Netbook
2008-10-09 Filed in: (soft|hard)ware
Here’s what 15 years or so does to laptop technology:
On the left: 1.6 GHz Atom, 512 Mb RAM, 8 Gb SSD, 1024x600.
On the right: 25 MHz 486SX, 10 Mb RAM, 200 Mb HD, 640x480.
Here’s another size comparison, with a 17” MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) this time:
Mac: cost 10x, CPU speed 4x. Tosh & Mac both weigh 3x the A110L netbook.
On the left: 1.6 GHz Atom, 512 Mb RAM, 8 Gb SSD, 1024x600.
On the right: 25 MHz 486SX, 10 Mb RAM, 200 Mb HD, 640x480.
Here’s another size comparison, with a 17” MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) this time:
Mac: cost 10x, CPU speed 4x. Tosh & Mac both weigh 3x the A110L netbook.
Kenya
2008-09-19 Filed in: various
Just finished reading “Dreams from My Father” by Barack
Obama - a deeply moving personal story, by a person
with an incredible combination of intellect and
empathy. Forget politics, US partisanship, and
simplistic rhetoric - this man truly has the potential
to become a phenomenal world leader.
Kofi Annan and Barack Obama - I am extremely impressed by what Africa has to offer.
Kofi Annan and Barack Obama - I am extremely impressed by what Africa has to offer.
The JavaScript race
2008-09-19 Filed in: (soft|hard)ware
There sure is a lot going on with JavaScript these
days: first v8 - Google’s new OSS
implementation, and now SFX - the next incarnation of
WebKit’s SquirrelFish. Here’s a comparison of a couple of
implementations:
SquirrelFish Extreme: 943.3 ms, V8: 1280.6 ms, TraceMonkey: 1464.6 ms
Given the fact that JS is part of just about every web browser by now, it looks like this modern dynamic, ehm... scripting language is becoming seriously mainstream.
SquirrelFish Extreme: 943.3 ms, V8: 1280.6 ms, TraceMonkey: 1464.6 ms
Given the fact that JS is part of just about every web browser by now, it looks like this modern dynamic, ehm... scripting language is becoming seriously mainstream.
About Lua
2008-09-12 Filed in: (soft|hard)ware
This
interview with Lua’s
designer is refreshingly to-the-point. The last
paragraph is worth repeating in full here:
That last sentence says it all. It implies learning several languages well - not just skimming them to pick on some perceived flaw. All major programming languages are trade-offs, and more often than not incredibly well thought-out. To put it differently: if you can’t find an aspect of language X at which it is substantially better than what you’re using most of the time, then you haven’t understood X.
More seriously, I really subscribe to the idea that "if the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat everything like a nail". So, programmers should learn several languages and learn how to use the strengths of each one effectively. It is no use to learn several languages if you do not respect their differences.
That last sentence says it all. It implies learning several languages well - not just skimming them to pick on some perceived flaw. All major programming languages are trade-offs, and more often than not incredibly well thought-out. To put it differently: if you can’t find an aspect of language X at which it is substantially better than what you’re using most of the time, then you haven’t understood X.
Meta-productivity
2008-09-10 Filed in: various
Merlin Mann,
the GTD guy who
created the www.43folders.com website (31 daily + 12
monthly folders) has discovered that the
act of identifying productivity traps is cool, but
in the end ... just
another productivity trap. Heh, heh
- welcome to the world of, ehm, meta-recursion.
It’ll be very interesting to see how the 43f website evolves, given this new insight.
It’ll be very interesting to see how the 43f website evolves, given this new insight.