Okay - I'm stepping in here because I actually do chip design for a living. The difference between hand laid-out and machine generated chips can be as much as a 5X performance difference. The facts are that physical design isn't the same as compiler writing. It's a harder problem to crack - first it's a multi-dimensional problem. Next, it has to follow the laws of physics, themselves complicated ;-)

Both processes DO rely on the quality of input. When my designs don't run fast enough, the likely fix is to go back to the source and fix it there instead of trying to come up with some fix within placement and routing. The other simple fact is that in timing a physical design - you have to consider EVERY path that the logic takes in parallel. There is not such thing as the "inner-most" loop of the algorithm for determining where the performance goes. Finally once you have a good architecture for timing, the placement of the physical gates dominates the process.

A human - with their common sense is always going to give better performance than an algorithm. I mentioned a 5X difference between hand-drawn & compiled hardware. That is about what I see on a daily basis between what my tools can do for me, and what Intel gets out of their hand-drawn designs for a given technology node.

Seems like you don't get the point of the article - and fall back on the same old failed meme.

1) The "Great Society" approach doesn't work.
2) Stimulus through investment in basic research is a better expenditure of limited resources.

It really comes down to the old parable about if you buy a man a fish - he eats for a day. If you teach him how to fish he eats for a lifetime. When you spend money on direct relief of poverty by paying for that apartment or providing food stamps. You are dealing with the symptoms, not the problem. Yet the easiest, most straight-forward method of getting out of poverty is education, something that we also do poorly in this country. Finally, the people in our society that take responsibility for themselves, and choose to work to improve themselves almost uniformly DO improve their lot in life.

I'm done now with the lecture. Go back to your daily whining about the 1%.

Of course if you are in death valley - it is completely natural! ;-) It has been mined there for around 100 years.

I did a quick calculation. Using 100W = 3 square feet.

That is roughly 3.2 square miles/gigawatt of solar cells.
200,000Gigawats would be 640,000 square miles, or roughly 16.8% of the US land mass.

I'm just saying - the numbers they are throwing around are a bit amazing. Further - what happens at night? Do they have a decent storage system for this juice?

You are correct in theory - but harassment laws seem to ignore the constitution.

That is just ignorant! Even though I don't believe the article - Uhm - how do you think the San Andreas fault GETS to San Francisco? It runs through the hills that create Silicon Valley. Always has - always will. Ever heard of the Loma Preitta Quake? That large percentage of the US brain truss you are worrying about ALREADY lives in Earth Quake country.

Okay - so you admit that Palo Alto has some "stuff" going for it, and I'll even admit to you that the cost of living in Palo Alto proper is probably as high as in SF or maybe even greater. Yet the cost of living in the numerous bedroom communities around here aren't nearly as expensive (though not cheap by Wisconsin standards..) Further - most of the Incubators are in this general area too - these things stay close to the money. I know the Startup I'm working for is right next to El Camino and Page Mill road! I can see AOL, Microsoft, and Wilson-Sansini ;-) from just that corner! Not startups - but BIG companies.

The other simple fact is that SF is about the most Business UNFRIENDLY city in the country. Why would you go some place where you pay more in taxes just for being in business when you're main activity is trying to preserve capital while creating that next great product?

I'm calling BS to this whole line of discussion. Example - the biggest thing to hit the valley recently is Facebook, and it isn't in SF. The entire Start-up infrastructure is still located where it always has been - Palo Alto near Standford. The startups typically go where the money is, and where Square footage is cheaper. That ISN'T SF!

Why would someone be against a Vax 780? I just don't understand the lunacy?

The article seems to think that the US is the first to pull the "Cyber Warfare" trigger. That is just silly. The only thing different here is that the US government was silly enough to ADMIT that they were partially responsible for Stuxnet virus, etc. The US civilian industry, and military assets have been under constant attack by various "actors" for over a decade. The only difference is those "actors" haven't admitted it or been caught red-handed. Most likely (and again they haven't been dumb enough to admit it like the US), the Chinese government has been one main Cyber Warfare protagonist that is constantly assailing US assets. So everyone get off their High Horses and face the real world.

The simple fact is we chose to fire bits at em, instead of nukes! Seems like an improvement in my mind!

This argument is naive on it's face and ignore supply and demand forces for housing.

My house is worth more in San Jose, CA than it would be in Greeley, Co. If the only things that mattered are what you are saying, then this wouldn't be true because the interest rates are the same for me in both places!

In my mind - the price of tuition has been going up for many more reasons than JUST available money, though that is certainly a large contributing factor. There is theemployee unions contributing to the sky-rocketing cost as well. The same forces that are forcing cities into bankruptcy affect government sponsored schools.

There is devaluation of our money in real terms as well. My college costs were $1500/year 30 years ago versus about $20K per year for CA schools. It's called inflation!

So roll it all up together and you get rising costs. Surprise!

The ITU does have the force of law - even here in the US because it's established by treaties we've signed. By our own Constitution, treaties bind our governments behavior with a force equal to Constitutional amendment!

The FCC is our representative to the ITU (that ALONE should be a scary thought!)

The ITU is the place where all policy on radio spectrum usage is worked out. The weird thing about radio waves is they don't respect international borders. So a place LIKE the ITU is necessary. However, it can and has been abused by other nations multiple times in it's history.

So it is better to be proactive and get what we need from the International body.

There are some who say - screw the ITU. Maybe that WOULD be a way to go - I liked the idea of ignoring satellite parking orbit restrictions, and offering them for sale!

However, any such action involves abrogation of existing treaties.

I looked at the Server patent - it essentially patents download files via the web. It is bogus beyond all recognition! It was filed in 2000 - I would imagine that gopher, or some of the other earlier web technologies take care this patent nicely, i.e.. prior art exist in spades.

Of course you do - because you think that it is okay for the state to take other people's money. In my book taxation = theft at gun point. Now there is a proper place for government to function, and someone has to pay for it, but when they take money from one to give to another because of some social engineering that someone is trying to accomplish, I call that theft.

You assume that the money is used to pay for treatment - HAH! Just like the Gas Tax in California pays for the great roads.

Arguing that correlation equals causation is fallacious. As others have said, along with myself - there are other causes beyond just the price.

The problem is - what will be next - whenever some twit bureaucrat decides he doesn't like something, our freedoms are infringed. This week it's cigarettes because everyone dislikes smokers, next week it's sugared drinks because everyone hates fat people, well next week maybe it'll be skinny people or bald headed people, or people of a certain skin color that takes the bureaucrat's fancy.

Indeed - welcome to the Nanny state - now hand over all your money so we can give it to someone else who doesn't want earn their keep by themselves.

The argument that raising taxes on cigarettes caused the decline in smoking is specious on it's face. Oh I'm sure some where deterred from buying cigarettes because of the ridiculous economic burden imposed by the state on the "legal product." However, the simple facts are that more people don't smoke because it's obviously a killer AND people are STILL paying the current HUGE price to get their fix after being raised dozens of times in the last 30 years.

It's just smoke and mirrors.