The strongest anti-Java argument is its speed. While important progress has been made, key features of the Java architecture make it inherently slow. For instance the fact that the architecture is stack-based makes bytecode very difficult to optimze on machines with a large number of registers
So in my not-so-humble opinion what Java needs greatly is a completely redesigned & revamped architecture (bytecode & JVM) with compatibility modes, of course.
Most points discussed in the article are just library-related. Those simply do not justify a new major release.
How long will we have to wait for good XFree drivers ?
ATI has a very bad record with drivers, even for
the Windoze platforms. For them, Linux doesn't even
exist, so my bet is that it'll take at least a year
'till we get decent drivers for these babies
The efficiency of the current photovoltaic cells is
only 10%. To harness one percent of the energy
received by the moon would mean to cover 10% of
its surface.
Sure.
Even a Dyson sphere seems more realistic:)
The Raven.
One little problem - reference system
on
Time Travel
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Assuming that an object can travel backwards in
time, it does it relative to a reference systems.
What would that reference system be ? The Sun ?
The center of the galaxy ? The center of the universe ?
I definitely don't like the idea of being teleported
into dark, empty space.
Well, it could be the machine, but that means you can
only go back to the moment when the machine
started funtioning. So I don't really buy the father thing.
(April 1st joke, I guess)
The real reason was not the small userbase/market -
it was the Windoze partition most home Linux users have.
Instead of waiting for a Linux release, most of Linux gamers
would rather buy the Windows version and later bombard the
porting house with e-mails asking them to make
Linux binaries freely available on FTP (since they
already bought the game...)
One such software house (don't remember which one)
had more revenues from Amiga than from Linux, Amiga having
a much smaller user-base
So, AFAIC, I think we need more fundamentalism in this
area
Well, don't expect a Pentium 110GHz yet...
The problem with microprocessor
design is more and more the time it takes the signal to
propagate through wires than the time to propagate through
gates.
Did you know that P4 has a couple of pipeline stages
that do nothing but propagate signal? (yes, they
pipelined the wire...)
... is definitely neither security nor bugs - it's
popularity/acceptance. To sustain my claim,
there is no OpenBSD entry in the
top requested websites
What's the point of a rock-solid
operating system if very few are actually using it
(and of course, that happens because of lacking features)?
For a server security is always the second issue -
the first being the service provided.
(I'm definitely exagerating here, so flame me as you like)
Maybe because RedHat was always on the "red" side in terms of
revenues (and the same is true for other Linux distros
that adopted RedHat's model - e.g. Mandrake) while other vendors
like SuSe made profits by using a different, non-free strategy (make products
freely downloadable only a couple of months after the "box" release)
?
After all, StarOffice costed Sun a fortune (1B if I remember
correctly). Making StarOffice free for Linux would be just
helping the OS that's eating their own market share.
I always thought of Frank Herbert as a visionaire,
but it never occured to me that the axlotl tank will
be one of the things to materialize during my own lifetime
Some components of the P4 core operate at double
speed (i.e. in a 2.2GHz processor they would operate
at 4.4GHz). It's very difficult to believe (at least for me) that those components could work at 7GHz (2*3.5)
The Raven.
Where does the "much better performance" come from
on
Via One-ups Transmeta
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· Score: 2, Interesting
There is no indication of the actual performance of the Eden processor (i.e., results from real benchmarks ) on the page, only the halucinogenic
Highest performance x86 embedded processor (trust the salesman!).
Moreover, there are some other oddities in the description, like the
Integrated 192KB internal L1/L2 cache (well... what's the size of L1 ? )
Proving that either P=NP or P!=NP is pretty much like prooving Fermat's Big Hunch - one of the Holly Grails of CS research. The problem is that we're not even close to such a result. It's interesting, though, that a lot of research is based on the assumption that P!=NP and not P=NP
Sure, finding a polynomial solution (ant not even O(n)!) for any of the NP-complete problems implies that all of them are solvable in polynomial time (they're polynomially reducible to each other), but... no one has found it (it's as ellusive as the concept of hyperspace)
And, BTW, only cracking the key in RSA is NP-complete. One could crack the message without cracking the key first (theoretically speaking)
The Raven
20 percent of noontime sunlight
on
Lunar Lasers
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
AFAIK 20 percent is roughly the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell. So you'd need a close to 100% efficiency for a rectenna just to break even with photovoltaic cells (from a surface standpoint).
It may be cheaper to build rectennas, however I'm not convinced how it could break even in 5 years with >50 billion spent.
To produce as much power as a standard AA-sized battery, for instance, would require a Power Paper battery of about a square foot in size.
It's pretty obvious that the power/weight ratio of this type of battery is significantly smaller than the one of a standard AA batery. More than that, the article fails to mention the exact capacity or stand-by leaking current. Which pretty much means that the average lifetime of such a battery is inferior to the one of a regular battery (if it were superior, I'm sure they would have mentioned it).
