Well, I switched from FORTRAN77 to C in 1981. Switched from C to C++ in 1990. Still using C++. Clients hire me to do C++. The right guy for the job I always say. For fun these days I have also been doing some Arduino stuff. Kinda refreshing. Reminds me of the old days..

An unpleasant side effect of benchmarking is when manufacturers start building products to do well on the benchmark to the detriment of other, also important, specs. So, while the product may kick ass on the common benchmarks it may not be so great because other important stuff gets neglected.. The benchmark process starts steering the design "committee"..

Why is it that we sell this spectrum? Do the purchasers get to use the spectrum forever for a one-time fee? Why are we not renting the spectrum for an on-going revenue stream?

Does anyone here actually work for a company that currently (or ever has) used true dumb terminals?

I do, I do! I'm typing this on a Sun SunRay1 and I love this thing!

You find SunRays in a lot of places where security is taken seriously (ie. security clearance is required for the job). To log in, you need to have a valid smart card and know your usual login credentials. So, security is based on something you have and something you know.

Plus, if you want to move to a different physical place, you just pull your smart card out of the SunRay, go to the new place and insert it into that SunRay. BOOM! Your desktop session comes up and you go back to work, right where you left off. Your apps are still open, nothing has changed. And, there is nothing left behind, the session followed you.

Further, if someone comes in who isn't cleared (or doesn't have a need to know) simply pull the smart card and the screen goes blank. Once they're gone, reinsert the smart card and go back to work.

I've come to the point where I'd rather work on a SunRay. I had a nice multiprocessor SunBlade workstation in my office that I replaced with this SunRay. Since the server is rather beefy, my work (I'm a developer) is actually faster. I also use typical desktop apps (scalc, swriter, etc.) and they're faster too.

As to the single point of failure argument, Sun's SunRay server software has auto fail-over stuff. Multiple servers can share the load and, if one goes down, it's users fail-over to another server transparently. Non-issue.

What happens when the beige box in your office fails? Yes, your important work is probably stored on a server but what about all your configuration stuff? What else did you store on your local workstation that's now gone? If a SunRay fails you unplug it, walk down the hall and hand it in. They hand you a new one and you go plug it in, insert your smart card, log in and go to work. Nothing is lost, not even your session.

The SunRay is completely silent, draws something like 8 watts and the footprint on my desk is about 3" x 10" or so.

It's seriously cool stuff!