robodweeb
Sep 19, 09:09 PM
Ask folks at Nasa who do the real work with computers
...
Windows has 95 % of share
Until a year ago, I was the lead Mac systems engineer for one of the largest outsourcing vendors supporting five NASA field centers. These centers were the research centers, not the operational centers (a different vendor suppoorted them). Just as a tidbit, when I left, the share of Macs at these centers was about 28% (Windows ~63%, the rest Linux/Unix, DEC, etc.). Admittedly, this was down about 3-4% over the previous 3 years. One center, NASA Ames, was around 80% Mac. Sadly, this information doesn't get propagated as widely as, say, the improper removal of Macs from NASA Johnson a few years back.
g-rock2K is correct that OS X is being embraced by the scientific and engineering community within NASA, largely because there are ports of computationally-intensive visualization and analysis applications available for OS X and the results can be easily moved into presentation applications. This last par tis significant, I believe, because they have access to faster computers (parallel systems, clusters, etc.) but such computers don't have much support for the presentation and sharing of the results. Clearly, the power of the G4 contributes to its lure, but it's the combination of OS X and the G4 that is selling Macs at NASA. It's not so much how fast they can do individual, specific tasks (which, sadly, are about all that's tested by benchmarks) but how OS X on G4s enables them to do their entire job more quickly, not just the bits and pieces ...
cheerz!
...
Windows has 95 % of share
Until a year ago, I was the lead Mac systems engineer for one of the largest outsourcing vendors supporting five NASA field centers. These centers were the research centers, not the operational centers (a different vendor suppoorted them). Just as a tidbit, when I left, the share of Macs at these centers was about 28% (Windows ~63%, the rest Linux/Unix, DEC, etc.). Admittedly, this was down about 3-4% over the previous 3 years. One center, NASA Ames, was around 80% Mac. Sadly, this information doesn't get propagated as widely as, say, the improper removal of Macs from NASA Johnson a few years back.
g-rock2K is correct that OS X is being embraced by the scientific and engineering community within NASA, largely because there are ports of computationally-intensive visualization and analysis applications available for OS X and the results can be easily moved into presentation applications. This last par tis significant, I believe, because they have access to faster computers (parallel systems, clusters, etc.) but such computers don't have much support for the presentation and sharing of the results. Clearly, the power of the G4 contributes to its lure, but it's the combination of OS X and the G4 that is selling Macs at NASA. It's not so much how fast they can do individual, specific tasks (which, sadly, are about all that's tested by benchmarks) but how OS X on G4s enables them to do their entire job more quickly, not just the bits and pieces ...
cheerz!
MacCoaster
Sep 20, 05:50 PM
Originally posted by dricci
P4s can't go Dual. It's sorta like the G3, it's just not designed to do that. It wouldn't work.
That is what the Pentium 4 XEON is for. So yes, P4s can go dual, in the Xeon configuration.
Edit: Hell, it can do 4-way or more. Quad G4 Macs? In your dreams...
P4s can't go Dual. It's sorta like the G3, it's just not designed to do that. It wouldn't work.
That is what the Pentium 4 XEON is for. So yes, P4s can go dual, in the Xeon configuration.
Edit: Hell, it can do 4-way or more. Quad G4 Macs? In your dreams...
Analog Kid
Nov 21, 09:13 PM
Cool-- forget about laptops, we can use these to delay the end of the universe! All energy eventually becomes heat. This little guy takes some of it and makes it electricity-- which eventually becomes heat. Then this little takes some of it and makes it electricity-- which eventually becomes heat. Then this little guy takes some of it and makes it electricity-- which eventually becomes heat. Then this little guy...
lssmit02
May 31, 11:52 PM
This is a great widget, and itself justifies the upgrade to Tiger! BTW, I believe you can update any widget by selecting it, and then hitting command-R (just FYI for the summary in the first post).
more...
boch82
Apr 27, 10:56 AM
MPEG Stream Clip (assuming these are not protected DVDs)
Drag the VOB file into the app
Open as a stream so you get the whole dvd.
drag the slider to the beginning of the clip you want press "i" drag the slider to the end press "o"
export to the settings you need for your editing app
Drag the VOB file into the app
Open as a stream so you get the whole dvd.
drag the slider to the beginning of the clip you want press "i" drag the slider to the end press "o"
export to the settings you need for your editing app
malnar
Jan 4, 03:09 PM
Why would you need GPS for a route you take daily? Traffic, I suppose...but still?
