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Saturday, December 31

Geek

Six* Easy Pieces

Courtesy of Google. These are things I wrote at various points in the past, back in the days before blogs and munu. I didn't take any particular care to record them (for reasons that will become obvious), but others have done so.

Piece The First: The Great Microprocessor Conspiracy

Uwe Sattelkow wrote:

I need general information about CPUs, about architectures, etc. Anything relating to the topic "What makes a CPU fast?", nothing on specific CPUs. Could anyone tell me, where I can get information from? (webpages, ...)

The critical thing is to use fresh CPUs. It's well known that CPUs slow down over time; for example, my SGI O2 was quite zippy when I bought it back in 1997, today it's rather slow, and I expect within another year or two it will be almost unuseable.

This has given rise to a tremendous scam that has netted major computer vendors billions of dollars over the years. This is how it works:

New CPUs are fresh and clean, with wide-open pathways that allow electrons to zoom freely from pin to pin. As time passes, the occasional electron will get stuck in a tight corner, or overshoot an output buffer and hit the insulator and shatter. These particles - electrons and fragments of electrons such as deutrinos and kleptons - are known in the business as "cruft".

The "cruft" gradually builds up and clogs the once-wide paths, so that the problem starts to accelerate. Soon the once-fast system is getting old and slow, and at this point the vendor steps in and offers an "upgrade".

In fact, this "upgrade" is nothing more than a fresh, clean CPU. Even worse, the vendor will then take your old CPU, clean out the "cruft" with compressed air (they used to use freon, but this has since been banned), and - get this - re-sell the refurbished CPU as an "upgrade" to another customer!

What's more, vendors have over time been *deliberately* making the pathways on chips ever-narrower! The broad 3-micron boulevardes of the old days have been replaced by twisty 0.18 micron alleys, and if they're not stopped, we'll soon be trapped within goat tracks just 0.1 micron wide, forcing the electrons to move sideways!

I encourage everyone to write to their local media outlet or political representative to protest this outrageous behaviour!

(Originally posted to alt.test.wombat , Feb 24 2001)

* Plus or minus five.

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Friday, December 30

Rant

Die, Cityrail, Die!

Okay, so you needed to close the North Shore line between Christmas and New Year's for trackwork. I can accept that.

But that doesn't mean you can screw up every other train service in Sydney!

It took me 45 minutes just to get from Museum Station to Redfern. Normally, that takes about 5.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:49 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Saturday, December 24

Life

That's Not Reindeer On The Roof

I have possums.

You live in Hornsby. Everyone has possums.

In my walls.

Yay! Wallpossums!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:35 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Friday, December 23

Geek

The Death Of Productivity

Pixy Misa, you have risen to become leader of the Americans. May your reign be long and prosperous. The Americans have knowledge of Irrigation, Mining, Ceremonial Burial, Pottery, and Roads.
That last sentence is true enough.
UFO-1
Detected

Size...................Very Small
Altitude...............Very Low
Heading................East
Speed..................616

And if Pixy can't go to the movies, the movies will have to come to Pixy. I was pleasantly surprised at how well that runs on my notebook, which only has Intel chipset graphics and is, according to the box, not supported at all. In fact it runs pretty well (scrolling is not as smooth as one might wish, but it's not bad either), and even adapts to the wide-screen 1280x768 format.

So if you don't hear from me for a week or two, it's because I'm busy making movies about alien empires on Mars.

Update: My new film, Dead Men Don't Die Twice II, seems to be a hit! Well, it's complete rubbish, but it's making money for the studio...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:34 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Wednesday, December 21

World

In Yer Face, Behe!

