMA it... and it if wasn't RAM, if it was instead a power supply or drive, we couldn't even complete the build at all!
It is actually one of the interesting things about the world we live in which make me more sure of my beliefs - it, and the general conflict the Middle East seems to always be in, is a further evidence that something is special about the people groups and places involved.
The one reference there which in English comes across appearing to be rape* is punished much more harshly than we do today - not just a bit of jailtime, but a lifetime of marriage as well as a dowry. Further, it actually provided for the woman: if it was known she had been raped, in that time period it would have kept her from being married later on. This way she is provided for, and the man could never leave / divorce her.
* There is a lot of evidence that this is somewhat misinterpreted today as well. See this link for a discussion of the original language, which indicates it may not have been forced sexual activity as we generally think of the term today: http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/ot_and_rape.htm
The Exodus passage you cite is actually giving a lot of rights and protections to women that didn't exist in most societies at that time. The Deuteronomy passages also assign a greater level of respect to those captured in war than was common at the time.
Finally, none of these things is to govern life today. Every example you found is specifically pertaining to the way the people of Israel in the ancient world were to be governed and ruled. These are no more applicable today than laws created by the British to govern the American Colonies before the Revolution. I believe you will find no such permissions in the New Testament.
Alright, I suspect I'm feeding another troll... but I'll risk it anyways.
Where in the Bible do you ever see rape justified, accepted, or encouraged?
Do you understand that at the time the New Testament was written a 'slave' was more of an indentured servant? These people were treated nothing like the slaves we think of from the African/European slave trade. That level of inhuman treatment was never accepted in the Bible, and the laws in Jewish custom regarding treatment of servants / 'slaves' were very lenient. This may be in part because they were brought out of true slavery (like what we think of) in Egypt before they became their own nation.
Further, are you aware that the way women are depicted and treated in the New Testament was far more advanced than how any contemporary society in that area of the world treated them? Women are named as the primary sources for parts of the Gospel narrative, when they weren't even allowed as witnesses in court at that time (as just one example).
I realize this will hold little / no value for most of the/. readership, as polls I've seen here come back showing overwhelmingly agnostic / atheist beliefs amongst the local populous, but in Christian and Jewish tradition the area of nation of Israel was given to them by God. They have been driven out of the area a few times in history, and have always managed to return eventually. They are also one of the most persecuted people groups on the planet (historically) that has managed to survive, and there is an awful lot of conflict surrounding them and that region.
The reason they are there now is that the British Empire controlled that region at the close of World War II, and gave it to the surviving Jewish people who had lived through the horrors of the Holocaust (and others from around the world). The Israelis don't have a problem living in peace with the Palestinians, and even ceded land to them (which is the Gaza area, where the current issues are happening). However, the leadership that those same Palestinians elected have it in their very charter that all Jews (not just Israeli citizens, but those of Jewish heritage) should be wiped out. Then those same people launch missiles over the border, and yet when Israel responds to defend themselves you complain?
It is a generation old now, and has been for many months. Also, the parent said 'no real beefy GPU' - GPU, not CPU. Both are true, though, and the fact the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in a long time now underscores Apple's apparent move away from performance computing.
Assuming you lost nearly half of that to taxes, 2.5 million invested at even a low 2% (in CDs, for example) return is $50k per year. I bet you could do much better than that if you invest wisely, and even if you didn't $50k is enough to live comfortably on if you don't have any debts. There would have been plenty in there to buy a home, nice car(s), etc - at that point simply living off the interest is certainly doable.
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I think your '99%' analogy is a bit off - I think more like 80% or so is probably accurate. I have friends who try to edit photos on older systems and have nothing but trouble, and the same with people gaming on inadequate hardware. At work, I help folks all the time that need to upgrade because the hardware they are on - sometimes from only a couple of years ago - just doesn't meet their needs.
Also, there is the idea of 'fast enough' itself. Where do you draw the line? If a modern, graphics-intensive website took several seconds to full render is that 'fast enough'? A lot of little delays can add up to wasted time and user frustration, but faster computer hardware can often alleviate those things... and with internet tasks, of course, more bandwidth can also help. How many people here would be okay if their ISP just capped everything at 5Mbps or less for the rest of eternity, just because 'its enough to watch low-res video, check email, and play games'?
