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fbc, moores law, and planning cycles



 
 
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  #31  
Old December 30th 03, 05:19 PM
Henry Spencer
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Default fbc, moores law, and planning cycles

In article ,
Jonathan Silverlight wrote:
The dust/micrometeorite/micro-debris environment around Earth is also not
as well mapped as it could be -- there are hints of structure to it, but
little is known


That's odd, considering that missions such as Pegasus have been flying
since the 1960s.


Pegasus was good, but it was a quick improvisation, a case of "we need a
big payload for these Saturn orbital test launches, fast!". The data was
helpful, but it by no means answered all the questions.

And "since the 1960s" is a bit misleading -- "in the 1960s" is more like
it. There has been very little attention paid to the matter since.

But it's better than the situation for Mars, where we don't know
anything, AFAIK :-)


We have a little bit of data from the 1970s, I think, but that's about it.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |
  #32  
Old December 31st 03, 04:22 AM
Scott Hedrick
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Default fbc, moores law, and planning cycles

"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...
(And like most idiots you assume that the vast increases in processor
speed have actually improved computing, it hasn't. Most of those
cycles in the PC world are consumed driving a bloated UI and pointless
graphics, not producing useful work.)


Let's face it- accounting or word processing, for example, haven't changed
in decades. There were capable accounting programs that worked well on old
DOS machines that handle the same accounting rules and procedures as Quicken
2004. They aren't as pretty, but they do the job. The *user* is expected to
know something about the subject.

My first computer was a Sanyo 550. I believe I got it up to 640K RAM and 2
5.25 double sided drives. It came with WordStar 3.3. I eventually moved on
to a 486 running at 66MHz with 16MB RAM and a 2GB hard drive, using Office
97. I now use as my primary computer (one of 5 computers I use in my home
office, plus my wife uses 2 and I'm about to assemble another to use as a
server) a Celeron operating at 450MHz with 320MB RAM and 40GB storage with
Office 2000, plus lots of other doodads. Except for being able to shift from
the top of a long file to the end quickly, there is *no* significant
difference in the machines so far as word processing is concerned. My
desktop publishing ability has improved unbelievably, but the *writing* end
hasn't changed at all, but it isn't terribly dependent on the computer. Khan
was right- improve a thing and you may double productivity, improve man and
you improve a thousand-fold.

Had a fellow in my area who used a TRS-80 Model 4 for 17 years. He
eventually had to upgrade because he could no longer get ribbons for his
printer. The computer didn't do much, but it clearly did everything he
wanted well enough.
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  #33  
Old December 31st 03, 09:26 AM
OM
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Default fbc, moores law, and planning cycles

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:22:04 -0500, "Scott Hedrick"
wrote:

Had a fellow in my area who used a TRS-80 Model 4 for 17 years. He
eventually had to upgrade because he could no longer get ribbons for his
printer. The computer didn't do much, but it clearly did everything he
wanted well enough.


....Don't laugh. There are test labs across the country that still use
Model 12's because of the IEEE cage in the back. The cards are still
available, and it's really fairly easy to breadboard up an interface
for some analog device that needs to be monitored. When the Bio Lab I
ran at Texas U. decided to get rid of all the Trash-80's, the only one
we got offers for from any other department was the Model 12. We let
that one go at *original* cost (*). The Model I went to my roommate as
a gift from the department for his assisting in rewiring the old
PC-LAN coaxial network, the Model II went to the "School" of Business
to replace one they'd ****ed up beyond repair (**) and about half the
Model III's wound up in surplus, while the other half wound up in the
building dumpster.

After having been dropped off the 5th floor into the dumpster, natch.

(*) It was to the Aerospace Engineering department, the same geniuses
who kicked Bill Clark out on his psychotic ass.

(**) Sans 2MB HD, which we rewired into a backup drive for the BBS we
ran. That was done more for fun than necessity, tho...

