Get people from each group, give them the requirements and 5 different dollar amounts. Let each team setup their systems how ever they want at each price point. Some will go with clustered servers. Some will go a single monster server. They know their products best so they'll be the ones best suited to choosing the configuration.
We gave each team $10000 and told them to build the best hardware and db setup they can:
** PostgreSQL got a small IBM Blade quad machine redundant setup: "We're relying on standard industry solutions and reliability."
** MySQL clustered 4 PlayStation3 machines and wasted the rest on booze and women: "We're practical, plus we know what is money best spent on!".
** Oracle purchased a 1200 square foot datacenter and installed a megacluster of 8132 quad-Xeon 64GB RAM 4TB disk machines. With $10'000...?! "We... uhmm... we hit a great bargain, guys! You wouldn't believe it, but it's true!"
The test was put together by PostgreSQL core developers at Sun. Didn't we agree earlier, when talking about Intel/AMD benchmarks, that vendor supplied tests are wildly inaccurate?
PostgreSQL should concentrate on more developer tools and better marketing. The "it's got a ton of features you don't need" on a cryptic site doesn't help its cause.
People use MySQL because there's a wide support and lots of dev tools for it, and because the kind of people going for MySQL needs to do simple selects and inserts most of the time.
"it should be noted he doesn't see the DS or Wii prices moving any time soon"
We have very short attention span and can't judge things in context (such as Wii's absolute price, Wii sales, PS3 position on the market, XBOX's position on the market, previous statements by people in each company etc.), so saying this is surely to impact Wii and DS in a negative way!
Uh... hello, weren't hospitals made to CURE diseases? What's your solution then? Oh, right. Instead of making viruses surviving by killing them, we'll just let them survive and kill us instead! Welcome back to the 12th century. Congratulations!
I didn't say hospitals should stop doing what they're doing.
But I don't have casual surgery while watching TV or browsing Google, so why disinfect myself that entire time? Disinfection DOES bring risks, and this is why it's applied only where it makes sense.
There are companies and scientists trying to get us worried about disinfection 100% of the time. I can imagine the ads zooming on our skin and little CGI critters talk about how they're ready to strike.
I hate myself for going over this crap once again, but you apparently didn't read it any of the other times*: If you want online play on a 360 then the price is higher.
I didn't know PS3 and Wii have free games? Like, you go in the store and they give you disks for free or something? The fact is, if I want to play online I can pay a fee and play.
What should I do to get the same experience on PS3? I could pay as much as I won't but I won't get it. And you're out $150 more for the initial purchase on top of that.
It'll like one of those, howtcha call it... Oh: "solutions in search of a problem".
Where do the deadliest viruses appear? Hospitals. Why? Because hospitals keep killing them and they mutate to survive (rather, weirder mutations manage to survive, and deadlier).
I've not noticed the majority of the population having a big problem with the bacteria and viruses on their skin, mouse, keyboard, banknotes, whatever. So why work so hard on selling us snake-oil for it?
Imagine the losses Sony endures after they cut their price with additional $100. And now the competition leaves them in the dust again. Let's say MS puts the price with $50 down (let's be conservative right). Note, the prices have been de-retardified for better comparison:
Wii: 250 usd 360: 350 usd PS3: 500 usd
And the killer feature for each console:
Wii: totally new way to control games 360: the best online gaming experience of all consoles PS3: Blu-Ray
Notice: PS3's killer feature isn't gaming related one. One reason gamers aren't very excited about it...
While I trust you about that, you had to HACK the game to make it run (and probably destroy lots of things in the proces). My card was the minimum supported card, but it was supported, no hacks. Despite it was a $30 low end card, I stay by my words that it worked fine.
Well, if your view that it's all marketing is true, we might as well roll over and let Jobs and Gates and all the other non-innovative companies do it to us while they grab our wallets, which is just what those companies are trying to do.
So what on Earth do you think has been going on so far? Windows has 85% market share. Hello!?
OpenMoko is trying to compete, and I think they have a good chance. Apple's development speed seems like it's glacial, and the feature set on the iPhone will be fairly easy to replicate on the OpenMoko. It's the hundreds of additional apps that will make the phone attractive.
Hundreds of apps doesn't make me buy. I buy because someone communicates to me the ONE (or few) apps I specifically need. I don't buy Windows PC-s to use hundreds of possible software products. I buy it specifically to run, Office, 3DSMax and Adobe software, for example. I have a specific goal in mind.
OpenMoko just seems to say "tons of possibilities and it's open", but for people who have no clue about development, "tons of possibilities" just means "this is not for me".
And let me tell you - it's a vicious cycle. If the phone isn't attractive to mainstream, developers won't develop mainstream apps for it, and mainstream won't buy it.
