I'm totally amazed

[Jeff S]

Ah you youngins. My first PC was a TRS80 model 1 with 48 Kilobytes of RAM and 2, 96K single sided, single density 5-1/4 floppy disk drives. I was styling. I remember lusting after a winchester hard disk drive that was as big as a desktop and held an astounding 5 million bytes of data! I couldn't afford it thought at $5800. It sure beat the hell out of the IBM series 360 I was used to, punching Hollerith cards and waiting 24 hours for the Fortran printouts, or if I was lucky getting real time (timeshare) terminal time with a 300 baud modem that held a telephone headset.

[Woody]

Don't those SSD hard drives still have 'issues' in desktop and lap top computers?? I've heard they can't be defragmented and over time, that they sort of deteriorate and have, is it 'memory etching' issues?

Maybe the high end SDD's are different--we know they're always building a 'better mouse trap' etc.

Honestly the SSD tech. intrigues me. Anything my son can put on a solid state thumb flash and put through the durable press machine wash and then for 60 minutes in the dryer on the highest heat setting and then still be able to retain his pictures and music that was on it has potential, to say the least...

Wearing out sectors hasn't been an issue for a few years now, even on the lowest end SSDs with a SATA interface. It is called wear-leveling now. You would pretty much have to overwrite the same drive about 10,000 times to get it to fail like that. On an 80GB drive that means writing 800TB to the drive. That would mean writing to the drive at its maximum writing capacity for about three months, without stopping. This is just not a realistic scenario. Your typical day of desktop usage will result in less than 10GB of data written to the drive(Probably more like a few hundred MB). Lets go all out, lets say that you write the entire drive(80GB), every day. That means you can expect it to fail somewhere around 27 years from now.

[robert angel]

My, how times and prices  have changed--and USB 3.0 really isn't common yet--yet! Yet prices are dropping on its related devices already. I am the Walrus, I am the Yeti--kooka ma joo....

>>16GB Super Talent USB 3.0 Flash Drive $24 shipped
Note this is USB 3.0

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Attached Images ST3U16EDB.1.JPG (7.6 KB, 69 views)   <<

[z_k_g]

You sound like a fanboy.

Actually your post proves that you are.

A good answer.  

Zulu

[Jedironin]

So... Bill... you still out there? 

How's things with Cris? 

[z_k_g]

Woody,

OSX is 100% NeXT.  

A solid foundation is not the same as software and that was my point if you were reading objectively- a solid tight efficient coding which is Linux/Unix/NeXt.

All real time OS's are built with lightweight and efficient kernels, a Unix model and Unix by another name.  As close to machine code as possible while running in modular fashion with human, data, software interfaces.  Small, fast efficient code.

Woody, ALL hardware run some type of Operating System, software, whether embedded or machine code.  

Your Bosch, Motorolla or Hitachci CPU in your fuel computer on the Truck now interact on the High and Low CAN via some embedded OS with a Unix lineage- probably a TCP/IP modified stack copied directly from the Unix model (just like Windoze 7 had to do).  

Woody, all of Windoze OS's leave your computer in a horribly defragmented state after a few months.  MS even includes defrag software in their products now and advises you to defrag frequently.  I own over 8 Windoze machines, from 98, to 2000, Vista and 7.  Defrag and Windoze are a way of life.  Nothing change in 2006 in the real world only in the minds of Windoze software developers.  

The jury is still out on 7, I got it running on 3 computers, time will tell.

Woody, I was taught to write efficient, fast and tight code.  

The quality of coding in US is horrible and the final deliverables are bloated and poorly documented with coders relying on .net and the other libraries to save them from inefficient coding using IDE's adding more bloat.  A typical Windoze insatall is over 10Gig now, up from 1Gig with Windoze 2000.

Why do you get less viruses on Linux/Unix/NeXT/OSX?

Better code and because they are harder to write for these platforms and even more difficult to get up and running because root/admin is typically disabled leaving the little nasty with nowhere to go.

Objectively, OSX is fast, efficient and well written tight code.

By any measure a better OS.

Zulu

[z_k_g]

Today a single, high end, SSD will wipe the floor with his RAID0 10k RPM setup in everything but sequential read/write. But you go 10k RPM for the access time(SSDs are measured in tenths of a milisecond, HDDs are measured in miliseconds).

Woody, 

SSD's are the future, but the ones on the market to day are limited capacity and are beta products in my opinion. 

Also, unlike traditional storage media, how do you get your data, what happens if it crashes?  Physical media is simple, pull out the platters and copy.  SSD's are SOL.

I'm waiting for the costs to go down and the storage capacity to go up!  And a data recovery method.  That will be the winner for the pros.

Sizewize and Performance wise they are unmatched with physical HDD, not a close race, but price per megabyte, way too much.

Zulu

[brettb]

Hmm a little bit off focus. I am really interested to hear how bill and cris are doing. It is always great to hear you guys explain how your wifes/girlfriends reacted to america for the first time and such.... Anyways Bill Hope all is well with you two!

[z_k_g]

Bill M,

How are things going?