Okay, I'll bite... do you think EC2 is running on cheap laptop processors? No?
I'm sure EC2 is running off some form of server-class x86 chips, which are developed alongside the desktop versions by Intel and AMD. There is no sense stopping production of desktop and workstation processors and focusing solely on servers.
Also, you are assuming work that can handle some added latency from the internet - which is often not the case - and then you are also advising that we shove a lot more communications on the current internet infrastructure. That is pointless, and would just waste vital bandwidth that is needed for other tasks. Not all computing can or should to move to a cloud-centric model.
"Computers long ago reached the point where they were fast enough..."
For you, maybe - but not for everyone. I work with people daily who need more computing power, and in fact would benefit even further if processors were faster even than they are today. "Fast enough" is a fallacy - there is always, and will always be, room for improvement. Folks doing media editing, 3D animation, scientific research, financial calculations, and a whole host of other things need more power from their computers - not to move away to a less capable platform.
Heck, even in games this is apparent. A lot of new games simply will not play well on processors from 2006 - that is seven years ago now, before quad-core processors were widely available! So please, don't take your one case and assume that means no one else has different needs for their computers.
No, answer: at the same company I'm at now, hopefully! My father has worked at Boeing for over 30 years now... why do people not think that spending most of your working life in a career at the same company is viable or a good idea?
If for some reason that didn't work out, I'd consider self-employment as a consultant in my field. After all, that is really what I do for my job now, just in the service of a great company.
You can't see clean air from space - it is clear. You can see heavily polluted air, though. The idea is that there are so many pollutants that the effect is visible on a large scale - you can see where it is heavier and where it is lighter (or completely not present, though I suspect little of China's populated area has truly clean air).
It started when people began to look not only at average frame rate, but at *minimum* frame rate during a benchmark run. That shows how low the FPS can dip, which was the beginning of acknowledging that something in the user-experience mattered beyond average frame rate. It has gotten a lot more advanced, as pointed out in the article here, and this sort of information is very helpful for people building or buying gaming computers. I use info like this on an almost daily basis to help my customers get the best system for their needs, and I greatly appreciate the enthusiasts and websites which continue to push the ways we do testing!
The educational system in this country is BS at this point. I dropped out of college 3 times - the first time, to pursue an internship which my university didn't officially endorse, then again after returning to that same university, and then again from an online college. I began to realize that what I was learning was in no way going to help me in my chosen field, and I have a perfectly fine job which could not possibly benefit from a degree anyhow.
The problem is not that people should need a 4-year degree for basic jobs, but that the K-12 system is no longer sufficiently educating many graduates - and that HR departments are either lazy or overloaded to the point where they just slap a 4-year degree down as a minimum requirement (whether the position really needs it or not). Because I graduated from a very good private high school, and actually tried during those years, not just sliding by, I have plenty of knowledge, skill, and experience to hold myself just fine in the sorts of jobs that interest me.
I've held my current job for over seven years now, which is a good indication of interest in a career, rather than just a paycheck - and ought to be plenty of proof to any future companies I might want to work for that I can 'stick with something'... when it is worthwhile. Frankly, any company not willing to look over my full resume and consider my value without regard to my college education is one I wouldn't want to work for anyways.
I have mod points, but where is the option for 'Informative - but a jerk'? Granted, it can be annoying to help someone when the answer to their question is a short Google search away... but the question there at the end seems unkind (at best). Lets keep things civil :)
I don't generally like to flash credentials, but here it may be appropriate. I am the Customer Service Lead at one of the 'boutique' system builders - Puget Systems:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/
http://www.pugetsystems.com/bios.php?name=williamgeorge
I've written quite a bit for our website over my years here, including numerous technical articles and blog posts, keep up on the computer hardware industry daily, and have assisted thousands of people in selecting the right components to meet their needs. So yes, I 'work at a PC shop' :)
It is indeed a pity that the associates - especially at 'tech' stores, like BestBuy - aren't better able to help folks out. Having done a stint at Circuit City myself, many years ago, I know first-hand how little quality training they get about the real important stuff inside computers. Sometimes you get lucky and find a knowledgeable person, though, and really there is vastly more info available just surfing the online websites for those companies (thanks to customer parts reviews and the like now).