That's 99% of my use for GPS apps - daily. They alert you to and try to route you around snarled traffic. If you aren't using an app that takes advantage of real-time traffic data, you are missing out on a very big part of the app's usefulness.
That's 99% of my use for GPS apps - daily. They alert you to and try to route you around snarled traffic. If you aren't using an app that takes advantage of real-time traffic data, you are missing out on a very big part of the app's usefulness.
more...
nixd2001
Sep 14, 07:48 PM
Originally posted by onemoof
Someone asked the difference between RISC and CISC.
First thing, there isn't that distinction anymore. RISC originally meant that the processor had fixed width instructions (so it wouldn't have to waste time asking the software how big the next instruction will be). CISC mean that the processor had variable width instructions (meaning time would have to be taken to figure out how long the next instruction is before fetching it.) However, Intel has addressed this problem by making it possible for the processor to switch to a fixed-width mode for special processor intensive purposes. The PowerPC is stuck with fixed-width and has no ability to enjoy the flexibility of variable-width instructions for non-processor-intensive tasks. This means that CISC is now better than RISC. (Using the terms to loosely define Pentium as CISC and PowerPC as RISC.)
Originally it was Reduced versus Complex instruction set computer. Making simpler processors go faster is generally easier than making complex processors go faster as there is less internal state/logic to synchronise and keep track of. For any given fabrication technology, this still generally holds true. Intel managed to sidestep this principle by investing massive sums in their fab plants, effectively meaning that the fab processes being compared weren't the same.
The opposite end of the spectrum from RISC is arguably the VAX line. With this instruction set, massive complexities arose from the fact that a single instruction took so long and did so much. It was possible for timers, interrupts and "page faults" to occur midway during an instruction. This required saving a lot of internal state so that it could later be restored. There were examples of performing a given operation with a single instruction or a sequence of instructions that performed the same effect, but where the sequence achieved the join quicker because the internal implementation within the processor was able to get on with the job quicker because it was actually a simpler task being asked of it.
The idea of fixed sized instructions isn't directly coupled to the original notion of RISC, although it is only one step behind. One of the basic ideas with the original RISC processors was that an instruction should only take a single cycle to complete. So a 100MHz CPU might actually achieve 100M instructions per second. (This was often not achieved due to memory latencies, but this isn't the "fault" of the processor core). In this context, having a variable length instruction means that it is easy for the instruction decoding (especially if it requires more than one "word") to require for effort than any other aspect of executing an instruction.
There are situations where a variable width instruction might have advantages, but the argument goes that breaking the overall task down into equal sized instructions means that fetching (including caching, branch predicting, ec) and decoding these instructions becomes simpler, permitting optimisations and speed gains to be made elsewhere in the processor design.
Intel blur RISC and CISC into gray by effectively executing RISC instructions internally, even if they support the apparent decoding of CISC insructions. They only do this for legacy reasons.
Apple will never switch to IA32 (Pentium) because 32 bit processors are a dead-end and maybe have a couple years left. The reason is because they can only have a maximum of 4 GB of RAM [ (2^32)/(1 Billion) = 4.29 GB ]. This limit is very close to being reached in current desktop computers. Apple MAY at some point decide to jump to IA64 in my opinion, and I think they should. Obviously the Intel family of processors is unbeatable unless they have some sort of catastrophe happen to them. If Apple jumped on they'd be back on track. Unfortunately I don't believe IA64 is yet cheap enough for desktops.
I think this "unbeatable" assertion requires some qualification. It may be that Intel will achieve the best price/performance ratio within a suitable range of qualifications, but this is different from always achieving best p/p ratio whatever. Indeed, IA64 versus Power4 is going to be an interesting battle because Intel has bet on ILP (instruction level parallelism) whereas IBM has bet on data bandwidth. Ultimately (and today!), I think IBM's bet has more going for it. But that's if you want ultimate performance. The PC space is often characterised by people apparenntly wanting ultimate performance but actually always massively qualifiying it with severe price restrictions (such as less than 5 digits to the price).
Someone asked the difference between RISC and CISC.