Zulu

[Bob_S]

I've programmed everything from old DECs to PDP11's, FRADS, SCADA, and used most IDE's and coded with punch cards on mini mainframes in straight hex and binary, and I'm pretty handy with Unix/Linux, Dos, Adtran, Cisco IOS, HPunix command line.

Dude, I used to think you were cool.  You totally destroyed my image of you.   

Ah you youngins. My first PC was a TRS80 model 1 with 48 Kilobytes of RAM and 2, 96K single sided, single density 5-1/4 floppy disk drives.

You had a floppy with your TRS80?  Whao!  Lucky.  That was too pricy for us.  We had a cassette tape drive hooked to our TRS80 model 3 with all of 16 kB of RAM.  I didn't get a floppy till we upgraded to a Commador 64.

So... Bill... you still out there? 
How's things with Cris? 

She ought to be on the plane by now.

[Woody]

SSD's are the future, but the ones on the market to day are limited capacity and are beta products in my opinion. 

Also, unlike traditional storage media, how do you get your data, what happens if it crashes?  Physical media is simple, pull out the platters and copy.  SSD's are SOL.

I'm waiting for the costs to go down and the storage capacity to go up!  And a data recovery method.  That will be the winner for the pros.

Sizewize and Performance wise they are unmatched with physical HDD, not a close race, but price per megabyte, way too much.

Intel isn't beta, everyone else is hit or miss.
As for recovery, should have backed up(I have lost terabytes of data, but I never lost my IMPORTANT data). Pulling platters isn't exactly cheap either.

The price/capacity ratio still sucks. It needs to be under $0.50/GB to take off, but that will happen within four years for the good stuff, sooner for the crappy stuff. Look at the prices each year for the medium capacity stuff. There is a 40-50% price drop every year and a doubling of capacity. The price of 16GB now is pretty much what 32GB will cost this time next year. Scale that out another 5 years and we are looking at paying the same amount we currently pay for 32GB flash in about five or six years from now. Assuming we can keep the same scaling for another seven or eight years, magnetic hard drive will be obsoleted within 10 years and no longer be competitive.

OSX is 100% NeXT.  

Talking in absolutes is dangerous because to every rule there is an exception.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XNU

A solid foundation is not the same as software and that was my point if you were reading objectively- a solid tight efficient coding which is Linux/Unix/NeXt.

All real time OS's are built with lightweight and efficient kernels, a Unix model and Unix by another name.  As close to machine code as possible while running in modular fashion with human, data, software interfaces.  Small, fast efficient code.

Yet, amazingly, not falling under the Unix or Unix-like umbrella and not conforming to the POSIX specification. Also, to call the mess that is desktop Linux solid, tight, or efficient is way, way out there.

Woody, ALL hardware run some type of Operating System, software, whether embedded or machine code.  

Once again, absolutes kill your argument: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system

Your Bosch, Motorolla or Hitachci CPU in your fuel computer on the Truck now interact on the High and Low CAN via some embedded OS with a Unix lineage- probably a TCP/IP modified stack copied directly from the Unix model (just like Windoze 7 had to do).

So, because something uses a serial interface protocol it is now a Unix derivative? The RTOS used in vehicles is highly specialized and neither you nor I can say if there is any *nix derived code in there. Unless you have some kind of source or article pointing to the contrary?

Woody, all of Windoze OS's leave your computer in a horribly defragmented state after a few months.  MS even includes defrag software in their products now and advises you to defrag frequently.  I own over 8 Windoze machines, from 98, to 2000, Vista and 7.  Defrag and Windoze are a way of life.  Nothing change in 2006 in the real world only in the minds of Windoze software developers.

What changed was the release of Vista. BTW, ext3 isnt much better. At least NTFS is self healing under Vista/7: http://blogs.technet.com/b/doxley/archive/2008/10/29/self-healing-ntfs.aspx

Woody, I was taught to write efficient, fast and tight code.  

The quality of coding in US is horrible and the final deliverables are bloated and poorly documented with coders relying on .net and the other libraries to save them from inefficient coding using IDE's adding more bloat.  A typical Windoze insatall is over 10Gig now, up from 1Gig with Windoze 2000.

And a typical OS X install is now how much? Hint: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3759

Most of the size increase isn't code. It is the extras, the pretty things.

Why do you get less viruses on Linux/Unix/NeXT/OSX?

Better code and because they are harder to write for these platforms and even more difficult to get up and running because root/admin is typically disabled leaving the little nasty with nowhere to go.

Because if I am writing a virus, I want the lowest common denominator with the lowest barrier to entry and that is Windows. Since MS implemented a proper firewall that defaults to on, the most common attack vector now is the user and lax password security, mostly the user.

Objectively, OSX is fast, efficient and well written tight code.

By any measure a better OS.

You can't just say it is a better OS and leave it at that. There is no BEST OS, there is the best OS for your needs and specific use.

This is coming from someone that uses Windows on the desktop, OS X on the laptop(Multitouch trackpad + battery life), Linux(Switching to FreeBSD, better ZFS implementation) on the server, iOS on the phone and iPad.