To think of it, it'll be a direct extension of Linux on the mobile platform. And we keep getting "200x - Year of Linux Desktop" every year, and it doesn't happen. Guess why.
Of course, there is a good chance that OpenMoko and the Neo will fail, but it's certainly worth a try, given the kind of overpriced p.o.s. that the major phone vendors are putting out.
OpenMoko costs $450/$600. You can get a Symbian/WinMobile smart phone with open API for less than that.
This device could very well stand as a competitor to the more expensive Apple iPhone, but at a fraction of the price and with no vendor lock-in.
Oh yea, because, you see, iPhone is selling like crazy because it has a big touch screen!
It's *marketing* people. To reach the masses, you need a clear message, a clear brand and a clean hyped up release.
iPhone, by Apple, at 6PM, in all Apple and AT&T stores. Clear enough, right? What does it do? iPod, Browser, Phone, Maps, YouTube.
Neo1912324, running OpenMoko, released just for developers for now and later for I don't know who and later maybe for everyone. For sale now in some places, if you can find it. What does it do? It's got advanced features running on Linux and is unlocked.
Normal people will see absolutely nothing in that phone, never mind how we, geeks, are salivating at it, if the marketing and branding effort is so weak. Sorry.
If the HL2 / Doom3 generation of games taught us anything. Don't believe the hype. Don't upgrade your computer for a game you don't have yet. By the time there's something interesting that requires you to upgrade, it will cost less to do so, and probably perform better.
I've played both games on a GeForce 4 MX (the minimum supported card: no shaders, slower than GeForce 3), and honestly it was playable, even though not at very high settings.
Later on when I got a faster GeForce with a bazillion of pipelines and the latest shaders, I tried the games again. Yea, they looked better, some interesting effects here and there, but nothing major.
We don't really miss a lot by not having the latest card ever, and honestly, that resolution they tested at cracked me up. I'm sure they also maxed out the AA and Anisotropic filtering. Nerds.
"So, is this it? Will this price drop make you buy a PS3, or are you still holding off for the big games this fall?"
That's it? Where's the third option, "neither of the above". I want my third option, god damn it!!
Let's see, what does $499 PS3 change. XBOX360 is $399, Wii is $250. For your extra money, you get poor list of games, $65 a pop, and Blu-Pending-Disaster support, at around $45 a pop.
I'm about as excited about all of this, as I would be if Epson released $50 cheaper printers. It's about the ink, people!
The results surprised me. Here are the reported download speeds in Kbps: New York, 18,946; Washington, 15,821; Atlanta, 11,257; Chicago, 10,042; San Francisco, 4,230. What is going on? I know my father is not paying for a 10+ Mbps connection. Is Comcast giving priority to popular speed-test sites?
Ok... and now try with the cache disabled.
Just kidding...
Seriously though, I think he's probably clicked one of those "Click here to make your internet faster" ads... I knew it they work!
I haven't RTFA yet, but I thought the reason they didn't have many wind turbines in the ocean was because of the wildlife issues associated with it. Destroying habitats on the ocean floor and having birds fly into it won't go over well for the environmentalists I imagine.
I don't know about habitats on the ocean floor although I suppose that they can't cover the entire ocean even if they wanted it.
About the birds though... Well you know what evolution is about: adapting to constantly changing environment. Nature is harsh so no need to be overly kind to stupid birds either. In 10-20 generations they'll learn to avoid turbines.
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Get people from each group, give them the requirements and 5 different dollar amounts.
Let each team setup their systems how ever they want at each price point. Some will go with clustered servers. Some will go a single monster server. They know their products best so they'll be the ones best suited to choosing the configuration.
We gave each team $10000 and told them to build the best hardware and db setup they can:
** PostgreSQL got a small IBM Blade quad machine redundant setup:
"We're relying on standard industry solutions and reliability."
** MySQL clustered 4 PlayStation3 machines and wasted the rest on booze and women:
"We're practical, plus we know what is money best spent on!".
** Oracle purchased a 1200 square foot datacenter and installed a megacluster of 8132 quad-Xeon 64GB RAM 4TB disk machines. With $10'000...?!
"We... uhmm... we hit a great bargain, guys! You wouldn't believe it, but it's true!"
Elephant communicates "really long memory".
Which, of course, is what you want in a RDBMS.
Who's coming up with this education system?
--
I'm not convinced.
Dolphins are way smarter than elephants: we'll need an elephant/dolphin benchmark.
I'll get some monkeys to setup one.
Won't you guys agree, "elephant" doesn't exactly communicate "fast and modern" very well.
"Dolphin" comes a bit closer.
