Christmas Lectures

Outrageous that they're no longer on the beeb,thank goodness for Channel 5!

Anyway if you want to have a clue what Cambo goeson about the first is on in just under an hour, computers this year.

Will he be all nasty and cruel to us neanderthal Windows numpties like Cambo does? I hope so.I love it when Cambo gets nasty on me.

I'll download the lot when they're done...they're at an awkward time of day for a nightshifter.

If you let your kids watch them, they will turn out like me I'm afraid.

Hope it's not a week of database design and two's compliment.....would rather they talk about PC internals, and stuff everyone needs but never understand, like DirectX (IMHO, the very best thing MS ever cooked up (or stole[1] more likely)).

Nasty to windows users? ME? never! I PITY them, stuck with it's evil ways and inflexible, "not your computer, MY computer" attitudes, prevented from ever learning ANYTHING about their own system.

People attacking free software on the other hand, are about two rungs up for kiddie fiddlers in my book...spreading ignorance is cruel and harmful and ruins lives......and putting a price tag on the adding of 1's and 0's is stupid.

Remember, though, I allow a windows to exist here in the tardis......I need it for racing games and cubase. But if left to use it for all things...I'd probably kill myself, or the computer, or both, it's just intolerably shit.

Told you all before.....waste 680MB of your bandwidith and 3p on a blank CD, and give Knoppix a look....no harm....no risk....and even if you don't fancy it, a day will come, when having another working OS tucked away on a CD will save your arse big time.

[1] They never mention stealing stuff, or co-opting public standards to try and change them to lock-in propretry ones......no.....they "Embrace and Extend" not "steal and fucking ruin". Their current bid to try and have a fucked up MS-ised version of XML adopted as a standard....in place of ACTUAL XML is as comic as it is tragic.

And what ever happened to Bryson Gore?

Considering his long-standing function in the RICL, I always thought he should change his first name to Edmund, or Edward, or Euastace......so that he'd be E.Gore.

Doctor? wrote: I'll download the lot when they're done...they're at an awkward time of day for a nightshifter.

If you let your kids watch them, they will turn out like me I'm afraid.

Hope it's not a week of database design and two's compliment.....would rather they talk about PC internals, and stuff everyone needs but never understand,

Think you may be in luck Steve, processor gynaecology tonight.

James Thomas wrote:

Doctor? wrote: I'll download the lot when they're done...they're at an awkward time of day for a nightshifter.

If you let your kids watch them, they will turn out like me I'm afraid.

Hope it's not a week of database design and two's compliment.....would rather they talk about PC internals, and stuff everyone needs but never understand,

Think you may be in luck Steve, processor gynaecology tonight.

Excellent!

My computer "knowledge" is really nothing more than an inate ability to comprehend logical systems, but the low-down nitty-gritty of the internal organs have always been a bit much for me, beyond the basics of what they're made out of and how they actually achieve stuff.... the really clever shit like CPU microcode just baffles me.

Doctor? wrote:

James Thomas wrote:

Doctor? wrote: I'll download the lot when they're done...they're at an awkward time of day for a nightshifter.

If you let your kids watch them, they will turn out like me I'm afraid.

Hope it's not a week of database design and two's compliment.....would rather they talk about PC internals, and stuff everyone needs but never understand,

Think you may be in luck Steve, processor gynaecology tonight.

Excellent!

My computer "knowledge" is really nothing more than an inate ability to comprehend logical systems, but the low-down nitty-gritty of the internal organs have always been a bit much for me, beyond the basics of what they're made out of and how they actually achieve stuff.... the really clever shit like CPU microcode just baffles me.

Reminds me of how I think of working on cars. I could tear apart and fix about everything on any vehicle... but I stay away from automatic transmissions. I tried reading up on it, but the whole concept of fluid pressure, springs and little balls... especially the torque convertor (just a big donut with a maze inside of it for fluid to travel), baffles me as well.

Interesting subject James!

I caught the Prof delivering these lectures on 5Live the other day. He came across as a top man, quite refreshing for an academic (albeit sponsored by Microsoft).

I was particularly interested in his comments about Artificial Intelligence (Thurs lecture I think). It seems not only has there been zero progress since I programmed the family Amstrad, but scientists worldwide have pretty much given up on the idea and are concentrating on more practical matters.

Such as how to pull the thumbs from Barney & Hookys arseholes.

I fear we'll see a thinking cooking fucking family bot before that happens though.

PS. The best bit was some stupid fucking retard emailed 5Live when he was on asking how to sort a problem with USB drives on her computer.

I think the presenter was worse for asking him the question on air, he was in the middle of explaining how multi-core microprocessor technology may yet be the saviour of Moore's Law of computing.

Well if the thing was sponsored by macroshaft, and the guy had a flashdrive problem, he SHOULD have sorted it out, as only MS crapware HAS problems with anything as simple as a flash drive.

Multicore CPU's are a scam.

I have an AMD 5600x2 in one machine (dual core). and an Itell Q6600 in the other (quad core).

The only difference is that one of them has one core sitting doing fuck all most of the time, and the other has three. By the time Octo and Hexideco cores appear, clock speeds will drop again, and you'll be using a single 2GHz CPU while 7 or 15 sit idle doing fuck all.....basically the machine will perform like a Pentium 4.....unless you happen to being running CFD software.

I know ONE game (supreme commander) which can thread itself accross cores, and only two of them. No application I have can do it....even things like cubase, where you would think one core could run the sequencer, one for the VSTi's one for FX and so on.....no....all cubase's child processes still belong to one single cubase cpu thread, cos that's how windows makes it.....and I'm getting clicking, popping and general "I'm knackering your machine" noises from it, while three cores sit doing fuck all but warming the air in my room.

Load of wank.

Be interesting to see if this guy has news of a shiny new hardware abstracted command scheduler which can make an process run on any number of cores.

thats pretty much what he said, its up to software developers to exploit parallel computing.

It is the short term future though, until we replace silicon. But I agree, if you run older applications stick with your single core.

Ultimately it comes down to where blue chip IT Directors spend their cash. As this geezer explained on the radio, he's working for Microsoft for his own gain, he see's it the best way to get his research to the mass market, rather than working for a University. And that is refreshing.

FUCK OFF wrote: Interesting subject James!

Thanks, was particularly interested in the demonstration of heat generated by a processor. Had he put a little bit of butter in the cup that egg would have fried much nicer and would have been more easily removed. ;)

Aye, that and stick a big cunting Steak on top.

oh by the way James....

as much as I dont like Leeds Leeds Leeds, your avatar pic thingy is very very cool.

James Thomas wrote:

FUCK OFF wrote: Interesting subject James!

Thanks, was particularly interested in the demonstration of heat generated by a processor. Had he put a little bit of butter in the cup that egg would have fried much nicer and would have been more easily removed. ;)

All I need to know about heat from a CPU, is fitting this Cunt (A tuniq tower 120) to mine Q6600 (sevreal times I might add). I've seen motorbikes with less impressive radiating devices.

I would suggest leaving that to the morons "Doctor"

Lewis Hamilton doesnt change his own tyres.

FUCK OFF wrote: I would suggest leaving that to the morons "Doctor"

Lewis Hamilton doesnt change his own tyres.

LOL but I'm more Sunday afternoon in an F-Ford on a disused airfield than Pole at Monaco in a McRon......so really I shouldn't just be changing the tyes, I should be fitting them to the wheels too ;)

Besides, if you do it yourself, it costs less AND you know the score with every component.

kinda agree..

but as a mild car modder myself one thing I'd never fuck with is tyres.

Gotta get the best you can afford....

just like chicken & underpants.

chicken don't change their own underpants