WEI was never very impressive, and still isn't. It uses the lowest 'score' out of its several parts for the overall system score, which can be very misleading, and its graphics tests are really not too demanding at all. It is an example of why such arbitrary scores or ratings *don't* work.
1920x1080 may be the most popular for a new monitor these days, but many people still use older screens. I get folks ranging from 1280x1024 on up, and many these days running higher resolutions like 2560x1440 and 2560x1600. Further, on the gaming side, there are AMD's Eyefinity and NVIDIA's Surround View modes - so you can put three screens side by side for an impressive, immersive experience. Either of those later options demands a lot more out of the hardware - especially the video card - than a 1080P display.
I've been using computers since the late 80s, and I don't recall this term at all. I do remember people talking about "Multimedia PCs", which must be the verbal expression of that (just saying the letters MPC seems odd - makes me think of the MCP from Tron). But I don't recall it being a big deal... at least not as a home user in middle school and high school, building my own computers (and some for friends). Maybe it was a bigger deal among the major brands at the time?
Anyways, as a professional who helps folks figure out what they need in a computer today, I don't see how this would be all that helpful. Maybe as a guide for those who know nothing about specs, have no interest in learning, and are buying from a source where they cannot get decent advice... but there is such a wide range of specs and performance these days that a simple label would have a hard time encapsulating enough info. All modern computers (save some servers) have audio, some level of 3D performance, etc - and while not all have optical drives that isn't always a big deal, since the advent of Steam and similar services.
On the other hand, if you want to ensure decent game performance then you have wildly different specs to aim for depending on the game, the resolution the user will be running, the quality and FPS settings that they consider reasonable, and future-proofing. I don't think that can all be covered by one arbitrary standard, personally.
Not weighing in one way or the other, but just pointing out that there is a difference between global warming and AGW (human-caused global warming). One can believe that the first is happening, without believing that humanity is the leading contributor (as the second implies). There are potentially other factors at play as well.
Interestingly, at one place where Windows 7 is still available it dominates the sales:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2012/12/05/comparing-windows-8-to-windows-7-sales/
I'm not sure about Linux, but years ago when I was in school there was a Windows emulator for a lot of different TI calcs. You had to upload your ROM from your own calc, though, so that it wasn't stealing IP: you were basically cloning your TI calc onto your computer. It worked really nicely, and was great for programming in TI Basic and testing stuff out.
Nice - I'm glad that is still the norm at a lot of smaller computer shops :)
It is also rather amusing that Microsoft's 'Signature' service - at their physical Microsoft Stores and corresponding website - involves taking the junk software *off* of big-brand computer systems that they sell. Even they know it is a problem for customers, but they don't do anything to discourage their OEMs from installing it in the first place.
I really like working here - been here since 2005, so a little more than half the time the company has been around (started in 2000). Working for a smaller company with little / no BS bureaucracy and a positive employee culture is great. Very flexible, and able to take care of our customers well :)
As for the inability to remove parts, we decided a while back that for the best customer experience we are going to require all the core components to be included in any system sold. That means the motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, RAM, some sort of internal drive (SSD / hard drive), video output (either a dedicated card or onboard), chassis, and power supply. As long as those are all in there, and supplied by us, we can ensure that every time a computer leaves here it is fully functional - so if it arrives to a customer and doesn't work, we don't have to troubleshoot whether stuff they added caused the problem.
Now folks are, of course, welcome to add items on their own - or even to send in more parts to us to be added to a system (if they already have a second drive with data, for example). We used to allow a couple of the core items to be supplied by customers, but it caused too many problem situations. If a customer sent in four sticks of RAM, and the system starts throwing memory errors (we run Prime95 before installing the OS) then we have to spend time troubleshooting which memory module is the defective one... and all of that for an item we made no money on. Not only the time, though: once we figure out the defective module, we'd have to send it back to the customer (with the system only running on partial RAM) and they'd then have to RMA it... and it if wasn't RAM, if it was instead a power supply or drive, we couldn't even complete the build at all!
