Why aren't computer clocks as accurate as cheap quartz watches?

I find it lets me run 4 or 5 command-lines simultaneously. :)

this morning I resized 1000 jpeg images to approx 1200 and 120000 pixels, while woring in the web site that will use them. there may be GUI tools capable of doing that in less than a week, but I haven't seen them.

Bye. Jasen

Invented at Xerox PARC

Introduced to the market by Apple

-- "Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it." (Stephen Leacock)

You came to the discussion late. The 'big idea' we speak of is context specific and refers to Microsoft making Windows for the purpose of running their Apple developed office applications (which is why I refer to it as the "second half"), not that the GUI concept was their idea.

Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

Ever notice that all the letters in HAL are just one off of IBM? HAL IBM

hehe. Yeah, me too.

So true.

I wonder if anyone tried playing it backwards to hear satanic sounds?

No wonder HAL went a bit loopy ;)

They were sent through HAL. "Dave? What are you doing, Dave?"

About 35 years ago.

However, nobody has found a way to transform HAL into Microsoft, so the conspiracy theories died out with the decline of IBM.

IBM provided a great deal of technical assistance in the making of the film, though.

IBM was a good company in its time. Like so many computer companies, it first developed problems with marketing and management, and these eventually contaminated engineering departments. It's depressing to think how many major mistakes in managing computer companies have been driven by marketing and sales decisions. As one of a trillion examples, just look at Intel's marketing-driven decision to pursue inferior microprocessor architectures just so that it could run chips at faster clock speeds (thereby satisfying clueless marketroids with higher and higher GHz numbers).

And it's a shame how many companies have been ruined by letting engineering make the decisions. But those don't usually get large enough to easily notice.

The same trick can turn VMS int WNT (Windows NT)....

the way I heard it MS got a bunch of ex-DEC people who had worked on VMS

Bye. Jasen

Companies like Hewlett-Packard seem to have done well with engineers at the helm.

First, I didn't say "all" and secondly, do you really think they have no marketing department or, since they do, ignore them?

The real point was that single minded reliance on any one perspective is potentially destructive and that it takes a proper mix of them all.

So he gives more in dollars, but a LOT less in percentage of income or total worth.

That's not true. He has already given away perhaps 6% of his total lifetime worth. How many ordinary people have given away $100,000?

if this had anything to do with Science hardware or electronics it would be interesting. Suffice it to say that anyone who gives anything without expecting something in return would be a great thing. However, charity, is the furthest thing from most peoples minds, that give huge amounts of money to anyone. Its all bout the business end of things.

How many people _have_ $1,666,666.67 to give away 6% _OF_? (which, BTW, is probably a serious underestimate of Uncle Billy's "total lifetime worth".)

If I have ten bucks in my pocket, and I give a street bum a buck, am I more generous than Bill Gates, since that's 10% of my entire wealth?

And another thing - there's a serious misunderstanding going around that says that "size of pile of money" can in any way be related to "worth".

Just ask Nicklaus:

Cheers! Rich

What about % of income above the level to comfortably sustain an individual/family? Someone earning $50k a year giving 6% is digging deeper than someone earning $500k giving 6%, at least potentially.

Tom

Without question, someone giving away 6% of personal wealth that they could not spend in 10 lifetimes is meaningless.

If I may inject some considerations. Money itself doesn't matter except for a feeling of security. Richness doesn't necessarily mean greedy. Possessions are a good indicator IMO. Also, time spent doing something matters. Spending 6% of your time helping other people is meaningful. Whether giving 6% of your income is charitable just depends.

If I had as much money, I might never stop shopping and get very little done.

Somewhere in the Far East there is a big factory making shitloads of crystals. These crystals have a nominal spec, but are subject to tolerances.

Somewhere in that factory these crystals are measured. Those closest to the designated frequency are shipped to Seiko, the farthest to Dell.

Watches tend to spend a lot of time strapped to a temperature-regulated heat source (a human). PCs usually are not.

As mentioned in previous (non-technical) replies, PCs are not often used as timepieces, so lower tolerance (cheaper) components will be used.