Comment Re:Most Expensive Service Pack Ever (Score 1) 483
I completely agree with you, although once you have 4Gb, I'd rather get a 64 bits OS since, afaik, 32 bits XP can't/won't use the last gigabyte.
Comment Re:Do the number of calls really matter? (Score 0, Offtopic) 187
Last time I _had_ to compile something was almost a decade ago.
I'm a gentoo user, you insensitive clod!
Comment Re:12,900 years ago? (Score 1) 210
1/10th or so ;)
Comment Re:Isn't that normal? (Score 1) 432
CISC is slower than RISC, even though everything is spelled out in full, because determining what it is you are trying to do becomes more expensive than whatever it is you're doing. To solve this, CISC chip makers went to a hybrid architecture, where you've a RISC base and a CISC layer for anything that would be too slow in pure hardware.
Not every CISC have a RISC base underneath. Don't assume that what intel does is the norm... in fact, intel has done that because its particular need of maintaining backward compatibility with the huge installed base of X86 software.
Introducing the Slashdot Firehose 320
Logged in users have noticed for some time the request to drink from the Slashdot Firehose. Well now we're ready to start having everybody test it out. It's partially a collaborative news system, partially a redesigned & dynamic next-generation Slashdot index. It's got a lot of really cool features, and a lot of equally annoying new problems for us to find and fix for the next few weeks. I've attached a rough draft of the FAQ to the end of this article. A quick read of it will probably answer most questions from how it works, what all the color codes mean, to what we intend to do with it.
Submission + - Linux as a Short-Lived Project
LinuxNut writes: Continuing their historical series looking at the early Linux kernels, KernelTrap is discussing the 0.02 and 0.03 kernels released in late 1991. Though the actual source code has been lost to time, the article offers an interesting collection of emails by Linux creator Linus Torvalds about his new operating system, 'for hackers by a hacker.' Version 0.02 was the first usable release, gaining the ability to run programs such as gcc if compiled on Minix. Version 0.03 fixed buffer-cache issues that made it possible to compile gcc from Linux. Interestingly enough, at this point Linus thought of Linux as a short-lived project saying, 'wait for Hurd if you want something real. It's fun hacking it, though (but I'm biased).' Though not short-lived, Linux has continued to prove to be fun to hack.
Submission + - We're Not From the Milky Way (viewzone.com)
morefiend writes: "volumes of infrared data from the Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) has revealed that our star once belonged to the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.
""The study published in the Astrophysical Journal, is the first to map the full extent of the Sagittarius galaxy and show in visually vivid detail how its debris wraps around and passes through our Milky Way. Sagittarius is 10,000 times smaller in mass than the Milky Way, so it is getting stretched out, torn apart and gobbled up by the bigger Milky Way."
Submission + - Mammoths: back from the dead?
cagrin writes: Will we someday be able to bring extinct species back from the grave, from samples of their DNA? Some scientists think so, but another question is, should we?
National Geographic News: Mammoths to Return? DNA Advances Spur Resurrection Debate
Submission + - Free Speech Takes a Hit in 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus'
theodp writes: "The Supreme Court tightened limits on student speech Monday, ruling against a high school student and his 14-foot-long 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' banner. Schools may prohibit student expression that can be interpreted as advocating drug use, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a 5-4 ruling. Faring better with litigation was the student's father, who was awarded $200,000 after being fired over his son's legal fight by the company that insures the Juneau schools."