Where I work - Puget Systems - we don't pull any of that crap :)
Shameless plug:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/aboutus.php
It is actually one of the interesting things about the world we live in which make me more sure of my beliefs - it, and the general conflict the Middle East seems to always be in, is a further evidence that something is special about the people groups and places involved.
The one reference there which in English comes across appearing to be rape* is punished much more harshly than we do today - not just a bit of jailtime, but a lifetime of marriage as well as a dowry. Further, it actually provided for the woman: if it was known she had been raped, in that time period it would have kept her from being married later on. This way she is provided for, and the man could never leave / divorce her.
* There is a lot of evidence that this is somewhat misinterpreted today as well. See this link for a discussion of the original language, which indicates it may not have been forced sexual activity as we generally think of the term today: http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/ot_and_rape.htm
The Exodus passage you cite is actually giving a lot of rights and protections to women that didn't exist in most societies at that time. The Deuteronomy passages also assign a greater level of respect to those captured in war than was common at the time.
Finally, none of these things is to govern life today. Every example you found is specifically pertaining to the way the people of Israel in the ancient world were to be governed and ruled. These are no more applicable today than laws created by the British to govern the American Colonies before the Revolution. I believe you will find no such permissions in the New Testament.
Alright, I suspect I'm feeding another troll... but I'll risk it anyways.
Where in the Bible do you ever see rape justified, accepted, or encouraged?
Do you understand that at the time the New Testament was written a 'slave' was more of an indentured servant? These people were treated nothing like the slaves we think of from the African/European slave trade. That level of inhuman treatment was never accepted in the Bible, and the laws in Jewish custom regarding treatment of servants / 'slaves' were very lenient. This may be in part because they were brought out of true slavery (like what we think of) in Egypt before they became their own nation.
Further, are you aware that the way women are depicted and treated in the New Testament was far more advanced than how any contemporary society in that area of the world treated them? Women are named as the primary sources for parts of the Gospel narrative, when they weren't even allowed as witnesses in court at that time (as just one example).
Now I see the OP has a -1 rating on his comment... I just fed a troll, didn't I? :(
I realize this will hold little / no value for most of the /. readership, as polls I've seen here come back showing overwhelmingly agnostic / atheist beliefs amongst the local populous, but in Christian and Jewish tradition the area of nation of Israel was given to them by God. They have been driven out of the area a few times in history, and have always managed to return eventually. They are also one of the most persecuted people groups on the planet (historically) that has managed to survive, and there is an awful lot of conflict surrounding them and that region.
The reason they are there now is that the British Empire controlled that region at the close of World War II, and gave it to the surviving Jewish people who had lived through the horrors of the Holocaust (and others from around the world). The Israelis don't have a problem living in peace with the Palestinians, and even ceded land to them (which is the Gaza area, where the current issues are happening). However, the leadership that those same Palestinians elected have it in their very charter that all Jews (not just Israeli citizens, but those of Jewish heritage) should be wiped out. Then those same people launch missiles over the border, and yet when Israel responds to defend themselves you complain?
Disclaimer: I don't like ads; in fact, I generally hate them.
However...
Do you think Apple doesn't 'embed' a music store in their OS? Doesn't iTunes come pre-installed on both MacOS and iOS?
It is a generation old now, and has been for many months. Also, the parent said 'no real beefy GPU' - GPU, not CPU. Both are true, though, and the fact the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in a long time now underscores Apple's apparent move away from performance computing.
Assuming you lost nearly half of that to taxes, 2.5 million invested at even a low 2% (in CDs, for example) return is $50k per year. I bet you could do much better than that if you invest wisely, and even if you didn't $50k is enough to live comfortably on if you don't have any debts. There would have been plenty in there to buy a home, nice car(s), etc - at that point simply living off the interest is certainly doable.