Who's coming up with those logos?
They certainly are not unbiased
I guess that's a deal breake right there, no?
The test was put together by PostgreSQL core developers at Sun. Didn't we agree earlier, when talking about Intel/AMD benchmarks, that vendor supplied tests are wildly inaccurate?
PostgreSQL should concentrate on more developer tools and better marketing. The "it's got a ton of features you don't need" on a cryptic site doesn't help its cause.
People use MySQL because there's a wide support and lots of dev tools for it, and because the kind of people going for MySQL needs to do simple selects and inserts most of the time.
"it should be noted he doesn't see the DS or Wii prices moving any time soon"
We have very short attention span and can't judge things in context (such as Wii's absolute price, Wii sales, PS3 position on the market, XBOX's position on the market, previous statements by people in each company etc.), so saying this is surely to impact Wii and DS in a negative way!
Boo, Wii is not also lowering their prices!
Uh... hello, weren't hospitals made to CURE diseases? What's your solution then? Oh, right. Instead of making viruses surviving by killing them, we'll just let them survive and kill us instead! Welcome back to the 12th century. Congratulations!
I didn't say hospitals should stop doing what they're doing.
But I don't have casual surgery while watching TV or browsing Google, so why disinfect myself that entire time? Disinfection DOES bring risks, and this is why it's applied only where it makes sense.
There are companies and scientists trying to get us worried about disinfection 100% of the time. I can imagine the ads zooming on our skin and little CGI critters talk about how they're ready to strike.
Pure snake oil right there.
I hate myself for going over this crap once again, but you apparently didn't read it any of the other times*: If you want online play on a 360 then the price is higher.
I didn't know PS3 and Wii have free games? Like, you go in the store and they give you disks for free or something? The fact is, if I want to play online I can pay a fee and play.
What should I do to get the same experience on PS3? I could pay as much as I won't but I won't get it. And you're out $150 more for the initial purchase on top of that.
"Amazing! How can you keep talking while so much shit comes out of your mouth?"
2484 comments man. Practice makes perfect! Thanks for your concern though.
It'll like one of those, howtcha call it... Oh: "solutions in search of a problem".
Where do the deadliest viruses appear? Hospitals. Why? Because hospitals keep killing them and they mutate to survive (rather, weirder mutations manage to survive, and deadlier).
I've not noticed the majority of the population having a big problem with the bacteria and viruses on their skin, mouse, keyboard, banknotes, whatever. So why work so hard on selling us snake-oil for it?
Imagine the losses Sony endures after they cut their price with additional $100. And now the competition leaves them in the dust again. Let's say MS puts the price with $50 down (let's be conservative right). Note, the prices have been de-retardified for better comparison:
Wii: 250 usd
360: 350 usd
PS3: 500 usd
And the killer feature for each console:
Wii: totally new way to control games
360: the best online gaming experience of all consoles
PS3: Blu-Ray
Notice: PS3's killer feature isn't gaming related one. One reason gamers aren't very excited about it...
While I trust you about that, you had to HACK the game to make it run (and probably destroy lots of things in the proces). My card was the minimum supported card, but it was supported, no hacks. Despite it was a $30 low end card, I stay by my words that it worked fine.
They forgot to mention that's quite insufficient. Stores don't support it. Content producers (except Sony) don't support it.
And not to mention, consumers don't support it. Who'd pay almost the full price of a movie just to watch a downscaled version on his psp.
Shouldn't there be some kind of legal penalty for having CEOs blatantly lie to the public?
Yea, penalty should be PS3 should be the worst sold console of all top 3 competing consoles on the market right now.
Oh wait... Wow, there's justice!
"I play electronic games because I like guns and weapons."
... toy guns and weapons...
Oh no, they get access to video game guns and weapons! Quick, kick the power cable of that cursed thing and throw it in the garbage bin!
Then send the kid to play outside, with
Wait a sec...
Well, if your view that it's all marketing is true, we might as well roll over and let Jobs and Gates and all the other non-innovative companies do it to us while they grab our wallets, which is just what those companies are trying to do.
So what on Earth do you think has been going on so far? Windows has 85% market share. Hello!?
OpenMoko is trying to compete, and I think they have a good chance. Apple's development speed seems like it's glacial, and the feature set on the iPhone will be fairly easy to replicate on the OpenMoko. It's the hundreds of additional apps that will make the phone attractive.
Hundreds of apps doesn't make me buy. I buy because someone communicates to me the ONE (or few) apps I specifically need. I don't buy Windows PC-s to use hundreds of possible software products. I buy it specifically to run, Office, 3DSMax and Adobe software, for example. I have a specific goal in mind.