First thing, there isn't that distinction anymore. RISC originally meant that the processor had fixed width instructions (so it wouldn't have to waste time asking the software how big the next instruction will be). CISC mean that the processor had variable width instructions (meaning time would have to be taken to figure out how long the next instruction is before fetching it.) However, Intel has addressed this problem by making it possible for the processor to switch to a fixed-width mode for special processor intensive purposes. The PowerPC is stuck with fixed-width and has no ability to enjoy the flexibility of variable-width instructions for non-processor-intensive tasks. This means that CISC is now better than RISC. (Using the terms to loosely define Pentium as CISC and PowerPC as RISC.)
Originally it was Reduced versus Complex instruction set computer. Making simpler processors go faster is generally easier than making complex processors go faster as there is less internal state/logic to synchronise and keep track of. For any given fabrication technology, this still generally holds true. Intel managed to sidestep this principle by investing massive sums in their fab plants, effectively meaning that the fab processes being compared weren't the same.
The opposite end of the spectrum from RISC is arguably the VAX line. With this instruction set, massive complexities arose from the fact that a single instruction took so long and did so much. It was possible for timers, interrupts and "page faults" to occur midway during an instruction. This required saving a lot of internal state so that it could later be restored. There were examples of performing a given operation with a single instruction or a sequence of instructions that performed the same effect, but where the sequence achieved the join quicker because the internal implementation within the processor was able to get on with the job quicker because it was actually a simpler task being asked of it.
The idea of fixed sized instructions isn't directly coupled to the original notion of RISC, although it is only one step behind. One of the basic ideas with the original RISC processors was that an instruction should only take a single cycle to complete. So a 100MHz CPU might actually achieve 100M instructions per second. (This was often not achieved due to memory latencies, but this isn't the "fault" of the processor core). In this context, having a variable length instruction means that it is easy for the instruction decoding (especially if it requires more than one "word") to require for effort than any other aspect of executing an instruction.
There are situations where a variable width instruction might have advantages, but the argument goes that breaking the overall task down into equal sized instructions means that fetching (including caching, branch predicting, ec) and decoding these instructions becomes simpler, permitting optimisations and speed gains to be made elsewhere in the processor design.
Intel blur RISC and CISC into gray by effectively executing RISC instructions internally, even if they support the apparent decoding of CISC insructions. They only do this for legacy reasons.
Apple will never switch to IA32 (Pentium) because 32 bit processors are a dead-end and maybe have a couple years left. The reason is because they can only have a maximum of 4 GB of RAM [ (2^32)/(1 Billion) = 4.29 GB ]. This limit is very close to being reached in current desktop computers. Apple MAY at some point decide to jump to IA64 in my opinion, and I think they should. Obviously the Intel family of processors is unbeatable unless they have some sort of catastrophe happen to them. If Apple jumped on they'd be back on track. Unfortunately I don't believe IA64 is yet cheap enough for desktops.
I think this "unbeatable" assertion requires some qualification. It may be that Intel will achieve the best price/performance ratio within a suitable range of qualifications, but this is different from always achieving best p/p ratio whatever. Indeed, IA64 versus Power4 is going to be an interesting battle because Intel has bet on ILP (instruction level parallelism) whereas IBM has bet on data bandwidth. Ultimately (and today!), I think IBM's bet has more going for it. But that's if you want ultimate performance. The PC space is often characterised by people apparenntly wanting ultimate performance but actually always massively qualifiying it with severe price restrictions (such as less than 5 digits to the price).
benpatient
Apr 14, 02:16 PM
I'd say that's also the primary design flaw of the PC, although it wasn't very hard to overcome. Every normal person DOES tend to have a tech friend/relative just to keep their PC working/updated. I'm that tech friend/relative in most of my social circles, and if you're posting here, you're sure to be one too.
what?
that's not the same thing at all. If your mom calls you on the phone and says "i can't run this new app because it says i need to update" you can walk her through it from 2000 miles away. If she's got an ipad and the next version of Angry Birds requires a new iOS version, and she doesn't have a computer, you can't talk her through that. unless you think this would work:
"OK, Mom, what you need to do is go to Best Buy, and go to one of the macs, and then open iTunes, and sync your ipad with it, and then do software update on it, and then erase your account info from the best buy mac, and that's all you have to do!"
right.
what?
that's not the same thing at all. If your mom calls you on the phone and says "i can't run this new app because it says i need to update" you can walk her through it from 2000 miles away. If she's got an ipad and the next version of Angry Birds requires a new iOS version, and she doesn't have a computer, you can't talk her through that. unless you think this would work:
"OK, Mom, what you need to do is go to Best Buy, and go to one of the macs, and then open iTunes, and sync your ipad with it, and then do software update on it, and then erase your account info from the best buy mac, and that's all you have to do!"
right.
more...
lhotka
Mar 13, 07:04 PM
Well, I have serious doubts that someone 'types in' the time for a network. I'm sure they have to configure the local towers to transmit the correct time zone, but that's not the same as typing in 2:00 AM and then waiting to the right second to press enter.
