IIRC, you are correct. MS did put graphics stuff in the kernel, which does sacrifice stability for performance.
Yep, they moved GDI 'into' the kernel with Daytona (NT3.51), IIRC. Although in some respects you could say GDI isn't really part of the kernel, it just runs in ring 0 mode. But then running in that mode is a good definition of what the kernel is, so it's spliting hairs, really.
But to be honest, XP as a desktop OS doesn't crash all that much anymore (although I admit it might vary between systems).
Yes, I don't think GDI crashing is a big stability problem for Windows. I've only ever encountered one repeatable system crash that was attributable to GDI (the bezier drawing routines would stiff the entire OS/UI if you gave them a particular path to draw), but it's usually down to device drivers, in my experience. I've seen plenty of BSODs on NTs over the years that say "nv4disp.sys caused an IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL" or similar.
I'm talking about real, hard OS crashes here, not the "Why isn't it working properly? Oh well, maybe time to reboot..." which is kind of a crash too:)
By far the most common of those on NT/XP seems to be apps/services that don't cope with networking problems well, and tend to just hang.
He makes another error, talking about MS-DOS 2.0 and its Hierarchical Filing System. As far as I know, HFS was Mac-only, wasn't it?
I don't think he really means 'HFS' per se, even though he capitalised it for some reason. He's just referring to the fact that subdirectories were available in DOS 2.0, so it was a hierarchical filing system. Which is true enough.
Similarly, you could say MacOS had a Disk Operating System (the File Manager), but that doesn't mean MacOS had DOS under the hood.
I always trust a news site that's so accurate they regularly forget to terminate their link tags, and don't even bother to proof the article once and see the huge areas of blue text.:)
Couldn't afford a "1" key? Most typewriters just didn't have them - I don't think it was a cost issue, inasmuch as you could get one with a 1 key if you paid enough, but I could be wrong.
I think it was the norm rather than just poor students who couldn't afford one.
It's cool to use it as a way of seeing how people learned to type though - for example, before I disabled Jon Katz's articles, I used to notice things like "the l980s" a fair bit from him.
Re:Would it have been so hard to say...
on
Bochs 2.0 Released
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Not really - it is entirely appropriate for this comment to be modded to +5, Informative.
The reason? As usual, the article submission assumes basic telepathy on the part of the reader, and doesn't explain what Bochs is (although it gives a few hints - more than we usually get).
So you go to the page, think "what is Bochs?", and if you have comments ordered by score, then bingo - the first message is telling you what Bochs is, because the submission didn't. Who cares if it's lifted - it's just information that people needed.
This is a good application of moderation, imho - if you're carefully writing thoughtful posts just so you can score some karma, then I think you may have missed the point of moderation (and karma).
It's kind of like buying a raffle ticket from a charity because you think you'll probably win. It's a nice side effect, but it's not the point of the exercise.
I like glib funny comments as much as the next man, but next time you might want to consult a dictionary before hitting send. Essentially, cybernetics means the science of communication and control - in both living and mechanical systems.
The guy's a kook, but at least criticise him for a good reason;-)
It is entirely possible that our eyes require very similar forms of calibration, but that we have not even theorized the existence(sp?) of such a problem b/c we don't spend nearly as much time watching lossily encoded images as we spend listening to lossily encoded sounds.
Interestingly, consider this (lifted from here but you can find it mentioned in many places via Google):
Another example of the brain coming up with better algorithms for doing things, thus showing that many basic brain functions are not hard-wired, involves the use of prism lenses. In an experiment, people are made to wear, for long periods of time, lenses that cause their field of vision to be turned upside down. After a while, the person reports that things have become right side up again. Then, taking off the glasses makes everything upside down. It seems that even this basic fact of how we perceive what is around us is not hard-wired into the brain. Maybe we see right side up because it simplifies the calculations that we need to make in order to perform everyday tasks. Seeing upside down is actually the default, in a certain sense, because the lenses in our eyes turn the received light into an upside down image on our retina. It is the brain that causes the perceived objects to be right side up. The evidence that even this is not hard-wired into the brain is rather interesting, as it indicates that everyone's brain independently and without our conscious knowledge comes to the decision that seeing right side up is the most efficient way to allow performance of daily tasks.
Fun eh? Makes you think. Possibly calibration of the ears works in a similar way. Presumably if the 'lossy' audio ever became a problem (this is assuming you don't speak to anyone, or make/hear any natural noise for most of the day, of course) then you'd just listen to 'normal' sounds. That's what calibration is, after all.