Via, oh, lots of places, comes the news of a well-deserved smackdown of the Intelligent Design movement:
After a searching review of the record and applicable caselaw, we find that while ID arguments may be true, a proposition on which the Court takes no position, ID is not science. We find that ID fails on three different levels, any one of which is sufficient to preclude a determination that ID is science. They are: (1) ID violates the centuries-old ground rules of science by invoking and permitting supernatural causation; (2) the argument of irreducible complexity, central to ID, employs the same flawed and illogical contrived dualism that doomed creation science in the 1980's; and (3) ID’s negative attacks on evolution have been refuted by the scientific community. As we will discuss in more detail below, it is additionally important to note that ID has failed to gain acceptance in the scientific community, it has not generated peer-reviewed publications, nor has it been the subject of testing and research.
Even better:
After this searching and careful review of ID as espoused by its proponents, as elaborated upon in submissions to the Court, and as scrutinized over a six week trial, we find that ID is not science and cannot be adjudged a valid, accepted scientific theory as it has failed to publish in peer-reviewed journals, engage in research and testing, and gain acceptance in the scientific community. ID, as noted, is grounded in theology, not science. Accepting for the sake of argument its proponents’, as well as Defendants’ argument that to introduce ID to students will encourage critical thinking, it still has utterly no place in a science curriculum. Moreover, ID’s backers have sought to avoid the scientific scrutiny which we have now determined that it cannot withstand by advocating that the controversy, but not ID itself, should be taught in science class. This tactic is at best disingenuous, and at worst a canard. The goal of the IDM is not to encourage critical thought, but to foment a revolution which would supplant evolutionary theory with ID.
A personal favourite is this paragraph:
A significant aspect of the IDM is that despite Defendants’ protestations to the contrary, it describes ID as a religious argument. In that vein, the writings of leading ID proponents reveal that the designer postulated by their argument is the God of Christianity. Dr. Barbara Forrest, one of Plaintiffs’ expert witnesses, is the author of the book Creationism’s Trojan Horse. She has thoroughly and exhaustively chronicled the history of ID in her book and other writings for her testimony in this case. Her testimony, and the exhibits which were admitted with it, provide a wealth of statements by ID leaders that reveal ID’s religious, philosophical, and cultural content.
Proponents of ID have often claimed that ID is not religion, but an alternative scientific explanation. We have already established that ID is not science; what the Dover trial showed was that it is indeed religion, and that those who make claims to the contrary are either unreasonably credulous or lying.
Moreover, in turning to Defendants’ lead expert, Professor Behe, his testimony at trial indicated that ID is only a scientific, as opposed to a religious, project for him; however, considerable evidence was introduced to refute this claim. Consider, to illustrate, that Professor Behe remarkably and unmistakably claims that the plausibility of the argument for ID depends upon the extent to which one believes in the existence of God. (P-718 at 705) (emphasis added). As no evidence in the record indicates that any other scientific proposition’s validity rests on belief in God, nor is the Court aware of any such scientific propositions, Professor Behe’s assertion constitutes substantial evidence that in his view, as is commensurate with other prominent ID leaders, ID is a religious and not a scientific proposition.
And let's not forget our friend Wedge:
The Wedge Document states in its “Five Year Strategic Plan Summary” that the IDM’s goal is to replace science as currently practiced with “theistic and Christian science.”
Kind of a giveaway, that.

The Commissar has the complete ruling. Thanks to Jon at JREF for finding some particularly fine quotes.

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Thursday, December 15

World

Potential Bombshell

If this story holds up, it could spell big trouble for the NSW Government and the Police Commissioner:
Senior police today pledged to keep up their presence on Sydney's streets as members of a Muslim youth group and the surf movement held peace talks on the boardwalk at Cronulla.

But a leaked document has indicated that police were not equipped to respond to Monday's violence in Cronulla, in which people were assaulted and cars, shopfronts and windows were smashed.

The Seven Network said it had obtained a police incident report instructing officers to stay away from one of the trouble spots – believed to be Punchbowl Park in Sydney's west – on Monday night.

The park is believed to have been the meeting place for scores of men who formed a vehicle convoy which drove to Cronulla unimpeded by police.

The report showed those in the crowd were suspected of being Middle Eastern criminals who had been involved in malicious damage and civil disobedience offences throughout the Sutherland Shire, the network said.

The report said "a direction was given to police about midnight not to enter the area and antagonise these persons".

Right. Don't antagonise the rioters, because they might, um, riot.

I call for the 48-hour rule on this, though.

(via comments at Tim Blair's)

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Wednesday, December 14

World

Sydney Riots, Day Thr... Oh.