Just wanted to remind you that testing doesn't guarantee lack of errors, it's only the other way around (lack of testing guarantees errors). Even with tons of testing, showstoppers still make it to public releases.
The only problem is that a lot people download the latest kernel imediately after its release and put it on a production machine. My message to them (to you): "You're nothing but insane!". IMHO this should be a very valuable lesson to you...
The cost of the Koolance system is between 200$ and 260$. The only (PC mass-produced) processor more expensive than that is PIV 2GHz
Since overclocking can only give you a 10-20% performance increase (best-case scenario), I think it's more about adrenaline than performance. If so, using a koolance water-based system is like bungie jumping with a parachute.
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So in my not-so-humble opinion what Java needs greatly is a completely redesigned & revamped architecture (bytecode & JVM) with compatibility modes, of course.
Most points discussed in the article are just library-related. Those simply do not justify a new major release.
The Raven
The Raven.
The Raven
Sure.
Even a Dyson sphere seems more realistic :)
The Raven.
Well, it could be the machine, but that means you can only go back to the moment when the machine started funtioning. So I don't really buy the father thing. (April 1st joke, I guess)
Vlad
It should be: "on CowboyNeal, which I rooted"
Got root?
The Raven.
When did they ever make a profit ? I think you are confusing Red Hat with SuSe ...
The Raven.
One such software house (don't remember which one) had more revenues from Amiga than from Linux, Amiga having a much smaller user-base
So, AFAIC, I think we need more fundamentalism in this area
The Raven.
I'm sorry, but that's kind of ... impossible.
The Raven
The Raven
Did you know that P4 has a couple of pipeline stages that do nothing but propagate signal? (yes, they pipelined the wire ...)
The Raven
What's the point of a rock-solid operating system if very few are actually using it (and of course, that happens because of lacking features)? For a server security is always the second issue - the first being the service provided.
(I'm definitely exagerating here, so flame me as you like)
The Raven.
After all, StarOffice costed Sun a fortune (1B if I remember correctly). Making StarOffice free for Linux would be just helping the OS that's eating their own market share.
The Raven.
The Raven.
Maybe that's what dilithium is supposed to be ...
The Raven.
The Raven.
Moreover, there are some other oddities in the description, like the Integrated 192KB internal L1/L2 cache (well ... what's the size of L1 ? )
The Raven.
Proving that either P=NP or P!=NP is pretty much like prooving Fermat's Big Hunch - one of the Holly Grails of CS research. The problem is that we're not even close to such a result. It's interesting, though, that a lot of research is based on the assumption that P!=NP and not P=NP
... no one has found it (it's as ellusive as the concept of hyperspace)
Sure, finding a polynomial solution (ant not even O(n)!) for any of the NP-complete problems implies that all of them are solvable in polynomial time (they're polynomially reducible to each other), but
And, BTW, only cracking the key in RSA is NP-complete. One could crack the message without cracking the key first (theoretically speaking)
The Raven
AFAIK 20 percent is roughly the efficiency of a photovoltaic cell. So you'd need a close to 100% efficiency for a rectenna just to break even with photovoltaic cells (from a surface standpoint).
It may be cheaper to build rectennas, however I'm not convinced how it could break even in 5 years with >50 billion spent.
The Raven
... is that the system can only handle static content. I'm sorry ... but 90% of the sites I visit are dynamically generated.
The Raven.
And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.
But there was no one to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer---by demonstration---would take care of that, too.
For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.
The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.
And AC said, "Let there be light!"
And there was light---
Isaac Asimov, The Last Question
It's pretty obvious that the power/weight ratio of this type of battery is significantly smaller than the one of a standard AA batery. More than that, the article fails to mention the exact capacity or stand-by leaking current. Which pretty much means that the average lifetime of such a battery is inferior to the one of a regular battery (if it were superior, I'm sure they would have mentioned it).
The Raven
Just wanted to remind you that testing doesn't guarantee lack of errors, it's only the other way around (lack of testing guarantees errors). Even with tons of testing, showstoppers still make it to public releases.
...
The only problem is that a lot people download the latest kernel imediately after its release and put it on a production machine. My message to them (to you): "You're nothing but insane!". IMHO this should be a very valuable lesson to you
The Raven
Great Firewall in China and Saudi Arabia
US shuts down Somalian ISP
....
What next ?
France DOS-ing sites that trade Nazi memorabilia
Muslim countries attacking sites that advocate women's rights
...
...
Eventually, each and every country will attack the sites that it considers offensive
The Raven.
Since overclocking can only give you a 10-20% performance increase (best-case scenario), I think it's more about adrenaline than performance. If so, using a koolance water-based system is like bungie jumping with a parachute.
The Raven