By the way, out of interest, here's another interesting write-up about the experiment being done in Japan. I'm curious to see it was done 'recently', as I remember this experiment being mentioned on TV about 15-20 years ago*.
Tim
* Johnny Ball's 'Think of a Number' for you UK geeks:)
I happened to notice while playing Rallisport the other day that the racing term "Did Not Finish" is commonly shown as DNF, which is also the abbreviation for Duke Nukem Forever.
I find it amusing that he says: 'I am interested in "zoner" games, i.e. certain monotonous high speed skill games those are capable to create alterated states of mind.' - but remember, don't listen to mp3s cos they'll make you go deaf:)
Tim
PS. No, I'm not saying video games affect your hearing - just that it's about as likely as lossy audio codecs being the problem.
I see what you mean - my reaction was just that I thought I saw the prejudice of the author coming through in the language/phrasing (i.e. the opinion that also appears fairly commonly on slashdot, viz, scientists/geeks are smart, everyone else is pretty dumb and/or morally questionable).
However, as someone else has pointed out, Stein is a lawyer, so maybe it's more an indication of my own prejudices;-)
Like I said, I studied CS, but I'm having trouble deciphering that logic. My assumption seemed reasonable, given what was, I assume, the ironic nature of the arguments. i.e. the author was describing things he didn't think should be done/happen.
In any case, people rarely employ boolean logic when speaking - the classic example being "Get me all the customer orders from London and Manchester".
Hmmm...I'm probably over-reacting, but this made me raise my eyebrows:
Make trial lawyers and judges, not scientists, responsible for the flow of new products and services.
I can recognise and sympathise with the sentiment, but:
I studied CS, and consider myself to have more of a leaning towards science than art/humanities/whatever, but who decided that only scientists are capable of designing new products or services?
I'd quite like to know what the 'ball boy' does in a soccer match, too.
Tim
Re:I tried reading the free sample...
on
Deadly Perversions
·
· Score: 2
Plus, he spells severely 'severally'.
It took me a few seconds to understand that sentence. What a wordsmith:)
It reminded me of some particularly bad Half-Life fan fiction I read once, where the main character fell out of a window and fell several storys [sic] to the ground.
It's not the storys that kill you - it's all the chapters on the ground!:-)
Wow, you really seem pretty sure about how these theoretical time loops work - perhaps you should be a physicist?:-)
Consider this: if they stopped the time loop, then Skynet wouldn't exist. So no Terminators. So no-one to come back and stop the time-loop. Which never happened. Except it did, but one of the Terminators helped stop it, so it didn't. But Terminators don't exist, because the time loop was stopped.
Or you could just hit option-e then e. If you have a computer that doesn't suck, that is. Alt-130...how do you remember that shit? It's almost as bad as breaking your wrist doing Alt+F4.
Slashdot Mirror
Yep, they moved GDI 'into' the kernel with Daytona (NT3.51), IIRC. Although in some respects you could say GDI isn't really part of the kernel, it just runs in ring 0 mode. But then running in that mode is a good definition of what the kernel is, so it's spliting hairs, really.
But to be honest, XP as a desktop OS doesn't crash all that much anymore (although I admit it might vary between systems).
Yes, I don't think GDI crashing is a big stability problem for Windows. I've only ever encountered one repeatable system crash that was attributable to GDI (the bezier drawing routines would stiff the entire OS/UI if you gave them a particular path to draw), but it's usually down to device drivers, in my experience. I've seen plenty of BSODs on NTs over the years that say "nv4disp.sys caused an IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL" or similar.
I'm talking about real, hard OS crashes here, not the "Why isn't it working properly? Oh well, maybe time to reboot..." which is kind of a crash too :)
By far the most common of those on NT/XP seems to be apps/services that don't cope with networking problems well, and tend to just hang.
Tim
I don't think he really means 'HFS' per se, even though he capitalised it for some reason. He's just referring to the fact that subdirectories were available in DOS 2.0, so it was a hierarchical filing system. Which is true enough.
Similarly, you could say MacOS had a Disk Operating System (the File Manager), but that doesn't mean MacOS had DOS under the hood.
Tim
The Register? Wrong?! Are you sure?!!
I always trust a news site that's so accurate they regularly forget to terminate their link tags, and don't even bother to proof the article once and see the huge areas of blue text. :)
Tim
"Shoplifting is a victimless crime - like punching someone in the dark!"
-- Nelson Muntz
Tim
Couldn't afford a "1" key? Most typewriters just didn't have them - I don't think it was a cost issue, inasmuch as you could get one with a 1 key if you paid enough, but I could be wrong.