OpenMoko just seems to say "tons of possibilities and it's open", but for people who have no clue about development, "tons of possibilities" just means "this is not for me".
And let me tell you - it's a vicious cycle. If the phone isn't attractive to mainstream, developers won't develop mainstream apps for it, and mainstream won't buy it.
To think of it, it'll be a direct extension of Linux on the mobile platform. And we keep getting "200x - Year of Linux Desktop" every year, and it doesn't happen. Guess why.
Of course, there is a good chance that OpenMoko and the Neo will fail, but it's certainly worth a try, given the kind of overpriced p.o.s. that the major phone vendors are putting out.
OpenMoko costs $450/$600. You can get a Symbian/WinMobile smart phone with open API for less than that.
This device could very well stand as a competitor to the more expensive Apple iPhone, but at a fraction of the price and with no vendor lock-in.
Oh yea, because, you see, iPhone is selling like crazy because it has a big touch screen!
It's *marketing* people. To reach the masses, you need a clear message, a clear brand and a clean hyped up release.
iPhone, by Apple, at 6PM, in all Apple and AT&T stores. Clear enough, right?
What does it do? iPod, Browser, Phone, Maps, YouTube.
Neo1912324, running OpenMoko, released just for developers for now and later for I don't know who and later maybe for everyone. For sale now in some places, if you can find it. What does it do? It's got advanced features running on Linux and is unlocked.
Normal people will see absolutely nothing in that phone, never mind how we, geeks, are salivating at it, if the marketing and branding effort is so weak. Sorry.
If the HL2 / Doom3 generation of games taught us anything. Don't believe the hype. Don't upgrade your computer for a game you don't have yet. By the time there's something interesting that requires you to upgrade, it will cost less to do so, and probably perform better.
I've played both games on a GeForce 4 MX (the minimum supported card: no shaders, slower than GeForce 3), and honestly it was playable, even though not at very high settings.
Later on when I got a faster GeForce with a bazillion of pipelines and the latest shaders, I tried the games again. Yea, they looked better, some interesting effects here and there, but nothing major.
We don't really miss a lot by not having the latest card ever, and honestly, that resolution they tested at cracked me up. I'm sure they also maxed out the AA and Anisotropic filtering. Nerds.
"So, is this it? Will this price drop make you buy a PS3, or are you still holding off for the big games this fall?"
That's it? Where's the third option, "neither of the above". I want my third option, god damn it!!
Let's see, what does $499 PS3 change. XBOX360 is $399, Wii is $250.
For your extra money, you get poor list of games, $65 a pop, and Blu-Pending-Disaster support, at around $45 a pop.
I'm about as excited about all of this, as I would be if Epson released $50 cheaper printers. It's about the ink, people!
"$499 PS3 rumored"
"$499 PS3 denied by Sony CEO"
"Sony rejects $499 PS3"
"Sony Spokesman says $499 a hoax"
"$499 PS3 confirmed"
99.9999% of the people who make assertions about 99.9999% of anything are wrong 99.9999% of the time.
:(
Don't worry, I always manage to hit that lucky 0.0001%. The outlook for you not that good though
The results surprised me. Here are the reported download speeds in Kbps: New York, 18,946; Washington, 15,821; Atlanta, 11,257; Chicago, 10,042; San Francisco, 4,230. What is going on? I know my father is not paying for a 10+ Mbps connection. Is Comcast giving priority to popular speed-test sites?
Ok... and now try with the cache disabled.
Just kidding...
Seriously though, I think he's probably clicked one of those "Click here to make your internet faster" ads... I knew it they work!
"There's only one solution: cover the entire ocean with generators absorbing wind's energy, so there are NO WAVES AT ALL."
Pure idiot. 99.9999% of the wind is not at sea level.
Well, we're lucky since 99.9999% of the waves are at sea level. Now to think of it... what an incredible coincidence!
And aren't there massive waves when there's wind that would prevent the generator from functioning properly?
There's only one solution: cover the entire ocean with generators absorbing wind's energy, so there are NO WAVES AT ALL.
Pure genius...
Rubber coated copper is very good at getting the power to shore.
And as an extra benefit, should the rubber coating crack, sea food will literally come cooked straight from the ocean!
I haven't RTFA yet, but I thought the reason they didn't have many wind turbines in the ocean was because of the wildlife issues associated with it.
Destroying habitats on the ocean floor and having birds fly into it won't go over well for the environmentalists I imagine.
I don't know about habitats on the ocean floor although I suppose that they can't cover the entire ocean even if they wanted it.
About the birds though... Well you know what evolution is about: adapting to constantly changing environment. Nature is harsh so no need to be overly kind to stupid birds either. In 10-20 generations they'll learn to avoid turbines.