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Don't assume 8-bit bytes either.
"Its main memory came in increments of 400 words of 48 bits (12 decimal digits) plus two parity bits. The maximum size was 2,000 words" -- Wikipedia
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I still fondly remember the CDC computer with its 60 bit (10 character) word size who put to shame IBM's accuracy. IBM's double was quite a bit less accurate than CDC's float. You had to do something special to support mixed case letters, which reduced the size to 5 characters per word. (You had to dedicate one character to indicate the next letter was lower case.)
PIEBALDconsult wrote: 400 words of 48 bits (12 decimal digits) That would be just under 19Kb which jibes with the article. CDC NEVER used decimal digits except when printing or converting to text. It would take a lot of additional processing to maintain digital numbering while also doing mathematical operations. You could almost (one short) store a 10 billion number in its word. A 48 bit signed integer could hold a number value of 280 trillion. A 60 bit integer could hold a number over 4 million times bigger than that.
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That would be me - fingers aren't used to typing KB in lower case anymore.
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TTFN - Kent
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Thanks for pointing out the article in the newsletter. Never ever used that mainframe, but it brought back memories. When I first saw PC's in the 80's, it was a joke compared to the mainframes I was using. Now my laptop makes the mainframes I was using a joke in comparison.
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You're very welcome.
It's probably the case that an iPod Touch or a watch has as much computing power as some of those beasts. After all, the iPad 2 is supposed to be as fast as the Cray 2[^], and I remember seeing one of those working once and it was crazy fast.
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TTFN - Kent
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The first Cray was crazy fast because of vector processing and the chips were so small they could generally be within 2 feet of each other. (In a four foot square area, 8 feet high) The smaller size reduced the speed of light transfer time significantly. The vector processing was just automatic multi-threading the code did for you when it compiled a loop. It would determine the loop could be vectorized, it would move 64 step values into 64 separate register locations, simultaneously execute the logic, increase the location 64 times the step size and repeat. It was incredible, the compiler just did the multithreading logic for you.
I worked with them all the time, but I only saw them in pictures.
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Kent Sharkey wrote: iPod Touch ~~ iPad 2 Is that how we measure processing speed, these days?
In that case, my EUR 150 android tab = 2 ipad 3s.
How strange that 2 ipad 3s also = EUR 1200.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Kent Sharkey wrote: KB No shouting in the Lounge!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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PETA is planning to snoop onharass hunters with drones drones.[^]. Talk about a brillant plan, what could possibly go wro... *PULL*[^]?
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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It will probably help. If you're not allowed to run dogs, I bet those drones will get the deer up and running! You can't hardly see them otherwise.
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Shotguns make it too easy to shoot birds, they should be forced to use rifles.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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That would be highly unsafe. Bird shot is light enough that it rapidly looses velocity due to air drag and is unable to penetrate skin beyond a few hundred feet to few hundred yards down range[^]; a rifle/pistol bullet fired into the air can kill when it comes down more than a mile away.
Edit: changed link to a post with data for a wider variety of shot/etc combinations.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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<quote>a rifle/pistol bullet fired into the air can kill when it comes down more than a mile away.
Only if shot at an angle. Shot straight up or even a few degrees off, the bullet will not obtain enough velocity on the way back down to have the same affect.
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You normally don't aim strait up when dronebird hunting.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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that was my thought - new sport, 'drone hunting'
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There's some regional legislation in play to issue drone hunting permits already. Colorado I think.
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richcb wrote: <quote>a rifle/pistol bullet fired into the air can kill when it comes down more than a mile away...Only if shot at an angle I believe the drag to mass ratio of a .22 bullet won't let it reach a mile, even if you shot at a 45 degree angle. Pretty much the same principle as firing straight up, but it will still be moving fast enough to kill a human if you hit the right spot. A leg hit shouldn't kill (still might) getting hit point-blank with a 30 ought 6.
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They're plenty enough to kill a pool at a half mile though. My friend is still a tad upset at his neighbor over that.
Always plan for such things when shooting at airborne targets.
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This might stop them[^]
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I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================
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How would that make any difference? I'm not familiar with PETA - it's not like PETA are a government agency, is it?
The Verve wrote: Normally, if you shot down an aircraft owned by the federal government, you'd be in trouble. But a small Colorado town named Deer Park is looking to carve out an exception, proposing a $100 bounty to any hunters who shoot down unmanned drones that appear to be "owned or operated by the United States federal government." The ordinance would also require a drone-hunting license, issued after a background check and a $25 fee. (enz: emphasis added)
"Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation, so that belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin
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.... appear to be
Hunters already "accidentally" shoot too many other hunters that "appear to be" deer - so they won't stop at Federal drones!
=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================
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enhzflep wrote: How would that make any difference? I'm not familiar with PETA - it's not like
PETA are a government agency, is it?
Just to be clear the law is about collecting a bounty.
If you shoot down a drone, which realistically is probably too high to shoot anyways, it is not likely that it is going to be marked in such a way that you can identify it at that range.
So basically it is just like shooting vermin, let it lie, unless it is something you can collect the bounty on.
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Dan Neely wrote: PETA is planning to snoop onharass hunters with
drones
Far as I have seen PETA is all about marketing these days and nothing else. They produce events to get media attention with no real activism ever. So they might show up with a drone over a national forest for the cameras but would back off immediately when asked about their permits.
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Apple Events[^]
The rumour mill so far:
- New thinner, lighter, smaller iPad
- Retina iPad mini, maybe just a thinner, lighter one. Maybe neither.
- OS Mavericks launched and/or released
- New Macbook Pros with Haswell.
- Mac Pros released. Maybe
- iWorkl for Cloud updates
- Potentially a touch cover for the iPad (goes along with "We still have a lot to cover"). But maybe not.
- Tim Cook being fired?! Woops - sorry - a tabloid worthy article[^] from yester-month
I also couldn't find anything about Tim Cook being an alien android death machine, nor anything about illegitimate children, Scientology scandals or anything involving rabbit suits. I tried. I really did.
My wishes
- Lighter Retina Macbook Pro 13".
- Small fixes to the eye-searing iOS7
- The "+" button on MacOS Finder windows actually expands the windows fully.
- A surprise announcement that iTunes has been taken out back and hit over the head with a shovel, and a new iHub app that actually works, doesn't lose settings, and incorporates crazy new technology like background threading on network operations is to take its place.
- Free gummy bears at all Apple stores.
- An olive-branch fix for Windows 7/8 that allows Windows to hot-swap Thunderbolt peripherals
Announcements
- Mavericks OS available today. For Free.
- Macbook Pro 13" and 15" updated. Macbook 13" thinner, lighter, cheaper, 9hrs battery. 15" uses CrystalWell chips.
- Mac Pro $2999, spec'd to the hilt, available December.
- iWork, iLife free
- New iPad (obviously). But oh dear: "iPad Air". 1lb, 7.5mm thick (C'mon guys - imperial or metric - pick one!), A7 chip, makes you a coffee in the morning. ...but no 802.11ac. MIMO instead. Why? Seems a serious oversight. Ships Nov 1. Maybe "Air" naming verifies the the rumours of a larger iPad to come. New covers, but no touch cover.
- iPad mini now retina. Available later in November. $399 with older mini going for $299.
Overall it all seemed a little rushed, in some places a little directionless or unbalanced (rush through the Macbooks, linger on Garage band - seems odd).
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
modified 22-Oct-13 14:21pm.
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