I think it was the norm rather than just poor students who couldn't afford one.
It's cool to use it as a way of seeing how people learned to type though - for example, before I disabled Jon Katz's articles, I used to notice things like "the l980s" a fair bit from him.
Tim
See, I think the over-riding point of concern there is that some 9 year old kids had a loaded gun, not that they didn't know it would hurt them.
Or is that just me?
Tim
Isn't that pretty much the same facility that is provided on almost every other desktop OS?
Tim
For two bits I'd blam him right now :)
Tim
Not really - it is entirely appropriate for this comment to be modded to +5, Informative.
The reason? As usual, the article submission assumes basic telepathy on the part of the reader, and doesn't explain what Bochs is (although it gives a few hints - more than we usually get).
So you go to the page, think "what is Bochs?", and if you have comments ordered by score, then bingo - the first message is telling you what Bochs is, because the submission didn't. Who cares if it's lifted - it's just information that people needed.
This is a good application of moderation, imho - if you're carefully writing thoughtful posts just so you can score some karma, then I think you may have missed the point of moderation (and karma).
It's kind of like buying a raffle ticket from a charity because you think you'll probably win. It's a nice side effect, but it's not the point of the exercise.
Tim
The guy's a kook, but at least criticise him for a good reason ;-)
Tim
Interestingly, consider this (lifted from here but you can find it mentioned in many places via Google):
Fun eh? Makes you think. Possibly calibration of the ears works in a similar way. Presumably if the 'lossy' audio ever became a problem (this is assuming you don't speak to anyone, or make/hear any natural noise for most of the day, of course) then you'd just listen to 'normal' sounds. That's what calibration is, after all.
By the way, out of interest, here's another interesting write-up about the experiment being done in Japan. I'm curious to see it was done 'recently', as I remember this experiment being mentioned on TV about 15-20 years ago*.
Tim
* Johnny Ball's 'Think of a Number' for you UK geeks :)
I happened to notice while playing Rallisport the other day that the racing term "Did Not Finish" is commonly shown as DNF, which is also the abbreviation for Duke Nukem Forever.
:-)
Spooky.
Tim
...there could be another reason why he has tinnitus.
I find it amusing that he says: 'I am interested in "zoner" games, i.e. certain monotonous high speed skill games those are capable to create alterated states of mind.' - but remember, don't listen to mp3s cos they'll make you go deaf :)
Tim
PS. No, I'm not saying video games affect your hearing - just that it's about as likely as lossy audio codecs being the problem.
Was that clear as mud? :-)
Yeah :-)
I see what you mean - my reaction was just that I thought I saw the prejudice of the author coming through in the language/phrasing (i.e. the opinion that also appears fairly commonly on slashdot, viz, scientists/geeks are smart, everyone else is pretty dumb and/or morally questionable).
However, as someone else has pointed out, Stein is a lawyer, so maybe it's more an indication of my own prejudices ;-)
Tim
Like I said, I studied CS, but I'm having trouble deciphering that logic. My assumption seemed reasonable, given what was, I assume, the ironic nature of the arguments. i.e. the author was describing things he didn't think should be done/happen.
In any case, people rarely employ boolean logic when speaking - the classic example being "Get me all the customer orders from London and Manchester".
Tim
I can recognise and sympathise with the sentiment, but:
I studied CS, and consider myself to have more of a leaning towards science than art/humanities/whatever, but who decided that only scientists are capable of designing new products or services?
Tim
Step into my office...
Tim
I'd quite like to know what the 'ball boy' does in a soccer match, too.
Tim
Plus, he spells severely 'severally'.
:)
:-)
It took me a few seconds to understand that sentence. What a wordsmith
It reminded me of some particularly bad Half-Life fan fiction I read once, where the main character fell out of a window and fell several storys [sic] to the ground.
It's not the storys that kill you - it's all the chapters on the ground!
Tim
Wow, you really seem pretty sure about how these theoretical time loops work - perhaps you should be a physicist? :-)
Consider this: if they stopped the time loop, then Skynet wouldn't exist. So no Terminators. So no-one to come back and stop the time-loop. Which never happened. Except it did, but one of the Terminators helped stop it, so it didn't. But Terminators don't exist, because the time loop was stopped.
And so on.
It's just a story :-)
Tim
Yeah, who knows what tunes they might play on it!
Tim
Hey, it's uninformed platform zealot man!
If Alt-130 is too hard, try AltGr-E.
Tim
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Tim
What, you mean like this?