Dates and times aren't stored as hours and minute - it's usually some form of julian date, probably transmitted in UTC. It's up to the local device to correctly convert it to local time.
I note in passing that we're not hearing of any issues with regular phones - just iphones and other smart phones. Anyone have a basic phone show the wrong time?
Dates and times aren't stored as hours and minute - it's usually some form of julian date, probably transmitted in UTC. It's up to the local device to correctly convert it to local time.
I note in passing that we're not hearing of any issues with regular phones - just iphones and other smart phones. Anyone have a basic phone show the wrong time?
Ommid
Apr 25, 01:05 PM
Ooh, the rumor mill tonight is crazy!
maybe Amazon don't have a USB option for that field!
maybe Amazon don't have a USB option for that field!
more...
tktaylor1
Apr 25, 04:28 PM
What about the other lists posted? anyway, you seem to admit that there are 140 things that count on that list, so that is a lot more than you claimed he had done.
Yes there are 140 things on that list out of the 500. Out of those 140 a lot of them are BS things, petty things that really don't matter or things he really doesn't have to do such as encourage things.
Yes there are 140 things on that list out of the 500. Out of those 140 a lot of them are BS things, petty things that really don't matter or things he really doesn't have to do such as encourage things.
Vandam500
Jan 7, 08:59 AM
Has anyone else found that after installing this their iPhone battery can not get enough charge to turn on? I'm popping into Regent Street this afternoon, but it would be useful to know if anyone else has had the same problem.
Tried a hard reset, and it's not Jailbroken or Pwned or anything.
UPDATE: iPhone is working again. Multiple hard resets, removing sim, unplugging seemed to do the trick.
Glad you fixed the issue but I don't understand how is it possible for a app that is not running in the background to give any issue when it's closed. You know that surely it was something with your phone and had nothing to do with the Facebook app
Tried a hard reset, and it's not Jailbroken or Pwned or anything.
UPDATE: iPhone is working again. Multiple hard resets, removing sim, unplugging seemed to do the trick.
Glad you fixed the issue but I don't understand how is it possible for a app that is not running in the background to give any issue when it's closed. You know that surely it was something with your phone and had nothing to do with the Facebook app
more...
rust0r
Nov 18, 09:31 PM
The real crime is that there are people with hundreds of dollars to throw away on pretty phone covers while a billion people on the planet don't even have access to safe drinking water.
I'm sure my logic will be ripped apart, but I've made my point. :cool:
Do you have an iPhone 4 ? A car? Or other "non essential items" / luxury items ? EVERYONE, yes even individuals who want to make constant "poor starving African children" stance, have possessions they could do without. Sell your phone, sell your car, stop going to the movies, enjoy basic sustenance and give all your savings to foundations to help those in other counties...THEN you can scold everyone else about how they spend their hard earned dollars on luxury items
I'm sure my logic will be ripped apart, but I've made my point. :cool:
Do you have an iPhone 4 ? A car? Or other "non essential items" / luxury items ? EVERYONE, yes even individuals who want to make constant "poor starving African children" stance, have possessions they could do without. Sell your phone, sell your car, stop going to the movies, enjoy basic sustenance and give all your savings to foundations to help those in other counties...THEN you can scold everyone else about how they spend their hard earned dollars on luxury items
Freecity88
Jan 4, 04:08 PM
I like Garmin GPS but I have to say, this one is not comparable to the tomtom or navigon one.
more...
Full of Win
Mar 13, 08:04 PM
The only thing that would be news worthy would be if a DST went off without a foulup from iOS.
I shutter to think of the effect that Feburary 29th will have.
I shutter to think of the effect that Feburary 29th will have.
SwiftLives
Apr 9, 03:03 AM
I am not saying no one should produce children. I am just saying its not the job of the government to make sure people are only cranking out units when they are "ready". Its called personal responsibility. If you get knocked up, deal with it. It's usually your own fault. Maybe your parents should have taught you to keep your pants on. It's not up the the government to teach you these things.