It appears that if you fill the area with police and arrest the rioters at gunpoint, they stop rioting.

A church burned down overnight and that is being investigated as arson, but other than that, not much happened last night.

Even the possum turf war that has been waking me at dawn every day seems to have been called off. Good work.

For those of you trying to make sense of things from the media reports - never an easy task - this timeline from the Wog Blogger may help.

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Tuesday, December 13

World

Sydney Riots, Additional Reporting

Tim Blair has some posts up, and his commenters are active as always. He also notes the CNN blooper.
Silent Running
RWDB
Evil Pundit
Right Wing Death Bogan

One thing becomes obvious: The mainstream media, never mind their habit of editorialising and passing it off as news, can't even get the facts straight. Those layers of editors and fact-checkers must be off on an extended lunch break, I guess.

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World

Not France

I hope that The Daily Telegraph doesn't mind me extensively quoting from this article, because they are doing some of the best reporting on the events.
Police ordered scores of trouble makers to the ground at gunpoint in a bid to regain control following a day of rising tension across the city.

The first flashpoint was Lakemba, where a small group of Caucasian men began vandalising cars near the mosque. A crowd of about 500 local men quickly gathered, some of them turning on the interlopers while others threw missiles at police.

Shortly afterwards carloads of Lakemba men headed for Cronulla and nearby suburbs, bashing passers-by and smashing shops and vehicles.

Although intent on destruction, dozens of the intruders were arrested as they ran into a massive police net strung across Cronulla, Brighton-le-Sands and Maroubra.

The violence began at the Lakemba mosque, where hundreds of local men gathered before a hard core of hotheads drove east late in the evening.

About 70 car-loads hit Cronulla soon after 10 o'clock. Police had already began sealing off roads into the beach suburb.

Within 20 minutes police were responding to reports of assaults, vandalism, men on the streets with baseball bats, bashings and shots being fired.

A number of cars were stopped by police, with guns drawn.

Drivers and passengers were swiftly dragged on to the pavement and arrested.

At one stage police were chasing a Ford Laser which had tried to run down officers.

"Get out of the car, get out of the car," officers yelled at the driver when he was stopped minutes later on Elouera Rd.

A man and a youth with their hands up got out of car and were forced to the ground at gunpoint.

The police response could have been better, but it could have been a whole lot worse. Riots have to be stopped fast, and hopefully that's what will happen.

One note on the vandalising of cars at the Lakemba mosque: This article reports the situation a little differently:

Hundreds of youths last night rampaged in Lakemba, while further trouble was brewing in Maroubra and again in Cronulla. A woman police officer was injured when more than 400 youths of Middle Eastern descent smashed cars and rioted at Lakemba mosque.
Even local newspapers have trouble keeping the story straight.

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World

Sydney Riots, Day 2

Today, it's CNN taking the honours for abysmally inaccurate reporting:
Anti-Arab rioters smash cars, windows in Sydney

Monday, December 12, 2005; Posted: 2:44 p.m. EST (19:44 GMT)

Police arrest a man Sunday at Cronulla Beach in Sydney.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Violence on the streets of Sydney spilled into a second night Monday, as scores of youths drove through beachside suburbs smashing windows of stores, homes and apartments, police said.

Any hopes that a race riot Sunday would be an isolated incident were shattered after dark when car loads of youths rampaged through southeastern Sydney chased by hundreds of police vehicles and a helicopter.

A police spokesman said the violence first broke out in Cronulla, where Sunday's riots also started.

"We have shops damaged at Caringbah, cars damaged at Cronulla," according to Paul Bugden, spokesman for New South Wales police. "We have six arrests at this stage."

One person was apparently hit with a rock outside the Cronulla police station, he added, saying that youths riding around in at least two dozen cars were involved in the violence.

Bugden said he did not have descriptions of those involved in Monday night's rampage, but said that clearly it was linked to Sunday's rioting.

One tiny problem: It wasn't "Anti-Arab rioters" at all, it was Lebanese Muslim street gangs. Let's see if CNN changes the headline to "Arab rioters smash cars, windows in Sydney"...

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