I invite you to go read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_optimization#.22Levels.22_of_optimization

And perhaps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing_just-in-time_compilation

As I said: The statement might make limited sense in some contexts, but not in this.

I don't understand why this comment got +5. It is pretty misguided.

The statement:

> I realized, you can't speed up assembly language -- It's a perfectly optimized language, there's nothing under the hood to tweak

makes some limited sense in some contexts (one could argue that the microcode supporting the assembler on the CPU is repeatedly optimized), but none in this. The IonMonkey JIT does essentially optimize the assembler code[*], by rearranging it in various ways to make it faster. E.g. it takes stuff like this (in javascript, as I have not written assembler in years):

for ( var i = 0; i != 10 ; ++ i ) {
    var foo = "bar";
}

and changes it to e.g. this:

for ( var i = 0; i != 10; ++i ) {
}
var foo = "bar";

possibly then this:

var foo = "bar";

This is an optimization and it is performed at assembler level (Again: the above is not meant to be read as JavaScript, but assembler).

The other statement that really sticks out is this:

> A sign of a horribly designed language is that the speed of its implementations can be repeatedly increased "by leaps and bounds"...

This simply highlights that the poster really do not understand the goals behind crossplatform languages, such as Java, Dalvik, JavaScript, lisp, ML, Python, Perl, and so on, or the goals for weakly typed languages.

[*] It works on an abstract representation of the assembler code, but it might as well have been working directly on the assembler, was it not for the fact that this would require it to learn to many assembler variants.

+1 informative.

At least for me - I did not know of this, and find the article that is linked to very interessting.

I live in Denmark, and recently spent 30 minutes to try and buy an english e-book online.

Found it at 3 different retailers (US, UK, Australia), that refused to sell it to me (add it to the basket), because of my location.

Then found it at 2 additional retailers, that allowed me to add it to a basket, then accepted my credit-card information, before refusing to actually sell it to me.

Then I got sort of mad and decided to break a 15 year old principle on not pirating stuff. Went to google, and had the ebook literally 30 seconds later! 10 seconds later on my device, and I could start reading.

What on earth are they thinking!

Oh, and I then later wrote the agent for the writer in question here in Denmark, and in the UK to offer payment. I have not heard a word from the UK agent, and the Danish one just confirmed that they do not sell the english language version of that writer in Denmark as an ebook.

Fools, really. And, they are probably, as I write this, banging on the door to the parliament, requiering stricter copyright laws.

Fools.

Tak skal du have :-)

(For the Danish challenged: Thanks).

Yes thanks. It was actually the one we got closest to working, but it failed to start properly. My son told me that it had installed the US version of WoW and that his account (which he uses from school) is european, so it refused to start. Or something like that.

At this point it just seems a whole lot easier to go with Windows.

Sorry, but how, exactly?

We do not have any World of Warcraft install mediums, so we resort to some sort of online install thingy (been a couple of weeks since we last tried, and I have forgot the details). I think the last we tried was PlayOnLinux - took several hours, and as far as we could tell, it eventually installed a US version. However, the account/whatever my kid has is European, and for that reason it refused to work. Or something in that neighbourhood.

At this point, going with Windows just seems so much easier. For this particular usage.

I did not actually say I can't afford it. I said I was surprised by the price. We live in Denmark, and the cheapest full install of Windows 7 here is kr. 1.399,- which is approx. $244.

Yes, I have a spare Lenove T400. This is a four year old laptop which I used myself until quite recently. No, I do not have the windows medium or license that came with it.

How much money I spend on this, even for my kids, is a choice. Up until recently, my kids have not really been lacking in the "video games" department. Now my son wants to play a game that we are unable to support on the platforms we have. So, we need a new platform. I am actually trying to supply that to him (with the kind help of Slashdot users). I think that Windows PC gaming is not so relevant now, as it used to be. At least is has not been for my kid and his friends. So I am reluctant to just pay out $1000 dollars for a new Windows PC/laptop.

Yes. What can I say? I could not make it work. We tried Wine, Crossover and PlayOnLinux using various approaches. All failed in various ways.

I am not exactly happy about this. However, that is the reality, and at this point I don't think my kid should "pay" more for his dads lack of technical skills.

And, I used to actually run Doom servers. Under Linux. On Novell networks, using IPX. That was approx. 1995. Of course, the Doom binaries were Linux native, but still, IPX was sort of foreign to Linux, and the installs were "complicated".

I think the big difference from then to now is lack of time, and that I do not do this for myself, but for my kids. He just wants to play with his friends. He don't really care a lot about all the time his "computerwise" dad uses to (not) get it to work. His friends just boots dads Windows PC and plays...

Thanks for your answer.

Sorry, I did not really appreciate that T400's vary that much.

The T400 I have here, has an Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 @ 2.53 GHz, and a ATI RV620 [Mobility Radeon HD 3400], 4GB of ram, and 120 GB of SSD. The CPU seems to match recommended, and the GPU is somewhere just below minimum?

There is a cost thing here - if he wants more beefy hardware, he must raise the money.

Thanks for your answer.

I realise that you are correct. However, I have not been able to make it work! We tried Wine, Crossover and PlayOnLinux. Each of the them bailed out at various points. Some of our "tests" were very, very close, but failed after huge downloads. I think we were almost there with PlayOnLinux, but it appears that it installed a US version of WoW, and we live in Europe, and for some reason this then was not OK.

I do realise that not making it work may be a shortcoming of mine. However, my kid should not have to miss playing with his friends, because of his fathers lack of technical skills in getting Wine to work.

Thanks for your answer.

We considered Apple because it is my impression that it is more secure (out of the box) than Windows. Also, I believe he can continue to run a number of linux programs on it?

I may be mistaken.

Also, a lot of the "cool kids" (older kids in school) appears to choose Apple laptops. (iPod, iPhone, iPad, iPaid?)...

The cheapest price I have been able to find here in Denmark is kr. 1399,- which is $244,-. I was surprised by this.

Thanks for your answer.

We did try out both Crossover and PlayOnLinux. I have forgotten the specifics of what did not work, but I did not manage to make any of them work. I realise this is/should be possible - but regrettably I could not make it work. I think PlayOnLinux was closest, but that it installed the US version of WoW. Because we are in Europe, this apparently did not work. Or something. For some of the things we tried, the result was log files full of unsuccesfull calls to obscure Windows APIs. I have lost count of the hours we have used on this.

There may very well be ways around this, but I have reached the point where I don't care anymore. My son should not be limited from the social experience playing WoW with his friends is, because of his dads shortcomings, or stubbornes regarding choice of OS.

Thanks for you kind answer.

Yes, we do backups: daily rsync backups of the latops, mirrored disks in the "home server", nightly backups to the NAS, regular backups to mobile drive stored in fireproof safe, and occasional backups to mobile drives stored "off-site". I am paranoid about loosing pictures, videos and so on due to hardware failures, fire or theft - but clueless about protecting a Windows 7 installation for virus, malware, etc...