So...a human child is nothing more than a "consequence"?
So...a human child is nothing more than a "consequence"?
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kingdonk
Mar 19, 06:06 AM
Whats this feature for? I don't know if it was in SL Server but its part of the mail settings and don't know if its for certification or for using apple's mobile me mail service for pushing mail to iOS devices.
i came across a post earlier and carnt remember the link to it but it was back from 2008 where some one was on about the new sl server and about the apple push thing and it was not for push e-mail but for push notifications for apps. i guess it might be if a company has their own app they can use that service for push notifications in the app.
i may be wrong about this. any body else like to share?
i came across a post earlier and carnt remember the link to it but it was back from 2008 where some one was on about the new sl server and about the apple push thing and it was not for push e-mail but for push notifications for apps. i guess it might be if a company has their own app they can use that service for push notifications in the app.
i may be wrong about this. any body else like to share?
iJohnHenry
Apr 9, 08:58 PM
Are you suggesting it is harder to abort than to raise a child?
Oh no, you cant get away with logic like that here, especially as you are male.
Men should just butt-out of this discussion altogether, IMNSHO.
Oh no, you cant get away with logic like that here, especially as you are male.
Men should just butt-out of this discussion altogether, IMNSHO.
Detektiv-Pinky
Apr 12, 02:51 PM
Hhm, I still see this bug, that applying a custom design in Powerpoint does not change the font of the presentation to the font of the design-template.
Very annoying!
Very annoying!
randallking
Jan 8, 04:38 PM
Push updates seem intermittent today, they were working well yesterday!!
I agree; intermittent today for some reason. I'm only getting some alerts, but not all. And the sound which was working yesterday has stopped today.
I agree; intermittent today for some reason. I'm only getting some alerts, but not all. And the sound which was working yesterday has stopped today.
AppliedVisual
Oct 10, 11:13 PM
Considering the Mini got bumped lately do you reckon that's very likely?
Yes.
I'm sure Apple will progress the Mini to C2D when they Macbook is updated. The Mini only received a minor speed bump the last time around and I bet it had more to do with keeping consistant pricing than it did with updating a product.
Yes.
I'm sure Apple will progress the Mini to C2D when they Macbook is updated. The Mini only received a minor speed bump the last time around and I bet it had more to do with keeping consistant pricing than it did with updating a product.
Thomas Veil
Apr 9, 10:40 AM
You cannot simply go "oh we are spending more money than we have, lets just go get more money" or "what do we want to do? let's get the money to do it" and expect to keep a balanced budget. Because the next time you have the problem, you'll do the same thing. This obviously is not repeatable indefinitely.And nobody said it was, or that you should repeat it indefinitely. But you can't expect people to get on board with severe cuts -- especially the ones they're now talking about to Medicare, Medicaid and SS -- if you're still overspending on defense, tax cuts for the rich, and corporate loopholes.
The way to keep a balanced budget does not change when you are the government as compared with individual. It's about not spending more than you have and then finding ways to get more money. It's about spending money on things which are necessary, not merely wanted.The government funds plenty of things, like libraries and parks, that aren't "necessary" but wanted. In the end it's all about how much we're willing to pay for. What's odd is that you see the middle class wanting to keep many of those services; it's the rich and the corporations that are screaming bloody murder about them.
The way to keep a balanced budget does not change when you are the government as compared with individual. It's about not spending more than you have and then finding ways to get more money. It's about spending money on things which are necessary, not merely wanted.The government funds plenty of things, like libraries and parks, that aren't "necessary" but wanted. In the end it's all about how much we're willing to pay for. What's odd is that you see the middle class wanting to keep many of those services; it's the rich and the corporations that are screaming bloody murder about them.
mrgreen4242
Dec 10, 11:24 AM
I have a DS that I am interested in selling but I am not interested in that PC.
Is there anything you are interested in trading for?
Is there anything you are interested in trading for?
lilcosco08
Apr 18, 09:50 PM
The NDS (at least in the UK) launched with Mario 64 DS and Wario Ware Touched, two great games rated 85 and 81 by metacritic.com respectively.
The 3DS has Street Fighter.
It also has ridge racer
riiiiiiiiiidge raaaaaaaaaceeeeeeerrr!
The 3DS has Street Fighter.
It also has ridge racer
riiiiiiiiiidge raaaaaaaaaceeeeeeerrr!
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