OM

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"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
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  #34  
Old December 31st 03, 04:35 PM
Herb Schaltegger
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Default fbc, moores law, and planning cycles

Scott Hedrick wrote:

My first computer was a Sanyo 550. I believe I got it up to 640K RAM and 2
5.25 double sided drives. It came with WordStar 3.3.


That's nuthin'! My first computer was a Sinclair ZX-81 with a whopping 1K
RAM and an audio jack to plug in a regular cassette recorder for "mass"
storage! I moved up to a 16K Atari 400 (also with cassette), Atari 800 (by
now I had a 130K floppy drive), Atari 1040ST (Wow! 1 megabyte of RAM!
640x480 1-bit hi-res graphics, 320x240 8-bit low-res color!), and then
finally a 386/33 PC clone in 1991. Ahh, those were the moldy-oldy days.

Oh, and I currently own 1 Atari 400, 1 Atari 800, 2 Atari 600XLs, 2 Atari
800 XLs, 1 Atari 1200 XL, an Atari 130XE, a Commodore 128, a Commodore 64,
an Atari 7200 game console with the original version of the motherboard,
and miscellaneous game cartridges and peripherals, all in working
condition. Ebay is FUN! :-)

--
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Reformed Aerospace Engineer
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  #35  
Old December 31st 03, 08:58 PM
Hop David
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Default fbc, moores law, and planning cycles



Derek Lyons wrote:

(And like most idiots you assume that the vast increases in processor
speed have actually improved computing, it hasn't. Most of those
cycles in the PC world are consumed driving a bloated UI and pointless
graphics, not producing useful work.)


Pointless graphics?

Am reading "Beyond Pluto" by John Davies. Just got through reading how
1024x1024 and later 2048x2048 CCD arrays made life much easier for David
Jewitt and Jane Luu.

Images and image processing are a big part of astronomy.

My cheap young computer loads a 4 megapixel image _much_ faster and
easier than a much more expensive (at the time) ten year old computer.
I'm guessing many astronomers are very grateful for this change.



--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

  #36  
Old December 31st 03, 09:19 PM
Hop David
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Default fbc, moores law, and planning cycles



Scott Hedrick wrote:
"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...

(And like most idiots you assume that the vast increases in processor
speed have actually improved computing, it hasn't. Most of those
cycles in the PC world are consumed driving a bloated UI and pointless
graphics, not producing useful work.)



Let's face it- accounting or word processing, for example, haven't changed
in decades.



I wish I could get older versions of MS Word to work on my present
operating system. If I type 501 (c) 3, the modern Word very helpfully
changes the (c) to a copyright symbol. First thing I do after updating
to a new version is go to preferences and turn off all the "helpful"
bells and whistles. Word peaked around version 5.0, IMHO.


Had a fellow in my area who used a TRS-80 Model 4 for 17 years. He
eventually had to upgrade because he could no longer get ribbons for his
printer. The computer didn't do much, but it clearly did everything he
wanted well enough.


I'm sure that's true for a lot of folks who use computers just for
bookkeeping and writing.

But many do useful work with images (as I mentioned elsewhere in this
thread).

I recall using a TRS-80 with two 5" floppy drives (no hard drive). You
wouldn't be able to fit a 4 mega-pixel image on one of those floppies.

--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

  #39  
Old January 11th 04, 04:29 AM
Christopher P. Winter
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Default fbc, moores law, and planning cycles

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 13:19:40 -0700, Hop David
wrote (in part):



I wish I could get older versions of MS Word to work on my present
operating system. If I type 501 (c) 3, the modern Word very helpfully
changes the (c) to a copyright symbol. First thing I do after updating
to a new version is go to preferences and turn off all the "helpful"
bells and whistles. Word peaked around version 5.0, IMHO.


I believe Word 97 will work on Windows XP. Then if you can find a copy of
_Word 97 Annoyances_, that has lots of tips about how to fix things like the
over-helpful automatic text replacements, the image-insertion bug, etc.

 




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