There is no BEST OS, there is the best OS for your needs and specific use.

[z_k_g]

Woody,

Agreed on some of your points, but we are talking consumer desktops here and viruses. 

OSX wins. 

Have you used iDeneb yet? 

This is my last software post here, we are getting off subject here!!   

Zulu

[z_k_g]

Dude, I used to think you were cool.  You totally destroyed my image of you.   

Bob,

That's how I make my money, all that technical stuff!!   

Zulu

[piglett]

SO..........
do any of you guys know about computers??  



when Marily arrived she will need her own laptop
what do ya think ?? Apple??
i want something i can just hand her & it works, no BS no problems
my Dell is now 5 years old & it is still live & kickin
the good news is that if she doesn't like an Apple i can trade her even for mine


pig

PS: i fix computers like this
format C:
& put the operating system back in & get back to work
i don't like games
i don't like spending all day fighting a silly computer
this works for me
get-er-done

 

[z_k_g]

Pig,

Way off topic!

I wonder how Bob is doing!!

Zulu

[piglett]

Pig,

Way off topic!

I wonder how Bob is doing!!

Zulu

Bob who?
does he fix computers?

[Bob_S]

Bob who?
does he fix computers?

Surely not me.  I got a basic HP Media Center PC from Costco.  It reached the 2-yr point and started having "issues".  Issues suck.  I swapped out a burned out video card and am nursing it along, but it has boot problems, so any new install that requires a re-boot can mean I'm down for a week trying various recovery methods.  Yeah, Vista.     Plus I'm 3 months behind on my Leo Laporte podcasts, so don't look to me for answers.

Think Bill's Cris is in Nagoya yet?

[z_k_g]

Any updates from Bill?

Zulu

[piglett]

Any updates from Bill?

Zulu

Bill Clinton ? he still claims that
"I did not have sex with that woman"

pig

[Woody]

when Marily arrived she will need her own laptop
what do ya think ?? Apple??
i want something i can just hand her & it works, no BS no problems
my Dell is now 5 years old & it is still live & kickin
the good news is that if she doesn't like an Apple i can trade her even for mine

Depends. You can have a pretty pleasant experience on a fairly low end laptop under windows 7, as long as you have 1.5GB of ram at a minimum. This assumes the processor is a Pentium Dual Core or Athlon X2 at minimum. Anything less and the experience is not very smooth. Webcam might be important for her. This is the cheap option.

She might not be happy with OS X because of the UI shift. But if you want a great laptop with phenomenal battery life and good looks, MacBook or MacBook Pro. Expect processor updates in the spring/summer.

Btw, if you still want to steal your neighbor's wifi and have anything even close to line of sight (3-4 walls), I have the product for ya. I use these babies to shoot 500m links, through walls and roofs. Ubiquity Networks NanoStation Loco M2. Cost about $75 each, you may need two depending on the setup. They also have a M900 that works in the 900mhz band, but twice the cost and you would definitely need two. I'm shooting a link through 200meters of dense forest with a completely destroyed fresnel zone, and it still works(barely).

[Bill_McC]

Waiting as patiently as I can. She'll leave tomorrow at 6:15AM her time and be in Atlanta 1/13/11 3:55 EST. Patience is a virtue so I must be virtuless.. Is that a word?

Bill

[thekfc]

Waiting as patiently as I can. She'll leave tomorrow at 6:15AM her time and be in Atlanta 1/13/11 3:55 EST. Patience is a virtue so I must be virtuless.. Is that a word?

Bill

Bill the last few hour are always the hardest because we are so eager.
She relax, go through your check list again & make sure that you have everything ready for when she do arrive.

[thekfc]

Btw, if you still want to steal your neighbor's wifi and have anything even close to line of sight (3-4 walls), I have the product for ya. I use these babies to shoot 500m links, through walls and roofs. Ubiquity Networks NanoStation Loco M2. Cost about $75 each, you may need two depending on the setup. They also have a M900 that works in the 900mhz band, but twice the cost and you would definitely need two. I'm shooting a link through 200meters of dense forest with a completely destroyed fresnel zone, and it still works(barely).

The pigster is all the way up there - he needs all the help he can get. 

[thekfc]

 
Woody, all of Windoze OS's leave your computer in a horribly defragmented state after a few months.  MS even includes defrag software in their products now and advises you to defrag frequently.  I own over 8 Windoze machines, from 98, to 2000, Vista and 7.  Defrag and Windoze are a way of life.  Nothing change in 2006 in the real world only in the minds of Windoze software developers.  

The jury is still out on 7, I got it running on 3 computers, time will tell.

If that is the case (highlighted in red) - why are you still using it?

You ridicule, deride, degrade & derate a product - yet you still use it. 
That is saying a lot.

[z_k_g]

If that is the case (highlighted in red) - why are you still using it?

You ridicule, deride, degrade & derate a product - yet you still use it. 
That is saying a lot.

kfc,

I'll continue to render my opinion and you can continue to waste your time responding however you like.

Zulu